Fake accounts for higher ratings? - Suggestions

goeie-oko

Gender: Male

Hey, I don't know if this is coincedence or anything, but am I the only one noticing that some track ratings on some albums are extremely high, like in a strange way, since the albums aren't that popular or anything?

I took a look at some of the people rating the albums, and found they were all about level 1 or 2 and only rated the same couple albums and their songs 100/100. I mean, some of the people are just blatant copies, like 1 guy named toxxie and one guy named toxxo, that just can't be coincedence, right?

The albums are:

Quebec - Ween
The Mollusk - Ween
Emergency and I - The Dismemberment Plan
Perfect From Now On - Built to Spill
Keep It Like A Secret - Built to Spill
You Forgot It In People - Broken Social Scene
Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space - Spiritualized
More Than Any Other Day - Ought
Songs For A Blue Guitar - Red House Painters (this is especially obvious since the top 8 songs by them are from this, even though this is their 4th ranked album)

There are plenty more, but I think I've made my point.

Is this just coincidence, or is there a very passionate fan manipulating the system of BEA?

HazeyTwilight
boyfriend in your wet dreams

Gender: Male
Age: 26
Location: Elmo Knows Where You Live

I have seen this too. Although, I think you can excuse these selected albums for manipulation because they are all in the top 500 and therefore more people will have likely heard them:

Emergency and I - The Dismemberment Plan
Perfect From Now On - Built to Spill
Keep It Like A Secret - Built to Spill
You Forgot It In People - Broken Social Scene
Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space - Spiritualized

But, with the other albums, I find it very strange that these albums get the special treatment.
_________________

goeie-oko

Gender: Male

HazeyTwilight wrote:

I have seen this too. Although, I think you can excuse these selected albums for manipulation because they are all in the top 500 and therefore more people will have likely heard them:

Emergency and I - The Dismemberment Plan
Perfect From Now On - Built to Spill
Keep It Like A Secret - Built to Spill
You Forgot It In People - Broken Social Scene
Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space - Spiritualized

But, with the other albums, I find it very strange that these albums get the special treatment.

well, the reason I added them was because the people who were rating the other albums were rating these too.

albummaster
Janitor

Gender: Male
Location: Spain
Site Admin

goeie-oko wrote:

I took a look at some of the people rating the albums, and found they were all about level 1 or 2 and only rated the same couple albums and their songs 100/100. I mean, some of the people are just blatant copies, like 1 guy named toxxie and one guy named toxxo, that just can't be coincedence, right?
...

Is this just coincidence, or is there a very passionate fan manipulating the system of BEA?

Thanks for reporting and apologies for the delay in replying. This person had eight different accounts which have now all been banned. If anybody spots any more, please let me know. Gaming the site ruins it for everybody else, so people will be banned if they are caught trying to do this.

jhuik
BOSS

Gender: Male
Age: 59
Location: K-Dubz, just west of the 6ix, ON

I notice that the top 100 is all wonky right now, probably related to this issue.

Some albums showing up in the top 100 overall that have no business being there include:
2015 albums by Kendrick Lamar and SUfjan Stevens
Quebec - Ween
The Red House Painters album previously noted in this thread
several more
_________________
Top Canadian songs, keyless entry remotes, home care, whatever...

sp4cetiger

jhuik wrote:

I notice that the top 100 is all wonky right now, probably related to this issue.

Some albums showing up in the top 100 overall that have no business being there include:
2015 albums by Kendrick Lamar and SUfjan Stevens
Quebec - Ween
The Red House Painters album previously noted in this thread
several more

The 2015 albums are legitimately highly rated, I expect, they just have low overall rankings because of the rule about not counting 2015 albums when they're placed on greatest albums charts. Dunno what's going on with the others.

goeie-oko

Gender: Male

So, I did a lot of research, and it seems that this guy really likes Real Estate, Ducktails, and Wilco, plus the aforementioned Ween and Red House Painters.

I mean, some of these I could understand, but some are just so obscure and unknown. I did find it weird that all those albums were also in a greatest albums chart by a pretty active level 5 or 6 user, but I'm not going to name names since it could be coïncedence.

Here are all the ones I found, and there are a lot:

Vizion
Ready4Freddy
shrekd4lyfe
Metrophis
GenTraves
BlazeBanana
ToaZuka
Powerlifter
NFSRF
BigDickJimmy
RickySamsquanch
WolfInABox
hostack
Artemus441 (maybe)
jovak23 (maybe)
kojomojo67 (maybe)

Whoever this guy is, he's really passionnate about his music

also a tip to finding these double accounts, is to look at the track ratings, and not the album ratings, since he often won't rate the actual album itself, just the tracks.

EDIT: I added those last three accounts later, I don't know 100% i they're guilty, but they have all rated the same couple of albums, and they had the regular Ween and other stuff, as well as a lot of Sonic Youth, which is new.

Last edited by goeie-oko on 06/20/2015 17:50; edited 2 times in total

Satie

jhuik wrote:

I notice that the top 100 is all wonky right now, probably related to this issue.

Some albums showing up in the top 100 overall that have no business being there include:
2015 albums by Kendrick Lamar and SUfjan Stevens
Quebec - Ween
The Red House Painters album previously noted in this thread
several more

how do any of these have "no business being there?"

goeie-oko

Gender: Male

permafrost wrote:

jhuik wrote:

I notice that the top 100 is all wonky right now, probably related to this issue.

Some albums showing up in the top 100 overall that have no business being there include:
2015 albums by Kendrick Lamar and SUfjan Stevens
Quebec - Ween
The Red House Painters album previously noted in this thread
several more

how do any of these have "no business being there?"

I think he means it's unusual that these albums are rated this highly, since they aren't very high on the charts.

albummaster
Janitor

Gender: Male
Location: Spain
Site Admin

goeie-oko wrote:

So, I did a lot of research, and it seems that this guy really likes Real Estate, Ducktails, and Wilco, plus the aforementioned Ween and Red House Painters.

I mean, some of these I could understand, but some are just so obscure and unknown. I did find it weird that all those albums were also in a greatest albums chart by a pretty active level 5 or 6 user, but I'm not going to name names since it could be coïncedence.

Here are all the ones I found, and there are a lot:

Vizion
Ready4Freddy
shrekd4lyfe
Metrophis
GenTraves
BlazeBanana
ToaZuka
Powerlifter
NFSRF
BigDickJimmy
RickySamsquanch
WolfInABox
hostack
Artemus441 (maybe)
jovak23 (maybe)

Thanks for this, I've just checked into all of these. Some of these accounts look legit, others don't (IP address checks etc). As a result, I've now banned an additional six accounts (includes some not listed above).