It has come to our attention that a number of votes in the Player of the Year polls have been manipulated by certain users casting multiple votes for the same players on different days or intentionally voting for the same players in 1st, 2nd and 3rd place on the same poll. As IP addresses are logged, and can be married up to forum logins, admin are fully aware of who these users are  :018: :018:

We removed the requirement for users to be logged in to vote in these polls in response to user requests. Unfortunately because of the thoughtless, sneaky, underhanded and downright dishonest behaviour of a handful of people, this requirement will be reinstated immediately and users will now need to be logged in before voting :008: :008:

We have identified the polls which have been "freeped" in this manner and will be discarding all votes where the same player has had either multiple votes from the same user on different days or where the user has voted for them in 1st 2nd and 3rd spots.

I am deeply disappointed to have to write this. It seems that you try to make things easier for some people and a small minority insist on f****** it up for everyone.

Further to Scotty's earlier post - just to point out the problem is significant enough that in a number of games more than half the votes cast are dodgy.

Unfortunately that means the POTY points for the Motherwell game will be based on just 2 valid votes.

Name and shame. Seriously!

A POTY forum might alleviate this problem? I keep forgetting to vote myself but I always minded when there was a forum for it.

I will not be naming and shaming primarily because in a number of cases I only have the IP addresses and cannot confirm 100% that it is the user(s) I suspect it is. I may be fairly confident, but not 100%.

We have reinstated the need to be logged in for now which will take us to the end of the season. Incidentally, we never had any problem with the polls where this was required so I dont think the problem will continue !!!!

As from next season we are playing with a number of ideas. We will be doing quite a few software upgrades and if possible will try to bring the voting into the forum so that we can either have a POY forum/sub-forum or can add the poll to the matchday thread. leave that one with me.

Oh - and many thanks to hislopsoffsideagain for volunteering to recalculate all the votes. It is no small task so his efforts are appreciated by us.

I will not be naming and shaming primarily because in a number of cases I only have the IP addresses and cannot confirm 100% that it is the user(s) I suspect it is. I may be fairly confident, but not 100%.

**** Craig Brewster and his aliases!

**** Craig Brewster and his aliases!

you are closer than you think  :004: (allegedly)

I was being serious! I think it is Craig Brewster

That would certainly explain how Roy McBain got any votes  :tic01:

That would certainly explain how Roy McBain got any votes  :tic01:

There have been several occasions this season where I would have voted for Roy. But I never remember anymore

I get the impression that CB is too arrogant to give a f*** about a fan forum, let alone try to sabotage it. But it wouldn't suprise me if the players and their mates tried to vote themselves up. I know I would  :004:

Is it not likely the case that more than one person in a household uses the same computer?

Is it not likely the case that more than one person in a household uses the same computer?

This is a very valid point and one which Scotty has addressed for the future by requiring a login to cast vote. I think that Alex is right though and perhaps this should be taken into consideration when discounting "dodgy" votes. Myself and my son attend every home match for which I am on leave and my father accompanies my son to a number of matches when I am at work and comes to bigger matches when I am at home, my wife and daughter also attend some matches. I rarely remember to place votes but if I did vote on more often along with my family then there is a possibility of 4 or 5 votes being registered to my IP.

Aren't there programs that change your IP address every time you log onto the internet? I think my old Norton security software did something like that. So it's still possible to beat the system  :024:

While the point about the same computer being used to cast different votes is valid, the underlying problem with the POTY votes has been constant occasions where someone has, for example, voted "1st - Black, 2nd - Black, 3rd - Black" or the like.  And in recent matches votes like that make up more than half the votes.  In almost all occasions it's for Black or Cowie.

As for whether Brew is rigging it, I suspect that, if he was, Russell Duncan would be doing rather better...

Some very valid points made - especially regarding multiple users on same PC.

However, the bottom line is that what we have found in recent weeks is that the same IP address has been voting for the same player 1st 2nd and 3rd then by the look of it clearing cookies and doing it again the next day, and the next and the next etc. These are the votes that will be discarded.

By reverting to login-ID it removes the IP checking and relies on flagging the actual user account so multiple voting should not be possible.

Are they of Eastern European descent ?

no

Very sorry but, on a couple of occasions, I have discovered that my computer has SENT before I made my selections, and, thus, Michael Fraser got all three votes!

On other occasions I have tried to vote for three players and no vote taken, so perhaps the fault lies with your software and not with the voters.

Haven't voted for anyone in the last three games, for obvious reasons in especially the last one!