Thread

No Easy Fix for Bogus Respondents in Online Opt-In Polls

61 points · 37 comments · luu

0points · 1790143539 · focus · HN ↗
And here I was thinking this was proved beyond any reasonable doubt when 4chan users spoofed the Time Magazine person of the year poll of 2009 to spell out "MARBLECAKE, ALSO THE GAME" by the initials of the top winners:
<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2009/04/27/time-magazine-throws-up-its-hands-as-it-gets-pwned-by-4chan/" rel="nofollow">https://techcrunch.com/2009/04/27/time-magazine-throws-up-it...
Or when Kim Jong Un won in 2012, spelling out "KJUGASCHAMBER":
<a href="https://observer.com/2012/12/4chan-successfully-votes-kim-jong-un-to-top-of-times-person-of-the-year-list/" rel="nofollow">https://observer.com/2012/12/4chan-successfully-votes-kim-jo...
1. aniviacat · 1790156052 · focus · HN ↗
  Online polls being easy to manipulate makes it so weird to me that the European Central Bank made an online poll on what the new Euro bank note design should be. (Participants did not have to identify themselves in any way.) I wonder if the results will at all be taken into consideration in the following decision-making process.
  <a href="https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/pr/date/2026/html/ecb.pr260923~6ebddaf01e.en.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/pr/date/2026/html/ecb.pr2609...
  1. account42 · 1790162389 · focus · HN ↗
    In that case there was heavy pre-selection und strict rules for submissions even before that. So they were probably fine with any of the presented choices winning and the "poll" is really just PR.

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