I would like to add a comment about deleting cookies to enable repetitive
voting.....
 
Last year, I had entered my Tyler's picture into a Photo Contest.  I then
emailed all my friends and family and asked them to vote for Tyler, which
many did.  The news of Tyler's contest reached some people who are friends
of friends and pretty soon we had lots of votes for my little man and for
most of the month we maintained a winning margin.  It came to my attention
that you could go in and delete a cookie and then re-vote.  This created
for me a moral dilemma as I didn't feel that this was totally honest.  The
ferret picture that was running a tight 2nd place to Tyler for most of the
month would have spurts of voting resulting in that picture taking over
1st place.  Several people emailed me asking about how we could get more
votes for Tyler.  I told them about the "cookie delete" method, but added
that I didn't feel that it was honest and didn't endorse it, so went back
to emailing more friends, including President Bush, asking for votes for
Tyler.  I can't tell you how much time this took and as the month was
coming to an end I was grateful that the contest would be over soon.
Again Tyler was ahead by a nice margin.
 
Now, this is the kicker.... On the last night of the contest, the ferret
that had been keeping a close second to Tyler suddenly accumulated over
100 votes in a very short period - like the last 2 hours of the contest.
It was very apparent that the owner of the ferret had found a way to trick
the system and fill the ballot box.  I can't tell you how upset and angry
I was over this.  I even emailed the ones running the contest and
protested this winner and asked them to look at the month's activity for
Tyler and they would see that he had maintained a first place margin for a
better part of the month as well as the fact that the winner had so many
votes in so short a period of time.
 
Those running the contest said that they were not aware of the "cookie
delete" issue and that they would watch for it in the future.
 
Now, I realize that is contest is supposed to be for fun, but for the
person entering the contest it is still a great deal of work getting
votes for your fuzzie only to have another contestant use unethical
methods to ensure that their ferret will win.  Let's keep these contests
fair and ethical.  Let's rise above the unscrupulous activities that are
so commonly used in the world today.  Playing fair is important and good
moral judgement has its rewards.  Tyler might have lost the contest, but
we both won lots of new friends out of our efforts.
 
Phyllis M. Spy
Clerk, Massachusetts Ferret Friends, Inc.
______________________________________________
A non-profit organization dedicated to education, outreach and shelter to
benefit the domestic ferret
[Posted in FML issue 3759]