EDITORIAL > DREAMWORLD
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Dreamworld | 22 January 2005
Sometimes I have a fun idea for my internet site. An idea that might appeal to other fans. Like for instance my "ABBA website of the year" election pages. And in the early stages of that election it WAS fun. People started to nominate several fan sites that could very well deserve that title. More often than not, the webmasters of these sites applied for the title. After the nomination stages, I selected 10 final sites that would compete for the title. And even then it still was fun. The first couple of votes came in and soon it turned out that there were three candidates that were the favourites of the visitors of ABBA Plaza. And even then it was pure entertainment. But soon it would turn out to be an evil competition between obsessive fans. The disaster struck right after I published the voting result of mid December. Then, like lightning, one of the "bubbling under" sites received an astonishing number of votes. Usually the maximum of 10 points went to this particular site. This site rocketed to number 1 and within days it had a lead that was so big, it simply was too good to be true. I just knew that something was wrong. So I checked my competition database and unfortunately I was proven right: it seemed that most votes for this site came from one single internet provider. Coincidence? Don't think so. It is my strong belief that the voting has been rigged by a fan of that site. I don't have 100% evidence, but otherwise there simply is no explanation. After I found out about the trouble, I just didn't know what to do. I could have called off the entire election. But that felt like a defeat, so I didn't do that. Instead I will implement some major changes for next year's election. Like a login system which will guarantee a fair voting system. Sadly this experience showed me that pure and innocent fun, turned out to be a fanatic race between obsessed ABBA fans once again. Sometimes when I'm dreaming, I live in a world where ABBA fans are honest and voting only once in an election. Yeah right: a dreamworld. |
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