Ask HN: Are there voting rings operating on this site?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5752027

by IgorPartola • 13 years ago

5 10 13 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Since it only takes 3-4 quick votes for a new story to end up on the front page, and the front page can deliver hundreds of thousands of visitors, do you believe there are voting rings operating on Hacker News? To me it seems like a huge and easy target, and while technical means can be employed to prevent this, nothing would really prevent an individual from registering several accounts using different IP addresses and maintain a certain level of activity on each, then use 3-4 of them to propel his/her stories to the front page.

If this is happening, why is it not more apparent? Or is it and I am just too blind to see it?

maxcameron• 13 years ago

PG SEES ALL.

27182818284• 13 years ago

There are vote-ring detectors working. I imagine its an arms race of sorts with each side going back and forth on who is winning.

mosqutip• 13 years ago

A person doing this seems impractical. The cost/benefit ratio for manually maintaining all that activity is too high.

If the process were automated, maybe. But there are probably latent factors that go into the page ranking that aren't exposed to users.

Also, what's the real benefit to this scheme? You'd have to: 1. Consistently write/find articles to post 2. Consistently monitor the voting ring

And your benefit is...?

IgorPartola2• 13 years ago

The benefit is wide exposure to possibly your target audience. HN is often a great place to announce that you released an new SaaS offering.

I really don't see it as much of an effort. Take the amount of time you currently spend on HN, divide it by 5 an do the exact same stuff that you currently do, but using one of the 5 accounts chosen randomly. All you really need to do is write some insightful comments to get your karma above some low thresholds and make sure that you upvote stories in a random enough pattern. Sure, eventually, this ring would be discovered, but then you just start a new one.

rubinelli• 13 years ago

Exposure doesn't necessarily mean conversion. If your product isn't good enough, getting it into the front page will only serve to get you panned faster.

tobylane• 13 years ago

There's some very detailed hive minds. Confidence in new companies, begrudging acceptance of Google, dislike of Microsoft and Yahoo.

teawithcarl• 13 years ago

The solution to this is for more people to read (and vote) on new articles. I read the newest feed often each day, and find it broad and excellent. Indeed, my votes often concur and help define the homepage. In any event, more saturated statistics help crowdsource the best articles, and keep the system honest.

Peroni• 13 years ago

nothing would really prevent an individual from registering several accounts using different IP addresses and maintain a certain level of activity on each, then use 3-4 of them to propel his/her stories to the front page.

Not particularly effective. Upvotes are weighted dependent on your karma (and probably a few other factors). The same IP's voting for the same users submissions also flags the detection system.

It's insanely easy to fall fowl of the voting ring detector. I've inadvertently fallen foul of it before when the same few work colleagues in one of our other offices were upvoting my submissions each time without my knowledge. As far as I can tell it resulted in my posts dying and their upvotes not even registering.

brudgers• 13 years ago

Being on the front page of HN can bring page views. It can also bring flags to the article.

An atom-blaster is a good weapon, but it can point both ways. -- Salvor Hardin

Ask HN: Are there voting rings operating on this site?

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