Voting for yourself in a Rumble?

Set alerts

Updates

Owl Identified

As far as I can tell, there's no rule that explicitly prohibits a person from voting for themselves in a Rumble. Physically speaking, it's possible for a contributor to select themselves and vote for themselves. Additionally, I can't recall an explicit prohibition of this being posted anywhere. This poll has two functions. The first is to see how common a practice self-voting is in Rumbles (and I hope everyone will be honest since the voting is anonymous!) The second aim is to have a conversation about the ethics of this, since I can't recall any conversation about it happening previously. If there has been, by the way, please direct me to it! I apologize in advance if this is redundant.

So the question (and your answer is 100% ANONYMOUS so be honest!) is: have you done it, or would you? Do you think it's ethical? My personal stance is listed below, so feel free to add yours in the comments! Please try to allow space for others to have different opinions; I'd love for this conversation to be open so that people can feel comfortable sharing truthfully! Additionally, if Sam or anyone else associated with organizing the Rumbles wants to share what the ethics of voting ought to be, please do!

My stance is as follows. Whether I'm nominated or not, I do generally try to vote for the review that I deem best - and I especially tend to favor newbies or newbies to the Rumble itself. I've enjoyed lots of great assignments, gift cards, and I have even won a few things here and there in various contests. Eden has been extraordinarily generous with me, and I know that if I win a $25 gift card? I'll probably pick up some toy wipes, maybe some stockings, little extras like that. But for someone newer to the game, that $25 gift card might be an awesome thrill - as well as the distinction of the win. I wouldn't vote for my own review unless I worked extra hard on it and really thought it was the best. The nomination is a nice feeling in itself; I like seeing my name up there on the occasions it gets thrown into the mix. However, I don't see anything wrong with someone voting for their own review if they think it is the best nomination up. I think the Rumble relies on an honor system, and that folks should respect that by truthfully voting for the best review. If you think your review is the best, I don't think it's wrong to vote for it. I only think it's wrong to vote for your review just because it's your own, not because you honestly think it's best. That's just my two cents. Others may disagree, and I'd love to hear from you if you do!

Answers (private voting - your screen name will NOT appear in the results):

I almost always vote for myself, or would if nominated.

I often, but not always, vote for mself, or would if nominated.

I rarely vote for myself, or would if nominated.

I never vote for myself, or would if nominated.

AND...

I think a self-vote is ethical.

I think the ethics of a self-vote are situational and vary.

I do not think a self-vote is ethical.

Total votes: 94 (55 voters)

Poll is closed

10/30/2011

All promotions

Lucky21

I have voted for myself, but have almost always tended to vote for others. If for some reason there was a rule posted but it was on the honor system, then I would never do it.

10/30/2011

Owl Identified

Quote:

Originally posted by Lucky21

I have voted for myself, but have almost always tended to vote for others. If for some reason there was a rule posted but it was on the honor system, then I would never do it.

I share your position. I don't often vote for myself, but if it was clearly stated that this practice was discouraged, I would not do it on any occasion. Thanks for your honesty, it makes this conversation more interesting!

10/30/2011

Ryuson

(Review Program Mentor)

I vote for the best! If mine is objectively the one I think is best, I vote for it! Usually I don't think so, though.

10/30/2011

Vanille

I vote for the best one. I wouldn't vote for myself if I was in it though. I guess I'm too honest sometimes. xP

10/30/2011

Kynky Kytty

I have not been nominated in the longest time, but I do not think it would be unethical to vote for ourselves. But then, nothing would prevent me from voting from someone else if I particularly liked another review. As long as it's not a blind voting, why not? Besides, in politics, you can.

What would be unethical in my opinion would be people creating accounts to self-vote multiple times.

10/30/2011

Peggi

I was just nominated but the voting hasn't gone up yet so I can't say that I've done it in the past of course. I don't find it unethical because there are no rules stating that it can't be done. I can't say that I won't vote for myself, but chances are I would do that or just vote for whichever review I absolutely wanted to see win! I don't think I'd do it every time, either.

10/30/2011

Antipova

Quote:

Originally posted by Lucky21

I have voted for myself, but have almost always tended to vote for others. If for some reason there was a rule posted but it was on the honor system, then I would never do it.

I'm with OID and Lucky21. I vote for the review I think is best---which is almost always someone else's, but has occasionally been mine.

If there was a rule posted letting us know not to vote for ourselves, then I wouldn't disobey the rule---as it is, I think it's ethical to vote for the review you think is best, which can include your own.

10/30/2011

zeb

sometimes I vote for myself but I allways vote for the best person for the job`

10/30/2011

js250

I vote for the best review and doubt, but am not sure, if I would vote for mine since I know all the should haves I wanted to include but forgot.LOL!! I am not sure, however, since I have not been put in that position yet. We will have to see, I can always come back and revise my answer later.

10/30/2011

Owl Identified

I appreciate everyone's input. Thanks to everyone for posting. Keep 'em coming, y'all!

10/30/2011

Selective Sensualist

When I was nominated for the rumbles, I did not vote at all if I personally thought my review was the best. I'd only vote if I liked someone else's review best (in essence, voting against myself when I honestly believed someone else wrote a better review), but I never could vote to my own favor.

I just personally find it unethical to vote for myself. I think of it this way: The voters are judges who are supposed to be nonpartial and objective. It is impossible to be completely nonpartial and objective with one's own work. We may think that we are capable of doing so, but it's just best not to have a conflict of interests.

Just my two cents.

10/30/2011

ToyTimeTim

I never have and never will, it just does not seem right.
I have no real basis for my thoughts, just something tells me not to.

10/30/2011

Selective Sensualist

Also, I could have sworn that either Gary or Kristi (aka Zuul) mentioned on one of the threads several months back (perhaps as much as a year ago) that it should go without saying that nominees should not vote for themselves. I only saw this mentioned one time in one thread though, and it could've been for the Contributor of the Month award. However, I've never seen it listed anywhere else as a rule. Yet even if this was on a Contributor of the Month voting thread, I would think the same thing applies to the rumbles.

Maybe Gary or Kristi will chime in here?

10/30/2011

Owl Identified

Quote:

Originally posted by Selective Sensualist

It would be great if an administrator would chime in, actually. If it is a rule, then it's not stated very clearly. It seems that the majority of the people on this thread (myself included) have not seen any prohibition of the practice anywhere. If such a prohibition exists, it would probably be more useful to post it on the Rumble threads themselves along with all the other fine print. Otherwise, I'm glad to participate in this discussion of ethics, and for more to share their thoughts.

However, if there is no specific ruling on this presently, perhaps one might come out of this discussion? I know it's something that I've been asked about in the past by new contributors; most of us do not seem certain of whether or not it's allowed. I would think, though, that Sam would be the one to ask since she does the Rumbles now instead of Gary. Kristi might also know because she is the Expectations of Conduct gal! Actually, I'm going to poke her via email and ask if she'll pop in here. It would be good to get a definitive answer!

10/30/2011

Owl Identified

Also! I was searching the forums to see if I could find anything on this, and while I couldn't, I did find this. This was a post from a year ago that was created to improve the Rumble.

If there's no rule on the self-vote issue currently, maybe it's worth going up for a vote? Sam or another administrator could organize another multi-poll post for improving the Rumbles? A lot of things have improved in the Rumble as a result of that voting. For example, I feel we see a lot of new faces in the Rumbles since we've ruled that no one can win two weeks in a row. Maybe another multi-poll post could be useful?

Just an idea. Not trying to make new work for admins, I know you're busy enough.

10/30/2011

Kindred

I don't have a problem with people voting for their own reviews in a Rumble. It's also extremely rare that voting is even close. More typically the winner is by a large margin, so a single vote is unlikely to have any impact.

What bothers me more is that it does not seem that voters are reading all of the reviews, or at least that is my interpretation. If you look at the current Rumble, 37 total votes have been cast and yet even the review in the lead has only 27 total votes rating the review itself. In last weeks Rumble, 86 votes were cast and yet Tim's winning review only had 26 votes rating it. Why is there always such a large discrepancy? Are that many people really voting in the Rumble but forgetting to rate the review?

10/30/2011

Owl Identified

Quote:

Originally posted by Kindred

I've been snowed in all weekend, so I've been on here leaving comments and voting on reviews. However, I will often read and not vote. Other times, I might comment and then not scroll back up and vote. For no other reason than that I'm just forgetful. So, I do think there can be some honest discrepancy between votes on reviews and in Rumbles. Then again, I don't even remember to vote in the Rumbles every week - sometimes I get nominated and don't even know. So, to address that part, yes, some of us are just kind of oblivious lol. I can't say I vote, comment or anything like that with consistency.

But, I do also suspect that, unfortunately, many people aren't reading. I sense that many people vote based on the reviewers they like, or the names of the reviews themselves, etc. I remember for a video rumble of some kind, Carrie Ann just posted the links and didn't say whose they were. That way, people were forced to actually click, watch, and then vote. I wonder if this kind of system might help keep people honest with Rumbles? Maybe just having "Nominee 1" and so forth as the name on the link?

By the way Kindred, that's some handy detective work you did there! Kind of makes me want to go back and check out the break down of votes...

10/30/2011

toxie m

Quote:

Originally posted by Kindred

I do go through and read reviews, but I won't always vote on every single one, especially when there's a ton to read in one rumble. I'll admit that I sometimes skim - quick get the gist of each review and then go back and vote for the one that really went above and beyond (this is sometimes judged by being the one that made me want to slow down and read the whole thing, hah)

10/30/2011

Kynky Kytty

Quote:

Originally posted by Owl Identified

I agree, there could be a "popularity" factor influencing the votes of the Rumble, and that not many take the time to read the reviews.

10/30/2011

TheCleansing

Never nominated. Never done it.

10/30/2011

badk1tty

I can recall on a lot of occasions, watching the news on election day and seeing the candidates being filmed for the news casting their vote for themselves.

10/31/2011

Kindred

Quote:

Originally posted by Owl Identified

The main reason I noticed is that there has been a sharp increase in the total number of votes recently. Rumbles used to have votes in the 40s-50s. Lately we've been hitting 70s-80s. I read every review and started to notice how most have on average 20 or so ratings. It just seemed like an odd discrepancy, but I guess I was making the assumption that the majority of people read and voted for each review.

10/31/2011

Ash1141

I don't know how to vote on this? I don't even know what rumbles are?

10/31/2011

Jul!a

Quote:

Originally posted by Kindred

I know that with the Rumble reviews I have a tendency to just read them and not vote. In fact, I'm horrible and I have that tendency with a lot of reviews.

As for the ethics of voting on your own reviews, I personally see nothing terribly wrong with it since you didn't nominate yourself, however I will do my best to obtain an official ruling and come back with it.

10/31/2011

gone77

Quote:

Originally posted by Ash1141

I don't know how to vote on this? I don't even know what rumbles are?

Basically, rumbles are good-natured competitions. This is the latest Review Rumble and what everyone is referring to.

10/31/2011

gone77

Owl asked me for my EoC expertise on this matter, so here it is: There isn't a rule against voting for your own review in a rumble, per the Expectations of Conduct. For my personal take on this, I'm with Kindred: A person's vote on their own review isn't likely to decide who the winner is. There are just too many people who weren't nominated and who are voting for a single vote to have any effect. Of course, there is a chance that two reviews are neck and neck and all it takes is for one vote to tip the balance, and that one vote is from the person who wrote one of the reviews. But how often does that happen? Yeah, not often. As for the ethics of it, I lean toward Sam's thoughts: I don't see anything wrong with it since you didn't nominate yourself.

I guess we'll see if there is an official ruling on it, probably from Gary since he initially began the rumbles.

10/31/2011

Owl Identified

Quote:

Originally posted by gone77

Thanks for popping in, Kristi. It's good to know the EoC position on this!

10/31/2011

Beck

I do not see anything wrong with it. I agree that since you did not nominate yourself than it is cool to give yourself a vote if you feel you deserve it.

10/31/2011

Paladin Fantasys

I don't know if it applies to your review after it has been chosen for the Rumble or only on the review page itself for voting on how useful it is, but...
contributor ranking: breakdown and logic

"We consider voting on your own reviews an inappropriate practice. The reviews should be evaluated by other people, not by the author of the review."

10/31/2011

Total posts: 41 Unique posters: 28

Make a post