Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

When Vote Counting Goes Bad

Posted by timothy on from the it-increments-the-database-or-else-it-gets-the-hose dept.

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."

7 of 128 comments (clear)

  1. News for nerds by Ironchew · · Score: 5, Funny

    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?

    1. Re:News for nerds by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Informative

      Well, admittedly, I don't care about the reality shows.

      But since there are laws about how you have to handle contests and the like, they need to really be able to prove that ignoring those votes had no effect on the outcome, or they could open themselves up for lawsuits.

      Basically they'd have to show that the votes they ignored occurred in exactly the same distributions as the other voting methods.

      And, since there's potentially a cost with voting, I have no idea if that even further mires things in.

      I think they really do need to be able to explain this, and demonstrate that it didn't affect any outcomes. And if you've got several million people watching and voting, if they suddenly find out their voting is being ignored, will they keep watching?

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  2. nt by shentino · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:nt by dkleinsc · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Network television is one of the best means of social control invented so far, second only to religion. Think about how many people really care about who wins American Idol, and think about how many people really care about who is elected to their local government. Who the American Idol winner is has no real effect on my life, whereas my local city council does when they decide whether to put money into repairing nearby streets or changing the zoning to accommodate a CVS in my neighborhood.

      --
      I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
    2. Re:nt by TWiTfan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's because people actually feel like they have a real CHOICE when voting on American Idol.

      --
      The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
  3. They reversed the charges though, right? by FatLittleMonkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.
  4. Where are the Storage Wars posts? by dstyle5 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Slashdot mods, come on, where are they. I could also use some Jersey Shore, Teen Mom or Fix This Kitchen related posts.

    I only wish DICE would've bought /. sooner to give us great content like this.