Warning: this is gonna be a huge trip to memory-land, but PLEASE read it until the end. Maybe आप might feel the same.
------

Two years ago, when I first joined fanpop, things were a lot different here. I was 15 years old and I only watched one TV show: Heroes. I was insanely addicted to that दिखाना (I still am, it’s my सेकंड प्रिय दिखाना ever) and I was searching for some episodes online on some बिना सोचे समझे site. That site (I have no idea which one is now, Lol) had a lot of लिंक्स to episodes, and some of those लिंक्स bought me to fanpop.

The first think I noticed about this site was those funny options things where आप could vote, also known as picks. =P
And those were the reason why, in June of 2007, I joined this site. To answer those picks and eventually get spoiled about future episodes I hadn’t seen yet. xD (if आप watch Heroes, आप know how it works, in season 1, people were always dying there. LOL)
I got totally addicted and I joined the हीरोस spot, and I eventually made my own first link. That pick gave my first प्रॉप ever, द्वारा no other than Dave (YAY, thank आप Dave <3), and I swear I jumped around the house when I saw the little प्रॉप thing. xD
Then I made some और picks. =) It was the only thing I was doing on fanpop, lol. (It’s sill my प्रिय way of contributing, because I प्यार to choose the right तस्वीरें to add, and I प्यार to read other people’s comments.)
So, after 15 picks on the हीरोस spot, I got my first Dedicated medal ever... And almost a heart-attack when I saw it. लोल xD
See, on those days, it wasn’t very common to watch people with many medals. It was VERY rare to find people with fanatics, I think I only met one या two.
Back then, the हीरोस spot was the spot with और प्रशंसकों and the most लोकप्रिय (which made me extremely happy, yay go Heroes! xD). It had about 3000 fans, and I might be very wrong, but I’m pretty sure it hadn’t had और than this. Yea, pretty crazy right? Considering how much प्रशंसकों the Twilight spot has now. Lol

But this was then.
For some reason, I went un-active a few months. Season 2 of हीरोस was starting and I didn’t want to be spoiled द्वारा picks, since I was waiting for it to come on TV (which took quite time actually, it sucks to live in Portugal). Also, I was running out of ideas for picks. LOL

Months later I got back and I had started to watch other shows. So I joined और spots, like One पेड़ पहाड़ी, हिल and Supernatural.
OTH is my प्रिय दिखाना ever, and my सेकंड dedicated medal was for that spot, also with just picks.
Then I started to add वीडियो and my first die hard was for that spot, I got it on August of 2008.
My first Fanatic medal was for that spot too. Now, आप don’t ever forget your Fanatics (especially your first), so I know that I got on October 22nd of 2008. I also know I’m a nerd for knowing that date.
द्वारा December, I was the 6th चोटी, शीर्ष contributer of that spot.
And right now, I’m proudly the 3rd. =]

And this is what happens when आप work hard to something. All the wait and all the work feels undeniably great.

But situations like these are और rare and rare these days. And I guess that’s the point of this article.
आप see, I must really be a naïve person, because it took me a LONG time to figuring out the medal system. I had no idea what kind of “amount” of contribution was needed. And when one time, I read somewhere that the ratings helped, I thought WE had to give ratings to get medals. So I kinda rated ALL the वीडियो on the OTH spot. लोल (I don’t regret it btw, I found some great वीडियो there xD). Anyways, silly me for being slow, no wonder why people call me “looser” या “Joey”. =P

Some new प्रशंसकों aren’t naïve at all. In fact, they were very quickly to understanding that whole thing. So it’s simple, they ask people to rate their stuff.
There was a ratings मंच on the OTH spot, on the फ्रेंड्स spot and maybe on others spots too. All आप had to do was posting लिंक्स of your stuff and people would rate it. Those मंचों no longer exist, they were deleted, because it wasn’t a fair way of getting medals. I honestly couldn’t have agreed और with this decision.
Now, those new प्रशंसकों (new fans, not the प्रशंसकों who were using those forums), are fully aware of this. So instead of having a forum, they do it द्वारा messages. They message other users asking for ratings. As I see it, this is exactly the same thing as having a forum, except that with messages, there is no prove of the cheating. This kind of cheating is like air, आप don’t see it. But आप know it’s there.

A lot of users have an incredible number of पदक right now. All because of those ratings.

At this moment, I have 26 dedicated medals, 17 die-hard पदक and 7 fanatic medals.
I’m a member of फैन्पॉप और than two years now. And I feel really accomplished.
Trust me, it’s not about the medals. It’s how far I’ve went, from having zero medals, to have 50.
So, I think it’s very unfair to see some users – cheating users – who are here, for less than FIVE MONTHS to have way और पदक than me या other users, that work harder for them.

It’s not even about the medals, it’s about the content that they add to getting those medals. To add icons, all आप have to do is find some LiveJournals या some प्रशंसक sites. Also, आप can add repeated ones. And it gets even easier when आप ask other people to rate them.
Now imagine how I feel, when I’m working for a medal, adding stuff and NOT asking anybody to rate them for me, to witness situations like these.
Let me just use a couple of hypothetical examples.
Let’s say a certain user added, 75 वीडियो and 120 तस्वीरें to a spot.
Let’s say I added 875 वीडियो and 1485 तस्वीरें to the same spot. Which means, I added और than 800 वीडियो and 1000 तस्वीरें than that user. Now, let’s say we both have Die-Hard medals.
Does this scream fair to you?

Other example. Hypothetical. On other totally different spot, with much less प्रशंसकों than the first one.
A user added 170 वीडियो and 130 images. That user has a Fanatic. She’s the चोटी, शीर्ष contributor.
Other user added 20 वीडियो and 200 images. That user has a die-hard. She’s the सेकंड चोटी, शीर्ष contributor.
I added 350 वीडियो and 1500 images. I have a die-hard. I’m the third चोटी, शीर्ष contributor.
Fair? Excuse me for not thinking so.

The thing is I don’t even care about medals. I don’t. This is about other people taking me the pleasure of feeling ACCOMPLISHED. How can I feel that way, knowing that I worked so hard, knowing that I waited months and knowing that some other user got it easily with less work and in two weeks?

I’m not the only one who feels this way.
Some other people do too. Some other people tried to do something about it. And I watched some of them getting banned. We लॉस्ट Myra, the चोटी, शीर्ष contributor of all फैन्पॉप because of this mess.
Myra, who I truly admire because of her work. There are a lot of people who might not like her. But even those, आप can’t honestly say that Myra didn’t work for her पदक and that she didn’t deserve EVERY SINGLE ONE of them. Because she did. And not only just her. Gogokef, Clarkfan, Addie, Tvfan95. Does this names ring any घंटी, बेल to you?
I hope whoever who is पढ़ना this, understands what this लेख is about. This is not me bragging and/or trying to get और medals. This is me trying to stop unfair situations.

The फैन्पॉप 4 built the best site on Earth, hands down. This is not just about picks for me now, lol. I spend most of the times talking on मंचों and I met the most amazing प्रशंसकों here. <3
So, I’m not, in any way, trying to tell them what to do. But I can’t help to say that this rating system It’s not working. In my opinion (and notice that this is just an OPINION), I think the ratings shouldn’t count as much. They can count, but not as much as they do now.
On one side, I think the वीडियो should be considerate और important. आप can add all the तस्वीरें आप want, all the times आप want, but आप can’t add repeated videos. And if आप notice, the users that “cheat”, don’t add much videos. It’s not hard to understand why. But on the other hand, there aren’t as many वीडियो of one subject as there are images, so yea, it’s not right than the वीडियो count और than images.. In the end, it’s better to leave this situation to the people who know the best, aka the फैन्पॉप 4. =P

I was just trying to express how I feel about this.
Sorry If I offend anyone. I didn’t use any names, just to avoid that.
I’m not trying to get anyone banned, like I don’t want to be banned. I प्यार this site way too much.

I guess this is what I’m trying to say:
I honestly don’t know why people cheat to get medals. There’s no better feeling than getting new पदक when आप least expect it. Especially if one of those पदक is a fanatic. आप get the accomplished feeling and when आप told other users about, they also get REALLY happy (sometimes happier than आप ;)), because they know how hard it is to get a medal. And they totally प्रॉप spam the hell out of you. LOL

This feeling is great. Don’t take it away from fanpop. There’s no point of having 20 fanatics if they feel like a normal medal to you.
Let’s get this feeling back! =]

EDIT: There’s something I think it’s relevant and I forgot to add. The thing is that, the “cheating” users I mentioned above, don’t just message each other asking for ratings, they also ask to rate others users stuff low. Some users tried to stop the cheating, but not only they couldn’t do it, they saw their perfectly fine stuff being rated with one star.

I’ve saw/read one of those messages, sent द्वारा one “cheating” user. I think someone has that message screen caped somewhere. The content of the message was simple, it कहा to rate everything of their “friends” group high (as in 5 stars), and rate everything of the users who tried to stop the cheating low (as in 1 star).
And I’ve seen stuff rated low.

Seriously, who wastes their time like this? Also, who wastes their time creating tons of fake accounts? Because those are against the फैन्पॉप rules, but I’ve seen a LOT of them. I think it’s just mean, not only they are getting पदक not playing fair, but they are making it hard for other users to get them. Users than DON’T cheat.

This is not what फैन्पॉप is about.

Again, I apologize If it seems that I’m लेखन this just to attack someone.
That’s not really my point.

This is just to दिखाना how tired I am of all the situation. =/

To finish.. I promise this is my last edit. LOL
This लेख has 5 pages on Word already, I don’t think I would be लेखन as much if this was for a school paper. XD