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

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

TetrahedronOmega ago

The very idea of having a voting system for forum posts is jejune, as it implicitly assumes that no such thing as truth exists, i.e., that "truth" is contingent upon its popularity. Yet the most true and vital of things are also the things humans hate the most. And so such post-voting strongly tends to produce an echo-chamber of pap.

Do away with voting altogether. Problem solved.

Existence is not a democracy.

telleveryoneyouknow ago

Yes but you can get a true chronology of posts by clicking a single button that is visible at the top of every page.

Voting allows people to gauge interest, not popularity. It’s about the engagements, not the ratio.

Also, when voting controls what’s visible in a stream it allows you to decide if you want to see it or not (vs an algorithm deciding for you)

TetrahedronOmega ago

Telleveryoneyouknow wrote:

Yes but you can get a true chronology of posts by clicking a single button that is visible at the top of every page.

Voting allows people to gauge interest, not popularity. It’s about the engagements, not the ratio.

Also, when voting controls what’s visible in a stream it allows you to decide if you want to see it or not (vs an algorithm deciding for you)

Balderdash. Just do it like a phpBB forum: first come, first serve, and where new posts push the thread up. Problem solved. No need for any algorithms. Popular threads will spend more time at the top naturally.

Plus, posts can never be hidden due to down-votes. Allow people to block seeing a user's posts for themselves if they find said user obnoxious.

These post-voting systems were made popular by deep-state companies that never have the common masses' interests in mind to begin with, e.g., Google's YouTube, Reddit, etc. Because the clandestine psychologists of the deep-state know that the common masses' interests are typically idiotic; and that such voting-systems are the most easily rigged by deep-state actors (particularly when they run the aforesaid companies).

heygeorge ago

Voting systems are popular because they increase lurker engagement by helping them to be part of the site.

‘phpBB forums’ don’t properly allow for low comment posts to get visibility or traction. Not everything merits much discussion.

TetrahedronOmega ago

Heygeorge wrote:

Voting systems are popular because they increase lurker engagement by helping them to be part of the site.

‘phpBB forums’ don’t properly allow for low comment posts to get visibility or traction. Not everything merits much discussion.

Indeed, the things which don't merit much discussion are precisely those things that are popular. Post-voting just insures the increase of idiocy on a forum--and that's before even considering how easily they are rigged by the deep-state.

heygeorge ago

Indeed, the things which don't merit much discussion are precisely those things that are popular.

This is not the only case.

And of course you seem to have neglected the part about user engagement. What has kept you lurking here for years if it is so awfully devoid of content you seek?

TetrahedronOmega ago

Heygeorge wrote:

Indeed, the things which don't merit much discussion are precisely those things that are popular.

This is not the only case.

And of course you seem to have neglected the part about user engagement. What has kept you lurking here for years if it is so awfully devoid of content you seek?

Pardon me? Whatever would give you that idea?

I haven't been lurking here for years. As per the usual, people's interests are asinine.

Rather, as I said to another in this thread, I've been posting at the https://voat.co/v/QRV forum. I've been posting there because the Q project's interests have so far been addressing vital matters which I have long written about before the Q project's first public post on October 28, 2017, and that is a forum that the Q project directed people to after Reddit banned forums discussing issues pertaining to the Q project. To wit:

If one wishes to actually obtain veridical understanding into the most crucial fields of sapient knowledge, then I have made it as easy as possible for one to do so via my own writings. My below articles explain to people (1) theological ethics and soteriology in a comprehensive and logically-coherent manner; (2) how the known laws of physics prove God's existence while demonstrating the exacting and extensive consilience of the New Testament with said physical laws; (3) the nature of God in light of said physical laws; (4) the End Time, the Tribulation, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the foundation of Heaven on Earth, and the universal resurrection of the dead in light of said physical laws; and (5) the End Time in light of the history of the globalist oligarchy's self-termed New World Order world government and world religion agenda.

Item No. 1 is important vis-à-vis salvation for those who maintain that they already believe in Jesus Christ's Godhead. Items Nos. 2-5 are important in letting atheists, believers in other religions, and nominal ersatz "Christians" know that God as described by the New Testament does exist and that the New Testament is true. Items Nos. 2-5 are additionally important in giving believers in Christ a much deeper understanding of God and of the End Time, so that they may be strengthened in their faith during the events to come.

My following articles distill all of the most important aspects of veridical human knowledge into a comprehensive, coherent and unified whole: from theology, physics, science, ethics, legal theory, political theory, economics, sociology, evolutionary psychology, epistemology to history.

heygeorge ago

Oh, so you’re a cherrypicking bullshit dazzler.

They eat that stuff up over in v/QRV.

Your excuse still doesn’t explain how you’re not a longtime lurker, as QRV hasn’t been here nearly so long as your account.