Bitcointalk Pumpkin Carving Contest Contestants -VOTE NOW

[PrivacyG]

I am surprised to not see many popular Members on the list.  Now about not showing usernames under the pictures, I prefer it to stay that way.  Seeing only numbers does not subconsciously influence my brain into choosing one from a Member I want to vote for any way.  I mean.  If I wanted to vote for a particular member then I would simply go down to the list of participants and choose the one to vote for with out even checking out their pumpkin.  But if you show usernames, even if they are in the peripheral vision they can still pop out into our sight.

[GeorgeJohn]

I am not sure if poll is like intended?!  

Pictures are anonymiesed but for the poll we shall pick names? Additionally the Numbers do not fit: in my case 105 vs. 108.
I will wait with my vote in case there will be some clarification.  

If the number 105 and 108 did not fit to the rightful images that means it's a typographical error from the person that compiled the list and it can be corrected if figured out

But the aspect of voting by the names of contestants, it will compromise voting, because some people will vote with sympathy and relationship, why picking votes through numbers on images, it will bring transparent voting without been compromise and also not knowing the person you're voting for.. So that's only way we can achieve free and fair voting.

[lolxxxx]

Are the numbers are in order like the images?

[nutildah]

I don't know which insights the OP got from Poll, but regarding to "conspicuous votes" for ThemePen (as far as i noticed he got all his 15 votes within the last 2 days) and some of his trust feedback (see picture below) i ask to investigate his application.

He currently has 18 votes, that's 6 more than the next closest contestant. For a pumpkin design that is... well, I can't help but think that there's better, let's just put it that way.

This guy has a ton of accounts on the forum. They may be run through 2 or 3 people, and then there may be smaller account clusters that come to them for advice. It was a shame when he was made a merit source but what can you do.

Its real hard to catch cheaters before the fact, as it is with every contest, but let's see what happens after the fact.

ChiBitCTy put in a ton of work on this, its not his fault that you can't do something nice without it being taken advantage of. Let's not blame him but rather appreciate his efforts.

[theymos]

Thanks for doing the contest again, ChiBitCTy! I voted for Johnlomape: I really liked his creative turtle design, which also thematically matches the idea of "hodling".

I don't know which insights the OP got from Poll, but regarding to "conspicuous votes" for ThemePen (as far as i noticed he got all his 15 votes within the last 2 days) and some of his trust feedback (see picture below) i ask to investigate his application.

I looked into the IP logs, and most of his votes seem to be from legit users. I see only 3-5 votes for him which I'd classify as likely alts. (Always hard to say, though, in either direction.)

Edit: To be more clear, I don't mean 3-5 alts of ThemePen. Of voters for ThemePen, I identified 3 groups of voters with possible alts, like this:
    A and his alt B
        C and his alt D
    E and his alts F and G
The second group is lower confidence, and it may or may not also be the same as the first group. So that's 3-5 extra votes.

[ThemePen]

I looked into the IP logs, and most of his votes seem to be from legit users. I see only 3-5 votes for him which I'd classify as likely alts. (Always hard to say, though, in either direction.)

Thank you, Theymos, for the clarification.

This guy has a ton of accounts on the forum. They may be run through 2 or 3 people, and then there may be smaller account clusters that come to them for advice. It was a shame when he was made a merit source but what can you do.

I am not going to justify myself again and again. Being friends with our bitcointalk members is not a crime, and it is normal for us to have conversations out of bitcointalk. That's what that happened between me and Rustam.

Regarding the same IP address, I am not very technical in this field. However, I believe that if we are connected to the same WiFi network, we would share the same IP address. Genuinely different people using the same WiFi should not be considered alternate accounts.

As for the merit source, Theymos made a generous decision to allocate more merit sources to local communities, and I was one of them. Please feel free to check my merit distribution history. I review each and every post on our local board and award merit to those I find valuable and worthy of the effort.

If you find a single merit  that seems unworthy or doubtful, I am liable ready to answer at any time.

[theymos]

Here are the results after applying the specified adjustments (at least 1 extant post in the year between the time of the OP and 1 year ago, and Member+ post rank):
+----------------+----------------------------------------+
| Adjusted votes | Candidate                              |
+----------------+----------------------------------------+
|             20 | themepen                               |
|             12 | Jayconz                                |
|              8 | summonerrk                             |
|              7 | maxmueller                             |
|              6 | su-asa                                 |
|              6 | Porfirii                               |
|              6 | taufik123 (champion of btalk contests) |
|              3 | m2017                                  |
|              3 | DaNNy001                               |
|              3 | Mahiyammahi                            |
|              3 | byebyebtc                              |
|              2 | agbam                                  |
|              1 | TokenTikas                             |
|              1 | Scarlett_23                            |
|              1 | mr_brilliant$                          |
|              1 | gallar                                 |
|              1 | unknown op                             |
|              1 | Gentle_soul                            |
|              1 | 7Juju                                  |
|              1 | Johnlomape                             |
|              1 | noorman0                               |
|              1 | promocodeudo                           |
|              1 | Just say                               |
|              1 | ojinga                                 |
|              1 | leonair                                |
|              1 | happybitcoinph                         |
|              1 | zackz5000                              |
|              1 | ldl                                    |
|              1 | giftedman                              |
|              1 | Lida93                                 |
|              1 | tread93 (my boy)                       |
|              1 | rduffy                                 |
|              1 | hazink                                 |
|              1 | Franklyn-wood                          |
|              1 | nheer                                  |
|              1 | Hyudien                                |
|              1 | Tonimez                                |
|              1 | abdulzuruku01                          |
+----------------+----------------------------------------+

It's very difficult to identify alts with much accuracy, but after looking into the IP logs, it's my opinion that removing votes by alt accounts would not have changed the winner.

Thanks to all participants!

[joker_josue]

Congratulations to the winners, and to all the participants.

It was certainly hours of work, which was worth it.

Next year there will be more..

[MaxMueller]

I don't know which insights the OP got from Poll, but regarding to "conspicuous votes" for ThemePen (as far as i noticed he got all his 15 votes within the last 2 days) and some of his trust feedback (see picture below) i ask to investigate his application.

He currently has 18 votes, that's 6 more than the next closest contestant. For a pumpkin design that is... well, I can't help but think that there's better, let's just put it that way.

This guy has a ton of accounts on the forum. They may be run through 2 or 3 people, and then there may be smaller account clusters that come to them for advice. It was a shame when he was made a merit source but what can you do.

Its real hard to catch cheaters before the fact, as it is with every contest, but let's see what happens after the fact.

ChiBitCTy put in a ton of work on this, its not his fault that you can't do something nice without it being taken advantage of. Let's not blame him but rather appreciate his efforts.

To be perfectly clear, I really appreciate that @ChiBitCTy held the event despite his personal difficulties over the last weeks and even paid for it out of his own pocket. He deserves respect and recognition.

What I regret is that, despite all the beautiful and painstakingly crafted works, “this” pumpkin is supposed to be the best?!
For me, this is obvious manipulation, as the number of votes does not reflect the quality of the contribution. Ultimately, it doesn't even matter whether he voted for himself with his alt-accounts, or is part of an account farm so his friends voted with their altaccounts or he just "marketed himself well", the external effect is disastrous because he gets away with it, despite it's clear to me that he does not deserve it and @Jayconz was cheated out of first place.
Maybe the prize money should just be scrapped altogether so that cheaters have no incentive to participate.

Anyway, thanks to @ChiBitCTy and congratulations to @Jayconz and @summonerrk, you have provided proof of work and truly deserved your place as winners.  

[apogio]

Congratulations to all the participants!

+----------------+----------------------------------------+
| Adjusted votes | Candidate                              |
+----------------+----------------------------------------+
|             20 | themepen                               |
|             12 | Jayconz                                |
|              8 | summonerrk                             |
+----------------+----------------------------------------+

I'd like to ask @themepen @Jayconz and @summonerrk to contact me with a bitcoin address, so that I can offer my reward:

Edit : apogio generously offered to donate to the prize pots. Thanks for your generous donation!!

100,000 sats to the 1st place,
75,000 sats to the 2nd place,
50,000 sats to the 3rd place

EDIT:

Rewards have been sent: https://mempool.space/tx/0cd06d6f940bc77bf73680d2b736a659fed68119eb4303bf0948189eae2d68ff

Congratulations, see you next year 

[Jaycoinz]

Congratulations to all the participants!

+----------------+----------------------------------------+
| Adjusted votes | Candidate                              |
+----------------+----------------------------------------+
|             20 | themepen                               |
|             12 | Jayconz                                |
|              8 | summonerrk                             |
+----------------+----------------------------------------+

I'd like to ask @themepen @Jayconz and @summonerrk to contact me with a bitcoin address, so that I can offer my reward:

Edit : apogio generously offered to donate to the prize pots. Thanks for your generous donation!!

100,000 sats to the 1st place,
75,000 sats to the 2nd place,
50,000 sats to the 3rd place

EDIT:

Rewards have been sent: https://mempool.space/tx/0cd06d6f940bc77bf73680d2b736a659fed68119eb4303bf0948189eae2d68ff

Congratulations, see you next year 

Thanks apogio, ChiBitCTy, theymos and everyone who participated in this year contest.

Am grateful, the reward has been received with gratitude friend..

Once again congratulations to the winners 🏆

[summonerrk]

Congratulations to all the participants!

+----------------+----------------------------------------+
| Adjusted votes | Candidate                              |
+----------------+----------------------------------------+
|             20 | themepen                               |
|             12 | Jayconz                                |
|              8 | summonerrk                             |
+----------------+----------------------------------------+

I'd like to ask @themepen @Jayconz and @summonerrk to contact me with a bitcoin address, so that I can offer my reward:

Edit : apogio generously offered to donate to the prize pots. Thanks for your generous donation!!

100,000 sats to the 1st place,
75,000 sats to the 2nd place,
50,000 sats to the 3rd place

EDIT:

Rewards have been sent: https://mempool.space/tx/0cd06d6f940bc77bf73680d2b736a659fed68119eb4303bf0948189eae2d68ff

Congratulations, see you next year 

The award has been received apogio, thank you very much !

[shahzadafzal]

+----------------+----------------------------------------+
| Adjusted votes | Candidate                              |
+----------------+----------------------------------------+
|             20 | themepen                               |
|             12 | Jayconz                                |
|              8 | summonerrk                             |
+----------------+----------------------------------------+

Wow surprising where are the OGs? All new names... I personally like the Pizza Contest more but this is fun too.

Congratulations to the winners.

Themepen

Jaycoinz

summonerrk

[ThemePen]

Rewards have been sent: https://mempool.space/tx/0cd06d6f940bc77bf73680d2b736a659fed68119eb4303bf0948189eae2d68ff

Congratulations, see you next year 

Thank you very much dear I have received reward.

Congratulations to all participants.

[nutildah]

I don't know which insights the OP got from Poll, but regarding to "conspicuous votes" for ThemePen (as far as i noticed he got all his 15 votes within the last 2 days) and some of his trust feedback (see picture below) i ask to investigate his application.

I looked into the IP logs, and most of his votes seem to be from legit users. I see only 3-5 votes for him which I'd classify as likely alts. (Always hard to say, though, in either direction.)

I think its worth pointing out that its quite easy to avoid IP connections through use of VPN, and that there's other ways which accounts can be connected, such as the classic shared address or social media information. They are not as direct a proof as shared IP address, but sometimes it is situationally evident that two accounts are controlled by the same person; for example the case of when one user forgot to log out of another account before posting (this kind of thing happens all the time).

Its more likely there are several clusters of alt accounts which agree to help each other, like vote for each other, rather than just 1 person who controls 20 accounts. But there's no point going on about it at this time.

If its any consolation @MaxMueller I thought your pumpkin was pretty bad ass.

[MaxMueller]

I think its worth pointing out that its quite easy to avoid IP connections through use of VPN, and that there's other ways which accounts can be connected, such as the classic shared address or social media information. They are not as direct a proof as shared IP address, but sometimes it is situationally evident that two accounts are controlled by the same person; for example the case of when one user forgot to log out of another account before posting (this kind of thing happens all the time).

Its more likely there are several clusters of alt accounts which agree to help each other, like vote for each other, rather than just 1 person who controls 20 accounts. But there's no point going on about it at this time.

If its any consolation @MaxMueller I thought your pumpkin was pretty bad ass.

First of all: it's not about me.
Still while I was carving, I realized that my pumpkin would be inferior to my last year's contribution. Comparing both in detail you will agree.... Therefore i am fine with the result not being on the winner's podium.


BUT: If the impression remains that votings are not fair, thats kind of a poisoned blade which will kill those Community-Contests over time. If you ask yourself where all the OGs are, that could be part of the answer.

Lets summerize:

• regarding Reference i guess we can assume @ThemePen and @Rustam Meraj as altaccounts or shared accounts linked over IP. As @Rustam Meraj participated too i guess that is +1 vote from here.
• One level below, we have the accusation from @JollyGood of @ThemePen beeing part of an account farm, with others and their alts. Furthermore @theymos stated out that there are further accounts and there might be +3-5 extra votes likely from their Alts but they are not linked via IP.
  As I see that somewhat as proof of accusation, i would appreciate if those Accounts A-G would be revealed to make those "legal" connections transparent for other users.
• One further level below we have a connection via temporal context of votes, which seems to be not taken into account at all. I observed a kind of "non-organic" increase of votes in a very short period of time. More like an action then an reaction. Additionally i can't find a post of @themepen as part of his "good marketing" which may have acted as the trigger in temporal context to the majority of votes.
  Regarding the "resounding victory" i assume a lot more extra votes in this category. Therefore, I would like to ask if the timestamps of those votes can be published.

Regardless of the fact that the result will hardly be reversed, i would appreciate further investigations as a sign against cheaters. Maybe in detail partly non public so that cheaters don't get instructions too.

Otherwise, I guess there will be even fewer high-quality submissions next year....
But who am I to take a look into the future?  

[JiiBs]

Firstly, I’ll like to commend ChiBitCTy for giving us yet another season of the Bitcointalk Halloween Pumpkin Carving Contest, it’s always a good time to see just how creative we could be, the limits we are prepared to exceed and challenge ourselves again and share in other cultures foreign to some of us.

I would say, this was yet another interesting one, strictly focused on Bitcoin and devoid of seeing just how to fix a sponsored project while maintaining an elaborate Bitcoin detail.

The prizes is another step away from the usual of just having fractions of Bitcoin sent to an address but, you get something tangible as well as, having your address funded. It shows just how well we are improving from last season.

Lastly, i couldn’t even manage a vote on my entry, lol… myself didn’t even vote for me! On that note I’ll like to say congrats to the winners and though I didn’t get any prizes, I am satisfied with my work and that is a win for me as well. Will try on the prizes again next season.

[ChiBitCTy]

Hey guys, let me start of apologizing...again.  I've been dealing with a lot personal/family issues the last couple months and things have not been easy for me, on top of had been traveling, this was just a terrible year for me to try and do this and I shouldn't have.

That said, I've yet to read any replies lately.  First off,  I hope everyone knows I'd never ever lave anything unfinished, break a deal, etc, whatever you want to call it. That's not who I am or my nature and would NEVER happen.  

On top of everything else, this has stressed me out and when people started to complain, felt I was being unfair, it got to me (because that's never been my intent, and again, who I am).  I will review everything over the next couple days.  I know/knew at least at the time we may have had to run this again.  I felt bad about this, bothering the mods and theymos unnecessarily..I needed some time to step away to deal w/life.

I will be back soon and sort this all out.

[rat03gopoh]

Hey guys, let me start of apologizing...again.  I've been dealing with a lot personal/family issues the last couple months and things have not been easy for me, on top of had been traveling, this was just a terrible year for me to try and do this and I shouldn't have.

Chib, you really need a break from the forums.
I think theymos has already stated the fact about the alts indication, and I believe him. The winners has been decided and the prize has been awarded; that should be final. There's no more reason to prioritize virtual matters over your real-life issues.

If there are any unexpected findings, let the dedicated members sort them out. Consider your contest just a prelude to the drama and your role is enough until the prizes are distributed. I hope your issue is resolved soon. Don't worry about us here, mate.

[joker_josue]

Hey guys, let me start of apologizing...again.  I've been dealing with a lot personal/family issues the last couple months and things have not been easy for me, on top of had been traveling, this was just a terrible year for me to try and do this and I shouldn't have.

That said, I've yet to read any replies lately.  First off,  I hope everyone knows I'd never ever lave anything unfinished, break a deal, etc, whatever you want to call it. That's not who I am or my nature and would NEVER happen.  

On top of everything else, this has stressed me out and when people started to complain, felt I was being unfair, it got to me (because that's never been my intent, and again, who I am).  I will review everything over the next couple days.  I know/knew at least at the time we may have had to run this again.  I felt bad about this, bothering the mods and theymos unnecessarily..I needed some time to step away to deal w/life.

I will be back soon and sort this all out.

Don't go along with these generated dramas. There is always someone complaining. And you can never do things in a way that pleases everyone.

You may find that this year things didn't go quite as you would have liked, but use this to organize things next year.
This year things are already closed, move on, organize your life (which is the most important thing), next year there will be other opportunities.

Strong hug and may you be able to reorganize your life with tranquility!