Earlier today, @OoTheNigerian created a thread on which startup founders are supposed to pitch ideas while the community votes with likes. One thing I think was overlooked was disabling the ability to register new accounts for the duration of the competition.
70% of the accounts without avatars in them were created today. About 3 were added between when I noticed and took this screenshot, and 2 more by the time I was done writing this post.
I have to say, I didn’t see this coming and it is rather disappointing. When this was being discussed, my fear was that a clown in my footsteps would come up with a phony startup that reads so interesting that it would get all the votes - hence the Boaty McBoatface caveat.
I noticed this too. The rate at which the likes jumped was fishy. I think the organisers should count only votes from accounts that is at least 1week old.
It’s suppose to be a natural game but my people… Deep sigh***
One thing this isn’t - the Radar community picking their favorite. It’s now a game of how fast can you create accounts across devices and maybe even service providers.
Great topic here. Yes, personally, I had shared the post with my tech friends on Facebook. Most of them are on Radar though. Disabling new registrations would be overreacting but I think the administrators can detect if anyone committed any fraud through fake registrations, for example, opening fake Gmail accounts and using them to sign up and vote. The Discourse backend can show the IP address which was used for opening an account.
So I guess it’s left to @OoTheNigerian and the Radar administrators to detect fake registrations and disqualified anyone who cheated.
Lol. I saw this coming. Lord knows I didn’t know want to drop in hahaha, seeing there will be too many fakes and it will be a contest of how high sounding and exaggerated you can be with traction. But hey, I thought what does it matter, just drop in any way.
This is quite disappointing really. For one, I don’t think startups should be evaluated by likes. But quality of what you’re building which clearly disqualifies me because we are not up yet, but I am OK with. At the least, quality of the ideas by the judge behind the curtain. That again could be said to be rigged with sufficient influence. But I don’t set the rules.
Man… To be honest, I thought some people might do this but I didn’t think it’d be this dramatic. I’m a bit disappointed but I understand. @xolubi, there’s the Boaty McBoatface provision to provide some protection but I suppose we should think about how we’d deal with this in future. Not sure that there’s much we can do with this competition.
@xolubi, @seyitaylor - The attempt to game the system is not surprising. You see the same in Pop Idol competitons where substance gives way to physical popularity. What’s more inspiring is the number of unknown startups / SMEs out there.
I was taken aback by the number of people that crawled out of the woodwork and it made me wonder what exactly is drawing people out. Is it the
$500
Meeting with a potential investor
Publicity
My money is on (3) and if so, perhaps a regular startup showcase event will be better for the industry instead of this well-intentioned beauty contest.
Please don’t. I don’t think it is as nefarious as it is being presented to be. I suspect it’s just overplayed exuberance because of the novelty of the event.
Please, do not withdraw your submission. A few rotten apples doesn’t mean the entire pack is gone. I voted for you. I’d like for that not to be in vain.
