Holidroid Contest 12/6 - A Hopeful Plea

[projeqht]

Hi All,

First of all I wanted to give a huge thanks to Phandroid and their supporters for hosting this contest. The opportunity to win the prizes that are up for grabs is awesome.

If you all were active in yesterday's contest you might have noticed that the user: andpol, was the first person to post the correct answer for Contest 12/6. His post was as follows:

The elephant man ran out of peanuts
Verizon Takes Top Spot, AT&T Ranks Last in Consumer Reports Carrier Satisfaction Survey
Verizon Takes Top Spot, AT&T Ranks Last in Consumer Reports Carrier Satisfaction Survey
Tue, 06 Dec 2011 22:03:27 +0000

Suspicious Items:

• The speed it took to post 4 perfectly accurate lines specified by the Contest Rules (Happy Holidroid Contest: Secret Phrase Challenge) for a new user. (Note: I manually copy/pasted 1 single line of the URL and was still beat).
• Exact time stamp pulled from RSS.
• I know this might not help as much (especially since I have a GitHub account too) but andpol (Andrey Polyakov) also has a GitHub account https://github.com/andpol which means he is dev saavy.

As the runner up, I don't like to give up on fights that I believe in (and of course giving up on the prize as well heh), so I'm asking you all please, if you believe that andpol did in fact cheat to win Contest 12/6, please post here/report his original post (http://androidforums.com/lounge/458361-happy-holidroid-contest-12-6-secret-phrase-5.html#post3592830) and let Phandroid/Android Forums know!

Thank you all for your time. Good luck in the remainder of the Contest, and happy holidays!

Projeqht

[Note: Sorry for calling you out andpol, and if you really didn't cheat then Congratulations...]

*Edit

The only requirement to win this contest was to post the single link to the forum. Why would someone who knew the contest was about speed go out of his way to retrieve MORE than enough information to win the contest? I think everyone of us would get the bare requirement (1 link) as fast as possible and post it as fast as we can to win, not grab all 4 details "manually" and post it the fastest out of all of us.

This fact points closer and closer to the direction that andpol indeed had some sort of script/bot to help him win the contest. The official rules state that users trying to circumvent the system will be disqualified.

I think botting for sure is a disqualification. Should pre-scripting a program to search for the Secret Phrase and copying the winning details count as "circumventing the system"? I think in this case, since the Contest was about "Seeing the Secret Phrase in the Post First" and "Copying the link and posting it onto the Forums First", having a script that automatically does this for you is "circumventing the system". In that sense, a user using this script in no way "Saw the post first", only that he had everything done for him, all he had to do was post. Is it cheating? It's everyone's own opinion.

Again, thanks for the read everyone!

*Edit test What is in here is not important at all

 

[xmetalfan99]

Hi All,

First of all I wanted to give a huge thanks to Phandroid and their supporters for hosting this contest. The opportunity to win the prizes that are up for grabs is awesome.

If you all were active in yesterday's contest you might have noticed that the user: andpol, was the first person to post the correct answer for Contest 12/6. His post was as follows:



Suspicious Items:

• The speed it took to post 4 perfectly accurate lines specified by the Contest Rules (Happy Holidroid Contest: Secret Phrase Challenge) for a new user. (Note: I manually copy/pasted 1 single line of the URL and was still beat).
• Exact time stamp pulled from RSS.
• I know this might not help as much (especially since I have a GitHub account too) but andpol (Andrey Polyakov) also has a GitHub account https://github.com/andpol which means he is dev saavy.

As the runner up, I don't like to give up on fights that I believe in (and of course giving up on the prize as well heh), so I'm asking you all please, if you believe that andpol did in fact cheat to win Contest 12/6, please post here/report his original post (http://androidforums.com/lounge/458361-happy-holidroid-contest-12-6-secret-phrase-5.html#post3592830) and let Phandroid/Android Forums know!

Thank you all for your time. Good luck in the remainder of the Contest, and happy holidays!

Projeqht

[Note: Sorry for calling you out andpol, and if you really didn't cheat then Congratulations...]

Even if he did cheat in some way, I feel this thread/post is out of line. I am sure the admins/mods look into that stuff before posting the winner. let them do their jobs. If he cheated, they will let you know you won. if he didn't, o well. I think you are just being a poor sport in this case.

 

[projeqht]

Well, I'm not trying to cry about it I'm just trying to shed some light. Sorry if you think its out of line though

 

[dogbertus]

I'm quite sure if he had cheated the mods/admins would know about it.

 

[projeqht]

Can't blame a guy for trying. I believe the rules mentioned something about scripting.

If you all think it's fair game then congrats to the winner!

I'm sure I'll get another good chance next time! Good luck everyone!

 

[B2L]

Can't blame a guy for trying. I believe the rules mentioned something about scripting.

If you all think it's fair game then congrats to the winner!

I'm sure I'll get another good chance next time! Good luck everyone!

Trust me I know what you mean, I was right there with you. (8th to post the link to be exact.) I didn't believe it was possible to be that quick, especially with the text, and timestamp. If they decided that andpol was the winner I trust them. Even though with some scripts it would be nearly impossible for them to detect. I was refreshing every 5 seconds, loaded the article ASAP, did a command+F with the phrase preloaded in the search, and I still managed to be the 8th post. I spent over 3 hours of my time yesterday watching like a hawk, and refreshing non stop. Some things aren't exactly fair, the only thing we can do is try again on another contest and hope to win.

 

[projeqht]

Trust me I know what you mean, I was right there with you. (8th to post the link to be exact.) I didn't believe it was possible to be that quick, especially with the text, and timestamp. If they decided that andpol was the winner I trust them. Even though with some scripts it would be nearly impossible for them to detect. I was refreshing every 5 seconds, loaded the article ASAP, did a command+F with the phrase preloaded in the search, and I still managed to be the 8th post. I spent over 3 hours of my time yesterday watching like a hawk, and refreshing non stop. Some things aren't exactly fair, the only thing we can do is try again on another contest and hope to win.

Haha yeah, I was doing the same at the moment that the post came up, luck would have it I must've refreshed right when the post was posted, but well yeah. Seems a bit unfair, but no way to tell, too bad eh?

 

[DaSchmarotzer]

I'd just like to add that the moderators/guides or Androidforums are not a part of this contest: we don't judge anything, we don't know anything about it that you don't, etc. I haven't read the rules, but I'm pretty sure we could participate too, since we're only volunteers.

Using the report button won't help, since it's going to spam us mods.

Have you contacted Rob and/or Phases?

Oh, and please everyone, give him a chance: don't be rude.

 

[projeqht]

I'd just like to add that the moderators/guides or Androidforums are not a part of this contest: we don't judge anything, we don't know anything about it that you don't, etc. I haven't read the rules, but I'm pretty sure we could participate too, since we're only volunteers.

Using the report button won't help, since it's going to spam us mods.

Have you contacted Rob and/or Phases?

Oh, and please everyone, give him a chance: don't be rude.

Hi, thanks for your reply Dasch!

That's good to know, thank you for sharing the information all I was asking for was a chance, a chance I'm sure anyone would take.. hehe

 

[B2L]

I'd just like to add that the moderators/guides or Androidforums are not a part of this contest: we don't judge anything, we don't know anything about it that you don't, etc. I haven't read the rules, but I'm pretty sure we could participate too, since we're only volunteers.

Using the report button won't help, since it's going to spam us mods.

Have you contacted Rob and/or Phases?

Oh, and please everyone, give him a chance: don't be rude.

That's my thinking behind it, that's why I keep trying to win every time.

Hi, thanks for your reply Dasch!

That's good to know, thank you for sharing the information all I was asking for was a chance, a chance I'm sure anyone would take.. hehe

I would probably be doing the same thing in your position. (I was secretly hoping everyone before me was a bot, or using a script.)

 

[projeqht]

That's my thinking behind it, that's why I keep trying to win every time.



I would probably be doing the same thing in your position. (I was secretly hoping everyone before me was a bot, or using a script.)

Well, it is a close one right? I know its a long shot to ask other people to help someone else they don't know/care about but all I did was ask, I just thought I'd try

 

[greenless]

I feel for ya. The 'winner' definitely cheated, and was still awarded after Qwentyn stated that he'd DQ people for cheating.

Yesterday's contest was lame, too, but it was a subjective contest, so I don't have AS much ground to be pissed as you.

The winning 'balance your phone on something' entry was this one:

A penny. I balanced my OG Droid on a payphone being held up by two Android figurines. I guarantee you it was harder to pull off than a penny!

 

[xmetalfan99]

Yesterdays contest was a random drawing out of the ones they liked the most...

"After the entry period we will randomly select a winner from a pile of the most creative, interesting and impressive ones we receive."

or atleast that was what it was supposed to be...

 

[greenless]

From today's post, talking about how they chose the winner: "While points were awarded for creativity, we ultimately made our decision based on skill."

 

[kaze0]

Yesterday's contest was lame, too, but it was a subjective contest, so I don't have AS much ground to be pissed as you.

Was it subjective? The rules I saw were;
"After the entry period we will randomly select a winner from a pile of the most creative, interesting and impressive ones we receive."

It seems obvious the winner was just picked based on impressiveness.
"While points were awarded for creativity, we ultimately made our decision based on skill."
And I can concede that yours is probably more technically impressive the penny is something that you wouldn't miss if you saw it on a table.

In case anyone is still wondering, yes I am a sore loser.

In the spirit of being a sore loser... please check out
Holidroid Contest Watcher so you can get the upper hand in speed and time sensitive contests.

 

[projeqht]

I feel for ya. The 'winner' definitely cheated, and was still awarded after Qwentyn stated that he'd DQ people for cheating.

Yesterday's contest was lame, too, but it was a subjective contest, so I don't have AS much ground to be pissed as you.

The winning 'balance your phone on something' entry was this one:

[removed image to save space]

A penny. I balanced my OG Droid on a payphone being held up by two Android figurines. I guarantee you it was harder to pull off than a penny!

[removed image to save space]

Yeah too bad really, I realized that Quentyn stated that the cheaters "will not have a chance" so it gave me some hope y'know? But the reply I got back from Quentyn was that there was no way to determine 100% if he had cheated. Which may be true, which is why I brought up the reason that it would be inhumanly possible to manually copy 4 lines of text laid out separately, and paste it in the time that andpol was able to do it.

BTW great job on your phone balance entry, it looks extremely difficult and well deserving of being considered for the win, I'm surprised it wasn't... (the ones in the "considered" batch were quite creative too (but more on the artsy side I'd think)

 

[xmetalfan99]

Yeah too bad really, I realized that Quentyn stated that the cheaters "will not have a chance" so it gave me some hope y'know? But the reply I got back from Quentyn was that there was no way to determine 100% if he had cheated. Which may be true, which is why I brought up the reason that it would be inhumanly possible to manually copy 4 lines of text laid out separately, and paste it in the time that andpol was able to do it.

BTW great job on your phone balance entry, it looks extremely difficult and well deserving of being considered for the win, I'm surprised it wasn't... (the ones in the "considered" batch were quite creative too (but more on the artsy side I'd think)

I agree with you on your comments about the others were artsy. I balanced the bottom of a soda can on top of a straw. The bottom of soda cans are rounded so not easy to do at all. Then I put my phone on top of that.

If it wasn't for the fact that phandroid doesn't have to do these contests/giveaways I would be pissed about they way they decided to change their mind with the rules the way they did.

 

[projeqht]

Was it subjective? The rules I saw were;
"After the entry period we will randomly select a winner from a pile of the most creative, interesting and impressive ones we receive."

It seems obvious the winner was just picked based on impressiveness.
"While points were awarded for creativity, we ultimately made our decision based on skill."
And I can concede that yours is probably more technically impressive the penny is something that you wouldn't miss if you saw it on a table.

In case anyone is still wondering, yes I am a sore loser.

In the spirit of being a sore loser... please check out
Holidroid Contest Watcher so you can get the upper hand in speed and time sensitive contests.

Nice app lol did you develop it? Yeah its true that will give you an edge, but unfortunately for speed contests you'd literally have to be on your computer at the right time to be able to even get close to winning.

The difference with the Secret Phrase contest was that we knew the contest entry was coming so we were able to prepare to post our answers.

On other speed contests like trivia, we'd never know when the post is coming, by then it would be too late. I dont believe you'd be able to post a winning post fast enough on a phone.

Nevertheless still a useful and situational app!

I agree with you on your comments about the others were artsy. I balanced the bottom of a soda can on top of a straw. The bottom of soda cans are rounded so not easy to do at all. Then I put my phone on top of that.

If it wasn't for the fact that phandroid doesn't have to do these contests/giveaways I would be pissed about they way they decided to change their mind with the rules the way they did.

Sounds just as difficult, can I see? I'm curious, and I didn't go through the hundreds of entries and look at all of em, I'm sure there were MANY deserving entries

Yep Phandroid is giving to the community by hosting this gigantic holiday contest so props to them!

 

[xmetalfan99]

Here you go. Sorry for poor lighting.

 

[projeqht]

Wow I can't imagine how many times your phone dropped... <img src="http://www.androidforums.com/images/smilies/wink.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Wink" smilieid="4" class="inlineimg" /><br />
<br />
Anyways I was able to contact Phases and he said he would check a few things, I'm not sure what he's planning to do but at least I tried to do what I could!!