STOP FAKES!

I’d be interested to know Zooppa’s stance on this kind of behavior – which seems to be all too prevalent in vote based competitions. Here we have a video that, at the time of this writing, has over 2000 views in 2 days and is in the number 1 position. In fact, the same video appears twice with two “different” authors. Really?

I am also very interested to know the position of staff Zooppa. I remember two years ago, fake votes were excluded even during the competition, ending this problem immediately.

Its getting worse this “fake” subject. I hope that zooppa do something about that, because it seems that in the past they had more control about it. Its very unfair with the people who have a real “fair play” and participate respecting the rules.

Hi All-

Just wanted to jump into this thread.

As everybody knows, there are two ways to win the Zooppa game. One way is to be a great filmmaker. Another way is to be a great marketer.

Some people have good skills in both arenas.

I’ve checked into the votes for the piece you guys are discussing here, and there are no abnormalities that would point to fraud.

The video appeared twice because the user was having some trouble getting his video uploaded. He’s new, and thought that it could have something to do with his account, so he created a new profile and uploaded the same video again. Meanwhile, the video encoded for both profiles.

Votes between the two versions were not aggregated.

Because of a completely different matter, I have removed this video from the site. The video was using a sample of the Beastie Boys’ song “Girls”, which is not allowed.

We have our ways of checking into fraudulent voting, and we do regularly check. In the past, votes have been removed where there were abnormalities, and the Zooppers were warned about fraudulent activities.

Please email me at zooppa.usa@zooppa.com if you come across anything you think might be fraudulent.

Josh

Thanks for weighing-in Josh and clarifying some inconsistencies. I agree that there are good filmmakers and good marketers and some folks excel in both areas. But occasionally I see what appear to be flat-out miracle workers and if they’re that good at marketing, well, they’re probably in the wrong line of work. I’m referring more to unrealistic traffic stats than votes (although I suspect there’s still a high percentage of shill voting going on). I would love to hear from the miracle marketers and learn what their marketing activities HONESTLY consist of.

There’s really an ethics component in all this and users have to decide whether they’ll compete on the basis of merit or try to win something via a technicality. For me, the client’s choice is most important. And, hopefully, their choice isn’t influenced significantly by the opinions of other Zooppa members (posters).

I hope that this contest goes in a fair way. There are some weird things going on.

Josh,

How can job with one comment have 268 stars?
Link: http://zooppa.com/ads/better-for-you-better-for-the-earth/videos/silk-is-delicious

As these job, without comment and vote Zooppa community, get many votes?
Links:
http://zooppa.com/ads/better-for-you-better-for-the-earth/videos/silk-milk-commercial-the-great-quest

http://zooppa.com/ads/better-for-you-better-for-the-earth/videos/silk-soymilk-not-just-your-average-mil-3

Want clarified these questions …

Some people have huge networks of friends on facebook and twitter. Loyal followings. Sometimes all it takes is one post asking friends to come vote for them.

And in those cases, it’s very reasonable to see a large number of votes without comments. People are coming to the Zooppa site because they’ve been prompted by their friend to watch and vote for their work. So it’s reasonable that they’d do that without commenting.

And in these types of cases, where people are leveraging large social networks, it makes sense that the voting/viewing would come in large bursts – in response to mass prompts from the video creator.

It is not cheating to get your friends to vote for your work.

It’s not uncommon for some people to have 500 or 1000 facebook friends. New users have 5 stars to give. That means that to achieve 250 votes, all you need to do is get 50 people to sign up and vote for you. That is totally reasonable for someone with that many facebook friends or twitter followers.

It makes intuitive sense to me that people could achieve these types of voting numbers, and when I check the back end systems, I don’t see evidence of fraudulent voting.

Josh

Josh,

I noticed that each member is given a senority level when they sign up for a Zoopa account.

I’m not sure if this is already being done, but what if each new member is given “points” based on their activity level (eg. video posts, print, radio, banner, concepts, comments, etc.)

Users with low “points” (based on activity) will not have as muc h pull when it comes to voting.
And users who have “paid their dues” by earning points have a far greater pull when it comes to voting.

This will help make those so called “fake” accounts less relevant when it comes to voting, while at the same time giving Zoopa what it wants, which is more users and traffic to the site.

Alot of times you will have friends/family/etc. of a creator sign up for a Zoopa account only to use it once to vote and thats it.
This way at least you will help promote being “active members” on this site.

Just a suggestion!

I have noticed that my video had some questions about it and would just like to clarify somethings. I realize I don’t have that many comments but a lot of views that is because I have posted on Facebook and have had friends post on their facebook to come check out the competition and vote. I think this is a win-win situation for Zooppa and the competitors. Zooppa is receiving much more traffic flow and the filmmakers are getting more people looking at their work. I have in no way asked people to fake vote. If people don’t want to comment on my video I have no control over that. I hope this helps out anyone’s questions. Thanks and Good Luck.

Quote:

Josh,

I noticed that each member is given a senority level when they sign up for a Zoopa account.

I’m not sure if this is already being done, but what if each new member is given “points” based on their activity level (eg. video posts, print, radio, banner, concepts, comments, etc.)

Users with low “points” (based on activity) will not have as muc h pull when it comes to voting.
And users who have “paid their dues” by earning points have a far greater pull when it comes to voting.

This will help make those so called “fake” accounts less relevant when it comes to voting, while at the same time giving Zoopa what it wants, which is more users and traffic to the site.

Alot of times you will have friends/family/etc. of a creator sign up for a Zoopa account only to use it once to vote and thats it.
This way at least you will help promote being “active members” on this site.

Just a suggestion!

Actually, we do implement this method. Those with higher seniority make a greater impact with their votes than new members. Hope that helps put everyone at more ease.