Link voting has been temporarily taken down from the
front page while the system is revamped. Outside votes form band websites
will still work and be calculated. Look for the new "charts" in
the next couple of days.Over the last week we have received several complaints about voting system abuse. It is obvious that some are voting 1's for "their competition" in an effort to improve their own position, even going to the extreme of sending email to their followers to vote down another band. Nobody gains by this kind of abuse and it virtually eliminates any usefulness of the system.
The first change I am contemplating is taking any "chart" off of the front page. It will be replaced with a random band link box that will refresh with each page view. Everybody will get an equal shot this way. Second the "charts" will be moved to their own page with multiple listings on one. For example, there will be a charts on that page for the most total votes and the highest rated band. I will also be making changes to the system to reduce voter abuse in general. One change might be requiring a comment with a vote for registered users. Another could be displaying the user name along with how they voted. You should be aware that user names are and always have been logged with each vote from a registered user, so it is easy for us to identify those that are abusing the system.
We will see how this goes. Frankly, I'm not a big fan of concept of "Ranking" bands and am inclined to remove it completely.
webmaster