What's the difference? :)

I see that in many countries the contestants are disqualified and their pictures are removed because they use vote-exchange sites. One of the last cases is Sandrine's, I think.

I wonder what do the organizers think about votes? What's the difference between a friend who votes for me because he is my friend, and a contestgalaxy member who votes for me to get another vote in exchange?

I mean that if the contest is about "the most beautiful cat/dog in the world" or something like that, nor my friend, neither John Doe on this forum votes the picture because it's the best on earth.

So why do the organizers disqualify people using this kind of forums?

I had to stop and think about this when I started using voting boards...was I cheating. Then I though to myself (and this is MY case, not necessarily someone else's). the purpose of the video contest I am in, is to spread the word about snakes NOT being the menace/monsters they are being made out to be and to try and undo some of the propaganda and fear mongering being spread. Many of my competitors are posting on reptile boards and chats, getting their friends there to vote. Who is doing the most good...them preaching pro snake to pro snakers or me preaching pro snake to people who are not necessarily into snakes....I get many comments, both on the video and back to me directly, that they voted even though they dislike snakes, but they can see I love mine. I feel I am actually doing MORE by being here than I would on the reptile boards with the rest.

When I first started I though o wait isn't this cheating. But then it occured to me, is the president of any country that votes to be put in office friends with every person that voted for them in the election. I would think not. They may stand behind there view and stuff but they sure arn't friends on facebook lol. I can say most of the vote exchangers I have on facebook are now my friends. Its very wierd where you can meet some. I find this as just a way to advertise your link and help eachother out. Now people that vote 1 vote to 10 votes is cheating and thoes that use multiple accounts are also cheaters. Both of which this forum frowns on. This site was created to help both contestants and the companies running the contest to allow anyone the oppertunity to win there contest and the advertiser the use of having real subscribers, etc.

I think that you (Trex and Admin) are both right but I would like to add a thought.... there is a fine line between right and wrong. Whereas we all use this site to generate votes- and oftentimes end up forming a comerarderie with our peers... others use voting sites to do evil. I had posted my link on a voting page on FB and someone offered to "sell" me votes in increments of $5 per 50. I was confident that a $10 investment for 100 votes would win me a $300 prize.
At first I wrote them and said "great!" and went to the western union site to transfer the funds.... but once I started filling out the transfer form I couldn't do it. It just seemed amazingly wrong to "sell" my integrity for $10- and I did end up losing that one. But there are always people who will spend the $10... especially as the prize value increases. Look at the California Pizza Kitchen biggest fan contest on FB- that uproar over cheating has the winner name being delayed.
The other issue is vote stealers I think. The people who comment and write "done" versus giving a vote number or leaving a comment. Even here someone wrote on my post "done" when the link even TOLD them that there was no voting that day. Impossible they did it as they claimed! But I voted for them, asked them to come back and reminded them that we are all here to work together and help each other.
True, honest vote exchange is a lot of work. I spend many hours at night actively returning if I am looking for people to vote for me. Bogus vote returns probably take 10 minutes to make comments to 50 people.
In the middle are the contest sponsors. Some have rules against vote exchanging specifically to try and control the vote stealers, buyers and cheats. Others are oblivious. My own personal opinion is that they should track mac or IP addresses of voters- and then at the end of the contest include a "judging" portion whereby they can filter out the cheats. I do not think that vote exchanges should be an instant disqualifier- but something needs to give in terms of the system.
Social media (Facebook more than Twitter I think) makes this a tough one- as they used to say in Chicago back in the day... vote early and often!
Good luck everyone in all of your contest entries!

gcampanaro wrote:I think that you (Trex and Admin) are both right but I would like to add a thought.... there is a fine line between right and wrong. Whereas we all use this site to generate votes- and oftentimes end up forming a comerarderie with our peers... others use voting sites to do evil. I had posted my link on a voting page on FB and someone offered to "sell" me votes in increments of $5 per 50. I was confident that a $10 investment for 100 votes would win me a $300 prize.
At first I wrote them and said "great!" and went to the western union site to transfer the funds.... but once I started filling out the transfer form I couldn't do it. It just seemed amazingly wrong to "sell" my integrity for $10- and I did end up losing that one. But there are always people who will spend the $10... especially as the prize value increases. Look at the California Pizza Kitchen biggest fan contest on FB- that uproar over cheating has the winner name being delayed.
The other issue is vote stealers I think. The people who comment and write "done" versus giving a vote number or leaving a comment. Even here someone wrote on my post "done" when the link even TOLD them that there was no voting that day. Impossible they did it as they claimed! But I voted for them, asked them to come back and reminded them that we are all here to work together and help each other.
True, honest vote exchange is a lot of work. I spend many hours at night actively returning if I am looking for people to vote for me. Bogus vote returns probably take 10 minutes to make comments to 50 people.
In the middle are the contest sponsors. Some have rules against vote exchanging specifically to try and control the vote stealers, buyers and cheats. Others are oblivious. My own personal opinion is that they should track mac or IP addresses of voters- and then at the end of the contest include a "judging" portion whereby they can filter out the cheats. I do not think that vote exchanges should be an instant disqualifier- but something needs to give in terms of the system.
Social media (Facebook more than Twitter I think) makes this a tough one- as they used to say in Chicago back in the day... vote early and often!
Good luck everyone in all of your contest entries!

the things with ips is that if your good at it you can bypass that in mins. The world is full of cheaters but we just got to live with it and hope that the contest owner/advertiser has the knowledge of known cheating tricks and will weed them out. It would be nice that in the rules they say if sites like this are allowed or not. If it actually says they arn't. I know of only 3 since over the last year that have said that but I sayif the rules say not to don't do it. Its not worth cheating becasue most the time you get kicked right at the end and all that work goes to waste.

I read all your posts and I agree with you, in all aspects touched by this thread.
When I discovered the source of votes, I mean when I realised that votes didn't come from friends (they come, but just a few), but from other contestants who needed votes too, I thought this was cheating. Then I understood that it wasn't so, or at least I don't consider it now as a fraud.

I am very surprised to find out about selling votes, gcampanaro I had seen those fb pages with vote tradings, and I was extremely disappointed to see last month or so, persons who were trading 900 votes !!! But now I can understand how a person who entered a contest at 6.30 pm gathered about 550 votes until midnight, and won!

And indeed, I wanted to understand why the organizers disqualify people using forums and sites as Contest Galaxy, where the vote is one-to-one. And I would like to understand why other organizers do not do anything against obvious and massive fraud.

by come contest there you can read: you can exchange votes
if i see a contest whit it,i show it here
many people exchange, using this kind of site-s
when you buy the votes,its cheating

the people think its cheating
i won a contest
then people going to google, and found out i am on this exchange site
now the complaining i am cheating

joan wrote:the people think its cheating
i won a contest
then people going to google, and found out i am on this exchange site
now the complaining i am cheating

most people think its cheating but then again what they can't see is what they can complain about. Maybe they should read our policy and also about all the other hidden groups that are out there and figure out that this is just a way to get votes we are not trying to create a cheating site but a place where anyone and everyone (who follows our rules can get votes) Its only cheating if the rules specifically say "no vote exchanges" or something simular.

I don't see it as cheating
Basically, all the contests I've been through, the winners were only able to gather their friends, family, etc.. to vote for them, not actually because they liked the posted pic/video/etc. but just cause they knew the contestant
So its basically the same thing for me

I joined this forum because I found the votemyvid.com website last month, which holds contests each month in which people vote on uploaded videos and the top 6 videos win prizes. I figured I'd give it a try.

I found out very quickly that it wasn't so much as a contest for "best video" as it was a contest for "who has the most friends". You should see the video that's in first place right now. In fact, I'll just show you: http://www.votemyvid.com/watch-videos/347 That video has 53 votes right now. It's utter crap. It's even sideways. Anyway, you get the point.

I don't have a lot of FB friends (about 50+), but I tried sharing my video entries on there and could barely even get them to vote. I tried other sources where I have real friends who I thought would help, but hardly anybody does. It's quite disappointing. If only my friends would take a few minutes out of their day to help me out, I could very possibly win real prizes.

Anyway, I finally found this forum and figured it would help. I don't think it's cheating at all. I don't know the other people on the website any more than I know the people on this forum.

Eh, I think I went off on a tangent. Sorry. Oh well...

vertigoelectric wrote:I joined this forum because I found the votemyvid.com website last month, which holds contests each month in which people vote on uploaded videos and the top 6 videos win prizes. I figured I'd give it a try.

I found out very quickly that it wasn't so much as a contest for "best video" as it was a contest for "who has the most friends". You should see the video that's in first place right now. In fact, I'll just show you: http://www.votemyvid.com/watch-videos/347 That video has 53 votes right now. It's utter crap. It's even sideways. Anyway, you get the point.

I don't have a lot of FB friends (about 50+), but I tried sharing my video entries on there and could barely even get them to vote. I tried other sources where I have real friends who I thought would help, but hardly anybody does. It's quite disappointing. If only my friends would take a few minutes out of their day to help me out, I could very possibly win real prizes.

Anyway, I finally found this forum and figured it would help. I don't think it's cheating at all. I don't know the other people on the website any more than I know the people on this forum.

Eh, I think I went off on a tangent. Sorry. Oh well...

the only time this site is cheating is when its specifically stated in the official rules. that was one of the main points for me creating this site allowing anyone and everyone that follows the rules to receive votes and compete against the top contesters out there

vertigoelectric wrote:

I don't have a lot of FB friends (about 50+), but I tried sharing my video entries on there and could barely even get them to vote. I tried other sources where I have real friends who I thought would help, but hardly anybody does. It's quite disappointing. If only my friends would take a few minutes out of their day to help me out, I could very possibly win real prizes.

This is my case too, though I have 800+ friends on fb. Only about 10-15 votes I get from them. The others up to 100+ are from the vote exchange sites.

And after several months here, I can say I have friends here, not on fb....