I may have faults, but being wrong ain't one of them - Jimmy Hoffa
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Asus defends blogging competition
FOLLOWING OUR story about Asus' blogging competition debacle, the firm has explained how flagarant vote-rigging caused the firm to change voting policy on the Electric Pig website.
The INQ reported that Asus had chosen six reviewers, laden them with its kit - laptops and netbooks - and dropped them into the bog(osphere). The idea was that readers would be able to vote for the bogger they liked best. The winner would receive an Eee PC 900.
So far, so good PR.
But Asus decided to discard the popular vote and appointed blogger Emma Hill, who won just one per cent of the readers' ballots, as queen of the crop. We at the INQ questioned the decision, as did a majority of the readers who had voted for Gavyn Britton.
A week later the Taiwanese firm has got back to us with an explanation of what went wrong.
"Unfortunately, during the voting process, Electric Pig became aware that the voting system had become susceptible to a person (or people) looking to unfairly influence the outcome of the vote," Asus spinner John Swatton told us. "One of the bloggers received in excess of 800 votes, all generated from the same IP address," he added, but stopped short of pointing a finger at Gavyn Britton's mum.
In total, says Asus, eight IP addresses were used to generate more than 1,670 votes, "effectively invalidating the whole voting process."
So Electric Pig and Asus decided the best thing to do was gloss over the whole snafu by changing the voting policy rules with no explanation to readers and voters whatsoever.
Each of the six bloggers was given one vote to cast, whereby Emma Hill and her Eee Top emerged victorious. This process has sound democratic precedent: it's what developed nations do to appoint the head of a small emerging country with strategic significance or exploitable natural resources.
Swatton wanted the INQ to know that "in no way are we stating that any of the bloggers themselves were responsible for the voting manipulation."
"Asus, Electric Pig and the six bloggers are very disappointed that an external influence outside of any of our control, has unfairly tarnished the reputation of this competition," Swatton told the INQ, adding the firm would "like to thank the six bloggers for their honesty and openness in writing their blogs."
In compensation for the whole debacle, Asus awarded all the other bloggers an Eee PC 1000H (an upgrade from the original Eee PC 900 prize).
Yes, democracy is a pain in the Asus. µ
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Is it just Gavyn and his mates who are so upset by this? Or those poor innocent people who spent a millisecond clicking a vote button? As pointed out at the time rules governing sales promotions meant the vote had to be pulled otherwise Electric pig & Asus would be facing a different accusation now so move on, get over it.
My God,
I always thought this level of incompetence and a total lack of regard of the voters was the sole domain of Politicians. Well done ASUS and "The Electric Pigs" you have proven beyond doubt that geeks like u r worse.
Please do us a favour and show the link detailing the voting rules regarding this competition where it states that only one vote per IP was permissable. I never voted but I am pretty sure that there were no rules or any link to the rules on the voting page.
I think its about time for u idiots too take your feet out of your mouth and admit you f*&ked up. Give all the bloggers the EE-PC and the computers they evaluated and so they can sell them all and get something that has the reputation of a good company behind it.
nowt to bog
thnx Sylv
Truth twisting at its best... Keep it on, ASUS...
First, they pull the plug on the obvious winner that didn't put ASUS in good light. All without saying a word of justification. Then, a major riot irruption that ASUS stupid PR department never saw coming. Then and only then, way after the facts, they pull a magic, half baked rabbit out of the bag. 8 IPs accounted for over 1600 votes. Sorry folks, that's justification enough to invalidate the democratic process, we are now taking over to correct this "mistake"...
I'm speechless. How dumb ASUS think the IT community is? Really, give me a F*cking brake, would you? There are at least a billion ways to secure voting online. Simple e-mail authentication would have cut 95% of the crap. You then just discard any dupes...
ASUS know all this, they are in the IT business themselves. Marketing and truth, PR and trust, are words that will NEVER mix together. ASUS just learned that it seems. I bet everything I have they will NEVER do that kind of promotion EVER again.
Oh, I almost forgot: F you ASUS.
Ramon
"This process has sound democratic precedent: it's what developed nations do to appoint the head of a small emerging country with strategic significance or exploitable natural resources."
Absolute classic :)
Why not simply remove any duplicate votes from the same IP, so it's a 1 IP = 1 vote.
I know lots of offices, etc. share IP addresses. Why didn't they take that into consideration. Surely, they could have set a cookie, or something to make it harder to vote twice. I know that's not fool proof, but it helps slow down idiots.
Anyway, I wouldn't want an ASUS if you gave it to me, unless I could immediately sell it again.