Re: [IxDA Discuss] Required advice on public voting system
Hi John, Thanks for the suggestions. Internally, we are also thinking about the IP logging combining it with email verification. I know, it sound like a hell of troubles, just to deter vote gaming. Anyhow, thank for your input -r Shah On Tue, Apr 14, 2009 at 3:42 PM, John Yuda jpy...@pobox.com wrote: Shah, I think you're likely going to have a problem with people gaming the system regardless of what you do -- almost any solution can be gamed. There are a number of tactics available, each with pros and cons: 1. CAPTCHA -- you mention this. While it will help to ensure a human is voting, it won't prevent the same user from voting multiple times. It also has accessibility issues. 2. Login -- this will certainly make it easier to track who has voted, but what's to stop somebody from having more than one account? As a side note, I'm not sure I see the reasoning to have separate accounts for voting and participating here; I feel like one account can serve both groups just fine. 3. Browser cookies -- these can be used to help prevent multiple votes, but users can use multiple browsers on the same computer or just delete the cookies. 4. IP logging -- you can log IP addresses, but this can block out legitimate voters (many users may have the same public-facing IP behind a firewall at the office, or even at home). A tech-savvy user could still use proxies or other techniques to masquerade as different IP addresses anyway. I think the first question you have to ask yourself is how much gaming the system are you willing to accept? I think that, no matter what you put into place to prevent this, to a certain extent it will happen. Based on what you've told us, I think you need to choose between a cookies IP logging solution (can be defeated, but most won't go around it) or require accounts for voters. If you want to be extremely careful about who can vote, you can do some kind of verification to make sure they're unique individuals... but given that there doesn't seem to be much incentive to be a voter here, I think you're going to have problems with reducing your pool of voters the more you implement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=41216 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Required advice on public voting system
Any thoughts? Or what I have proposed is pretty much IT? Thanks Shah Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Required advice on public voting system
Shah, I think you're likely going to have a problem with people gaming the system regardless of what you do -- almost any solution can be gamed. There are a number of tactics available, each with pros and cons: 1. CAPTCHA -- you mention this. While it will help to ensure a human is voting, it won't prevent the same user from voting multiple times. It also has accessibility issues. 2. Login -- this will certainly make it easier to track who has voted, but what's to stop somebody from having more than one account? As a side note, I'm not sure I see the reasoning to have separate accounts for voting and participating here; I feel like one account can serve both groups just fine. 3. Browser cookies -- these can be used to help prevent multiple votes, but users can use multiple browsers on the same computer or just delete the cookies. 4. IP logging -- you can log IP addresses, but this can block out legitimate voters (many users may have the same public-facing IP behind a firewall at the office, or even at home). A tech-savvy user could still use proxies or other techniques to masquerade as different IP addresses anyway. I think the first question you have to ask yourself is how much gaming the system are you willing to accept? I think that, no matter what you put into place to prevent this, to a certain extent it will happen. Based on what you've told us, I think you need to choose between a cookies IP logging solution (can be defeated, but most won't go around it) or require accounts for voters. If you want to be extremely careful about who can vote, you can do some kind of verification to make sure they're unique individuals... but given that there doesn't seem to be much incentive to be a voter here, I think you're going to have problems with reducing your pool of voters the more you implement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=41216 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Required advice on public voting system
Hi Ixders Let me start by providing some background information, currently I’m involved in creating an online competition where a group of people form a team (of up to 20 pax), and create something unique online. The team’s entry is editable only by team members, and can be done at any point of time before the submission deadline. Every month, 2 teams will get a chance to travel to a destination of their choice, all expenses paid for. The winners are chosen by the public, hence the problem. How do I make sure that the votes are legit and at the same time ‘minimize’ pain of getting public vote via a simple registration. Several options have crossed my mind: 1. Enable CAPTCHA to ensure the votes are generated by human. a. PROS: This also functions as a deterrent for people who try to rig the vote. b. CONS: based on some past experience, when the winning prize is attractive, people will go all out to make sure that they have the vote required. Hence, this may not the best option. 2. Enable a separate flow for a voter to register. a. PROS: tracking vote becomes easier, and each voter’s vote can be stored in the DB and this further reduce invalid votes b. CONS: now the site has 2 user sign-in flows; participants AND voters. This can be very well confusing for both user types. And, personally, I’ve yet to see a site that implements this type of behaviour before. Have thought about having a simple radio button group that split user into 2; participant OR voter. This option will also open up another problem that might arise. i. What if, a voter decided to participate and start his/her own group? How would that be handled? Have not worked out the flow for this yet, but it is doable, though it might be unconventional. Thanks for reading and hope to hear some thoughts from some of you. -r Shah Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
