We need your help: how to fix our voting system
- A
- ARC
- Cm1
- 20 Apr 2012
1. Make sure only humans are voting not scripts. Your developer will know plenty of ways of doing that
2. On pressing vote, ask the user (if not logged in) to log in or give his email address and send voting options in email.
3. Observe/Recheck votes that deviate by large margin from the average ratings, identify/gather stats where the false votes come from to make informed decisions.
Thats all for now.
- ?
- Anonymous
- sS@
- 20 Apr 2012
Dear GSMArena,
I think you need to look a bit at PhoneAren4. When PhoneAren4 introduce strict-er syst3m (i.e. must login) the comm3ntary syst3m lost a lot of (potential) comment. I don't know if they also lost reader.
some of reader (f4ns) want to speak, and they love you for abus1ng your syst3m. but they gonna h4te you if they can't 4buse, and will go elsewhere.
furthermore, they could also have multipl3 l0g1n name, so it's still us3l3ss. i know someone who had 20 faceb0ok acct. lol...
anyway.
I don't have any solution for you because I can't think any good idea to p3event abus1ng, but I think when you give the most freedom of speech, you'll have the most reader. When you cut the freedom, people will run away. :)
- B
- Bangash
- KIB
- 20 Apr 2012
I think you should rate the phones yourself because users are mostly biased and it is impossible to stop useless ratings and mostly people only read what you guys say about a particular handset
- R
- Reader
- Mfx
- 20 Apr 2012
3rd option is the best... it will be a problem for sometime (to start from 0 rating ) but eventually it will be the best solution to this problem
- D
- AnonD-1731
- 2GY
- 20 Apr 2012
AnonD-36937, 20 Apr 2012Hi Guys... Implement the below set of Protocols.. Divi... moregreat idea, users should still have to log in to vote though, accounts should be linked, a GSMArena account should be made and linked to a social account ie, G+, FB, etc with only 1 voter per phone allowed
- ?
- Anonymous
- v9b
- 20 Apr 2012
-use a smaller range score, 1-5 stars should be enough, although we can still have the decimal stat for score.
-introduce a second scoring system for real user which should include comment about their using experience and moderate it tightly.
- d
- dexterouz
- tE%
- 20 Apr 2012
number 3.
- ?
- Anonymous
- LtL
- 20 Apr 2012
Rate it yourself as a puplisher, and allow athers to vote but eliminating extreme grades... create a link in which we can see positive or negative feedback
- D
- DON
- fu4
- 20 Apr 2012
hey, i think number two will be most effective. once those fixers will be registered then only one vote per user. and in todays age who doesnot have a facebook account. most people always have a facebook tab open while browsing. try number two out.
- p
- pandemonium
- bHq
- 20 Apr 2012
I've noticed this sad dilemma for quite some time, and being a fan of the objective work that GSMArena puts into their reviews and information provided only gives unwarranted discrediting.
I believe the best way to reduce manipulation of the voting system (unfortunately there is no way to completely negate it), will be to have your own login system - not associated with Facebook. I realize this will require server allocation and that's something GSMArena will need to weigh against having the user interactive voting system at all.
I spent some time thinking about this issue and hope this will help your decision making process along. The three options provided have their major faults, and I believe there are alternatives.
A limit per user would be the best option, such as:
-only GSMArena specific logins may vote
-a login can only vote once per phone
-a login can only vote x times per month (say 3-5 times per month)
-an e-mail is only usable once
-cross-reference database of IP use versus e-mail login/registration (if the same IP matches with other e-mails used for logins, have additional administrative features kick-in)
The ideas of requiring phone numbers or IMEI numbers are great, but will only alienate a lot of members and come along with a severe security risk. I personally don't provide my phone number to any websites, and I doubt anyone else does, either (just to login). Also, phone number spoofing or falsifying is pretty easy.
If GSMArena can't decide on the best route to take, then I'd scrap the user voting system entirely and have only editors provide their feedback (each editor uses each phone and rates; something to that effect).
Best of luck!
- D
- AnonD-3425
- utn
- 20 Apr 2012
Awww thats unfortunate! ! I tell you about a kick-ass solution:
1. Introduce captcha (may be double captcha but must be effective and crack-safe)
2. Make an estimate on minimum how long can it take for a user to both select ratings and filling out capthas. Send freezed timestamp to user browser. Then on the server save only those votes which have their timestamp equal or greater than the freezed ones. This is an effective way to better cop up with bot-attacks (which you probably seem to be having). This both do not require any major changes to your existing system and do not require a user to first login.
Hope I helped.
BTW Im an MVC developer.
sm.gurdeep[at]gmail.com
- M
- Mudit
- vGY
- 20 Apr 2012
number 3
- N
- Nplus1
- LaC
- 20 Apr 2012
Hello gsmarena!
In my opinion, the only practical thing you guys could do is make the voting process longer, so it won't matter how many proxies or facebook accounts one might have as long as he/she would have to lose a lot of time voting. This way it wouldn't affect too much the one-time voter, but would make it a lot more boring for the fanboys, I guess.
Instead of 3 drop-down lists and a "vote" button (current version), just add a "vote" button that would open a pop-up with a small questionnaire. In that pop-up people would be able to vote for each category but should also be forced to answer general questions like "what phone do you currently own", "what is your general experience level with mobile phones: just bought one/had a few so far/phone tester", etc...
It could be a good idea for people to enter their email address where you could send a validation link without which the vote would not be casted. Maybe add a complicated CAPTCHA, anything that would make it lengthy enough so fanboys would find it boring but would not affect the one-time voters too much.
And since you guys are looking into changing things about the voting system, why not add 2 categories that are very important to the average user: "battery life" and "reliability".
Assuming the voting system would reduce a bit the fanboys' impact on the scores, I would find it A LOT more useful to see the oppinion on battery life and reliability (how likely you are to be having software/hardware related problems) instead of "Design" (I personally don't care if a lot of people find the design pleasant or not) and "Features" (that everybody can read on the same page).
Hope this helps you improve things!
Thank you for all your effort in bringing good quality information to your readers!
- D
- AnonD-34870
- PB5
- 20 Apr 2012
Scrap the voting system. Rate the product like the dpreview.com is doing if you have time.
- a
- asp
- uWt
- 20 Apr 2012
I will go for Option 3 only..
- C
- Cyborg
- U2g
- 20 Apr 2012
There will always be ways to circumvent a rule or a procedure, but number 3 seems the best way forward as it will start everything afresh and tighter controls will be possible.
All the best with maintaining integrity on this super platform!
- F
- Fiq
- tug
- 20 Apr 2012
Option 3
- D
- AnonD-36439
- t7X
- 20 Apr 2012
Option 2 for me is the best. It's because majority of people surfing the web has facebook account. and everyone who'll vote should be required to log in through their account.
- D
- AnonD-51265
- U2i
- 20 Apr 2012
option 3
- D
- AnonD-51263
- 3TR
- 20 Apr 2012
GSMarena please.. Leave the system as it is but tweak it so it can't be exploited. Why not introduce captcha and and maybe a broader range of things to vote for?
Captcha and a 24h lockout period per IP, OR a "you have to be logged in to be able to vote" system-- with the account reg with some sort of captcha involved to keep bots away.
The problem with option 3 is that you won't get a proper median value which is the whole point with having such a massive community that's voting. Introducing a system where you can only "like" certain things would result in not geting a median at and that you would have to clinge to your likes for bloody life since there won't be anyone there to bring the median down to an "actual" value.
Regards,
Guren