There's no way to fight cheating in polls?

[Vagr]

I can't believe that there's not even a single feature in IPB that would prevent people from cheating in Polls. But there are numereous simple ways to tackle this issue:

1) Publish poll logs with usernames and IPs in AdminCP
2) Set minimum number of posts a member should post in order to vote
3) Disallow the same IP to vote
4) Block user from votes via cookies

Please someone do something about this.

moreover.

what is the point of easily allowing moderators change the poll results???

[Arts&Faith]

You can accomplish #2 by automatically putting all new users into a group that can't vote in polls, plus other restrictions, and setting the new-user group to auto-migrate to a full user group after x posts.

#3 and #4 wouldn't get you anywhere against those determined to chat. #1 is limited, but I agree that poll logs would be useful.

[Vagr]

You can accomplish #2 by automatically putting all new users into a group that can't vote in polls, plus other restrictions, and setting the new-user group to auto-migrate to a full user group after [i]x[/i] posts.

good suggestion, thanks.

[Antony]

I agree editing poll results should be an additional option when assigning mods.

Everything else there should be a mod IMO. Not everyone wants poll logging on thier board.

[bfarber]

Are you allowing guests to vote, and referring to that? Poll results are tracked by member id, much more reliable than IP, so I'm not sure exactly where you are coming from.

[candes]

Are you allowing guests to vote, and referring to that? Poll results are tracked by member id, much more reliable than IP, so I'm not sure exactly where you are coming from.

That is exactly what I was thinking.

[//Nathan]

I suppose the original poster is worried about people creating new accounts to vote in polls.

But, why would someone make a new account, just for an additional vote? What poll could be so important?

Here's a solution. Make it so you can only vote AFTER replying. So you reply with your answer and then vote. It's not a silent ballot... most polls I've participated in had a discussion. If nothing else you can simply post "I voted."

There ought to be an option to see who voted how, though. And remove votes. Why shouldn't there be? I see polls on boards all the time where someone says "I wanna change my vote."

Plus... wouldn't it be cool if, in the member profile, there was a "See how I voted in polls" link, which would open a page listing every poll question, and then what the person voted for? Ever been on MySpace? One of the biggest things that goes around the bulletins are surveys. People like reading about other people... and it's so commonly accepted that a board is public... shouldn't the poll be as well? I bet more polls are public than private anyway.

[Wing]

hi,I`m new here!so....Do we have to pay to use IPB?

[bpn]

There is another way of cheating:
Whats the purpose of the Allow members to view the results of a poll without losing their vote? setting as long as guests can view poll results..?
I reported this back in 2.0, but the problem remains....

[tntoak]

For one of the sites I admin, before we hold an election (what we use the polls for), we have a process in place that determines who is eligible to participate. Once those results are posted, we can then set up a subforum for the elections and only grant access to those members who are eligible under the rules. That way people can't create additional accounts or invite a bunch of people in at the last minute to inflate or skew the results to their side. It's a bit more work, but it's actually distributed among the membership.

[rct2·com]

If there is a poll that is so important, why not disable board registration during the vote? Oh and PM's too, so members cannot 'lobby' one another. And while you're at it, stop them emailing each other through the board. And stop them from actually posting anything at all, or moderate all posts, so they cannot publicly express an opinion on the subject being voted upon.

If people feel passionately enough about a subject, they will always find ways to cheat in a vote. That's life, get used to it.

If only they would contact me as a moderator, and bribe me to rig the results.

[//Nathan]

I do not understand how viewing the results before voting constitutes cheating. If you mean to imply that someone would vote for the leader or for the underdog, I don't see how that's a problem. A vote's a vote.

And I still have yet to hear of a poll which is so important that anti-cheating measures would need to be hard coded in. I mean, I can see a developer writing the IPB code prioritizing: first the stuff he wants in there, second the inspiring suggestions from the customers... and then reading this and wondering what's worth the effort.

Here's my suggestion... Don't make it a poll. Make it a vote-by-reply "poll" and count replies. Tally the yea or nay votes, also note usernames so someone couldn't "vote twice".

[DaveGYNWA]

To add to that idea, if you want the replies to be secret then put the thread into a post moderated forum and reveal the replies after the voting has ended.

[//Nathan]

Good idea, very good idea! And disapprove the duplicates and extra votes - that's great!

[ZeroSum]

Why not require a member to vote before he can reply to the thread? The other idea of having to post a first reply with a vote sounds good as well.

[sirius20d]

where can i find the poll logs which show the username?

You can accomplish #2 by automatically putting all new users into a group that can't vote in polls, plus other restrictions, and setting the new-user group to auto-migrate to a full user group after [i]x[/i] posts.

#3 and #4 wouldn't get you anywhere against those determined to chat. #1 is limited, but I agree that poll logs would be useful.

[Chortos-2 (aka Astiob)]

The feature I want (maybe I'll make it myself if nobody else does <_<): the ability for the admin (and possibly moderator) to see who voted how.

[MasumX]

The feature I want (maybe I'll make it myself if nobody else does <_<): the ability for the admin (and possibly moderator) to see who voted how.

Agreed!! Allow Admin to see who voted what :D

[thenickelman]

I suppose the original poster is worried about people creating new accounts to vote in polls.

But, why would someone make a new account, just for an additional vote? What poll could be so important?

Just for the record I was having a contest (with a prize) winner picked by members in a poll, I ended up having to delete multiple accounts members were creating to try to win :)

I'm not offering a solution to this, just verifying that this can be a problem.