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When Vote Counting Goes Bad
ZipK writes "Television singing competition The Voice disclosed on Wednesday 'inconsistencies' with the tallying of on-line and SMS-based voting. Although host Carson Daly claimed the show wanted to be 'completely upfront,' the explanation from their third-party vote counter, Telescope, was anything but transparent. In particular, Telescope claims that disregarding all on-line and SMS-based voting for the two nights in question left no impact on the final results, but they haven't provided any detail of the 'inconsistency' or their ability to predict a complete lack of impact. Sure, it's only The Voice; but tomorrow it could be American Idol, and by next month, America's Got Talent."
Sure, it's only The Voice; but tomorrow it could be American Idol, and by next month, America's Got Talent."
And nothing of value was lost?
The sad news is that people are probably going to rage more about this than they would for REAL politics that choose who gets into office.
I can only assume they did the right thing and cancelled the charges for all the votes that weren't counted? They surely wouldn't profiteer at the expense of true fans.
Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
Now all those Total Request Live rankings are going to be called into question too! Carson Daily, I didn't know you were still alive!
about the Voice, Willy-I-Am, Cowell or any of the Amerca's or Britain's got talent(less wankers everywhere). They're not using it to vote, so I really couldn't give a shit, and i highly doubt anyone here actually does. Next!
Remember kids: What's right isn't as important as what's profitable.
Sure, it's only The Voice; but tomorrow it could be American Idol, and by next month, America's Got Talent.
And the month after that, the presidential elections.
That's still more transparancy and objectivity that most US elections that use electronic voting machines.
So there I was, scribbling down some notes off the PC screen by hand, when I reached for the keyboard and Ctrl-S'd.
Doesn't look like it...
CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!
The U.S. Presidency!
Nevermind. That already happened.
- A Frog in a pond utters an azure cry. -
Apropos
You mean people actually think the voting is honest and real? That the TV execs don't advance the contestants that they think will be better for ratings?
Proverbs 21:19
Happened in Florida and Ohio too.
That tool Karl Rove was almost in tears on Faux news when Obongo won. It was almost worth the fraud just for this.
Looks like the damage to your lingual center was already done.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
"Sure, it's only The Voice; but tomorrow it could be American Idol, and by next month, America's Got Talent."
Be sure to remind me how terrifying this is as I reach for the world's tiniest violin.
Oh noes, it could be American Idol. Who gives a flipping fuck what the sheeple will get miscounted on their precious America TV for the lazy ass? What about something that actually matters like an election?
Or the broadcast waves he was unable to physically sever did the damage
Did I miss something? "The Voice," "American Idol," "America's Got Talent?" No statistics, no hardware, not even politics tangential to technology; nothing but a link to a couple paragraphs on a site for addle brained people whose concerns reach no further than the next amusement to distract them from realizing their own mediocrity.
What the hell Timothy? Have you lost your passion? Did you sell out? Fall on your head? ...
Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once
I didn't believe these votes counted for crap back in the 80's and with reality TV having only become worse in the new century, I never expected them to count now either.
These shows make their money on drama. If they really voted off the persons who deserved it the show would have no controversy, and thus ratings would drop, voting would drop, and all paths of revenue would drop. If you think it through, you realize voting was always a waste of money cause it was always the producer's call as to who gets axed or stays.
...Implementation of Questionable Methodology for Questionable Entertainment."
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Having worked with a company that was contracted to handle voting for American Idol, I can tell you part of the negotiations revealed that there were several instances where family paid large sums to predictive dialing companies to ensure their children moved to the next round. Now this was more than 4 years ago.
Note for the record, I do not watch or have watched American Idel.
So there is this company that is being paid to count votes, and they cant explain the inconsistencies they are getting? Really? They're only job is to *COUNT*. It's the first thing that is taught in schools to 4 year olds, many of which who have already mastered it.
Don't pay a counting company that can't count. Fire those idots! Or better yet, put them up on "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?".
A few highlights from the show's fine print:
TLDR: no matter what happens, they can/will alter the votes as they see fit.
http://g1.votenow.tv/tpl/TermsView.php
VOTE TERMS & CONDITIONS
Viewers must note that all of the following rules and procedures are subject to change at the sole discretion of NBCUniversal Media, LLC and Finnmax LLC ("Producer").
Following the broadcast of the finale performance episode, the artist receiving the highest number of total audience votes will be declared the winner of "The Voice".
If for any reason the voting is not capable of being executed as planned, or if there is an infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud or technical or reporting failures, or if any other causes beyond the control of Administrators corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of this voting, the Administrators reserve the right, in their sole discretion, to withdraw the transmission of any vote, but are in no way obligated to do so. Furthermore, the Administrators may, but are not obligated to, permanently disqualify from any promotion any person they believe has intentionally violated these rules, and terminate or suspend voting at any point and declare the vote results based on the votes up to that point, if it appears that the voting process has been so distorted by hacking, failures, errors or other interference that the results would not reflect actual valid votes should the voting continue.
Administrators reserve the right, but are not obligated, to disqualify, block or remove any votes from any individual who votes by any electronic, mechanical or automated means, or otherwise tampers with the vote process, or for any other reason, as determined by Administrators in their sole discretion.
Administrators reserve the right to modify the show's contest rules, and the terms and conditions of this voting process at any time in their sole discretion.
Slashdot mods, come on, where are they. I could also use some Jersey Shore, Teen Mom or Fix This Kitchen related posts.
/. sooner to give us great content like this.
I only wish DICE would've bought
I still think it's all fake. The 3rd party vote company wants money. The show wants money. Whatever result would make the show get more money is the one they're both going to make happen, one way or another. It's not like there's some public notary from the government verifying every vote. Third party companies spring up out of nowhere and usually service primarily one giant company for the majority of their income.
...want to conduct local and national elections this way.
WTF is difficult with doing 1+1+1+1+.....
How stupid do you have to be to introduce inconsistencies while adding integers???? It's not rocket-science.
The way The Voice is set up is that you have two sets of votes: The Judges and the Audience. In the final round, the only votes that count are the Audience's - the judges do not get a say. But in earlier rounds, the Audience's votes count for less and the judges' count for more. In the earliest round in which the Audience can vote, their vote actually counts for very little as compared to the judges - something like 10% of the total, as I recall.
So they're right, removing that 10% of the vote from this week's result (in an early round of the competition) probably did not change anything, as that 10% would not be able to override the judges' 90%. But that could have been made more clear.
Mandatory elections troll :)
Privacy is terrorism.
Many of the people voted by calling a phone number that bills them. In my mind these people paid for a vote. If the vote was lost, they never got what they paid for. Will The Voice be reimbursing people if their vote was lost or otherwise not used?
also with a online vote work can force you to vote way with boss on your back.
posting this would have made a better april fools joke than slashdots this year
I hope slashdot doesnt turn as badd as digg. Stopped reading time years ago. We came here to escape from this bullshit from the real world. Who cares about american redneck ^H^H^H^H^H idol or whatever? They should all be shot. Twice. With silver bullets, and all the things required to bury vampires, lest they not return from the grave. Honestly, is this the idea of a joke from the editors?
I move for a vote on the motion.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
Interesting. When I watched this (yes, I like this one reality show. Stop judging me.) I assumed the "inconsistencies" they mentioned were the results of someone trying to influence the vote. Reading TFA it sounds like it was more a case of some type of system failure. It would be nice if they were a bit more open about what went wrong, but since my predictions on who was going to get the most votes this week were correct I'm not too bothered by this. :)
Smile, it makes people wonder what you're up to.
I fail while you Suck Seed - You blow dicks for nickels, 'til your throat trickles.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
OK, OCD.
I think by your 100th post, everybody got your point.
Now, take the Ritalin...
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
The other week American Idol negated all of the votes when Candice and Amber was in the bottom two. They also always claim that the results are given "In no particular order" however for the last three or four results shows they announced Candice as the first to go through(that was to make her appear as the top voted contestant). In my opinion they would not have put her first for those weeks, unless they were up to no good. Never mind that they had "Special Guest" come on stage and hug her and say how great she was two or three weeks in a row. They were obviously trying to sway peoples vote for her by giving her "ALL" of the attention. Also, they have been saying how good Cree was, that is until she started getting more votes than Candice. They also started putting Amber and Angie down, no matter how much better they sang. Then when Cree started getting more votes than Candice, they decided to get Angie voted for instead of Cree. Then low and behold Angie started getting more votes than Cree or Candice. All along they were putting Amber down and turning people against her till she was voted off. They knew that in the finale Candice wouldn't have a prayer against Angie so they had Harry Connick Jr. come on stage and vouch for Cree to get her voted for instead of Angie. For the last several shows the judges were bad-mouthing Amber, and then Angie in the last one or two shows. They were obviously better singers than Candice or the judges(especially OLD FAT AS* Randy)would not have put so much effort towards swaying the votes as they did. But they thought Angie was better than Candice. And that Candice had a better chance of winning against Cree. Since they had been putting her down for weeks. Candice could only sing good when she sang at the top of her lungs, and not very good even then. So, wouldn't you know all of her songs for the last three or four shows were all loud as* screaming songs. Otherwise she couldn't carry a tune in a bucket. If you ask me the final three should be Angie, Amber and Cree. But Old Fat AS* Randy would not allow that, because he's been trying to ram that amazon broad Candice down Americas throat. I just wish people wouldn't listen to the BS crap that the judges say and vote the way their ears tell them to. They did for a while, but a couple weeks ago they all got on the OLD FAT AS* Randy Jackson Bandwagon. I guess being a follower is better than voting for your favorite, even if they don't win. Not me. I still say Amber and Angie should be the last two standing. And that Cree is better than Candice on her worst day. As far as the voice their rig was different and mainly for money. They done away with all of those votes because the contestants that they want to go through were being voted off too. The means in which the deeds were done was different on each show but the desired results of the cheating were the same. They have pre-determined who they wanted to go through(to maintain a balanced demographic viewership) and who they want to win. That they are willing to do anything necessary to make their outcome happen. I believe that both shows have a problem with demographics. They have less and less minorities watching and voting because most of the winners are caucasian (especially on American Idol since this is only the third or forth season for the Voice). That they are willing to change the results and/or do away with votes(sound familiar Florida) to keep minority contestants on the show. Otherwise they would loose almost all of their minority viewers(and the money that goes with it). Never mind all of the other dirty underhanded tricks they(the producers and judges especially OLD FAT AS* Randy) pulls to try and sway the viewers votes. I think it all just stinks to high heaven. The judges should just critique the contestants and let the viewers chose the ones they like to win. And stop saying crap like "oh, you are the best one in the show." or "So and so is in it to win it." and the rest of their B.S. comments like that.
Thought this was going to be about the Malaysian elections recently, or even maybe the Pakistan ones ... but, it's about something unimportant that doesn't matter.
Sure enough, the cow costume was hanging up next to the superhero outfit and sailors uniform. (S,Spud)