I have made a few small changes to the Code of Conduct to clarify some issues. The main point is that it is against the rules for anyone to actively use more than one username on the site, and it is VERY against the rules to use mutiple usernames to unfairly cast mutiple votes on images. I can very easily produce a list of all users which use mutiple usernames, cheat on voting, and cheat on favorites lists. The Mods and I have been discussing this and agree that from now on we will not tolerate this behavior any more. If you think that you may be one of the users that I am referring to, just stop the activity and there won't be any repercussions for you.

Wow,
That suprises me a lot,
I didn't know there were such a lot people that 'cheating' , :S
Great work Caedes, and all the mods.

Well I didn't say that there were a lot of people cheating, but the ones who were cheating were cheating a lot.

As per my post on the main page, I am very shocked (shows how naïve I am, I suppose).

In response to the discussion I guess you could say I'm appalled by the cheating but can't really say I'm surprised. It's human nature to want to be #1. I suppose it was just a matter of time till someone tried to cheat the system. Good job on catching them Caedes.

not that i know (im not a mod), but i highly doubt any of theses cheaters have much skill anyway...why would they be cheating?? So i dont really care that much, their stupid anyway.

Fair play.Fair play.I sometimes wondered if there were people who votes their images from other computers,and i thought that there would be 1 or maximum 2...
But as i figure out from caedes' post there more than 1 or 2 and + they are connecting from the same computer/ip they always use...hmm this i never thought there would be people to do this kind of thing around here...
Well lets say that they are a bit more competitive to soften the situation for them...

Yes, how can you see if I login on another computer, with another account?
That's not possible right? Maybe I'm Cemkarahan, right!?
Nobody can now? Or am I wrong?

Yes, it is worrying. I would guess that the people that do this are not leaving comments, so it is an 'invisible' crime. You would have to be pretty dumb to log on with multiple ID's from one computer (though how it would work with a home network or whatever, I don't know).

Caedes said on another post that he doesn't just have to rely on the IP address. Perhaps you can tell from voting patterns: if there is one user (or a number of users) who never leave comments and only ever vote on one other users images then I guess that would be rather compelling evidence. That said, I'm pretty sure that Caedes said on another post that the actual voting records aren't kept - just the totals for each image.

It's all a mystery to me.

Im sure that everthing is under control of the mods and Caedes,it seems they just waited a little while to see,if they will step over the border and it looks like they did...

Im sure that everthing is under control of the mods and Caedes,it seems they just waited a little while to see,if they will step over the border and it looks like they did...

Whoops, Something goes wrong, I'm busted!

hehe, just kiddin'.

;p ;))

heh!

I wish there were a way to keep this at the top of the discussion board. I feel it's that important! I have reserved comment until now because I was just too angry and more so sad. I am very grateful to Caedes and understand these additions to the code needed to be made before he could justifiably remove these abusers and their images. However, I do feel they merely got a slap on the wrist and are possibly still among us until I hear otherwise. I would like to believe that for the most part I am commenting on people who are worthy and here for the right reasons. I believe the abuser's conscience levels are extremely low as well as their insecurities about their own art, and on top of it all now have the satisfaction that they've managed to fool the majority and get away with it. It is my hope that Caedes at least PM'd them with a personal stern warning.
Sure I'm wise enough to realize that on the internet no one can ever be 100% sure of anyone and I have to accept the good with the not so good with my choice in being here, but this behavior still burns me to no end!! I'm hoping time will allow me to get back to the freedom and safety to comment that I once felt. So far it has not. I have loved this community and been very appreciative for every positive aspect of it.
As far as what Tony said, the sad thing is they probably did/do have a talent that can grow with the positives available to them on this site but just became so overly obsessed with the numbers that it allowed them to proceed with little to no care for the rippling effect it would have on others. Some of their images were probably good works and some of them probably were quite the opposite and careless posts. I believe great images were surpassed and some good people sadly gave up. I know that there are many others out there who were hurt that will not speak up in the discussion boards. I also believe that if they are going to cheat, they are certainly not going to stop when their images reach a humble "70" and that it can't be that hard to figure out if one has been watching. Regardless, we will not receive confirmation and can never be 100% in our assumptions. Again, I understand why we will not, it just makes it that much more difficult to comment freely. I certainly do not mean that every image that ever reached a 99 was the result of cheating either and we should immediately suspect. Caedes made it very clear it was not highly abused but the ones who did the abuse did it alot. There were many images that got there legitimately for the certain high quality they were. Many artists who deserve our respect and trust. It is my hope that this new system will allow those artists to flourish. I am encouraged by most of the new posts as of late. It's good to see some of the artists we haven't seen in a while.
Thank you to Caedes, the mods, etc. for continuing to improve such a massive community. It can't be at all easy.

A long post, BJ.

I too have wondered who it was that was cheating. Perhaps it is best just to move on, but if Caedes knows who was doing it, he must have some idea of what images they did it on. Maybe they should be deleted?

The Mods and Caedes have discussed it and they have made their decision. I guess we will all just have to get on with our Caedes lives.

pst. CaptainHero, shhh don;t tell anyone... (it was caedes who was cheating) =)

lol!

Shortened my post by a couple of inches. Still can't tell. lol Be glad I didn't post last week!! ;)-
I think if the images were removed it certainly would be a dead giveaway. Doubt that's going to happen. Caedes has gone about this in the right way and I know he took action as soon as he became aware. This I accept and appreciate but I do look forward to the "show" once anyone pulls this again!!