|
|
With the Senate Race booming as it always is, we must again worry about the
"multiple account voting" that we risk with every poll and voting
event in any virtual world.
Sometimes it seems like everyone talks about it, acting as if it is something
new, something that's never happened before.
Well, it has.
Back in the year 2000 -- yes, that's a long time ago, seeing as Whyville was
only a year old then, and we didn't have City Worker neutral, scyllaCat or gumbytam,
let alone dozens of games and activities that we have now!
Ahem. As I was saying, back in 2000, Whyville had a prom. The very first Prom
King in Whyville was announced as user by the name of 11.
The Times Editor talked to a Whyvillian (spazchick), informing her that there
was "something fishy going on" with this Prom King. He mentioned there
might have been "ballot stuffing". Spazchick did a bit of investigating
and came up with the opinion that 11 had made several nonsense accounts and
used them all to vote for himself... sound familiar? Well, our very own Rt.
Hon. CW Bigfoot Bill quickly confirmed that citizen's reports in an interview
with City Hall. CH said that 11 and at least a dozen of his accounts had all
voted for him from the same IP aedress.
(Author's Note: City Hall describes an IP address by saying: "IP
stands for Internet Protocol, and whenever you are on the Internet, your computer
is identified by a string of numbers that is known as its IP address. This number
allows information to go back and forth between your computer and the websites
you are visiting.")
Unless City Hall could have the energy to check all of the IP adresses of everyone's
Senate platforms now, I think its going to be hard to stop people platform
stuffing -- by which I mean, creating as many platforms as they have accounts,
to take up as many votes as they can.
This is Cobd, enjoying her very own ... Tofu Stuffing.
Editor's Note: This article was actually written several months
ago, but I thought it would be interesting to bring it up to see how the new
Senate Primary system has changed our concerns. With the new system, it's not
likely that people will create as many platforms as they can -- that would get
very expensive very fast! Chalk up another benefit to the Primaries.
|
