# Multiple voting in polls



## Maggan (Aug 11, 2008)

Hi!

Just wanted to highlight the risk/chance that it is still possible to vote several times in a poll.

I've voted at least once in a poll already. I'll go to Firefox - Preferences - Privacy - Show Cookies ... now I delete the EN World cookies and refresh this thread in another tab.

I am now allowed to vote again. I do so to see if the vote is registered ... and it is. The choice I chose has gone up by 1 vote.

That looks to me like clearing cookies allows me to vote again. It tracks my vote, telling me what I voted for initially. It still added my new vote to the total tally though.

/M
____


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## Umbran (Aug 11, 2008)

EN World Forum polls are not intended to be secure, or the like.  They are for casual opinion gathering, not anything business-related.


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## Morrus (Aug 11, 2008)

Yup - it's just a simple messageboard poll; not known for it's security, and certainly not used for anything important.  The polls on the board are more for fun than anything else ("Who's your favourite superhero?") Properly secure voting requires different software; never use a messageboard poll to determine anything important!


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## Maggan (Aug 11, 2008)

Morrus said:


> Yup - it's just a simple messageboard poll




I accept that.

But, there is also the fact that a lot of people do take these polls very seriously, and make far-reaching conclusions based on the results. Maybe a disclaimer of some sort attached to every poll would be in order?

/M


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## hewligan (Aug 11, 2008)

People who are taking internet polls very seriously need a disclaimer attached


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## Umbran (Aug 11, 2008)

Maggan said:


> But, there is also the fact that a lot of people do take these polls very seriously, and make far-reaching conclusions based on the results. Maybe a disclaimer of some sort attached to every poll would be in order?




I don't think EN World wants to go down the road of posting warnings on things that people might misconstrue - because that's basically _everything on the site_.  That way lies madness.


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## jaerdaph (Aug 11, 2008)

Maggan said:


> But, there is also the fact that a lot of people do take these polls very seriously,




They need to get girlfriends.


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## Arnwyn (Aug 11, 2008)

Maggan said:


> But, there is also the fact that a lot of people do take these polls very seriously,



Whoops on their part!


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## Brown Jenkin (Aug 11, 2008)

Umbran said:


> I don't think EN World wants to go down the road of posting warnings on things that people might misconstrue - because that's basically _everything on the site_.  That way lies madness.




Warning - madness may or may not lie this way. This is solely the opinion of one moderator and may or may not reflect the opinion of anyone else.


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## Darkness (Aug 12, 2008)

jaerdaph said:


> They need to get girlfriends.



I doubt their wives or husbands would like that.  Most of them, anyway.


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## LightPhoenix (Aug 12, 2008)

Darkness said:


> I doubt their wives or husbands would like that.  Most of them, anyway.




We'll never know, when they vote multiples times.


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## Darkness (Aug 12, 2008)

LightPhoenix said:


> We'll never know, when they vote multiples times.



Heh, yeah. 'course, poll numbers often don't mean very much anyway, considering all the jokers who choose the most ridiculous option instead of the one that fits them best. Not that *I*'d do something like that... 

(Of course, trolling is hardly limited to message board polls. For example, I saw a poll from the UK this year in which like 40% said they believe Winston Churchill is a fictional character.)


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## Graf (Aug 13, 2008)

public polling is the solution


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## Samuel Leming (Aug 13, 2008)

Umbran said:


> EN World Forum polls are not intended to be secure, or the like.  They are for casual opinion gathering, not anything business-related.



If somebody can vote in a poll ten times in less then five minutes it's not even useful for casual opinion gathering. Any hot topic will most likely attract vandalism, and vandalism is exactly what this kind of behavior is.

If you were to restrict each account to voting once, record the IP of the vote & use some kind of 'I voted' cookie the polls would still be insecure since a determined cheater would be able to find a way around. It would, however, deter the casual vandal.

Since creating such a polling system sounds tedious, I volunteer to create it myself.

Sam


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## Umbran (Aug 13, 2008)

Samuel Leming said:


> Any hot topic will most likely attract vandalism, and vandalism is exactly what this kind of behavior is.




We have not seen much sign that this is the case.  Our posters are, by and large, not so childish (or perhaps too too lazy, but I give them the benefit of the doubt) to bother vandalizing casual opinion polls.


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