Fanpop

Fanpop Ghost accounts!

tinkerluvr posted on Jul 07, 2008 at 04:19PM
Well, you might have read this article:
link

If you haven't, you need to.
Well, anyway, I'm starting a group that will keep on a lookout for ghost accounts and track them, maybe report them.
If you'd like to join, please send me a message and I'll see what i can work out.
Read the article i posted on the spot for more info.
Each member will be assigned to a different category to investigate ghost accounts.
Here's a list of categories:
Arts & Culture
Movies
Automotive
Music
Books & Literature
Pets & Animals
Celebrities
Politics & Current Events
Characters
Schools & Education
Comics & Animation
Shopping & Products
Couples & 'Shipping
Society & Lifestyle
Fanpop Users
Sports & Recreation
Fashion & Style
Technology & Science
Food & Drink
Television
Games
Travel & Places
Hobbies & Crafts
Versus & Mashups

It's time for fanpop users to take a stand!
last edited on Jul 09, 2008 at 03:22PM

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over a year ago hooch-is-crazy said…
I just have one question, how sure should we be before reporting them, they could just be 2 simarlar users.
over a year ago germany123 said…
you know hooch you should stop posting multiple comments or i will report you as a spammer and you will be banned!!!! muah aha ha aha ah...:D
(yes i know aboot your computer just joking)
and now you made me look stoopid :D

erm moving on: i report people with fake accounts to just spam etc anyway.
last edited over a year ago
over a year ago tinkerluvr said…
I know they could be simalar users. That is why we will question them and other people about these users.
Are you in?
I'm calling it G.A.P., which stands for "Ghost Account Protesters"
last edited over a year ago
over a year ago tinkerluvr said…
I already created a spot for it, link
Each member will be assigned to a different spot category to investgate ghost accounts, and every friday we will have meetings in the forums to tell what we investgated that week.
over a year ago claire-aka-bob said…
i dont understand how this will work the way you just said it in the comment above, spots get new fans all the time so there would be no way of keeping track of who's who.
and what happens if a 'ghost account' joins that spot so they dont look like a 'ghost account'?
the meetings on friday are not the best idea either, due to different time zones and different peoples jobs, school etc.
i understand what you are trying to do but there is no simple way of catching the ghost accounts. ♥
over a year ago tinkerluvr said…
Hmmm. Well, that is very true. We don't have to have the meetings, and we will also have to look out for ghost accounts on our spot. And, don't worry, i will send a message to anyone who "unofficailly" joins the spot.
over a year ago tinkerluvr said…
I just saw a post about medal cheaters, we will look out for those, too: link
over a year ago aholic said…
I don't think this will work. You can only check if it's the same user, if they use the same IP address and I don't think you can check without being one of the fanpop four.
over a year ago tinkerluvr said…
Hmm, that's true, it may not work.
But we can report them anyway.
To prevent spam.
over a year ago amazondebs said…
hmmmm i dunno guys i have reported someone to the fanpop four before for being a double account and i trned to out to be wrong

maybe it would be a good idea to have a couple of other fan check it and give their opinions before pestering the fanpop four, especially considering how bussy they are the moment
of course it would just have to be a couple pms because i wouldn't want to find my name in a forum accusing me of something like that

exactly what is a IP adress?
over a year ago Snerkie said…
An IP address is a series of numbers that identifies your internet connection. (very simple way of explaining it)

There are a lot of flaws in trying to identify someone by their IP address as you can get programs where it shuffles all the time so you can cheat an IP ban or even with mine, if i unplug my modem and plug it back in it resets my IP. OR if siblings, etc have signed up and use the same internet connection their IP addresses will be the same.
last edited over a year ago
over a year ago tinkerluvr said…
Yes, that is true, we should just send a message instead of publicly displaying names.
And we aren't gonna bother the 'fanpop four', we will try to have a couple of other fans check it, too, and we will have to be sure that they are double.
We might even talk to some of thier other good friends/fans and ask them if they noticed anything fishy.
Remember, this is only a 'voulintary' group, we are only doing this to keep spam away and make fanpop a better place.
over a year ago aholic said…
But is ghost accounts a big problem? I mean of course they are if they cheat but how will we know if they cheat?
over a year ago amazondebs said…
oh right, it's not anything to do with your actual adress? not that i mind i tell people where i live anyways lol, just wondering

aholic i wouldn't say it is a huge problem but there are some fans with i suspect of having loads of fake accounts to rate their own content for medals, or there was a incident where someone created a load of fake account to rate someone elses content with loads of ones
or one time we caught someone in a couples vs spot creating fake accounts to gang up on another user, that was fairly nasty but i guess all of them were obvious situations
over a year ago aholic said…
oh okay. I haven't come across that before :)
over a year ago Snerkie said…
debs, nah it's got nothing to do with where you live, it's just some numbers.

With this whole ghost searching, the thing is you have to be at least 99% sure before you send messages to fans or the person themselves otherwise you will be creating more spam in a way.
over a year ago ay3 said…
wow this seams WAY 2 hard and i ain't looking to anger sum bitchy ghosts so they will chase me and rate all my stuff low and kick my sorry little A$$!!!
(shivering from being scared of ghosts/ ghost accounts)
so unless i or u really easilly find a ghost account with some work and report the accounter, then i wouldnt even bother!
over a year ago hooch-is-crazy said…
I think there might be a way of working it out, sort of...

I remember kathiria82 (who's extremely strongly against the usage of ghost accounts to get medals) a way of telling is an impossible rise in ratings, (for example, you might see on a page of images in list form 9 by a lot of different fans, all rated once or something and then one by another user, rated more than 5 times all of them 5s, it's clear that person is cheating)
over a year ago amazondebs said…
the only trouble with that is you don't know the other user names
over a year ago hooch-is-crazy said…
but you could report the one you do know, the one who's getting the medals unfairly.
over a year ago Snerkie said…
But some people could be reported incorrectly. I will share you a nice example :) of the spots i am a dedicated fan of one is "My Name is Earl", now if i remember correctly (or just look through my activity) i have posted 37 images, and i got the medal at maybe 15, i'm a good member of Fanpop i'd say but you could look at that and think i could have possibly cheated the system. You'd end up reporting me unfairly and that's not what needs to pile up on Fanpop.
over a year ago amazondebs said…
yeah but hooch you need two accounts to prove it by chasing their.. IP adress? or something

and yeah like snerkie said you need a little more proof although i get your frustration, i can name a ouple of fans whoi just know have fakes but i guess it's statisfying knowing your medals and yours frinds and fanpop's medals were earnt and your not sad enough to rate your own content...

random i know but there;s a dollhouse fan site and two genuine brother from their both got banded because the other goes thorugh everyone that joins and thought they were fakes lol, it's all been fixed now though
last edited over a year ago
over a year ago tinkerluvr said…
Sorry i haven't replied here for a while.... been busy.
over a year ago aholic said…
I agree with Debs. Just look how easy we got our medals in the FGT spot. If that happened in another unknown spot, people would think that they cheat without they really did cheat.
over a year ago nosemuffin said…
When a spot is new, and I join it or I notice someone advertising for it, I will often go through and rate all the content that I can. I know for a fact that I'm not alone in doing this, so early medals are not necessarily a reason for suspicion.
over a year ago hooch-is-crazy said…
I'm not meaning early medals I mean if one person adds content and it's rated by loads of people and noone else's is rated at all, there's something wrong, it mightn't be that obvous but normally most people's content is rated about the same amount of times.
over a year ago kathiria82 said…
Snerkie, I bet your stuff was rated over time and by just 1 or maybe 2 fans. I notice people who add stuff and like a few hours later it`s all rated by 5 or more fans. That`s complete BS and those people just get away with it all the time.
over a year ago tinkerluvr said…
This is random, but i think it is getting into a good discussoin.
over a year ago hooch-is-crazy said…
that's what I mean, well it was your idea, whenever there's an impossib;e rise in ratings.
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