Using clickbait to con votes out of people
TappedOut forum
Posted on Dec. 20, 2015, 1:42 p.m. by scholar
@yeaGO,
TappedOut player Loyalty and his deck COUNTER ALL THE THINGS! is using disguised clickbait in order to con people and obtain a number of illegitimate votes on his behalf. Clicking on certain pictures and "buttons" he has is actually a circumventing and disguised link to upvote his deck when there was no intention of the user to do so. It is not fair to use this type of trickery and it is a disgrace to this site. Please remove his deck or have him amend the clickbait out. Thanks!
Epochalyptik says... #2
And to the people who think the solution is unnecessarily harsh, consider the following:
- Points don't matter. Resetting them and stripping the hidden code is simply a way to remove it from top lists (where it doesn't legitimately belong) and send you a message about using site features honestly.
- The content itself is preserved. You get the deck back, so you haven't actually lost anything of import.
- If the deck actually has merit, then it shouldn't have a problem getting upvotes in time anyway.
- Common courtesy and honesty do not need to be written rules. It would be a waste of our time to curate a list wherein we invent and catalog any number of things that are obviously disingenuous uses of site resources and of other users. If you're somehow tricking users into doing something, then it should be obvious to you that you may be doing something wrong.
The purpose of policy is to create a set of expectations. It is not intended to be, nor is it advertised as being, exhaustive. Absence of an explicit prohibition is not the same as presence of explicit permission.
December 20, 2015 2:47 p.m.
yeaGO or Epochalyptik, one last request, can I get my deck back "sans upvotes", as was assured?
Also, is it assumed that everyone that has one of these has malicious intent or vice versa, because I seem to be hearing both.
Thank you for your time
December 20, 2015 2:50 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #5
I don't personally care what your intent is. I might be more inclined to sympathize with someone who doesn't appear to be maliciously misusing the site, but your intent doesn't absolve you of your actions.
December 20, 2015 2:57 p.m.
Epochalyptik- well, the judiciary system of punishing people/decks is a matter that needs to be resolved at sometime (hopefully bringing about consistent change for punishments), but the matter does not include me, so I will say no more in said matter.
(Thanks yeaGO, I missed it before).
December 20, 2015 3:05 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #7
Let's not continue to blow this out of proportion or make examples out of other users, please. Keep the discussion here.
December 20, 2015 3:21 p.m.
Epoch, you misinterpret my intentions. I tagged scholar to make sure we both had it clear of what we should do in the future, and to make sure no one else ends up like myself, which could blow things out of proportion.
In no way do I have any grudges held against scholar, as I said, we have made amends. I am simply trying to give a "heads up to anyone who was unaware of the situation", as I stated.
I can't stress this enough.
December 20, 2015 3:29 p.m.
I was afraid I wouldn't get my daily dose of T/O drama this weekend -- I was not let down.
December 20, 2015 3:39 p.m.
Lol DrFunk27, I wish this hadn't happened in the first place. An easy problem to avoid, but went wrong in many places. I hope you had fun.
December 20, 2015 3:44 p.m.
canterlotguardian says... #11
So the issue's been resolved, everything is ok. Why isn't the thread locked? Every post is just going to remind everyone of what happened, which doesn't need to happen now that everything has been straightened out.
December 20, 2015 5:21 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #12
Everything has already been straightened out. That was established a page ago.
The thread isn't locked because people are still welcome to post (salient) suggestions about how we handle this.
December 20, 2015 5:32 p.m.
please stop saying we made amends and this whole ordeal "went wrong in many places". Actually nevermind, you're free to say what you'd like, rather, I disprove of it, and here's why. We have/had no amends to make. You did something the site creator, moderators, and largely the community disproves of, whether you were aware of it or not, you did it. I brought it to the attention of the moderators and it was handled. This is not something personal, so there are no "amends" that were or need to be made. Second of all, this thread or how it was handled did not get out of hand in any way or "went wrong in many places". I saw something that was wrong, reported it, and it was handled (AND you got to keep your deck), the end. In fact I am even MORE glad this was brought up and hanled the way it was, because now there are going to be black-and-white terms concerning such clickbait in the description when adding new decks thanks to @yeaGO.
@ Epochalyptik summed it all up pretty nicely, just scroll to the top of this page (page 2), his is the first reply on the page.
December 20, 2015 6:24 p.m. Edited.
yes they are just "points". But when you say get a grip and move on... that's not the point. The point is the deceptive behavior, conning others out of their upvotes without their explicit permission, and using that to their advantage to race to the top of Top Decks. Those are not the kind of decks I want to see in the Top Decks when I frequent that section -- decks that were illegitimately placed there thanks to deceptive trickery! I want to see actual decks with merit that people took the time to upvote, because they were good decks deserving of it. Nor are those the type of people I want to converse with in this community or do trades with...
I didn't think you supported this kind of behavior (any maybe you don't), but your comments seemed to have said otherwise. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
December 20, 2015 6:33 p.m. Edited.
well i think at first i thought there was some malicious or surreptitious intent, but then i saw a whole deck had gone to #1 weeks ago and nobody ever reported it. combined with femme's confusion over the policy, it made me realize that no punishment seems to be appropriate. i added the message to the deck form so that people don't go astray. sorry to everyone about the confusion.
December 20, 2015 6:35 p.m.
@yeaGO,
I don't think anyone needs to be punished. I think the behavior should be warned against and discouraged and if it's still done anyhow, then the deck removed. Perhaps multiple abuses of this kind of behavior would deserve a punishment (such as some sort of ban), but the behavior should definitely be discouraged from the beginning, it really is disgusting and clouds the Top Decks section with decks that don't belong there among the ones that really do.
December 20, 2015 6:41 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #17
Once more (and hopefully for the last time), can we stop using words like "disgusting" and acting like this is some unforgivable and community-destroying problem? Simple problem. Simple fix. Ranting endlessly about how terrible it is is not productive. Ranting endlessly about how your intentions were this or that is not productive. Saying how you're glad there's drama for entertainment value is not productive.
Let's just keep to discussion of how to address this kind of thing going forward.
December 20, 2015 6:57 p.m.
yeah i think that people were actually just trying to be creative with their use. i don't think anyone was intentionally realizing that they were gaming the system.
December 20, 2015 6:59 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #19
We should just move the upvote feature to something that isn't link-based or add a verification step in between.
December 20, 2015 7:07 p.m.
i think a simple message that it happened would suffice. its pretty confusing.
December 20, 2015 7:25 p.m.
canterlotguardian says... #21
Or just limit the code so that the only way a deck can be upvoted is through the upvote deck link on the sidebar of a deck page.
December 20, 2015 7:30 p.m.
Well this was upsetting to wake up to, to say the least. I wasn't aware that this was a rule and in all honesty didn't even realise I was being "disgusting" and "manipulative".
Both my decks, "counter all the things" and "I've had it with these gods" were deleted before I could even have a say in any of this. Had I had the chance, or even been remotely informed, I would have gladly changed the text on the upvote button. I apologize for not realizing the extreme harm it was doing to the community. My intent in making these decks were to bring a smile to the community; make them laugh. I assumed that being a green button type thing, people would assume it's an upvote button. Clearly my assumption was wrong, however I hold that I meant no harm. I thought my deck was being upvoted for the same reason decks such as Islands were, because when you clicked on them, they made you laugh.
Once again, apologies for my ignorance. I wasn't aware it had been a problem in the past, I'm just glad that I know now, and when other people make decks they will know now also.
December 20, 2015 8:15 p.m.
Loyalty You have nothing to apologize for. If you remember the lists, just go put em back up. Sorry to say that the whining minority has always had the loudest voice, but it's constantly been true throughout history. No different in the modern era.
December 20, 2015 8:22 p.m.
vampirelazarus says... #25
Maybe I'm the only one thinking this, but why would someone's line of thought be "Hey, this deck makes people laugh, I'm going to make a button that hides part of the description and gives me an upvote."
I just don't fully see how they are related. Is it entitlement? "Hey, this made someone laugh, so it automatically deserves an upvote." Is that the thinking?
December 20, 2015 8:30 p.m.
@ vampirelazarus - Simply an attempt at creativity. To be honest I just thought it was cool that I could write what I wanted to say and have it as an upvote button simultaneously in regards to simplicity.
I don't think being humorous provides any form of obligation to the reader to upvote however it certainly helps. That's why the top decks of this site are all based around a joke.
I legitimately didn't realise I was being illusive and have already apologized for my ignorance so I feel as though your comment is simply, as Epochalyptik put it, not productive.
December 20, 2015 8:45 p.m.
vampirelazarus says... #27
No, it's perfectly productive, as both of you two who have done this have both mentioned "its funny" as your reasoning. I want to know the connection.
December 20, 2015 8:47 p.m.
You misunderstand. I am making the connection between my upvotes and the deck's theme being humerous and saying that I was unaware of the effects of the upvote button itself. As for the reasoning behind making a funny deck, the proof is in the pudding so to speak. Simply look at the top decks of the site. If you want a reasoning behind wanting upvotes, it is due to a sense of satisfaction. And there's nothing wrong with that. Upvotes tell you that people have enjoyed your deck, whether due to it being funny, interesting, creative, weird or extremely competitive. There's nothing wrong with knowing you've provided someone with enjoyment.
December 20, 2015 9 p.m.
vampirelazarus says... #29
Now Im confused.
You copy/pasted the code to the upvote button without knowing what it would do? Out of all the buttons?
I don't care why you made a "humorous" deck. I've made them as well. I just want to know why you thought it needed that extra button. To my understanding, the other person was using it to compress the description. I haven't seen your's so I don't know if that's what you were doing, but if you were, then I have to think you did know about the upvote hidden in your button.
This suddenly turned into a witch hunt, which isn't what I intended, I truly did want to know why you thought a funny deck would need upvotes.
To address your defense of wanting upvotes: as stated earlier in the thread, if a deck warrants upvotes, it will get them via legitimate means. Upvotes mean nothing.
December 20, 2015 9:27 p.m.
Apologies. I realise I may have gone off topic a bit based on what I thought you were asking. I knew what an upvote button does, obviously. What I didn't realise was that others may not realise it was an upvote button. As in, I thought I was acquiring those up votes because people legitimately found the deck funny. Sorry for the confusion.
Femme_Fatale says... #1
Thank you.
December 20, 2015 2:47 p.m.