So I was hanging out on my computer this evening, watching some वीडियो and browsing on Fanpop, when I noticed something that disturbed me. In not one, but two different spots. I discovered several examples of what I believe to be "Ghost Accounts".

"Ghost Accounts" are what I'm calling additional accounts created द्वारा an already existing फैन्पॉप member to skew the results of a pick या an argument in their favor. I have read things पोस्टेड द्वारा other Fanpoppers suggesting their existence in the past, but hadn't knowingly spotted any for myself. Tonight I believe I spotted three different people doing this.

The first example I discovered through a series of picks created द्वारा a user that I had never seen around before. I'm all for new users, so I answered the picks and made some comments. Within the टिप्पणी दे sections of these picks, I noticed two other users that I had never seen before. The thing is, the three users didn't always answer the same way, but their टिप्पणियाँ were always similarly rude. I decided to compare all three users and I discovered that they had much in common. They had all joined फैन्पॉप this month, none of them belonged to any spots, aside from their आइकनों - their फैन्पॉप user pages were all blank, and they had all answered picks from the exact same four spots, and only those four spots.

I found the सेकंड example within a pick that had been answered 444 times. This pick had three pages of comments, and on the सेकंड page, I saw the following: Three टिप्पणियाँ that कहा the exact same thing, in a row. All three user names were different but fit the same pattern, Girls-first-name followed immediately द्वारा a two digit number. An example of what they looked like is "Mary25". And all three belonged to users that had no icons, contributions, या information to speak of. Not to mention they didn't belong to a single spot.

The third, and luckily, final example I noticed was within the exact same pick as the सेकंड example. As I mentioned, this particular pick had three pages of comments. After पढ़ना through them, I went back to check the results of the pick. I found the option that came in सेकंड place particularly odd because in those three pages of comments, I hadn't seen a single one in support of it. This option had been added to the pick द्वारा a user other than the picks creator. I went ahead and clicked on the person who added this option only to discover, आप guessed it, that their user page was blank! In fact, this was the only pick they had ever answered.

Obviously, I have no way of knowing if these are in fact "Ghost Accounts", but the coincidences seem overwhelmingly in favor of that being the case. Since I had never before noticed behavior such as this, and I noticed it three whole times today, I decided to think of three reasons that creating these accounts to answer picks is just plain silly. Without further ado:

#1 - आप Know Better!
It's not a presidential election, फैन्पॉप is for fun! There is no point in seeing your choice win if you know it isn't genuine. Do आप really think that seeing your प्रिय thing "win" a pick will have और impact on someone than पढ़ना your well thought-out, well written टिप्पणियाँ would?

#2 - It's disrespectful to Other Users
There are two main functions to posting a pick. One is that आप get to share your opinions with others. The other is that आप get to see what other people think. द्वारा tampering with the results of a pick, आप deprive its maker of the latter द्वारा making कहा results inaccurate. I know that when I post a pick, what I most enjoy afterwards is पढ़ना the टिप्पणियाँ that it spawned from others. It's great to make your opinion known, but use टिप्पणियाँ to do so. I guarantee that they will be read.

#3 - Being in the Minority is OK
So what if your opinion is not the लोकप्रिय one. Take pride in the fact that you're an independent thinker या that आप see something where few others do. या better yet, flex your वाद-विवाद skills द्वारा trying to persuade others to see your point.

So those are my reasons. I know that most of आप who are पढ़ना this are cool, respectful people who realize the idiocy of committing the aforementioned act. I was just annoyed with what I saw tonight so I had to release my irritation somewhere. Thanks for listening.