The WSJ Poll War Continues
Remember that WSJ mobile OS poll brawl which began with Google killing until MS-sympathizing sites like this one rallied their troops to distort the results? Refresh that poll page which as of my writing this has Google in the lead with almost half a million votes or so trailed by Microsoft at 14K, 96% vs 2.6%, Microsoft’s original percentage share before this went crazy.
I suppose those powerful Windows Mobile sites had better fire up some new battle cry articles to get back in the ring — or maybe find something better to do.
Woah I just shot and pasted that in and while I tracked down that facepalming gorilla Google jumped up another 50K votes, Microsoft gaining nine. Via Phandroid.
Doug Simmons
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Doug Simmons
Biographical info.. hmm. I have a history of not being able to strike the balance between what is "safe" to put into these forms and what is, in my mind at least, funny. Can't do it.
3DPiper: That’s a safe bet .. but they started it.
Or the poll is rigged and the author is having some fun with it. Or someone coded something that hops from one proxy server to another and votes in flash in a flash interface somehow. Whatever the case, the original shenanigan-doers have been put in their place.
I think it is a troll poll designed to do just what it’s doing, go viral and generate massive traffic, or at best to generate which company’s fanboys are both the greatest in numbers and greatest in determination — and have flash support.
yss: Point taken, though I did throw an off topic category onto this. And it’s not even a poll, it’s a pissing match involving both figuratively urinating and funneling beer at the same time.
Not complaining, just curious how one thing to vote for in a poll on an article on a website is attracting about 2500 votes every minute, 40 a second.
ramon: thanks for getting my back but this was a frivolous post, this article, a follow-up to another frivolous one, about sophomoric antics between fan bases of different companies and a poll that couldn’t be further from scientific. So I suppose he’s right, vulgarity notwithstanding, that I ought to follow my advice and aim higher next time.
That said, 800K+ votes …
Don’t you think the Android sympathizing sites have also sent their drones to the poll?
Damn, it’s just a poll. Maybe you should take your own advice and find something better to do than dick-riding.
started what, what are you complaining about, and acting like a child for?
Maybe one of the Android apps is hijacking everyone’s phone and making them vote. Google would never know.
@yss:
that wasn’t nice. and what activity do you propose your comment earned you the right to do in regards to mr.simmons?
i think the droid numbers are actually the count of versions of the os. sounds about right.
@ramon trotman:
Wasn’t trying to be nice. Nothing personal against Doug, but not trying to be nice (or mean). Considering the last days of FuzeMobility to today, should Doug expect less than a spirited exchange from the Stockholm syndrome crowd?
I think Skyau nailed it.
Well put.
But how the hell did someone manage to pull this off and why didn’t the author lock the voting, ban IP ranges, use cookies, take it down with some explanation or lock it and revert to early data? Three million votes.
That’s either some clever coding, particularly since this is a flash poll (versus php), or some crafty voting data manipulation on the part of the WSJ’s writer. If someone made it into their database then they’ve been hanging around in it for a long time now, steadily bumping the data or otherwise impressively compromising and exploiting the machine housing the voting data with some sort of script to get the number to rise steadily like this.
@Doug Simmons:
‘They started it’?
A bit childish surely? Technically it was an Android fansite that ‘started it’ – telling their users about the poll and encouraging them to vote and win – which saw the Android figures go off scale. Then a WP site did likewise and saw the same results for WP. Now, clearly, an Android user has found a way to take it to an even sillier level. But who started it really doesn’t matter except, it seems, to anyone who has let their liking for their OS of choice distort their perspective such that they seek to find reasons to denigrate those who choose otherwise.
Trying to point the finger and say ‘they started it’, when it’s all a bit silly all round, is pointless.
I doubt anyone at WSJ has even been paying attention – just a clever bit of trickery from an Android fan. The Android sites brought a knife, the WP sites brought a gun, now an Android user has pulled out a nuke. Perhaps Steve Jobs is even now tasking his programmers to find a way to top that? Several billion votes for iOS within the hour?
Maybe WSJ is allowing this because they are letting a new story write itself. Maybe they realize that the battle isn’t just Google vs. Microsoft, but Google consumers vs. Microsoft consumers. Google jihadist vs. Microsoft zealots (or Google zealots vs Microsoft jihadist if you prefer).
Forget about Android. How did Palm get 1512 votes. Are there actually 1,500+ Palm users out there?