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I noticed something interesting about that poll...
I was refreshing the page a few times and noticed that the second response, the one they "wanted," was inreasing abnormally.
So I checked the source code and saw this (html tags fixed with () to make it clearer)
(input type="Radio" name="pollanswer" value="149" class="radio") The world is actually in worse condition, and Saddam should still be in power because the U.S. acted rashly.(br)
(input type="Radio" name="pollanswer" value="148" class="radio") Better off now that the U.S. is upholding U.N. resolutions and holding Saddam accountable for his actions.(br)
(input type="Radio" name="pollanswer" value="150" class="radio") The condition of the world is the same now as it was before the war in Iraq.(br)
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Notice here that the first and second answers have their "pollanswer" value in reverse order, 149 and then 148.
So I checked Google's cache (praise be to Google) and found this:
(input type="Radio" name="pollanswer" value="148" class="radio") The world is actually in worse condition, and Saddam should still be in power because the U.S. acted rashly.(br)
(input type="Radio" name="pollanswer" value="149" class="radio") Better off now that the U.S. is upholding U.N. resolutions and holding Saddam accountable for his actions.(br)
(input type="Radio" name="pollanswer" value="150" class="radio") The condition of the world is the same now as it was before the war in Iraq.(br)
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They simply switched which item each button votes for, so all the votes for the "wrong" answer end up being for the one they want.
How, er, responsible of our elected representatives.
Here's the poll in question.
UPDATE from seraphiel:
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Some updates about this, since I dunno if you were following the thread. I did make an error copying and pasting it, so it ended up showing something much worse than what I actually meant to show. But they went in after that and did what I had accidentally shown:
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FWIW, the poll choices have changed again. 148 is now "Same", 149 is now "Better", and 150 is now "worse":
(input type="Radio" name="pollanswer" value="149" class="radio") Better off now that the U.S. is upholding U.N. resolutions and holding Saddam accountable for his actions.
(input type="Radio" name="pollanswer" value="148" class="radio") The condition of the world is the same now as it was before the war in Iraq.
(input type="Radio" name="pollanswer" value="150" class="radio") The world is actually in worse condition, and Saddam should still be in power because the U.S. acted rashly.
Charles | Email | Homepage | 01.15.04 - 8:40 am | #
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Seraphiel writes They simply switched which item each button votes for, so all the votes for the "wrong" answer end up being for the one they want.
It's actually more then that. They rigged the answers already given. When I voted last night there were approx 6500 total responses, with 75% of the vote going to "The World is actually in Worse Condition" answer, that's about 4875 votes for that response. This morning, that answer stands at 4% of total responses, of 24843 total responses. 4% of 24843 is about 993 total votes. So last night 4875 people had voted for that and this morning it's only around 993....Hmmm....
SixdegreesofKevin | Email | Homepage | 01.15.04 - 9:14 am | #
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Oh for fu(k's sake,
They're really cheating. I posted before telling people to forget it, because it was only the order of the answers that was being changed.
I just looked again, and now 149=better, 148=same, 150=worse.
I'm going back to slashdot and re-submitting (I hope they pick it up).
Magnum | Email | Homepage | 01.15.04 - 9:26 am | #
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and the poll results are at zero.... I hope no one tipped off them that Atrios had linked their website!
Dom Suzanne | Email | Homepage | 01.15.04 - 10:32 am | #
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You know, it's almost funny.
I woke up this morning and looked at the thread again, and what I had copied and pasted, and I noticed that I had made a mistake in copying the source out. What I had meant to show was just the first stage of fristing: switching the available answers, assumably to make naughty librul macros work for the "right" team instead. But the error I had made copying it made it look a lot worse.
Here's the funny part: since my initial notice of this, one of their web staff went in and did the very thing I had mistakenly shown them doing, even though at the time I sent it to Atrios they hadn't done it yet.
Maybe it wasn't a dyslexia moment I was having last night, but a Miss Cleo moment instead.
Seraphiel | Email | Homepage | 01.15.04 - 10:37 am | #