jasondenzer
Power Member
- Nov 11, 2015
- 573
- 173
Hello everyone, Redditors in particular. Today I discovered something on Reddit regarding the voting system. For multiple months I have ran two Reddit accounts on a consistent basis. My main account currently has 3k comment karma and 1k link karma. My alternative account has 150 comment karma and only 10 link karma respectively. Apparently I was using the same IP address on both accounts so they may have likely caught me gaming their system. I tend to often trade and/or share votes between both accounts on around 80% of my posts. We both post in the same subreddit but generally what we post appears to be physically two different people.
Anyhow, let's get to my discovery. Let's use a text post as an example from someone else. It has 1 upvote (includes the self-upvote from the OP) and 1 downvote upon viewing it. My alt account upvotes this post so it becomes 2-1 (67%). Then 2 hours later, I go on my main account and upvote it again but what it shows is 1 point at 60% upvoted. That means that it appears as though the ratio is 3-2 upvotes:downvotes. I also tried downvoting that post on my main and I got the exact same result. I tested this by removing my votes and the result showed 1 point, 67% upvoted, which was as if my vote did not count on my main. So basically it seems as though the system recognizes that both my accounts count as one account. I know it's hard to tell or explain this theory but that seems to be the case. Now most of you already know that "vote fuzzing" happens a lot on Reddit. However, this theory was tested a few times with a few different posts while I kept spamming the refresh button to check if it was a fuzz or not. Nothing changed at all.
Hopefully that's one tip I want to share regarding this voting system. It's tough to game this system, I know but as we share each theory, more data can be compiled.
Anyhow, let's get to my discovery. Let's use a text post as an example from someone else. It has 1 upvote (includes the self-upvote from the OP) and 1 downvote upon viewing it. My alt account upvotes this post so it becomes 2-1 (67%). Then 2 hours later, I go on my main account and upvote it again but what it shows is 1 point at 60% upvoted. That means that it appears as though the ratio is 3-2 upvotes:downvotes. I also tried downvoting that post on my main and I got the exact same result. I tested this by removing my votes and the result showed 1 point, 67% upvoted, which was as if my vote did not count on my main. So basically it seems as though the system recognizes that both my accounts count as one account. I know it's hard to tell or explain this theory but that seems to be the case. Now most of you already know that "vote fuzzing" happens a lot on Reddit. However, this theory was tested a few times with a few different posts while I kept spamming the refresh button to check if it was a fuzz or not. Nothing changed at all.
Hopefully that's one tip I want to share regarding this voting system. It's tough to game this system, I know but as we share each theory, more data can be compiled.
