I think some extreme rating abuse has happened the last days (in most cases there can be found just 1 and 10 votings in the profiles). Here some examples:

http://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=157084
http://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=132827
http://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=157086
http://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=157076
http://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=157085
http://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=150144
http://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=156712

^ It's funny how the votes follow a very similar pattern as well
Amorphis' new album must be a really really shitty album then no? Everybody's giving it a 1. =p

Again 2 more fakers today:
http://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=157158
http://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=157102

The 2015 charts are completly controlled by vote abusers. The album by Steven Wilson (just as an example) has 9 1-votes, 6 of them clearly from an (or several) Iron Maiden vote abuser(s). When is your next vote abuser nuking sesssion? Would love to see it. And the vote abusers are:
http://www.metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=132827
http://www.metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=156712
http://www.metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=157076
http://www.metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=157084
http://www.metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=157085
http://www.metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=157086
Look especially at the ID of the last 3 accounts! Generated within a few minutes and this by the same person.

I think we have a reincarnation od Syk

Perhaps voting should become a privilege then, like say after someone makes 50, 100 or some such forum posts. The majority of fake accounts wouldn't go to the lengths needed to be able to vote, and the ones that do would be easy to spot a mile off. It may also promote activity in the forums.

Written by [user id=4365] on 17.09.2015 at 11:50

Perhaps voting should become a privilege then, like say after someone makes 50, 100 or some such forum posts.

that's a great idea; for instance a newbie to progarchives forum cannot make or vote in polls until he/she had got a certain number of posts (50 I think), so yeah, it's a good idea.

I don't understand these users that abuse ratings, it's beyond stupid; I mean their only concern is this, they need to get a life or something. Ban'em, they deserve it.

Http://www.metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=17914
http://www.metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=146045
http://www.metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=150144

Written by [user id=17278] on 17.09.2015 at 12:03


that's a great idea; for instance a newbie to progarchives forum cannot make or vote in polls until he/she had got a certain number of posts (50 I think), so yeah, it's a good idea.

I don't understand these users that abuse ratings, it's beyond stupid; I mean their only concern is this, they need to get a life or something. Ban'em, they deserve it.

I've never understood the mentality myself. To sign up to a website, never comment or interact and obsess about manipulating album scores? Sounds a bit like a crazy person to me.

As for vote abuse, this website is a bit stuck in its ways. I can't see them implementing something that radical to deal with it. Even though it would solve a problem and promote interactivity.

I don't think that's a very good idea, since some people actually just sign up for the rating system (and have a "normal" voting pattern) but don't like posting. You would possibly be punishing more people that don't deserve it.

My idea would be for everyone to require a certain balance in their ratings for them to count. If you rate everything with a 10 or 9 you can keep your votes and everyone can see them and whatnot, but they automatically won't count towards the averages of the albums you rated.

Just brainstorming here. Feel free to point out the flaws of that idea to me, I haven't really thought about it too much.

Written by Zap on 17.09.2015 at 12:44

I don't think that's a very good idea, since some people actually just sign up for the rating system (and have a "normal" voting pattern) but don't like posting. You would possibly be punishing more people that don't deserve it.

My idea would be for everyone to require a certain balance in their ratings for them to count. If you rate everything with a 10 or 9 you can keep your votes and everyone can see them and whatnot, but they automatically won't count towards the averages of the albums you rated.

Just brainstorming here. Feel free to point out the flaws of that idea to me, I haven't really thought about it too much.

Sorry, but if one does not like posting, then maybe he/she should not come to a music forum. LOL Music discussions are the essential thing here, right?

I haven't seen many forums, but why is it that I only see the rating abuse problems here on metalstorm? Getting rid of this demands something radical.
Or maybe ratings should be accompanied by a logical explanation, whether the voting is a 10 or a 1.

Written by Zap on 17.09.2015 at 12:44

I don't think that's a very good idea, since some people actually just sign up for the rating system (and have a "normal" voting pattern) but don't like posting. You would possibly be punishing more people that don't deserve it.

My idea would be for everyone to require a certain balance in their ratings for them to count. If you rate everything with a 10 or 9 you can keep your votes and everyone can see them and whatnot, but they automatically won't count towards the averages of the albums you rated.

Just brainstorming here. Feel free to point out the flaws of that idea to me, I haven't really thought about it too much.

I think people should be allowed to add their own collection and rate those, but so they do not contribute to the overall vote aggregation. Or just have it so votes don't add to the total until a few posts have been made.

The balance idea sounds complicated and difficult to implement. Who would decide what the balance is. That sounds a bit too close to policing the way people vote (outside of blatant vote abuse)

Actually it probably wouldn't be that hard to protect existing voters from such a new scheme. For example if a date of an album is wrong and put forward anyone who voted still has their votes kept even though the album then couldn't be voted on.

In old days ppl could open topic after 100 forum post, get costume title after 1000 , why not let ppl vote only after 100 posts in old days forum mattered more as now

Written by deadone on 17.09.2015 at 13:06

I agree with this but find your idea a bit hard to implement - what is

A new user can only vote if they've been a member for say a month.

Surely rating abusers won't want to wait that long.

There's really nothing to stop people making a bunch of accounts then just waiting round for a bit.

It would also put me right off joining a website to begin with. I registered with Polygon about a month ago to discover that they wouldn't let me comment for 24 hours. I never bothered signing back in. If people join up just to vote being made to wait is hardly a great incentive. Being made to make some posts would allow then to vote within a day, whilst making themselves known to the community.

Written by deadone on 17.09.2015 at 13:24


Fair points.

Maybe it's just something we have to live with. In the end does it really matter that much?

Not really, but people complain about it all the time, and people are obsessed with numbers (see any review thread and people moaning about the score). The forum activity on MS has diminished a lot in recent years and I think it's important to consider what's best for the website. Does MS want the identity of a place of discussion, or an aggregate scoring website full of invisible people? Personally I'd prefer the former.

Written by [user id=17278] on 17.09.2015 at 12:54

Sorry, but if one does not like posting, then maybe he/she should not come to a music forum. LOL Music discussions are the essential thing here, right?

I haven't seen many forums, but why is it that I only see the rating abuse problems here on metalstorm? Getting rid of this demands something radical.
Or maybe ratings should be accompanied by a logical explanation, whether the voting is a 10 or a 1.

But Metal Storm isn't exclusively for posting, I followed the site for months before signing up, just to discover good music. With 58.000 members you'd expect more posts if that was the only thing to do here.

As for rating abuse, go to imdb and you'll see the same thing happen to every popular film. Lots of 10s, lots of 1s. It's not exclusive to Metal Storm at all.

Written by [user id=4365] on 17.09.2015 at 12:58

The balance idea sounds complicated and difficult to implement. Who would decide what the balance is. That sounds a bit too close to policing the way people vote (outside of blatant vote abuse)

Written by deadone on 17.09.2015 at 13:06

I agree with this but find your idea a bit hard to implement - what is balance after all and and what about people that just rate their favourite albums.

Okay, balance is complicated, maybe you should be required to have a certain amount of ratings before they start counting?

Yeah, I definitely care more about discussion than numbers. Personally I'd do away with the average ratings for albums entirely.

@deady: Yeah I tried Twitter for a bit and gave up pretty fast. On Facebook I now have everyone I know hidden and just use it for bands, interesting pages, events etc. And I no longer post.

@Zaphy: that sounds like it would be easy to get around just by spamming random votes on albums =p that might even promote rating abuse that would be harder to detect as people might put random votes on albums they don't care about (which we would have no way of knowing about)

Written by Zap on 17.09.2015 at 13:40

Yeah, I definitely care more about discussion than numbers. Personally I'd do away with the average ratings for albums entirely.

Personally I'd like to see that on reviews, but I think aggregate scores help people, n00bs especially, find new albums, like classic ones etc.

Written by [user id=4365] on 17.09.2015 at 13:43

@Zaphy: that sounds like it would be easy to get around just by spamming random votes on albums =p that might even promote rating abuse that would be harder to detect as people might put random votes on albums they don't care about (which we would have no way of knowing about)

Yeah true enough... Those were my best ideas, so I'm just gonna go from this thread, since I really don't give a rat's ass about ratings anyhow.
Let's go with the 50 or 100 or whatever post requirement, that's probably the most reasonable idea and as you said it might even promote more forum activity.

Written by [user id=4365] on 17.09.2015 at 13:45

Personally I'd like to see that on reviews, but I think aggregate scores help people, n00bs especially, find new albums, like classic ones etc.

Yep, reviews especially, I lost count of the amount of times I was annoyed at people focusing more on the rating than anything else.

As for n00bs, they would have to look for people with similar tastes, you'd still be able to see each other's ratings in Zaphod's Metal Storm, just no average ratings.

Written by Zap on 17.09.2015 at 13:46

Yeah true enough... Those were my best ideas, so I'm just gonna go from this thread, since I really don't give a rat's ass about ratings anyhow.
Let's go with the 50 or 100 or whatever post requirement, that's probably the most reasonable idea and as you said it might even promote more forum activity.

Well I doubt it'll happen at any rate anyway!

Written by Zap on 17.09.2015 at 13:34

Written by [user id=17278] on 17.09.2015 at 12:54

Sorry, but if one does not like posting, then maybe he/she should not come to a music forum. LOL Music discussions are the essential thing here, right?

I haven't seen many forums, but why is it that I only see the rating abuse problems here on metalstorm? Getting rid of this demands something radical.
Or maybe ratings should be accompanied by a logical explanation, whether the voting is a 10 or a 1.

But Metal Storm isn't exclusively for posting, I followed the site for months before signing up, just to discover good music. With 58.000 members you'd expect more posts if that was the only thing to do here.

As for rating abuse, go to imdb and you'll see the same thing happen to every popular film. Lots of 10s, lots of 1s. It's not exclusive to Metal Storm at all.

I never said rating abuse only happens on mtalstorm, but out of the few forums I've seen, it was only metalstorm that has had this problem.

As for imdb, I can imagine it happens, but then again, I do not rely on reviews and ratings of imdb. And some of the message boards discussions are just as bad as some on youtube.

It's one thing to follow metalstorm for information (nothing wrong with that) and another just to rate albums and abusing that (which is lame).

I'm liking the ideas here.
The idea of the votes of a person below 50 posts not counting on the averages seems good. He can keep his votes on his profile page for personal reference, and plus it keeps rating abusers away. If one thinks it's not fair with people who don't post very much, one could also allow say at least 5 (or even 1) community points. Not an absurd value, and even shy people can do it, and I highly doubt people concerning with vote abusing would bother doing anything to gain cps...

Written by [user id=17278] on 17.09.2015 at 12:54



Sorry, but if one does not like posting, then maybe he/she should not come to a music forum.

Metal Storm is not a music forum, it is metal webzine with a forum attached to it.
By far the most traffic Metal Storm generates doesn't come to the forum at all. The forum is just a small part of Metal Storm.
Somehow people who are quite on the forums here think that MS evolves around the forum.

Yes but everything what metal storm even has as news, articles, img gallery, news, events, tour and all those things has forum comment and all shows up in forum ....
and if ppl don't comment forums and use SB, edd, edit news, database, tour etc... they can use 90% of MS even whit out logging in

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 17.09.2015 at 15:53

Written by [user id=17278] on 17.09.2015 at 12:54



Sorry, but if one does not like posting, then maybe he/she should not come to a music forum.

Metal Storm is not a music forum, it is metal webzine with a forum attached to it.
By far the most traffic Metal Storm generates doesn't come to the forum at all. The forum is just a small part of Metal Storm.
Somehow people who are quite on the forums here think that MS evolves around the forum.

webzine, whatever... we're talking two different things, I was talking about people that register, never or hardly ever post and only abuse ratings; I don't even know what to make of your post or why it bothered you.

Whatever bands/albums/reviews/articles/news etc I see on metalstorm, there are people's reactions to that, so discussions are welcome and a lot of time interesting.

Whether or not it's a forum is beside the point. The point is that people complain about vote abuse, then people complain about the people complaining about the vote abuse (staff included). It would be easy to deal with much of the vote abuse while at the same time potentially improving the community aspect of the site. It won't affect the "traffic" coming through the site seeing as most people who view reviews, news etc. probably aren't members to begin with.

Written by [user id=17278] on 17.09.2015 at 16:19

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 17.09.2015 at 15:53

Written by [user id=17278] on 17.09.2015 at 12:54



Sorry, but if one does not like posting, then maybe he/she should not come to a music forum.

Metal Storm is not a music forum, it is metal webzine with a forum attached to it.
By far the most traffic Metal Storm generates doesn't come to the forum at all. The forum is just a small part of Metal Storm.
Somehow people who are quite on the forums here think that MS evolves around the forum.

webzine, whatever... we're talking two different things, I was talking about people that register, never or hardly ever post and only abuse ratings; I don't even know what to make of your post or why it bothered you.

Whatever bands/albums/reviews/articles/news etc I see on metalstorm, there are people's reactions to that, so discussions are welcome and a lot of time interesting.

He likes to do when someone say something like this what he didn't like, he qutes me often , but many times I say stupid things well some say I do