Q: What did Voat say to the bad goat? A: Wanna see my hammer? No? Too bad. Here it is. (Voat)

submitted ago by PuttItOut

Today we banned vote manipulators and reset their votes. As cache expires, the accounts targeted will have their point totals adjusted appropriately.

You will likely recognize many of the names now on the ban list. Some I have mixed feelings about as I considered them fun to have around or an asset to Voat as a whole, but objectively, there was no question as to their abuse and manipulation, and for this reason we had no choice but to respond to all abuse with the ban hammer.

@Cynabuns and I have finalized a new system for more efficient processing of vote manipulation bans and going forward we will be reviewing manipulation more regularly. We don't plan on allowing the hammer to gather dust any longer.

We did not send warnings today like we usually do for those in the gray area. If we come across your name again, you will be banned. Fair warning. It's not worth it.

If you feel you have been targeted by vote manipulation please PM me so I can research as we are dealing with a mountain of data when reviewing bans.

To those banned:

I personally don't judge your actions, but you know as well as I do what you were doing. Vote manipulation can not continue going unchecked and for the sake of integrity you got the hammer. If you want to create a new account and forgo the manipulation, you are welcome back. If not, I'll ban you again (and again and again). The thing you don't realize is when I ban you, I am resetting your votes against your target(s), so there is no point in continuing with these ways.

P.S. Now vote manipulators get a shiny new badge so everyone knows that they've been bad little goats. :)

P.P.S. The ban reasons in the ban log are wonky because if a user had multiple infractions, we only used the first description. In addition, the target in the description may be the banned user (which doesn't make sense) as many of these bans resulted in both users (vote farmers) being banned and the code simply reused the same description for each ban.

Banned user log:

https://voat.co/log/banned/user

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Dismember ago

Well looking at the accounts on the ban list, SBBH has a bloody nose as well. Look at this for example: https://voat.co/v/AskVoat/2926813/15735062

Let's see if Voat is serious about it or being selective.

MadWorld ago

Dump from that submission: https://voat.co/v/AskVoat/2926813/15735062/

Upvote farm done to an old/aged submission. There should be something set in place to detect old submissions been commented and upvoted. @PuttItOut, please check these accounts.

Dismember ago

https://voat.co/v/Voat/3065088/17060636 <----check the reply to me here. Not sure how to tell if they were deleted after someone read my comment or a while ago. I found that thread by checking the ___shitposter accounts and who they were upvoting.

MadWorld ago

You should have used a slash at the end, such as https://voat.co/v/Voat/3065088/17060636/. Otherwise it will generate a crosspost comment, which will notify the user. It was probably why some comments may have been deleted. The list given above was dumped from your link. It mostly shows numeric names that were created around the same time, and used to make dumb comments for vote farming.

Edit: great catch btw!!!

Dismember ago

I didn't know about the bot but I linked only to that user who was already on the banlist, so they likely can't login anyway. That method of vote farming was used by Techius back in the day. @kevdude and @Cynabuns will remember that one.

I have other examples of this type of thing if I dig back through my archive snaps but I'm hoping the users will read this and delete their alt accounts.

MadWorld ago

I didn't know about the bot but I linked only to that user who was already on the banlist, so they likely can't login anyway.

Either way the user who was behind the farming would have known that he was exposed.

That method of vote farming was used by Techius back in the day.

I remember that he once tried to sell his accounts, not sure whatever happened after that.

I have other examples of this type of thing if I dig back through my archive snaps but I'm hoping the users will read this and delete their alt accounts.

If you have the list, we could try to see if there is any voting regularity in their comment histories. If the consistency is strong enough, then we could ask Putt or Cyna to look deeper into the situation.

Dismember ago

I remember that he once tried to sell his accounts, not sure whatever happened after that.

He actually posted the password to a lot of the accounts so his fellow SDBH posters could help him troll PV. I happened to be reading a different thread on that sub and refreshed and saw it and got a lot of them before he deleted that thread. I ended up deleting them all bar one. They were mostly Techius4, Techius5 and so on.

If you have the list, we could try to see if there is any voting regularity in their comment histories.

Oh, I know they have alts and used them in a few of the raids on subs here. I know for sure they are still using some of those accounts today and still post comments on threads their main and others alts post to create a consensus. Usually this is harmless dick-waving but it was used at least twice here to try to get rid of people they didn't like. I'm sure the admins here already know and are hoping the same as I am.

MadWorld ago

List of the obvious troll accounts:

Techius2: Member for 3.1 years.
Techius3: Member for 3.1 years.
Techius4: Member for 3.1 years.
Techius5: Member for 3.1 years.
Techius6: Member for 3.1 years.
Techius8: Member for 3.1 years.
Techius9: Member for 3.1 years.
Techius10: Member for 3.1 years.
Techius11: Member for 3.1 years.
Techius12: Member for 3.1 years.
Techius14: Member for 3.1 years.
Techius15: Member for 3.1 years.
Techius16: Member for 3.1 years.
Techius17: Member for 3.1 years.
Techius18: Member for 3.1 years.
Techius19: Member for 3.1 years.
Techius20: Member for 3.1 years.
Techius21: Member for 3.1 years.
Techius22: Member for 3.1 years.
Techius30: Member for 2.7 years.
Techius31: Member for 2.7 years.

Dismember ago

I personally deleted about 10 numbered @techius accounts. The rest I'm not sure who got or if he kept some. Most of them couldn't downvote at all and the whole upvote farm v/techiusalts was made to troll PV. Looking at his account there it hasn't moved from when he got found out and downvoted to oblivion so I don't think he's a threat anymore, at least on that main.

MadWorld ago

:-) I hope you continue to keep an eye on those accounts and see if they start manipulating votes again... Thanks!!

heygeorge ago

I believe that thread (@cynabuns, please see above as some of these users are showing up as active) and another one insulting @nadeshda were jumped into at a slightly later time, once the newness wore off and people weren’t commenting. All it takes is one user to ignore a random comment, and then once the thread is over the manipulator can take over and no one would even notice.

Unless you’re insinuating that @thebuddha is vote farming! Lol

argosciv ago

jumped into at a slightly later time

Correct RE: the linked thread.

(Spongebob narrator voice): 3 days later...

Plenty of time for the submission to become 'unattended'. Indeed that chain of comments came after the last previous top-level comment there, which was on the day of the submission being posted, by @cynicaloldfart.

@Cynabuns @MadWorld @Dismember @TheBuddha

TheBuddha ago

Well, I am a farmer.

Durm ago

Corn?

TheBuddha ago

Blueberries are my largest source of farming income. I have a commercial wild blueberry operation.

I do have a "real" farm, but you'd probably refer to that as being a "gentlemen farmer." While I do sometimes help, I'm not actually obligated to and I mostly do things that keep me out of their way. I do stuff like muck the horse stables, 'cause I enjoy that. I am not currently able to help on the farm, 'cause I have a smashed femur.

Durm ago

I thought you might. We used to pick wild dew berries when I was little and make things from them.

TheBuddha ago

I've shown voat my blueberries before. I have a whole lot of blueberries. Like, more blueberries than you may have ever seen!

I do, too! They're delicious.

I've got 400 acres, just about. We harvest them every other year, burning the opposite year. So, about 200 acres get harvested per year. It's about 2.5 tons per acre, if you're curious.

Deathperception ago

I have a dingleberry farm meself. Have a rich harvest every season!

TheBuddha ago

Congratulations on your success.

CptCaveMan ago

Plantation Owner? Main Crop Cotton? ;)

TheBuddha ago

Sorta. No.

SearchVoatBot ago

This comment was linked from this v/ProtectVoat submission by @heygeorge.

Posted automatically (#25662) by the SearchVoat.co Cross-Link Bot. You can suppress these notifications by appending a forward-slash(/) to your Voat link. More information here.

Eualos ago

I'm a nose gold miner

theoldones ago

grabs popcorn and waits for responses to roll in

oh this'll be fun.

Cynabuns ago

Active? I thought I saw only numbers - did I not go deeply enough into the post? Let me know

heygeorge ago

The account names are numbers (without questions marks) in order to obfuscate. It seems to have worked!

Cynabuns ago

Indeed it did! That's what I get for looking at stuff past my bedtime LOL!

I'm on it :)

Dismember ago

I have more than that but I'll hold onto it for a few days to give them a chance.

Cynabuns ago

Feel free to send them to me - no time like the present :)

Good to see you back btw

Dismember ago

https://voat.co/v/Voat/3065088/17085539

I wrote down a few in this post. Once I get 100 ccp, I'll pm you about who owns them and what other accounts they have.

heygeorge ago

Check our the thread antagonizing @nadeshda, too, if you haven’t yet. It’s the same sort of set-up. My interpretation is that whomever it is decided to take advantage of SBBH ‘regulars’ being used to receiving non-sensical comment notifications and ignoring them. In one of the threads, they insinuated automation via a comment. Unfortunately, at this point, it’s possible the upvotes given/received were only within its own circle which may complicate discernment.

Nadeshda ago

Yip I found it, didn’t leave much of an impression at the time and missed the comments after that were farming. Nice catch George!

Here is the link @cynabuns

https://voat.co/v/AskVoat/2926474

Cynabuns ago

Perfect - tanks!

MadWorld ago

Those were the same usernames found in another thread https://voat.co/v/AskVoat/2926813/15735062/

List: https://voat.co/v/Voat/3065088/17065005

Nadeshda ago

Hmmm, linky to thread were they were insulting me and later used it as a farm to get points?

Am I understanding this correctly?

heygeorge ago

Yes, remember that thread? I didn’t realize the farming part. But it seems that was the real point of the thread.

Dismember ago

Unless you’re insinuating that @thebuddha is vote farming! Lol

One more exclamation mark is needed to drive home how ridiculous you think my statement is I think. I mean most will get it but some on Voat aren't that observant.

Often people vote on their friend's posts because they know that even though they are not complicit, even if they were to look back, they would turn a blind eye. I know you're not denying that some people on SBBH in the past have abused voat manipulation. If I'd wanted to nail those people, I would have linked @PuttItOut and @Cynabuns to the v/linux ban log and submission deletions with numerous "__shitposter" accounts and they could just follow their nose from there and look at the votes and then look at the v/gaming raid and see that the same posters were involved with the same few accounts voting their alts up while doing a poor job of acting like different people.

It would be nice to think that all that will just stop though. Some of us thought were on the "good side" but maybe we were just confused and became the monsters we hated. They have said they are willing to let posters start afresh. Maybe it's time to lay down the weapons and just use the one account?

ExpertShitposter ago

The shitposter accounts were not mine. There was nothing illegal about the v/linux raid, and i got banned from there. There was no v/gaming raid, but only censorship agains't my legitimate posts, by a reddit faggot who isn't even active on voat.

Dismember ago

I have never thought or said they were yours. You were likely just used for someone else's ends.It's easy to make it look like someone else. Not a thing you would do to a supposed friend but it takes all kinds and mental-illness is a thing.

ExpertShitposter ago

I don't think those accounts were made to mock or imitate me, think it was just a joke. But inevitably a few r/pv shills are using it against me.

Dismember ago

I think if you can convince yourself of that, it might be the best, even if it seems a bit naive.

ExpertShitposter ago

Not sur what part you think is naive. The reason i think they were made as a joke is because i think i know who made them, and if i am right, its a friendly face from SBBH. As for r/pv shills, you dont know the history. They are truly vile faggots. One if them is talking shit right now, and dial_indicator admitted that he originally came from r/pv discord to SBBH in order to destroy our sub.

Dismember ago

Of course you are right about who made them. Seems like everyone knows but you. Anyway he's not really important but if he reads this he should delete his Rabbi and other alts that he still uses, that way he can get out of this with his nose and SBBH's nose somewhat clean.

I'm sure you'll survive the big ol' baddies from Real PV. Words can only really hurt you if you let them. All they really wan't is attention and I think that's all any troll wants. ;)

Happy posting.

ExpertShitposter ago

If they could hurt us, we wouldn't be here today. Instead they got mostly BTFO'd from the site, and we are still here. Tho they did manage to get voats top dev to quit the site by spreading lies about her and insulting her daily. Being a woman shoe couln't handle it in the end. A big loss for voat dev team, and a meaningless win for their sad lives.

Dismember ago

FuzzyWords was never the top dev here though they did help @PuttItOut test a lot of stuff and probably kept him Sane at times. That's what she told me anyway, maybe she was being modest but I can only go off that. The tranny thing wasn't a lie but it was never a big deal anyway and no one's affair but hers. And Fuzzy could dish out as well, don't doubt that. She likely had other issues to deal with. I can't see her leaving because of a troll who just thrpows insults, she faced a lot better than that. We locked horns more than once and even helped each other in the end.

Anyway that's all water under the bridge. Forget the negative stuff and post about something you like. I'm going to check out here because I like to upvote people I talk with and today I seem like I have way to many to give out. It will have to end soon. It was locking up at 10 still yesterday.

Fuzzy if you read this, good wishes your way. ;)

ExpertShitposter ago

The was pretty big on the dev team, and she did it FOR FREE. You don't fuck over free help. She might have been some kind of faggot, but the only proof they had was very circumstantial. As far as i remember, she had a profile picture of some cartoon character from a comic that features some tranny characters. That is certainly concerning, but not concrete evidence. The rest of it, with the autistic blog is totally fabricated.

Dismember ago

I've deleted what I said, it's not my place to comment on it especially since most seem to have forgotten it. I'll leave that to her. Forget the losers for tonight they really aren't worth it.

heygeorge ago

The v/linux ban log has a small number of users. Although a couple of them do have a peculiar number of upvotes given. The shitposter accounts I always attributed to D_I, and assumed due to butthrt by @expertshitposter

I don’t really know much of what anyone does outside of myself, which is means using this account. And that’s all I can really know for sure.

I imagine this is just the first wave in a larger sweep. I have heard some users reference getting a ‘grey area’ message from putts, but this is the first confirmation I have that it’s actually a thing.

just use the one account?

I think it’s striking that you have ‘dusted off’ a nice old account to make this remark. :D

ExpertShitposter ago

Personally i think they belonged to a "kaiju monster" if you know what i mean. Tho i have never atempted to verify that information.

Dismember ago

Striking indeed. I actually thought I lost this account because I deleted it almost 4 years ago and could never log into it because I forgot what password I used(Dismember would be a good word for that). This was before all the fancy new tech for deleted accounts. Back then you could just relog in with your pass but you still lost all your submissions and vote count, etc. So fast forward to a couple of weeks ago and I'm trying to think of a good name for a new account and randomly remember this one. Tried a few passwords and no luck. Then I tried my old pass from reddit thinking I'd be out of luck but wouldn't you believe it, it actually worked. So good news all around don't you think?

heygeorge ago

I am also thinking dismembering is a good term for that.

Dismember ago

I like the name because it can mean a few things depending on your perspective. I meant it to be a form of 'this member' but some have even taken it literally as the word dismember which I never even thought of until someone accused me of being a sadist. I also had a habit of making names with Dis in front of them. Cause me a lot of trouble with people accusing me of being pessimistic when i called myself Disappointed. That was a play on This Appointed. But it's never funny if you have to explain,is it?

heygeorge ago

I meant it to be a form of 'this member' but some have even taken it literally as the word dismember which I never even thought of

I honestly didn’t think of that either until your last comment, and thought of a joke about how Voat doesn’t like Ebonics too much... but dropped it because it was too unwieldy and I wasn’t sure my meaning would get across. Which has also sapped the humor. It’s humorless all around.

Dismember ago

Well, I can't blame you because Voat can be a bit thick-headed at times and miss the subtle meaning in most everything. I think a lot of the feuds I've had on here were because people missed my subtle meaning and got hurt feelings over it.

Are you sure you're American? You don't sound American George.

heygeorge ago

Ha! You have accused me of this previously, in a past life. Brb let me scan my passport