Site Post » Featured Box Abuse · 8:18pm Aug 5th, 2013
It has come to the attention of the site staff that a group known as The Featured Box Crusaders has engaged in a concerted effort to abuse the heat system and cause stories to be featured.
While promoting stories within groups is not generally against site rules, it seems evident that The Featured Box Crusaders existed for the sole purpose of gaming Fimfiction's story-rating algorithm. The group deliberately stated that its purpose was to give stories the attention necessary to boost them into the featured box, adding on a suggestion that stories featured by the group's efforts should promote the group to increase its effectiveness.
As a result, we have deleted the aforementioned group. We would like to remind users that any cohesive effort to abuse the site's story-rating algorithm, even without the use of alt accounts, is against the rules and will result in a ban.
No action has been taken against any member of The Featured Box Crusader, but this should be considered a warning that future groups of this sort will not be tolerated.
And now we wait for the backlash about Czar Knighty and his crusade to crush the freedoms of the user-base.
Good on ya, knighty
Cheater's.
That was short lived.
Oh well.
~Skeeter The Lurker
Mmm. That is not right. Decisions are not to be taken lightly. Some small things... are all that's left of someone. It's not fair for someone else to throw it out.
In case no one knew what I meant,
Good for you, Knighty.
Well, all right. It's not like the feature box is attainable anyway, with clop being the majority of it.
Good :D
thank you knighty
Thank you Knighty.
I kinda saw this coming.
It's better this way.
Beautiful.
Finally.
Huh.
I was expecting this sooner.
1263760
No clop, as far as the eye can see.
Wow. When will people learn that crime doesn't pay?
derpicdn.net/media/W1siZiIsIjIwMTMvMDEvMDUvMDNfMjJfNTRfNl8yMDI4ODJfX1VOT1BUX19zYWZlX2ZsdXR0ZXJzaHlfaW1hZ2VfbWFjcm9fY2FwdGlvbl9yZWFjdGlvbl9pbWFnZS5wbmcucG5nIl1d/202882__safe_fluttershy_image%2Bmacro_reaction%2Bimage_caption.png
Good job, the feature box is hard enough to get into as it is.
Still, I know people will have bitch fits about it.
...And now, back to our regular broadcast schedule.
1263760
There are literally no mature stories in the featured box right now.
CHECK MATE, ATHEISTS.
And here comes the massive amount of bitching in three.... Two....
Honestly surprised it took that long.
Maybe it's just me, but I've always thought that as long as someone actually liked your story you could consider it a success. The box is there for the popular ones, yes, but forcing your way into it won't make your story any better.
Oh fiddlesticks!
Hmm. I actually agree with this. But I wish the way stories got featured would be different. I mean, it's due to views instead of likes/faves. A story of mine I never expected to get featured was there for four days, while a few of my stories with zero dislikes at all never even got close to being featured. And then with all the followers I also got a bunch of haters for no reason who disliked all of my stories because they hated my featured story.
I don't know, I wish that there could be a different way. Like admins selected with the sole purpose of featuring good, new stories. I'm probably going to get downvoted like crazy for this, though.
That pic made me think of this
1263774
When that statement starts being true?
1263777
Dude, Atheists have been checkmating far too much. They need to just destroy the board already XD
Good job. They were technically cheating to get stories featured.
1263773
Well, it seems that my no-clop-in-the-feature-box dance has worked.
ouch
good shit Knighty... good shit.
dashie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/rsz/mlfw3082_small.jpg
So wait, let me understand this... a group started with the sole purpose of promoting fictions they believe have been overlooked by using an advanced understanding of how the "featured" box system works has been deleted for "abusing" the system? I suppose it's worth asking... are the methods by which they did this against site rules? If they are, this makes sense. If they're not, this seems like "how dare users do things that are entirely within the site rules to more efficiently promote fictions they like!" It seems, based entirely on this blog entry, that the Featured Box Crusaders are being punished and used as a warning for nothing more than being too effective at what multiple groups try to do.
Out of curiosity, was there any warning to anyone involved?
(Standard disclaimer: I wasn't a member, I never had any stories in the group yadda yadda)
1263798
They only ever got one story featured, if I recall correctly. It wasn't even that good.
Whiel I agree with the deleting of the group, I disagree with the way the feature box's story-rating algorithm works.
I uploaded a story a while back that had more likes and less dislikes than a story that DID get featured. Mine also had more favorites AND views.
The system has always seemed a bit messed up to me.
1263798
The group wasn't about promoting good stories. It was about getting all their users to upvote/favourite/generate heat for all the stories in the group to help them get featured. That's a dick move, and not what the feature box is for.
You go Knighty! Those guys were cheating, and they were bias to boot! Yay for fairness in the feature box!
1263806
It's a heat-based system.
10 likes in one minute generates much more heat than 10 likes in an hour. You can't go by those stats without knowing how quickly they happened.
1263811 Well mine got to about 20 likes in 10 minutes, whereas that one was uploaded BEFORE mine and only had 10 likes. I also had 0 dislikes, whereas that story had 1.
Honestly, I'm against this but can see the logic. Perhaps the group should have gotten a warning beforehand. Deleting it like this seemed rather extreme. I agree, the system shouldn't have been influenced, but just deleting the group seems to take away the site's feeling of freedom and kindness. So while I think this was a good goal, the way it was handled was imprecise and should have taken less extreme steps first.
Just my two bits.
2 + 2 = 5. We get it, Knighty.
Seriously, though, I don't see why people want to get to the FB. I mean, when I first saw my fic there, I was delighted. When I saw a fic of mine there for a second, third, fourth etc time, I kinda realised that it was just... All right. I dunno.
I don't have enough information about that group, but in my opinion, you should focus on making your fics good, and not FB-attainable. Yeah. But that's just my opinion.
1263807 I said nothing about "good" stories, I said stories that they thought deserved to be promoted. And what you're describing sounds like what every group does: get attention for stories they like or that are posted in their group so that people will go read those stories and upvote/favorite/view them. Unless they did something that was actually beyond what everyone else does, this seems like, as I characterized it, "how dare they be more effective at promoting the stories they like!"
So, does this mean the amount of porn will go up or down? This is important.
It's about time! Cheaters never prosper, even if their intentions were good.
1263759
English pls
1263822 I too am concerned.
I'm worried that this will affect the amount of porn as well.
1263815
Their group rules basically said if a story is added to the group upvote it. In return for them doing the same for you. Any website that rates content based on user voting has rules against this kind of vote trading. A warning wasn't really necessary.
Huzzah~ the feature box is free again~