Over the last few hours, one or a few individuals thought they would be smart asses and “vote pad” the current population poll, adding some 75+ votes to the “we are underpopulated” answer. They are not “real” votes and do not represent accurately the views of the normal readership of marketmanila.com. They were done in succession, over a short period of time, from very few and probably related sources. They seek desperately to alter the proportion of answers to what was a very straightforward poll, and which with 414 answers prior to the vote padding had a very clear and consistent trend of answers over a 4 day period since the poll was placed. I can tell you after hundreds of polls that the trend by 200-250 answers usually sticks through say 1000 votes. It is people such as these that not only think the world will be fine with 20 billion people on it, and whose desire to sway public opinion by padding votes is laughable, that I personally believe should never have made it to this planet at all. So, I am removing those roughly 78 votes that I am fairly certain are padded, and posting the pre-padding summary results here.
We are underpopulated and should grow even more, say to 200 million by 2050.
3 (0.62%)
We are fine, no changes needed, I would be comfortable with the same levels of population
31 (7.49%)
We are overpopulated, and I would have liked the current population to be just 80 million.
46 (11.11%)
We are overpopulated, and I would have liked the current population to be just 60 million.
112 (27.05%)
We are overpopulated, and I would have liked the current population to be just 40 million.
126 (30.43%)
We are overpopulated, and I would have liked the current population to be just 20 million.
96 (23.19%)
While this blog is NOT representative of the entire Philippine population, for THIS blog’s regular audience, the numbers above closely reflect voters sentiment. Fully 92.51% of voters felt the country was overpopulated. And 81% would have liked to see the current population smaller by at least 30 million or more, with the largest votes wishfully voting for a population roughly LESS THAN HALF our current numbers. Honestly, I had no idea what the votes would emerge at on this blog, but they did emerge in the camp of “over” rather than “under” population, which is a relief. As for the morons padding votes, I wish they would just spend their time figuring out how to feed the 30% of primary school children who are malnourished and whose brains will be irreperably damaged by early malnutrition, AND help the vast majority of primary public school students who DIDN’T pass the standardized tests for English, Math and Science, and create jobs for the 60-70% of freshly minted college graduates who seem to be unable to find decent jobs. Oh, and that’s of the less than 30% of all college age Filipinos who even manage to ATTEND college at all.
Let me reiterate, it is the vote padding that is MORONIC, not the content or choice of vote. And in case you wish to differentiate and read more meaning into my choice of word, look up imbecile, idiot, moron, etc. It is no longer PC to use such terms from a psychological point of view, so I use it in a more common use context instead. Though I like the original classifications, frankly. :)
24 Responses
I thought this is already the much-hyped “password” post. :). Anyways mm, haters gonna hate, so lets ignore them. :)
The purpose of a survey is clarity. There are no wrong or right answers. For someone to vote 75+ times is a deliberate attempt to obscure reality and is just a couple of steps away from ‘cheating’. Overreaction for an online poll? No. The results have zero effect in real life but it’s disturbing to know that someone would ever bother… Funny what people think they can get away with when they think they won’t be noticed.
For disclosure, I voted in the overpopulated group.
“Overpopulation” is a hot button issue so those readers with a ethical/religious “stick up their a**” are to be expected to “rig the vote”. It is to be expected but still, shame on you “vote padders”.
Even though my sentiment is with those that think the Philippines is overpopulated, in my mind, there is no tangible or feasible solution to implement.
It is one thing to recognize overpopulation as a problem and a whole other thing to try to come up with “humane” solutions to the problem.
With a “infestation” of deer or some other animal, the easiest solution is to go to town with hunting licenses to “cull the herd”. Obviously it would be not so simple to come up a solution involving people.
Overpopulation may seem like a problem but could be just a symptom of some other underlying problem. Or, it could be a scapegoat/distraction from some other problem.
If Filipinos were more responsible towards themselves and their environment, would they still be prone to breeding in vast numbers? If the environment wasn’t polluted and if the resources were shared equitably and sustainably, I think current population levels wouldn’t be in the “overpopulation zone” for me and I would vote differently.
As far as thinking up a solution, I think doing away with high-rise condominium buildings is a viable step in reducing population density. “If you don’t build it, they won’t come.” :-) (no housing, less people will want to relocate in a given area, less dense population per square foot).
really? Even informal polls like this get padded? Tsk tsk…sick.
I haven’t voted …
Does this mean that somebody visited the page 75 times?
PITS, not only that, you typically can’t vote twice on a poll, unless you go back and remove cookies and other settings and visit the page again and reset, and reset, etc. So it’s a royal pain in the neck, and a voter has to be doing it consciously. Usually, as a precaution, the votes limit one per IP address, so members of say a call center can’t suddenly jointly vote 80 times or so… but then again, it’s not a serious earth shattering system, just funny how some would think that “rigging it” would really change anything.
so excited for today, but nalungkot ako sa post ni MM! well i’ll check lagi today for the
“password”! :)
I don’t quite get why anyone would do vote-padding. Reading the previous comments it seems that doing so would entail time and effort.
Tsk tsk.
Troll alert! Same with mypa_p, I can’t believe somebody bothered to spend that much time and effort to interfere with a simple online poll. This isn’t a SWS survey people!
Mm-on the other hand, this just shows how important and well-read your blog is! whoever tried to rig your poll took a lot of time and effort to do so! :-) some people just want attention- and unfortunately, this case, at your expense… And at ours,too!
Oist, kung sino ka man, BEHAVE!
Could these people be testing their skills or tech knowledge on how to rig votes and pad votes in the coming elections? Is this a case of “Hello Garci?”
it is cheating…
They (vote padders) may have been hired by the big C (no, not cancer) to rig online polls pertaining to population, population control, reproductive health, sex education, etc. If I were you, sir, I’d sleep with one eye open. ;-P
I have not followed this post but for those who voted underpopulated are definitely morons/idiots/imbeciles/retards….which ever is the lowest category or probably the living deads. Sabi nga sa tagalog, mga nang a-asar lang at peste sa lipunan at mga walang magawang matino!
marketman, could it be that the vote padders did, in their childhood, form part of the 30% of primary school children who were malnourished and whose brains had been irreparably damaged by early malnutrition hahahha? Im now thinking there may be 3 of them vote padders who might replicate the American Idol and save whatever cause they were trying to pad in the first place.
geez. some people have too much time in their hand.
Just making a point of clarification that it’s the rigging of the poll that is abhorrent in this particular issue. As myra_p said, the point of a poll is to gain clarity. Calling those of a different opinion morons, idiots etc. does not encourage the discussion and forecloses any hope of clarity which could lead to a change of thinking.
I cannot help but recall how the RH Bill has fallen into a similar trap where the pros were called variations of abortionist murders and the antis as proselytizing prudes/eunuchs who are not in touch with reality. It just obscures the issue.
I think population/overpopulation should be considered with resources or the lack or maldistribution of it.
That being said, I don’t think the country has sufficient resources to support much more financially or socially.
Risa, I agree with you completely, a differing opinion is no problem at all. It is the attempt to rig the poll that is moronic, not the view that we are NOT overpopulated, thanks.
marketman, this might take an edge off you a little.
things like vote-padding, when done in a programmatic manner is actually a highly technical task. programmer types look at this as sport, a challenge worth doing in certain contexts. don’t take it personally – do you remember Efren Penaflorida who was voted as CNN Hero of the year? or Manny Pacquiao voted as TIME Magazine person of the year? these two things were sort of the most popular manifestation of these challenge. i personally know someone (a nationalistic Pinoy) involved in the crew of hackers who decided to hack the voting mechanism of both CNN and Time Magazine..
for a little story on how vote-rigging, regardless of the content, in itself is fun activity and is prone to copycats: https://musicmachinery.com/2009/04/15/inside-the-precision-hack/
if i may, consider this analogy: don’t be angry at the guy who pointed out that your cyber fence was broken. rather, find a way to fix your fence (discuss this with your web guy) before a real robber comes around and robs you. i mean this seriously.
Hunter, thanks, that’s horrible news re: Time and CNN however, horrible.
As for the blog, it’s really easy to pad the votes… they just have to do two basic things to re-vote, but they do have to take the time to do it. Even I figured out how to do it, so it’s not rocket science. But for most questions, would people really feel the need to alter the trend of the answers? No. If real hackers were on marketmanila, the votes would have really gone haywire… this is more likely the work of one or two individuals, about as techy as myself, who were just annoyed that either the poll question and answers, or trending votes, weren’t to their personal liking. The poll feature isn’t abused enough to spend much time, effort or money to make it more secure than say CNN or Time. But many thanks for your comment, I appreciate it. :)
“online flying voters”… not only are there flying voters in the elections, we also have online versions here… hehehe… :)
some people like to “cover all bases”..next time, add “all of the above” on your poll and the “padders” will be revealed… :-}
MM, I think they banned your site in call centers all over the country because they noted a disprorportionate increase in trips to vending machines and coffee stations every time your postings come up, LOL.
some people are just plain scared…that’s why they want to manipulate information…which is really pathetic. no way can anything be solved without facing the truth. oh well.