Why make unwarranted assumptions?

Hestiasmissives · Eligible to vote! Joined: 13 Feb 2004 Posts: 24 Gender:

If friends were invited to check out your website, vote for a book, read it, and then enjoy the depth of the discussion, why would you decide they are just "passing through"? That is a bit arbitrary.

Chris OConnor

Laura:

I was concerned because the vote and subsequent vote by Mae035 came from the same computer. From past experience this usually means someone has created an alternate account and attempting to trick the community into believing their opinion/vote is actually held by another person...someone that doesn't even exist. This is called creating a "sock puppet," and would be very unethical in a democratic book selection, as you can imagine. I do believe you though, but this person’s vote cannot be counted - at least not in this poll. They need to join the community and contribute on the message boards to show they're actually interested in BookTalk.

I'll be creating a very clear "Community Rules" page as a result of this misunderstanding. I do appreciate you recruiting people to join BookTalk, and wish more members would do so. You're obviously a good marketer! So thank you for your efforts. I sure hope these people you have named will now join BookTalk and become active in the community.

The reason why Mae035's vote cannot be counted is because there is a very high probability this person will never contribute anything to our community. You may know differently, but the odds are in favor of them casting a vote and then vanishing. I say this from years of experience. Hundreds of people have come and gone...just like Mae035. I'm sure you can understand how this policy is in the best interest of BookTalk. Mae035 might be different, but only time will tell.

And then you emailed me saying there were 4 other people that tried to vote for Wilson’s book, but couldn't vote due to some "glitch" in the system. I'm not familiar with any glitches in our system, and don't have enough information to help them with this potential problem. Please have them email me if they continue having any difficulties creating an account and getting registered.

But once again, they are not yet entitled to vote in our book polls. Only "active" members can cast votes for book polls. Just think about the possible ways people could cheat if we didn't have this policy. An unscrupulous member could ask a dozen friends to log in and alter the poll in their favor.

So your vote counts for Wilson's book, but unfortunately, none of the others do. I really hope you continue to try to get those friends of yours to join BookTalk and become active. Do you think they'll stick around? Do they really know what BookTalk is all about? Do they understand what our focus is all about? The freethinker worldview is a minority worldview. Please share this information with them and have them create accounts and get involved. I look forward to getting to know them all. And I’ve been enjoying your contribution to the community and hope you don’t take my decision the wrong way. I’m simply looking out for the integrity of our polling process, which is the very foundation of our community.

Chris

"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them" -- Mark Twain


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