Yahoo Answers Part 2

Vote Tampering
By YA User Jon V


I’ve contributed to YA now for a little over a year. I’ve met some wonderful fish keepers out my attending and contributing to that site. I bring this up, though it has no bearing on the subject line, that I always try to find a positive way to view things. Looking at YA as a whole, and in my previous editorial comments posted by my friend and site hoster, Carl, I’ve got to say that YA in terms of at least fish keeping, is at best, a mediocre place to seek advice. Don’t get me wrong, there are some high quality fish keepers out there that do offer advice, but as with most anything in life, there are always a few bad apples that ruin a group. Since this isn’t posted in YA, where I don’t have to “cower” in fear of having my account pulled due to violating some very ambiguous community terms of service, I’m simply going to call out the known cheaters in the fish forum.

1. Mantra- Simply put, this person, be it a man/female or both, who knows in this day and age, has been already kicked out of YA twice on the account of cheating. There are at least two well known sources in YA that have communicated to me their proof, though for their privacies sake, I am not going to mention who. Since I was alerted to the tactics used by Mantra, roughly a year ago, I’ve watched this user quite a bit. I have no doubts in my mind, he’s got or had at least 25 or more account ID’s in YA. I’ve watched him or rather his question, race a vote count up almost all night in effort to beat out Magicman out of a best answer.

It’s clear to those that really want to look at his case with open eyes, that he will do ANYTHING he has to go be listed as the best. What makes this such a joke and sad side effect, is if you really look in depth at his answers, his answers are at best, just like YA, mediocre, and not even close to the actual best answer give. NoSoop has posted to me a previous question he asked over a year ago titled “Over 257 BA’s in the fish forum, why am I not in the top ten?” One look at that alone tells me enough about what is on his mind. Point in case,
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070420051441AAkjNC4&r=wEJFyD3bpPmOeos7BmMCx6UR2BxsRe9ms3.bijgZi5Loxa_gqUFfFSVqYQQ--&paid=delete_comment#openions

In spite of more than 257 BEST ANSWERS, why am I not included in YA's TOP 10 ANSWERER in section PETS-FISH
It certainly is not about providing quality assistance but to glorify himself on a large web site used by many world wide.

A secondary problem with this, is not everyone reads, or rather reads in depth to things. Just looking at the name Mantra, and seeing it listed in the top ten will generally make people trust his input. This is why he wishes to be in the top ten so bad. If he’s listed there, it makes those that know he’s full of shit look bad by counter answering him. Shred, but low in originality for thinking. Since he’s returned to answers after his second penalty for cheating, he’s proclaimed “Hero’s don’t die, they reload” and “Most loved him, some hated him, but none forgot him” It’s clearly sound bites of low intelligence from his end that show deeper about his true motivations, intellect, and character. Even a child could do well to ignore the advice he gives in the same manner you’d treat shit in your toilet. Flush it with all the useless links he provides.
The tactics of Mantra as well as the next person are quite similar, though Mantra never seemed to have any end. I’ll admit, there were times that I got tired of his blatant cheating, as no matter how many times you’d report his fraud to YA, they acted very slow. I created id’s and voted back against Mantra when I knew I was right and he was wrong, only to find that if I went ahead of him in voting, in less then an hour, his answer went back up. Either Mantra is like some world leader, famous that he’s important to LARGE number of people, or rather, more likely, he’s sitting there watching his questions, as I watched his, and used multiple accounts to pad his votes to win. Making a point? Possibly, but a truly intelligent person is going to realize that votes alone don’t make your answer accurate or best. It’s also now well known that Nemo is just one of Mantra’s alter id’s.

2. Danielle Z- This user has been gone quite some time as well, much like Mantra. I dub her as Dizzy for short as this seems to sum up the level of most of her input. She, much like Mantra, lacks the hands on knowledge of fish keeping and relies very much on links to web sites to do the work she should be doing for the asker. She’s another person that more then appears to use multiple accounts to skew voting. Dizzy before her departure was well known to have around 5-7 votes on her questions early on in the voting period. Also like Mantra, most anytime someone passed her up in voting, you’d see her shoot back ahead within an hour. It’s a shame she never did us all the favor and just stayed gone.

3. Ice Queen- I always thought Dizzy and Mantra were close to their sad tactics, but Ice Queen always seems to get about 6-8 votes as soon as a question opens as well. The quality of her input basically consists of “Your tank isn’t cycled” Usually the best of her input is one or two no brainer sentences that lack quality and in depth responses. One would think an asker would have enough common sense to know that she barely knows her head from her ass when it comes to fish keeping, but still, many of her questions never get BA’s picked and goes to voting. I assume it’s possible she happens to know certain askers. I give Ice one small credit here only. When she’s been called out privately in email, from Soop or comments I’ve left, she seems to have gotten the point and only used her one legal vote of late. There might be hope for this person.

4. Kam S- No question in my mind what so ever this person is or has an alter id in the fish forum. After watching him cheat a top ten listing person on a UV question, with an answer that’s way off the wall, this punk made my watch list. It doesn’t seem they have much of an interest to continue this activity, but watching what happened on one question, I have seen all I need to see about this so called Top Contributor.

There certainly are some others out there, and as this continues to occur, this might be a useful thread to call out the funny voting counts. Hopefully, any askers in the fish forum that might still use this place for help, you’ll know to steer away from input at least from these people. The information presented here is FACT, and there is no disputing it.