Okay, I understand that some games simply have more players to vote than others, which would explain why some games are always at the top of the list. I have no problem with that at all, doesn't bother me a bit and I'm thrilled that the game I play is consistently in the top 20. So we got THAT ouf of the way, okay?

Now here's the question: How does a game that has only had 78 players playing the game since midnite last night, get 88 votes in the past hour?

Do they have some secret stache of people all getting together to vote all at the same time, even if they don't even play the game? Or maybe they just have lots of friends and family who vote..it just seems really wierd that there would be more votes in a single hour than their game had players in almost 18 hours running.

Fair's fair, if the system allows it, no problem. I'm just curious as to how it's possible.

Since fair's fair for you, I don't mind saying.

Now, I always get confused about all this "static IP" stuff, but to put it simply: Dial-up gives you a different IP address every time you connect. If they so wished, they could disconnect and reconnect to have a different IP to gain another vote, since it's 1 vote PER IP every X hours.

There isn't any real way to stop this, because the IP that is assigned by the dialup could be to anyone, if you understand what I'm trying to say.

Another alternative is that people are voting for their favorite mud, but don't have time to log on. They might possibly have the vote link set as their homepage.

This is probably going to lead to discussions about bribing your players for votes. Take it somewhere else! We don't serve yer' kind here!

But that's the jist of how it works. You're one Wenlin-unit smarter, Jazuela!

(edit)
Doh, I just now read all your guesses, and I don't know where to squeeze what I have to say.

Often, people may forget to vote, so a big-time imm\owner comes and says "vote! We can get into the topXX!" Again, this may lead to bribing your players, but hey, I'm not pointing any fingers since I've seen it a couple places. Seems like a reasonable strategy.

Once yes, we were asked to string up all connections to get those couple more votes, call up that friend you haven't IMed for a month, etc.

That about sums up the major points.

Synozeer studies, or implies that he does, the voting logs for trends. Dynamic-IP's are easy to detect, and it could/should be a simple matter to call up a list of when dynamic.domain.com last voted, and how often. I even got the impression that if there was a trend such as a single ISP spamming the votes (note that I said ISP, not IP; it is very easy to link IPs to an ISP) then that FQDN would be banned from further voting.

TMS cannot regulate the ethical mores of those who are listed here. That onus lies upon the administrators - and, ultimately, the players - of those individual games. I'd suspect your question, if asked of those persons, would be met with a very curt response.

Bert, for whom ethics are rallying flag.

I still think the voting (and the reviews, for that matter) would be better off if they were linked to your Top Mud Sites account...

I believe this is the most wonderful idea I have ever heard. Has it been suggested to Synozeer?

Additionally:
o Add ability to see 'other reviews' by the Reviewer.
o Add link to Reviewer's profile