Any kind of contest, game, bidding, or other type of competition must always be conducted in a controlled environment in which the rules are strictly enforced. Otherwise, there will be those who cheat and skew the results in an unfair manner. It´s a crying shame that this is the case, but it´s just a sad fact of life that will never change. If you don´t believe it, just take a look any competition that isn´t tightly controlled. It´ll turn out not be a competition at all, but rather a pretense with a manipulated and fraudulent outcome.
A prime example is the reader-posted article competition at a certain popular political website. Articles receiving the most "votes" are bestowed the honor of getting linked to from the site´s front page and, as a result, get the most page views. The idea is that each reader will vote just once for each article he or she likes, so the articles getting the most votes will be a representation of those that are the most well-liked by the site´s readers. Well, at least that´s the way it´s supposed to work.
In reality, it´s a crooked deal. That´s because the website doesn´t prevent people from voting over and over again for their own articles and getting their friends do so as well in exchange for voting for theirs multiple times. What you end up with are basically the same authors´ articles listed on the site´s home page all the time. These articles will usually garner a large number of votes within minutes of being posted and before many people have actually had a chance to read them, making those cheaters´ tactics quite obvious. Articles written by people who play it straight get fewer votes and are therefore banished to a more obscure page of the website, even if those articles are actually much better.
I´ve always wondered why people felt the need to cheat like that. Are they that desperate to come out on top? Do they lack the self-confidence to compete on an even playing field? I have found that some people who cheat will justify themselves in doing so. They will generally do this in one of two ways. They will either claim that (1) they have a right to do it because life has been unfair to them or that (2) they might as well cheat because everyone else could do it too and that someone else would do it if they didn´t. That´s a very cynical view of life. I can only hope and pray that I never develop such an attitude.
A prime example is the reader-posted article competition at a certain popular political website. Articles receiving the most "votes" are bestowed the honor of getting linked to from the site´s front page and, as a result, get the most page views. The idea is that each reader will vote just once for each article he or she likes, so the articles getting the most votes will be a representation of those that are the most well-liked by the site´s readers. Well, at least that´s the way it´s supposed to work.
In reality, it´s a crooked deal. That´s because the website doesn´t prevent people from voting over and over again for their own articles and getting their friends do so as well in exchange for voting for theirs multiple times. What you end up with are basically the same authors´ articles listed on the site´s home page all the time. These articles will usually garner a large number of votes within minutes of being posted and before many people have actually had a chance to read them, making those cheaters´ tactics quite obvious. Articles written by people who play it straight get fewer votes and are therefore banished to a more obscure page of the website, even if those articles are actually much better.
I´ve always wondered why people felt the need to cheat like that. Are they that desperate to come out on top? Do they lack the self-confidence to compete on an even playing field? I have found that some people who cheat will justify themselves in doing so. They will generally do this in one of two ways. They will either claim that (1) they have a right to do it because life has been unfair to them or that (2) they might as well cheat because everyone else could do it too and that someone else would do it if they didn´t. That´s a very cynical view of life. I can only hope and pray that I never develop such an attitude.
