4

If there is any security measures are in Ask Ubuntu in case of fake reputation increase.

For example if a user has five google accounts,and login with each account and made upvotes for all the posts which are posted by the same user using another account. Did you observe these kind of culprits and ban their accounts.

1

4 Answers 4

8

There are automated and manual measures that moderators and admins periodically check.

Exactly what they are, how they work and what they do, I won't go into... For the simple reason that it sets bounds for people wanting who want to cheat the system. If people are going to cheat, we want to trip them up at the first hurdle.

But in answer to your question, yes. Any person found trying to cheat at the very least has their "work" undone and we have a little chat with them. The more persistent cheaters are hanged, drawn and quartered.

Occasionally there are more subtle issues like people knowing other users in real life and that can have a negative effect on their voting patterns. That's what Guidelines when voting for friends is aimed at. Even if that post doesn't apply to whatever you're really asking about, it gives a solid background on why we act when we detect abnormal voting.

1
  • 1
    doesn't hanging first take the fun out of the drawing and quartering? I Would suggest tarring and feathering then draw and quarter....sorry I know this was of topic but I couldn't resist, the humour in your answer was infectious;)
    – TrailRider
    Commented Dec 5, 2013 at 3:47
1

Yep,

Guidelines when voting for friends

I hope this what you are looking for. It is one of my favorite subjects.

3
  • The link above shows,voting for friends.But some people do like these,i mentioned above.Is there any security measures in askubuntu like finding two accounts which are logged in with the same ip-addresses and frequently upvotes for these two accounts.One account has a maximum of 40 votes per day.so he puts 20 votes to his another account and remaining 10 are 20 votes to other people.If he was doing like these,he can reach 1000 votes,in a short period of time within 5 or 6 days.It was an offense. Commented Nov 11, 2013 at 20:29
  • 2
    @AvinashRaj - What "security measure" would you suggest? ip-addresses do not identify an individual or an account, they can be changed, or tor-ified, or proxy, or one public IP may have thousands of individual users behind it, such as with a University.
    – Panther
    Commented Nov 11, 2013 at 20:44
  • Is it a security measure where multiple users cannot show support for each other? look up multiple user accounts and multiple logins in "askubuntu search"The system defends multiple users on a single accounts as well as one having several accounts. The system isn't perfect, and you am not thrilled with it because you believe you could do a better job. Join up with it and change it. Commented Nov 12, 2013 at 2:00
1

A blog post by Jeff Atwood (found via the link in Jorge's comment) seems to address most of your concerns.

-2

That sort of behavior would be impossible to proof. You can't determine if 5 accounts are from the same user if they don't use the same email or something like that.

if you post dummy questions they will soon be closed or removed, so you need to post legit questions and answers for that system to work.

What security measures could work? I can't think of any that wouldn't harm normal users.

4
  • Actually, unless you use Tor for each account, mods and SE employees can see the IP address of the account. There are also other safe proofs in place that, although not 100% definite, give good evidence.
    – Seth
    Commented Nov 13, 2013 at 4:12
  • @Seth so if I only log in at my school and others do the same and vote on my questions. They will get banned for being the same user since we have the same IP. So you can't go on just IP always.
    – Alvar
    Commented Nov 13, 2013 at 9:23
  • 1
    That has happened before. So tell your friends to not serial up vote you! They don't ban accounts on IP only. They just use that as one means of detecting and preventing voting fraud.
    – Seth
    Commented Nov 13, 2013 at 18:58
  • 1
    We have a lot more than emails or IPs to work on but it's important to state that just because you're not the same person doesn't mean you wouldn't get banned. I strongly suggest reading: meta.askubuntu.com/questions/5267/…
    – Oli Mod
    Commented Dec 10, 2013 at 10:30

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .