Proposed Standard Operation Procedure for File Proposal

[nuit09]

I suggest that whenever a File is proposed for vote it be moderated in the following way: It should be held pending approval based on the following vetting procedure. The author should be checked for multiple accounts then and periodically afterward. if the author has multiple accounts the proposal should be stricken from consideration. perhaps banned. the person performing the check should be internet savy. for example he or she should know that some internet service provider assign multiple IP adresses and cycle through them, how to do a whosis search and other cyber sleuthing and be trustworthy enough to have limited access to the admin control panel. exceptions can be made if the person explains why they have multiple accounts; e.g; they made one account forgot how to access it and made another or they changed email adresses or ISPs. If so much as two of those multiple accounts vote for a file they are gone.

[AnneOniMouse]

Sorry, but is this really needed? Even if someone had ten accounts two registered users would have the same voting power. They would need an awful lot of votes to artificially raise a file up the list. If they do get a file up the list, so what! There is no compulsion on anyoe for any file to actually be made.

As for the more unrealistic files suggest, does it matter. Many of the files that are made seem to have quite a small chance of working, those that suggest fairly major physical changes, part of the use of these files is a sort fantasy/magic/wishing thing.

In the end, please don't try to make this site some over administered hell that has two users. People who come here get the chance to make suggestions and see them rise up the list. They can also vote on a par with others, this is democracy.

[nuit09]

i make no public judgements as to the validity of a file idea. i believe however that there are people who use multiple accounts to raise their file proposals up the list. this site has 30 thousand registered users? really? they are legit? it is a very rare forum indeed that has so many. i have seen a few hundred at most since i've been here and that is being extremely liberal in my counting. the checks need not be obtrusive. they need not even be known to anyone unless they find out a user is a deceitfullying cheater. then who cares if they are alienated?

[AnneOniMouse]

I do understand where you are coming from on this, but still think the work involved isn't justified. Remember this is one person's site and it is up to them how it is run.

Just because people don't post doesn't mean they don't use the site. This is my third post on this forum, but I have been around lurking for a couple of years - here and on the previous site. A site like will bring in many intrigued users who will then drift away, but they will still count as users even after they are long gone. Does anyone think that people are registering fifty times to drive their files up the list even though theie is no reward and the files are anonymous.

[nuit09]

That's why it is a suggestion. this portion of the forum solicits suggestions.

And i think that multiple accounts are the only explanation for the number of votes for certain files that surely only appeal to very few people if any plurality at all.

[AnneOniMouse]

Certainly agree that some files are, er, unusual in the extreme. Just if you judge them for entertainment value as a suggestion, rather than from a belief that if made they would be something you'd try, then I can see how votes add up.

[goldragon_70]

That and you have to consider, ISP's can refuse to give you information.

[nuit09]

That and you have to consider, ISP's can refuse to give you information.

there is a good deal of information available to IT people and admins that you are perhaps unaware of. the routing information includes headers with all sorts of information. the access request etc, registration e mail info compared to ip adresses etc, and then there is the whois service...

[goldragon_70]

Despite the information, it is very hard to pin people. I have multiple email accounts, and more the one ISP (although, more by accident), and unless you request user information, you will not be able to tell, plus, there are people that may use more then one computer, or in more then one locations: IE hot spots. All of this change and information would be like swimming through hay to find a needle.

[nuit09]

fine. lets say a given IP address has a hotmail account and a different screen name and that same IP adress is associated with several other email services and screen names. the ip address is checked to see if it belongs to an ISP which uses rotating IPs like AOL. if so, then the individual octets must be checked rather than the whole ip. then there is the correlation to voting patterns. an admin can be reasonably certain when that is assosciated with a single individual. It does take some effort though. I'll grant that. perhaps a php or UBB module exists or can be written to automate checks so that it alerts the admin when it spots a correlation that merits further investigation.

[goldragon_70]

Then there is proxes, witch alow you to hide more information then non proxes, and there could also be the case of those that hack IP Addy's. I worked for an ISP for a time. Things may have changed, but getting information that is accurate is rarely easy.

[nuit09]

Then there is proxes, witch alow you to hide more information then non proxes, and there could also be the case of those that hack IP Addy's. I worked for an ISP for a time. Things may have changed, but getting information that is accurate is rarely easy.

i admit it would be tough to get an IT savy person. however, do you really think the majority of people that may be stuffing the ballot here would know about those techniques? I rather think most ofthem are not haxxors wit mad skilz...;)

[goldragon_70]

True, I do admit that, most are script kitties at best, but the possibilities of problems that could come about, and then the fact that to be certain, you would need to call the ISP and ask for information on previous logs (was much harder when I was TS for an ISP), because one ID will probably not be registered with another, and the majority of ISP service is DHCP. It may require EMG giving out more information then he would feel comfortable with.