I've seen the show plenty of times, but have never actually voted, so I'm looking for your input on this.

This week's results show pretty much floored me, not because I'm any big Con fan (too much with "The Look"), but because it is painfully obvious that Scott is soooooo out of his league at this point that I can't fathom how he is still in it, let alone in the top 3.

The absurdity of his still being around got me wondering how, if I set my mind to it, could I affect the voting such as it is constructed and I've come to two possible methods. Both of these methods revolve around how the actual voting process works, so I'm a little in the dark there. I know that you call a number and you will hear a message when your vote is officially cast.

So how plausable are these ideas...

1. How to assist Scott - I know this technology exists, because telemarketers use it all the time. There is no limit to how often you can vote and therefore, it becomes a function of how many votes can be pumped through in the given 2 hour time period alloted. If you had a series of phone dailers equiped with voice recognition software, couldn't you just set them to hang up the instant that the "Thank you for voting" message starts? The faster you hang up, the faster the next phone call gets through. This assumes that there is an upper limit to how many calls the show can accept at any one point in time.

So if you had your auto dialers fire in sequence, you could get off more votes per hour for a less popular singer, since there wouldn't be as many real human voters getting in your way.

2. How to sabotage others - Conversely, if you wanted to stick it to somebody else, you could set your phones to call in for a given contestant (Con) and have them hold the line for the full message and not act until the call is disconnected from the other end, thus locking up that line for the full amount of time possible. In this way, you keep others from getting through.

It may seem contrary to your goal to vote for the person you want out, but what your doing is preventing a greater number of others from getting through instead of you.

==================

I believe that with a dedicated team of conspirators, spread throughout the country, this would be a fairly simple plan to pull off. Once you had the technology, you're on your way. I figure that there are enough hacker-ish folks out there that would just love to pull off a prank like this.

So how about it? Are these two ideas really that far fetched?

Fire away!

• RE: "Techie" voting questions (...but not Noir),Snidget, 01:26 PM, 04-28-05
  • RE: "Techie" voting questions (...but not Noir),LionChow, 02:22 PM, 04-28-05
• RE: "Techie" voting questions (...but not Noir),DontGetMeStarted, 01:30 PM, 04-28-05
• New York Post article,volsfan, 05:16 PM, 04-29-05
  • RE: New York Post article,AprilleW, 10:48 PM, 04-30-05
    • RE: New York Post article,volsfan, 06:19 AM, 05-01-05
      • RE: New York Post article,EmpressEmmie, 04:32 PM, 05-01-05
        • RE: New York Post article,volsfan, 08:05 PM, 05-01-05
    • RE: New York Post article,LozengeofLove, 05:08 PM, 05-01-05
      • RE: New York Post article,tjstein, 07:54 PM, 05-02-05

http://www.realitytvworld.com/index/articles/story.php?s=2570

Discusses this issue, there have been quite a few things on the web over the course of Idol about various ways people use technology to try to skew the voting.

I don't know how well any attempts by Fox to limit it have worked or not. Although there is sometimes a hint or two they know how to detect these people and not count those votes.

Although if one did a study of the natural variation in someone actually voting you could probable write up something that puts enough variation into the system that it looks more like a person and less like a machine.

Thanks for the link, that pretty much answered my question.

I've heard those theories before and they seem plausible to me.
If this were happening I would be sad because it would mean that the so called 'Average Joe' of America is an immoral scumbag. (I'm not doubting that but it would make me sad because they are 'winning')

LAST EDITED ON 04-29-05 AT 05:17 PM (EST)

Too funny that I found this thread because I didn't want to start a new one. In today's Post there is this article

Some point to the efforts of a Web site called votefortheworst.com, which considers "Idol" a joke and encourages viewers to cast their votes for Savol because, it says, "he is the worst."

This is interesting. Here is the link to the web site. The guy that runs the site has this quote in the article:

But I've changed my tune a bit since our Web site got over 100,000 hits in the last two days. Now I'm hearing from people who throw 'vote for the worst' parties, who get office pools together to vote for Scott . . . This has definitely turned into something huge, which I hope will continue."

What do you guys think?

ETC the links.

I believe that the types of "cheating" you have all mentioned are rampant! I additionally believe that there is no way of knowing what happens to all those calls really. That is why when something odd happens (like Constantine's recent offing) it is difficult to trust the contest.

It truly seems more likely than not that the whole thing is a big fraud...either because of Fox or their crafty viewers.

More than likely (and maybe one of the mods knows this) FOX hired a company to take and register the calls. I would say that FOX is a third party in the counting/collecting the phone calls.

Yes... but if it is an "office" or even a semi-large group at a bar or someone's studio appartment voting via land line and cell phones... they could be Vote For the Worst parties... or genuine Connies, Bo-fans, Vonzelles... or even... dare it be true? Scott dawgs? *eek!!!*

My point is... from large individual groups, how would FOX or "the powers that be" (TPTB) know which of those "power votes" were from VFTW and which were genuine fans?

IMHO... "talent" arguments aside... the MAD response against Con's boot makes it obvious that the man had a STRONG fanbase. You haven't seen that kind of fuss made over Nadia (who IMHO was VERY talented) or Anwar. And you sure as heck wouldn't see that kind of uproar over Scott.

from large individual groups, how would FOX or "the powers that be" (TPTB) know which of those "power votes" were from VFTW and which were genuine fans?

They can't! I am not saying that they can. I was just making the point that the blame isn't solely/if at all on FOX! It is the company in charge of counting votes.

Who cares what their intent is...whether it be VFTW or true fans. That is the way the game works. As LOL mentions below...it is well within the rules to vote how they see fit.

I think this absolutely does not qualify as cheating, and I don't think it even deserves "loophole" status. The show is designed to let viewers vote for whoever they choose. This doesn't mean the show is fraud. It means that for some viewers, the entertainment value they get from American Idol is in watching the worst performer sing week after week, and watching others squirm when the results are announced.

Handcrafted by RollDDice
I watch and don't vote, and think it's funny when a fan favorite is voted off. Come on, Constantine wasn't that good, was he?

I have to admit, I was disappointed seeing Constantine voted off and shocked that Scott was in the top three. But having seen that website, I'm not as surprised now. Heck, maybe I'll vote for the worst from now on just for fun.

It certainly is more entertaining.