Pizza vote for merit ?

[Hunter boy]

I have noticed an issue in this year's pizza voting, where one person is dishonestly increasing his pizza vote, the voting system should be made in such a way that everyone will selflessly vote for the deserving person, but currently a trend has been created where everyone is voting for pizza number #114 for 1 merit. It has become like a temptation, most people are voting for pizza number #114 for only 1 merit, it looks like a bribe, through this the fairness of voting is being violated and people are voting for number #114 just for the sake of 1 merit. I think this is definitely an illegal issue, where he is getting votes by showing everyone the lure of 1 merit. This issue must be properly judged, because he is trying to win illegally.

user: 5tift

some example;

https://talkimg.com/images/2025/06/21/UuRBE1.png
https://talkimg.com/images/2025/06/21/UuRKRJ.png
https://talkimg.com/images/2025/06/21/UuRb1C.png
https://talkimg.com/images/2025/06/21/UuRpWb.png
https://talkimg.com/images/2025/06/21/UuROQv.png
https://talkimg.com/images/2025/06/21/UuRWfH.png
https://talkimg.com/images/2025/06/21/UuRe8g.png

There have been many more like this, if you look at 5tift's Sent Merit history, then the matter will become more clearer.

[KingsDen]

I haven't participated in the pizza contest nor voting. So, I don't know its rules.
Op, is there a rule in the pizza contest that merits shouldn't be given in the thread just like that of the community award. If there is no such rule, 5tift might not be doing anything wrong.

Meanwhile, you can move this thread to the reputation board.

[LoyceV]

Quoting for images to show:

I checked all posts he Merited, and indeed, he only Merited users who voted for his own pizza.

You should probably post this in [Discussion] Bitcoin Pizza Day on Bitcointalk 🍕.

[Pablo-wood]

My own thoughts though, I just feel since it's a competition and so many great effort is represented in the contest what ever it takes to win besides sending PMs is fine. If users saw the repetitive distribution of 1 merit and fell for it then it's their own story although. In every competition people must campaign for their effort and it's the choice of the voters to decide who's campaign is more appealing.

[cygan]

✂️
Op, is there a rule in the pizza contest that merits shouldn't be given in the thread just like that of the community award. If there is no such rule, 5tift might not be doing anything wrong.
✂️

so i actually don't find such a rule (whether it is in the discussion thread or in the voting thread) that says that it is not allowed to distribute your merits during the voting in order to ‘maybe’ hope for a higher chance of a better placement
even though i know and appreciate 5tift very well, he doesn't need to do this with his very successful pizza

[hosemary]

In every competition people must campaign for their effort and it's the choice of the voters to decide who's campaign is more appealing.

Campaign? No.
Icopress assigned random numbers to pizzas and didn't specify the pizzas makers, so that votes are not affected by the names at all.

Any action that encourages people to vote for a specific pizza is unfair.

[Rashlyowl]

I tried to carefully read these 2 threads:
(1) [Discussion] Bitcoin Pizza Day on Bitcointalk 🍕
(2) [Voting 2025] Bitcoin Pizza Day on Bitcointalk 🍕

But I don't see any violation of the rules by @5tift, the way he did it was not sneaky, but clever. I stand here not to personally support what @5tift did, it's just that I think we should react neutrally to this case. 1 other thing I just realized on this forum, it's a normal day to see a wimp with no activity come & offend other accounts.

[Rikafip]

But I don't see any violation of the rules by @5tift, the way he did it was not sneaky, but clever. I stand here not to personally support what @5tift did, it's just that I think we should react neutrally to this case. 1 other thing I just realized on this forum, it's a normal day to see a wimp with no activity come & offend other accounts.

Even if it wasn't explicitly mentioned, it still isn't the smartest thing to do, to merit only those who vote for you.

Thing is, even if you don't have bad intentions with it and just wan't to sort of say "thank you", it will inevitabely attract those who would do anything for a merit or two, or in this case vote for you to get a merit.

[Danydee]

✂️
Op, is there a rule in the pizza contest that merits shouldn't be given in the thread just like that of the community award. If there is no such rule, 5tift might not be doing anything wrong.
✂️

so i actually don't find such a rule (whether it is in the discussion thread or in the voting thread) that says that it is not allowed to distribute your merits during the voting in order to ‘maybe’ hope for a higher chance of a better placement
even though i know and appreciate 5tift very well, he doesn't need to do this with his very successful pizza

Maybe yes..  but user's Sent Merits history resemble more to a pizzeria here !!   https://talkimg.com/images/2025/06/21/UutijC.jpeg


And according to the following this is an clear infraction :

Throughout June, public voting will be open, and any active user can participate. Please note that any contest entrant is not allowed to agitate for their pizza or veiledly ask anyone to vote for you. For the voting system to work, any nominated pizza must have the support of at least three users. This year, 144 users took part in the contest, 2 of which were excluded from the voting for various reasons.

(OT)

Is the user Merit-source ??

Something should be done against some sources.. for exemple some are wittingly using their allowance to promote activity on some Commercial ANN threads .... !

[hugeblack]

Although this is an abuse, it will remain limited and I don't think it will affect the final outcome.
Does such a report require creating a new account?

[LoyceV]

I don't see any violation of the rules by @5tift, the way he did it was not sneaky, but clever.

It's not the best loophole:

Note.

[Rashlyowl]

Is the user Merit-source ??

It seems, there is a big difference between 'Sent' & 'Earned'.

It's not the best loophole:

Note.

Ok, this one is absolute cinema, I didn't notice the hover before, good luck bros @5tift.

[Danydee]

Does such a report require creating a new account?

5tift seems to be a DT user, maybe OP is just rolling for a campaign or so

Although, account was created on January.. so OP's account  ( Hunter boy ) was created long before with intention to use it  

[notocactus]

Contests are used for merit farmers and it is not a new discovery at all. I don't know about this user and did not look at his merit history, both sent and received side. There are also other things you need to do for confirming it as a kind of merit farming so you need to dog deeper if you want to make a valid report of merit abuse.

I only say generally about merit distributions in many contests, that is either too generous or very likely farming depends on senders. If it is very trusted user, such merit distribution is too generous while for other non-reoutable users, it looks more likely farming.

[Agbamoni]

I know you feel (feeling that you will lose). I understand you may have put a lot of effort to come out with a good Pizza for the competition. But the rules are the rules. Icopress has set the rules and as long as what they do dont go against the rules, the vote counts.

Your national presidential election and other local election is enough to teach what happens when voting power is giving to the community. That is, not the favorite or best wins but the one who the community vote for whether through bribery and favors, the vote counts.

Personally, 1 merit isn't worth to get my vote.

[virasog]

Personally, 1 merit isn't worth to get my vote.

Yup, you're right but then there are merit farmers who will not miss any chance to get even a single merit. Anyhow, I don't think he would be giving any more merits to 114# pizza after this announcement by Icopress, where his weight will count as 0.5 and not 1. There will be people still giving votes to 114# hoping to get that 1 merit, it will be interesting to see if he stops or continues to merit.

Friends, votes for pizza #114 will have a weight of 0.5 when counting (only those that include merits).

[Btcdeybodi]

OMG, this is terrible. I don't blame the user sending those merits for people that included his pizza in the voting process I ONLY blame those who compromised their genuine votes just for a single merit. Does it mean that 1 merit is difficult to earn in the forum 
WTF!!!

[cryptoaddictchie]

Does it mean that 1 merit is difficult to earn in the forum 
WTF!!!

Its depend, if you are good poster and got some quality threads then it will be easy for anyone regardless of their ranks.

Merits are subjective and depends on the users likeness. If he found anyone post worthy of merits that someone easily can get merit.

For me its not good to use merits in making some users vote for you, though it can be thought as appreciation for voting his entry, some might abuse it and exploit by voting the entry which is in fact been given merits.

Like this account below. Created last June 12 and the only post he did was to vote for the entry #114 obviously to farm merit.

I vote for: #18 #95 #96 #114 #121

[rachael9385]

Icopress have said it already, so @5tift should know that each vote is 0.5% which means two votes counts as one

Friends, votes for pizza #114 will have a weight of 0.5 when counting (only those that include merits).

However, it doesn't serve right to merit anyone who votes for you because others will definitely abuse it. Well, it's your merits and you can chose what to do with it, but in a situation like this you shouldn't use merits to get votes.

[yahoo62278]

For as long as I have been a participant on this forum there have always been people looking for a way to get ahead. Whether it be joining sig campaigns with multiple accounts, joining multiple bounties with multiple accounts, meriting alt accounts to rank up yourself or your farm, cheating contests with multiple accounts, posting in certain merit farming threads, or giving merits for pizza votes to win a contest, people are always gonna look for a way to "get ahead".

People have no shame I guess. When people make up the rules for a contest it's hard to think of everything until they see things being exploited. Maybe the rules will change for next year's contest. Looks like ico has tried to combat this so not much to d o but let the contest happen as is or disqualify the pizza. I personally would not include merit for anything to do with voting from here on out.