Cheating in competitions

[Alvin63]

Ok so I'm trying to work something out. Current competition, I suspected a new member had voted for themselves. It wasn't changing the ongoing outcome so I gave the benefit of the doubt. Then I sent them a welcome message and they replied and admitted they had voted for themselves and hadn't read the instructions properly. I said not to worry - and if you don't win there will be another one next month. It wasn't going to affect the final outcome as someone else was winning. So thought I'd leave it at that.

Then suddenly someone else joined up and voted for them and equalised the winning entries. The new member joined up, went straight to the competition and voted. So I checked both their email addresses and IP addresses. Different email addresses but the same IP.

So I suspect it's either the same person joined up twice - or a friend at the same place as them joined up to vote for them.

Not quite sure what to do about it. Is the same IP address a definite that they are in the same place? (Or even on the same gadget?!)

Also is it possible to remove a vote (poll voting) without having to reset the whole thing?

 

[Alvin63]

I decided to end the poll early to prevent any more of this. Earliest I could end it is in one hour apparently so I've locked the thread. Will this lock the poll for voting as well as prevent people posting on the thread?

 

[Alvin63]

So how do I set a limit for voting in polls until a member has so many points please? Rather than manually turn it on and off in permissions.

 

[Paul B]

Set the Vote on polls permission to No for the Registered user group.

Create a user group promotion, with the criteria you want, to add members to a new user group with that permission set to Yes.

 

[Alvin63]

Thank you. That sounds good. Is that the only way? Just thinking it would mean regularly editing the user group for voting as more people join.

 

[Paul B]

Promotions are automatic based on the criteria you set.

There is no input required after setting it up.

 

[TPerry]

Thank you. That sounds good. Is that the only way? Just thinking it would mean regularly editing the user group for voting as more people join.

If you want to base the promotion on number of posts, or days membership, it's VERY simple to do.

Go into ACP -> Groups & Permissions -> User Group Promotions -> Add Promotion and define what the title and such is... then select the Apply this promotion while tab and knock yourself out on what you want to limit it by. Depending on what add-ons you have, there may be a TON of options... the one I show here is a promotion to normal Member status after 5 posts in a validated area.


These promotions run based upon a CRON job and last activity period.

 

[Alvin63]

Cheers - that looks good! Looks similar to the user title ladder - same thing or different?

 

[Alvin63]

At the moment I have this - assume I need to add them and set it up. Thanks!

 

[Alvin63]

Done! That is definitely a good idea, thank you. Set for needing to be a member for at least a week and having posted x messages before they can vote in the competition. I called it competition voting. Thing is - how do I actually link that to the poll section? As in to stop them voting on a poll?

 

[Mr Lucky]

Thing is - how do I actually link that to the poll section? As in to stop them voting on a poll?

You don't have to if their usergroup permissions make it so they cannot vote. Or am I misunderstanding your question?

 

[Alvin63]

Ok so I need to set up a usergroup as well? At the moment I have the registered user group with permission to vote in polls. But don't want that to come into effect until they've been a member for 7 days and x number of posts. So do I still need to set up a separate usergroup for those with permission to vote?

As far as I can see (tell me if I'm wrong) the usergroup promotions will tell them when they're eligible to vote but won't change the permissions settings - is that right?)

Sorry if I'm being dense. I set the usergroup promotions to apply to registered users usergroup.

 

[TPerry]

Remove the ability to vote from the Registered group
Create a new group with the voting permissions enabled
Create a new promotion to meet your 7 days and X number of posts to promote to the new group created above

Realize... the users will have had to be active before the promotions take affect unless you manually run the CRON jobs.... so if you have a user that has been a member for a year and they have more than enough posts, but have not logged in in a a few months, the normal promotion CRON job will not promote them until after they have logged in recently and it has ran again.
They have that newly created group ADDED to their profile.... they will remain in Registered by default. Groups are cumulative in XF.

 

[Alvin63]

Thanks. So I still have to manually add users to the new group once they have met the requirements?

 

[Alvin63]

Current issue is - 3 users with the same IP address. Two of whom signed up just to vote. I don't want to go accusing them as I'm not entirely sure if having the same IP address actually means they're in the same property/using the same router. Or if an IP address could cover a larger area. Seems a bit of a coincidence though.

 

[TPerry]

Thanks. So I still have to manually add users to the new group once they have met the requirements?

No.... the promotions run in a CRON job... it's automated. They simply have to have been active recently AND meet the requirements. And the CRON job that runs promotions runs once an hour if I remember correctly.

 

[TPerry]

Current issue is - 3 users with the same IP address. Two of whom signed up just to vote. I don't want to go accusing them as I'm not entirely sure if having the same IP address actually means they're in the same property/using the same router. Or if an IP address could cover a larger area. Seems a bit of a coincidence though.

Check to see if the IP is a VPN source or an ISP is one of the easiest to do.

 

[Mr Lucky]

Thanks. So I still have to manually add users to the new group once they have met the requirements?

I think you are slightly misunderstanding the promotion system.

Very basically.

• All users are in Registered group as primary by default.
• Registered usergroup permissions for voting set to "No" (Do not set to never)
• Create usergroup (e.g. Can Vote) who have voting permission set to yes.
• Create promotion that promotes to Can Vote usergroup. This is done in the very first tab: Promotion options.... add user to...(group Can Vote)
• In second tab of the promotion define your criteria such as number of messages, likes, reaction score whatever you want that defines to you whether you want them to vote.

 

[Alvin63]

Thank you. I am sorry for being dense! So what you're saying is, once I've created the new usergroup, I don't need to manually add people when they read 7 days, the promotion system will do it automatically?

 

[Mr Lucky]

I don't need to manually add people when they read 7 days, the promotion system will do it automatically?

Yes. It promotes them because they have 7 days.