While I don't like to bring attention to bad behavior, this instance could impact the integrity of the vote, and so I should mention it. It will become clear anyway by the time the session results are posted and the numbers are different. We have someone who has made a dozen additional accounts (or more) to mass vote on proposals this session.
All of their votes will be negated when the session results come out, if not sooner, and moderation action is being taken against the cheater (as creating multiple accounts is also against site rules).
I ask that you not waste community oxygen by discussing the person and their votes further; CFC moderators will take care of the issue.
Please do not trust the vote totals on any of the proposals right now when making your voting decisions. As usual, your vote choice(s) should be based on which options you'd be okay with. This is mainly aimed at voters who decide their vote is pointless because so many "others" have voted for the alternative.
This is the first known instance of this happening - but it is the reason why I made the voting public, so such cheating could be caught.
To anyone else who might be thinking of doing this, I assure you that you're simply wasting your own time if you think you're going to influence the vote this way.
NOV. 3 UPDATE:
After further investigation, the cheating was not unique to Session #6, but also occurred in Session #3 and #4. Their impact was minimal, mostly making a few votes seem closer than they actually were. Only one vote, 4-19, had its outcome changed by it, and even that one deserves an asterisk. Given that they voted multiple times for the "also tweak Bowman/Atlatlist promotions" and only once for "only tweak Walls of Babylon", we can presume that their preference was the former. That would have, if they did not cheat (thereby invalidating all their votes), made the vote 39-39, and I would have broken the tie in favor of that option.
Therefore, despite their efforts and lengthy campaign, their cheating never actually changed the outcome of any vote to be one that wouldn't have occurred if they hadn't cheated.
Nevertheless, that vote is being redone for fairness: (6-73) Keep or Revert Change to Bowman/Atlatlist Promotions
Although I'm pretty confident all duplicate votes have been identified, it's impossible to know with 100% certainty how many times they voted, so I decided the most equitable solution for the community is to cancel out their entire voting history, and am in the process of recounting all the votes excluding the accounts that cheated.
I'm also taking the opportunity, since I'll be looking at all proposal threads anyway, to note down which proposals were actually implemented and make a few other implementation notes. I've done this for Session #1 here: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/vp-congress-session-results.680720/
This is something I was planning to do anyway, as I think it'll be valuable to the community, so taking a couple extra seconds to remove all their votes isn't a big deal (and I get the satisfaction of negating the impact of their actions to nothing more than the slightest of inconveniences).
Unfortunately, in the current session, they have managed to make it more difficult for the community to tell how many votes were actually cast. As a moderator, it's easy for me to see which votes aren't legitimate, as the votes look like this to me:
The actual tally for each option is the displayed number minus all the crossed out names. Rest assured, it will not be hard for me to exclude the cheated votes.
However, as non-moderators cannot see this, I was asked to do a quick tally of the votes so the community can have a better idea of what the standings are, now that we're at the halfway mark for Session #6's Voting Phase. I will do this in the second post shortly.
I'll unlock this thread as, while I dislike giving the bad behavior attention, I feel it's fair if the community wants to discuss the situation (as unfortunately, one vote two sessions ago was affected), but please limit discussion of it to this thread to reduce any dopamine boosts and/or positive reinforcement they may receive.
Please also refrain from uncivil behavior, as we are not barbarians here, and I will lock the thread if that occurs.
Being able to spot things like this is why the voters are made public, so if you spot any suspect behavior in the future, please send me a message by conversation.
Thank you all!
NOV. 9 UPDATE (also posted below):
All session results for Sessions #1 through #6 have been revised, excluding the cheated votes and making note of which passed proposals were not eventually implemented and why, as well as making other notes.
It was discovered during this process that the vote for (3-09) had also been manipulated by cheated votes in much the same way as (4-19) was: i.e. if the cheater had voted fairly, it would have created a tie that I likely would have voted to break in favor of the outcome that won. If the cheater's votes are retroactively excluded from the tally, which I have done, pineappledan's proposal (i.e. the original one) should have won.
Link to said vote: (3-09) God of War & Goddess of Protection Proposals
Unlike for (4-19), I'm not going to hold a revote on these changes as the Voting Phase is over, God of War has been changed again in this very session, and the community has since shot down two proposals which nerfed Goddess of Protection's healing bonus in the (5-71) vote. That last part is relevant because pineappledan's proposal was also one that nerfed the healing bonus.
I'll leave it up to the community to decide how to proceed with Goddess of Protection in a future session - or not. There's already quite a lot of work to be done for this one.
This should be the final conclusion of the cheating issue. Improvements are likely to be made to the VP Congress prior to Session #7 to prevent any future cheating.
All of their votes will be negated when the session results come out, if not sooner, and moderation action is being taken against the cheater (as creating multiple accounts is also against site rules).
I ask that you not waste community oxygen by discussing the person and their votes further; CFC moderators will take care of the issue.
Please do not trust the vote totals on any of the proposals right now when making your voting decisions. As usual, your vote choice(s) should be based on which options you'd be okay with. This is mainly aimed at voters who decide their vote is pointless because so many "others" have voted for the alternative.
This is the first known instance of this happening - but it is the reason why I made the voting public, so such cheating could be caught.
To anyone else who might be thinking of doing this, I assure you that you're simply wasting your own time if you think you're going to influence the vote this way.
NOV. 3 UPDATE:
After further investigation, the cheating was not unique to Session #6, but also occurred in Session #3 and #4. Their impact was minimal, mostly making a few votes seem closer than they actually were. Only one vote, 4-19, had its outcome changed by it, and even that one deserves an asterisk. Given that they voted multiple times for the "also tweak Bowman/Atlatlist promotions" and only once for "only tweak Walls of Babylon", we can presume that their preference was the former. That would have, if they did not cheat (thereby invalidating all their votes), made the vote 39-39, and I would have broken the tie in favor of that option.
Therefore, despite their efforts and lengthy campaign, their cheating never actually changed the outcome of any vote to be one that wouldn't have occurred if they hadn't cheated.
Nevertheless, that vote is being redone for fairness: (6-73) Keep or Revert Change to Bowman/Atlatlist Promotions
Although I'm pretty confident all duplicate votes have been identified, it's impossible to know with 100% certainty how many times they voted, so I decided the most equitable solution for the community is to cancel out their entire voting history, and am in the process of recounting all the votes excluding the accounts that cheated.
I'm also taking the opportunity, since I'll be looking at all proposal threads anyway, to note down which proposals were actually implemented and make a few other implementation notes. I've done this for Session #1 here: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/vp-congress-session-results.680720/
This is something I was planning to do anyway, as I think it'll be valuable to the community, so taking a couple extra seconds to remove all their votes isn't a big deal (and I get the satisfaction of negating the impact of their actions to nothing more than the slightest of inconveniences).
Unfortunately, in the current session, they have managed to make it more difficult for the community to tell how many votes were actually cast. As a moderator, it's easy for me to see which votes aren't legitimate, as the votes look like this to me:
Spoiler :
The actual tally for each option is the displayed number minus all the crossed out names. Rest assured, it will not be hard for me to exclude the cheated votes.
However, as non-moderators cannot see this, I was asked to do a quick tally of the votes so the community can have a better idea of what the standings are, now that we're at the halfway mark for Session #6's Voting Phase. I will do this in the second post shortly.
I'll unlock this thread as, while I dislike giving the bad behavior attention, I feel it's fair if the community wants to discuss the situation (as unfortunately, one vote two sessions ago was affected), but please limit discussion of it to this thread to reduce any dopamine boosts and/or positive reinforcement they may receive.
Please also refrain from uncivil behavior, as we are not barbarians here, and I will lock the thread if that occurs.
Being able to spot things like this is why the voters are made public, so if you spot any suspect behavior in the future, please send me a message by conversation.
Thank you all!
NOV. 9 UPDATE (also posted below):
All session results for Sessions #1 through #6 have been revised, excluding the cheated votes and making note of which passed proposals were not eventually implemented and why, as well as making other notes.
It was discovered during this process that the vote for (3-09) had also been manipulated by cheated votes in much the same way as (4-19) was: i.e. if the cheater had voted fairly, it would have created a tie that I likely would have voted to break in favor of the outcome that won. If the cheater's votes are retroactively excluded from the tally, which I have done, pineappledan's proposal (i.e. the original one) should have won.
Link to said vote: (3-09) God of War & Goddess of Protection Proposals
Unlike for (4-19), I'm not going to hold a revote on these changes as the Voting Phase is over, God of War has been changed again in this very session, and the community has since shot down two proposals which nerfed Goddess of Protection's healing bonus in the (5-71) vote. That last part is relevant because pineappledan's proposal was also one that nerfed the healing bonus.
I'll leave it up to the community to decide how to proceed with Goddess of Protection in a future session - or not. There's already quite a lot of work to be done for this one.
This should be the final conclusion of the cheating issue. Improvements are likely to be made to the VP Congress prior to Session #7 to prevent any future cheating.
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