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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2018 15:51:44 GMT -5
am trying to find a post about the TMS. I swear I recall a similar post about it, as there was for TMC. But it's hard to do searches on the phone, or this weird mini laptop that I've got going for me. Once I get back to a normal computer, I'll do it properly. so if the vote manipulation was so obvious, shouldn't Arm staff have been involved in contacting TMC and TMS earlier? shouldn't they, the people who are most vested in noticing and keeping track of votes, be the most aware and conscientious of it behaving oddly? and yet there's a reddit post from someone else calling out an oddity and staff sending a quick e-mail to check up on it. hmmmm. and doesn't it seem counterintuitive that someone with the intent of making an obvious vote manipulation to frame the stellar reputation of Armageddon MUD would go through the effort of making it difficult enough to detect that an administrator staring right at the votes looking for fraudulent votes couldn't track it down? correct me if i'm wrong but the only way i could see it not being blocked so easily would be from paying a botnet to vote, in which case why not just pay for a botnet to DDOS Arm's server if you're looking to "destroy" the game? Jcarter. They did contact both TMC and TMS as early as they noticed the matter? Which was basically the same time as everyone else did. That reddit post and other complaints and Staff approaching TMC/TMS. It all happened within the span of 1-2 days. TMC has a vote per account thing. So to vote on that website, you'd need to create fake accounts and so on. I dont really know the mechanics, or how exactly the admin there looked at it. I would suggest taking it up with him? All I can offer is that anyone intelligent enough to overcome the basics of anti-spamming protection of TMC, is intelligent enough to know that if you inflate a vote by a greater number in one day, then all games put together could do in a month, it's ... noticeabble. You can argue this. Absolutely. All I can offer is that TMC admin have agreed that it was indeed purely to damage Armageddon and because of that he said 'that' exact thing in his announcement. I'll post it here to make it easier to see. On March 3rd one of the admins of Armageddon noticed odd voting activity involved with Armageddon and reported it to me and asked that I investigate. I did a rudimentary look at logs and at the time was unable to spot suspicious activity. Yes, the vote count looked odd but I was not able to spot the problem. After receiving some more reports from concerned TMC members as well as from forum moderators I started looking more aggressively into different areas of the site and was able to spot suspicious activity which indeed pointed to bot voting activity. As a result the following changes were made: 1. All IPs involved with the bot accounts have been site banned 2. The total vote count for Armageddon has been adjusted, all confirmed bot votes have been deducted. 3. More detailed logging has been added to the vote system to make it easier to spot potential issues down the road. 4. The vote system has been changed so that all accounts created after March 1, 2018 must have a minimum forum activity before being eligible to vote. By requiring forum activity this will give us more of a chance to spot suspicious accounts. It is unlikely to be perfect but it is a step in the right direction. I believe Armageddon mud was in no way involved and that in fact the attempt was to try to hurt their reputation on TMC, and I want to thank them for bringing this to our attention so quickly.Thank you, Icculus |
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Post by pinkerdlu on Jul 29, 2018 15:54:25 GMT -5
Someone here did it, as a number of you have stated your intention is to destroy Armageddon. Or some pro-Arm techhead did it, as they have already demonstrated technical proficiency and deviousness with that pixel tracker stunt. Out of curiosity, who here has stated their malignant, purposeful intentions of actively working to destroy Armageddon MUD? I know there are quite a few of us that believe Armageddon would be better off dead, and to possibly be reborn into something new and better. But this idea is not concurrent with the active destruction of Arm. (The staff are doing a good enough job of that themselves tbh). |
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Post by lyse on Jul 29, 2018 16:01:32 GMT -5
I just like how we’re all out to destroy Arm and we’re all actively conspiring to bring it down. Yet, many of the positive changes the game has enjoyed over the last few years can be attributed to this very board. It’s just funny to me, because many people that post here or did post here still play. It’s kind of like shooting yourself in the foot. Never mind that staff knows who a lot of us are and treat us like shit. But we’re the bad guys. Arm logic for you. I still play. There's not a better game that I've found out there. Granted I haven't tried them all, but I hit a bunch of the free ones. Either they didn't interest me or they didn't seem better. Not everyone here is out to destroy it, but are you denying a few have stated that as their intention? I don't see how you can deny that. Those posts are on the first page. If someone wants to build a better game, I'm ALL for that. I'll play it if I find it to be truly better. People just want to destroy with lies or vitriol, I'm not down with that. All I'm saying is that I'm here, I'm listening to arguments and I've got a relatively open mind. Someone wants to have a dialectic, let's do it. But I'm not down with strawmen, false arguments, and namecalling. I just ignore those. Yeah, but your postings are very, very tempered if not contradictory. Why are you asking me if I’m denying anything? Where did I deny a thing. People? I just don’t see the conspiracy. A conspiracy includes two or more people. Where the other people at? More importantly...what are you going to do about it? Make angry posts pointing fingers? You all stomping in here have made this forum more active than it’s been in the last two years. So someone messed with your voting machine? So? Are there other ways to get new players? Of course there are. Why don’t you innovate and use those? |
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Post by jcarter on Jul 29, 2018 16:14:58 GMT -5
am trying to find a post about the TMS. I swear I recall a similar post about it, as there was for TMC. But it's hard to do searches on the phone, or this weird mini laptop that I've got going for me. Once I get back to a normal computer, I'll do it properly. so if the vote manipulation was so obvious, shouldn't Arm staff have been involved in contacting TMC and TMS earlier? shouldn't they, the people who are most vested in noticing and keeping track of votes, be the most aware and conscientious of it behaving oddly? and yet there's a reddit post from someone else calling out an oddity and staff sending a quick e-mail to check up on it. hmmmm. and doesn't it seem counterintuitive that someone with the intent of making an obvious vote manipulation to frame the stellar reputation of Armageddon MUD would go through the effort of making it difficult enough to detect that an administrator staring right at the votes looking for fraudulent votes couldn't track it down? correct me if i'm wrong but the only way i could see it not being blocked so easily would be from paying a botnet to vote, in which case why not just pay for a botnet to DDOS Arm's server if you're looking to "destroy" the game? Jcarter. They did contact both TMC and TMS as early as they noticed the matter? Which was basically the same time as everyone else did. That reddit post and other complaints and Staff approaching TMC/TMS. It all happened within the span of 1-2 days. lol, no it didn't. What part of this are you unclear of? that reddit complaint was on February 10th. You can look at the exact date and time it was posted. Delirium posted on the GDB about TMS having hijacked votes on February 4th.From your quoted post: from Nathvaan's post regarding it: I contacted TMC on March 3rd, 2018 |
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Post by shakes on Jul 29, 2018 16:22:01 GMT -5
Sometimes I'll probably sound contradictory. I'm of many minds about a great many things. This isn't a book where an editor cuts out the contradictions. You're just going to see whatever my thought pattern is at that point I click post.
I'm addressing sort of "the room", not any one individual. I don't see a conspiracy either. I see a couple of people moving in their own directions for their own interests, with varying degrees of efficacy.
I got here before the voting machine-bot thing. Been using the site since I started playing to understand some of these arcane mechanics, and I love, love, loved me that code dump because ... at the core ... I'm a coder and I want to know how things work.
I like conversations which revolve around that, not just conversations dropping various accusations. Those don't really appeal to me. Don't know why this one caught my eye either, but I'm quickly losing interest. I wish we could get back to discussing other things.
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Post by lyse on Jul 29, 2018 16:22:23 GMT -5
Also, since they’ve implemented the you have to log in to vote thing. Arm has fallen even further on TMC. I guess the admins on TMC are in on this conspiracy too?
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faroukel
Displaced Tuluki
What's a story without a villain?
Posts: 201 
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Post by faroukel on Jul 31, 2018 8:45:31 GMT -5
The vote boards are kind of a joke anyways.
One game I play consistently comes in top 10, whereas the other isn't even ranked and has three times the players (and is in many ways a superior game).
It seems to me, the games that get listed have motivated discord communities voting from multiple devices, or are the Aardwolf's/Discworlds that have big, long-time communities behind them.
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mehtastic
GDB Superstar
Armers Anonymous sponsor
Posts: 1,699
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Post by mehtastic on Jul 31, 2018 9:22:12 GMT -5
I'd say they're completely a joke. Most people who play MUDs already have their favorite game(s) and aren't going to look at a Top 10 list for new games. Most people who don't play MUDs get into it through word of mouth.
It seemed in the past that Armageddon would get more new accounts when it was higher ranked, but given last week's 60+ new accounts when Armageddon is not even in the Top 10, I would say that the relationship between voting and attracting new players is coincidental a best.
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dunebum
Clueless newb
Smells like beer and sweat
Posts: 108
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Post by dunebum on Aug 2, 2018 17:12:00 GMT -5
I put in an application to join ArmageddonMUD staff.
I've never had any issues with the majority of them, and actually found some of them to be pretty decent people. Others I've butted heads with I can't say the same for. Being banned on bad recon information certainly left a bad taste in my mouth, but I gave them all the benefit of the doubt. It does genuinely seem like they want to change things up and disrupt the old boy's club (for lack of a better term).
I was denied with a template request reply. I get it. I'm not the first choice, especially after calling out their staff members causing problems in a public forum (here, mudconnect). I was just hoping that having someone on board who had been shown the boot but was welcomed back might give their team a voice of those who had been mistreated in the past. Not all of us are evil. Not all of us want to hack the game and steal its source code. Not all of us even really care that much - to be honest, I'm not upset about any of what happened to me anymore.
Eh, it is what it is. I hope they find some people who can both dedicate the time necessary to be good staff and aren't complete asswipes in an old boys club.
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Post by jcarter on Aug 2, 2018 19:14:05 GMT -5
It does genuinely seem like they want to change things up and disrupt the old boy's club (for lack of a better term). people still buy this? sanvean said trotted out the "we're different now" line when bhag and halaster left staff and people called out their metagaming. nyr played this card, until he got out of staff. then nergal came along, and trotted this out until he melted down and left on 'planned vacation'. now we're back at it again, that things are gonna change for real this time. |
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mehtastic
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Post by mehtastic on Aug 3, 2018 7:01:46 GMT -5
It's easily one of the dumbest beliefs that surround the Armageddon community: the idea that staff suddenly have this new drive to improve the game, and the promise of new staff may just swing the game in a new direction.
1) Staff should always have the drive to improve the game. Otherwise their position is fucking useless.
2) New staff become probationary storytellers. The real people in control are the administrators and producers.
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