[POLL] Add tough entry criteria for contests to stop account farmers and cheats?

[Free Market Capitalist]

the forum's mission to be as free as possible.
~
Limiting newbie participation is very harmful for a community. ~ When barriers to participation are too high, then the best people often just won't go to the trouble of joining, and the people who are willing to jump through the hoops are often people who aren't good for the community: people with nothing better to do, scammers, get-rick-quickers, etc.

If only accounts older than 6 months can join, anyone who wants to abuse a contest can create a few accounts and wait 6 months for the next contest. Unless you keep changing the rule: "accounts created after August 2026 can never join a costest" (but that would be ridiculous).

That would be easily solved if another criteria, like being a full member as I was suggesting above, was added.

Apart from that, the forum is as free as possible but that doesn't mean that every account gets to participate in everything. To post on the serious boards you need to have a certain rank (i.e. a certain activity on the forum, combined merit requirements). The same happens with signature campaigns. Why can't a six days old account participate in the serious boards or in signature campaigns but can win a $1,5K prize for making a fucking pizza?

[BitBakerr1]

No matter how tight the rules and regulation are in this forum, some set of people will still find a way to cheat, however, that does not mean the forum management won’t do the best to make sure that cheating is reduced to its minimum.
Cheating cannot disappear from this forum however it can be reduced, and the suggestions you have given is OK, because it will help reduce the cheating rate in contest, but it will not totally eliminate cheating.
As for me I go with: Yes, accounts under 12 months old should be excluded from applying.

[promise444c5]

I think the merit option is okay but not 500, 250 should be enough or let’s  just say snr member along with probably a 120 or 90 days merit criteria. 

This won’t solve it  entirely but it surely will help to prevent some alts as others mentioned already.

As for me I go with: Yes, accounts under 12 months old should be excluded from applying.

Plus activity and merit.. not just creating it an account , filling it up with generic posts just to participate in contest.

[Smartvirus]

It’s always stated that alt accounts aren’t allowed in this contest and when these cheats try to maximize their chances of getting something by flooding these contests with series of arts, it’s indeed an issue.

if we dont we will be overrun with alts AIs etc.

so i voted 6 month restriction. which will simply delay those accounts for 6 months but its a period that can be referred back to. ie join, do basically nothing for 6 months, proceed to enter contests. not a good history.

6 months might be sometime but, it’s no time for account farmers if they can just create accounts and give it time to mature, they still would have their accounts ready in months and then, the criteria for participation is ready.

A 12 month participation would be cool and it’s almost expected that the account would be Sr. member and above by then, which should be of some value to the individual behind the account. Should accounts that are under 6months be given opportunity to participate, it should come under being vouched for, just like we have it in the whitelisting formate for by passing evil fee/proxy ban system.

Those caught are sure to get tagged and when these cheats try account is of any value, they just wouldn’t risk it.

[Majestic-milf]

I believe the idea is not to say certainly there will be zero cheats because I don't think you can totally eliminate that as a factor. The idea is just to make the rules more rigid just to ensure that there's barely room for them to cheat. There's a positive side to making membership a stricter requirement to be part of forum contests.

It generally should be a way of giving back to those who have been around here long enough contributing is cheaters are hijacking it they are definitely depriving those that really deserve these rewards.

I understand the angle  the Op is coming from and I know how painful it can get when cheats deprive those people who are actually worthy of the reward but if a tougher entry criteria is used, what's the assurance that we'd see less of these people who are greedy?
Personally, I'm all for the elimination of cheats in such competitions but once you announce the method at which you want to fish them out, they can get smarter and adjust.

[lovesmayfamilis]

To be honest, the prize pool in this year's competition was so beautiful that I could expect manipulation from users who coveted such an amount, in the form of the fact that pizzas can be ordered from professionals, from those who do an excellent job with them on a daily basis, and then presented as their work. Why the cheaters did not take such a step is not clear to me, based on the fact that it is very easy to negotiate with pizza masters, chefs, and pros for a certain amount.

Therefore, those who want to cheat will cheat anyway, whether they have the rank of a legend or not; it all depends on what guides such people. Whether it's greed or poverty or both, they will naturally be willing to forget about those qualities, like honesty, and will always look for ways that are far from normal people. In our recent contest story, we've seen how pizzas are cooked together for all alternative accounts in the same kitchen, and maybe not even by the real account owners.

[Lida93]

I think the merit option is okay but not 500, 250 should be enough or let’s  just say snr member along with probably a 120 or 90 days merit criteria. 

This won’t solve it  entirely but it surely will help to prevent some alts as others mentioned already.

I agree with your suggestion but at least it should give room for full members to also have the privilege to participate in a forum contest they are part of. I have this feeling that making rules too strict doesn't do much harm to the rules breakers but to those genuine members which the strictness of the rules may deny participation into a  contest like the pizza contest.

What may have happened in this year pizza contest is what has led to this call for stricter rules to join. If we agree that strict rules may not stop cheaters from smuggling themselves into contests then we can also agree that it would rather stop genuine interested members, hence affecting them more than it does to cheaters which the strict rules were targeted at. My suggestion is that if an account is not up to a full member rank, hasn't being active for straight 6 months before the contest they shouldn't participate. Also, a certain number of earned merits for the 120 days can be considered as part of the rules.