Twice today, us staff have discovered that at least two contestents in our current Minigame competition have been creating multiple accounts from the same IP address. This is internet speak for having more than one account on your computer.
While this may be due to having multiple family members accessing the same computer, it is against the rules.
Let me be clear. Having family members, friends, or anyone else vote for your map in the polls is completely fair. However, they must do so from a separate internet connection. This is to make our job easier when ruling out cheaters, as we are forced to assume that if you have multiple accounts created on your computer, that they have been created with the purpose of unfairly gaining an advantage in the competition.
Please do not do this. It is a fair temptation, I am sure, and it is easy to do. "Who will notice?" you might ask yourself, if your weakest moment. Except we do notice. We have access to all of the relevant data, and we use it for situations just like this.
We will continue to investigate anyone else who has created proxy accounts, and will response accordingly.
IMPORTANT: READ BELOW
If anyone has done this, and would like to protect themselves from a disqualification, I am going to give you a chance to save yourself. Private message me, and out of respect, I will simply subtract the extra votes rather than fully disqualifying you.However, fail to do so before we find out ourselves, and you will be banned from this site. You have been warned.
Q&A
Q: "Should I be worried that a fan has messed up the votes or is the known problem elsewhere?"
A: Not at all. If a fan has inflated the voting, then that fan will be held responsible. The map is only ever disqualified if the creator or co creator has committed the proxy. However, all votes distributed by the crime will always been subtracted, when necessary.
Q: "I'm worried that you'll start banning someone unfairly."
A: I endeavor to discover all relevant facts and reasoning before I make any important decisions such as banning. In truth, I try to be a forgiving person. I won't ban or punish someone unless I have good reason to believe they deserve it.
Q: "Me and my sister/brother both have accounts, with which we've voted. Is that against the rules?"
A: What you have described above is totally fine, now that you've let me know. Part of me wishes we didn't have to be so suspicious of IP addresses, but it's much more important than I like to admit. Thanks again for letting me know - this doesn't require any subtraction of votes.
The fact that it has come to people wasting hours of their life creating pointless accounts just for a cool little Xbox cover is just plain sad.
