A couple months ago, the Wisconsin State Journal (look to the right of the page) added a feature to their web site allowing readers to vote from a list of stories, which one should be on the front page. I’ve thought that their “You Pick the News” feature was pretty dumb in that they’d pit a couple relevant stories with a couple more fluffy stories and very few people in an easily hackable and manipulatable poll would get to decide the front-page content.
I was also a bit disturbed when the CBS Evening News (which should be changed to the “Lara Logan Show” – rowwwrrrrrr…) used this as an example on how they should let people on the Internet decide content on their shows.
This all bugged me very much until I saw today’s WSJ “You Pick the News” poll and decided to do something about it.
‘Sconny political junkies like myself have been following the self-immolation of the Republican Party of Wisconsin via the Scott Jensen trial. Day after day, right-wing politico careers are being destroyed. In the “You Pick the News” poll, the WSJ gave us a choice of picking the story of today’s testimony with former Jensen henchman Steve Foti along with stories on “What's the latest in the Avery case?” (no new details on a murder trial), “Ripples from 1906 San Francisco quake felt even today” and “Scientists: Let there be dark -- for wildlife's sake”
At 1:00PM today, the vote total was
San Fransisco Quake – 12 votes
Avery Case – 8 votes
Jensen Trial – 8 votes
Scientists – 6 votes
At that point, I came to the conclusion that this poll needed to be freeped. So, I logged onto Dailykos.com and made my first ever post. Freeping of polls from Dailykos has been a game for at least two years. This was my first attempt.
As of 4:20PM, the results are now
Jensen Trial – 198 votes
Scientists – 25 votes
San Fransisco Quake – 23 votes
Avery Case – 19 votes
So, when you pick up the largest paper in Wisconsin and see the Jensen Trial on the front page, you can think to yourself, “Mike did this.”
Friday, March 03, 2006
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3 voices in my head:
Very nice job, indeed. Been wanting to blow a few hours and watch the proceedings, but haven't got to it yet. Maybe Monday we could generate a flash mob at the Jensen trial...
madison moonbat
Using a cookie to note the vote is the issue. By requiring a verified login (which could be automated via a cookie) and storing who voted (indepent of the vote) you could make this less easy to punk. Yes you can multiple e-mails to create multiple logins, but at least you require some work.
Some only allow one vote per IP (IP stored on the back end) but that will mean people who share an IP will only get one vote per the group.
The fault at being able to punk the WSJ with such ease lies in the IS department not those who dreamt this concept up.
Agreed - thoughts about the idea aside, the sheer ease of gaming the system is quite problematic.
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