Cheating in BI Forums for Points

[Former Member]

Hello Friends,

Today I saw a group of users(maybe from the same company) who are copying previously answered threads just to get points.

They are following a system like.."i copy a query from a previously answered thread..post it as a new query..u answer the query by copying answers from the old thread..and i say 'thanks' and award points!".

these 4-5 users have all joined SDN on 14th May..and have already collected good number of points.

the very minute(say 11.39 am) one of them posts a query..3-4 of them post a reply(at 11.39 am)..and that very minute(11.39 am!) the thread is closed!

the same question is posted more than 3-4 times.

to prove my point..see below..

<b>event and event collector</b>

copied threads

/thread/146953 [original link is broken]

/thread/146938 [original link is broken]

/thread/146923 [original link is broken]

/thread/146898 [original link is broken]

original thread

<b>transfer objects</b>

copied threads

/thread/146940 [original link is broken]

/thread/146925 [original link is broken]

original thread

u can also find many other copied threads..'start routine','process chain','statistics' etc.

wow what a trick..if u cant earn points sincerely u dont deserve to be a part of SDN.

i dont know this is happening in how many other forums..

truly spoiling the culture of SDN.

Craig~Could we do something to stop this?

would like to hear others opinions on this..

with regards,

Vishvesh

[former_member374 · Accepted solution]

Hi Vishvesh and all BI SDNers,

As posted in the SDN Suggestions forum:

Thanks for finding and pointing it out. It is sad that with all this opportunity to earn points on SDN someone has to cheat.

As in life there is no shortcut. The good thing is, that it proofs again that you the SDN community finds out and gives us the opportunity to correct that behavior.

It looks like a script created by Ramesh Babu. He registered on the 13th of May 2006. Even this name may be fake, as it looks like it is just a test balloon to see how far one can take it without getting coughed. Well about 290 points far

He created some dummy accounts on the 14th:

I admit he put some effort in these: Genio inteligente I love that one.

Oh how we would love to have SDN members that sign up and within 24 hours have posted 113 post and only 3 questions as did König David. But unfortunately he is long dead and a script went through old posts, copied them word for word and post them again on SDN: Question, answer, answer answer, thank you post and points given. All these posts where happening within 2 minutes.

Of course other SDNers didn't know what was happening and sometimes gave a good answer, but of course were ignored. I am sorry for these.

I went in, deactivated the points in many threads so that Ramesh was down to 174 points. I took these points off in a lump sum. With this amount of points he doesn't get far on SDN. The reputation is ruined anyhow.

To all moderators if you see a pattern of question, answer, answer, answer, thank you all posted within one minute, please use your power and knock the points off.

Through your participation, your contributions people will know you as a good SDNer, you get a reputation. Through gaming the point system you get a reputation too, a bad reputation. Who wants that?

I love that the community found out about it and rang the alarm and we were able to do something about it.

All the best, Mark.