They're too busy doing shit like this.

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/4Chan-Time-Influential-people-poll,news-3833.html

Quote :

"Today the media is buzzing about TIME magazine’s most influential person of the year, 4Chan founder Christopher Poole (AKA moot). The 21-year-old college student topped Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Kobe Bryant, the co-founders of Twitter, Vladimir Putin and 94 other influential figures with 16,794,368 votes and an average influence rating of 90 (out of a possible 100). TIME was surprisingly frank about the whole thing. The publication admitted that the polling might not be entirely accurate and even went as far as to say people were supposed to doubt the results. That said, the article announcing Poole’s win did endeavor to highlight the student’s influence on the internet. TIME goes on to point out, rigged results or not, Poole definitely has some sway online. According to TIME, Poole “denies knowing about any concerted plan by his followers to influence the poll,” however, TIME did mention that its technical team did “detect and extinguish” several attempts to hack the vote. Interesting. What’s even more interesting is this article which purports to explain exactly how the 4Chan crew hacked the vote, including how they got around TIME’s attempts to put a stop to their trickery. It makes for a pretty good read so be sure to check it out. "

The article mentioned in the last paragraph is longer and has a number of relevant graphs and charts that won't link or embed as easily, so I'm just linking it. It's much more interesting than the first article though, and goes into a lot more detail about how dedicated 4chan is to the fine art of poll skewing.

http://musicmachinery.com/2009/04/15/inside-the-precision-hack/

4/27/2009 10:53:33 PM

Uhh...I think you meant to say reason #1 why nerds WILL rule the world.

4/27/2009 11:24:31 PM

i'm with ^

4/27/2009 11:29:24 PM

^ Seriously, god help the US government when 4chan decides that moot wants to run for office and that the pentagon wants moar pizza.

4/27/2009 11:29:47 PM

No, the problem is that you can't just do something like that for the lulz. After they make moot President, he'd actually have to do shit.

Nerds can do badass stuff when we put our minds to it, but most of us are too busy 'sperging out on trivial shit to ever put that talent to good use.

Why doesn't 4chan ever solve a meaningful world problem "for the lulz," instead of sticking to low-hanging fruit like this? What defines lulz that's worth dedicating time to?

[Edited on April 27, 2009 at 11:47 PM. Reason : ]

4/27/2009 11:45:39 PM

are you going to pretend an online poll isn't just as susceptible as the vote for president if enough people are motivated

he could just as easily be voted into power - the pirate captain?

4/27/2009 11:48:36 PM

If enough people are motivated, sure. But as it stands, exploits like this would likely be called voter fraud when voting for President.

But the underlying question I was trying to get at is not questioning the feasibility of nerd mobs like 4chan or SA (or TWW to a lesser degree) accomplishing great things. The question is, "why aren't more of the things that nerd mobs aspire to accomplish great?"

Some of the Anonymous stuff that's made headlines has been modestly worthwhile, such as their general pestering of Scientology. But why doesn't the mob turn more often to meaningful pursuits? Why is it always just for the lulz?

4/27/2009 11:56:36 PM

Quote :

"But why doesn't the mob turn more often to meaningful pursuits? Why is it always just for the lulz?"

because they bring the lulz

things like world hunger bring anti-lulz.

4/28/2009 12:15:09 AM

haha, that's pretty awesome. Typical TWW poll skewing efforts are turds compared to what went into that one.

4/28/2009 1:29:04 AM

47. If you post it, they will cum.

4/28/2009 7:21:22 AM

Quote :

"No, the problem is that you can't just do something like that for the lulz. After they make moot President, he'd actually have to do shit. Nerds can do badass stuff when we put our minds to it, but most of us are too busy 'sperging out on trivial shit to ever put that talent to good use. Why doesn't 4chan ever solve a meaningful world problem "for the lulz," instead of sticking to low-hanging fruit like this? What defines lulz that's worth dedicating time to?"

This is a terrible post. Use some more catchphrases.

4/28/2009 7:59:56 AM

Quote :

"Why doesn't 4chan ever solve a meaningful world problem "for the lulz," instead of sticking to low-hanging fruit like this? What defines lulz that's worth dedicating time to?"

Meaningful problems are more difficult to solve. You can't hack world hunger from your basement (unless you did that online grain of rice for each question you got right on a quiz thing ad nauseum ) . Besides, something good did come out of this. You'd hope events like this would increase awareness with respect to security issues and hopefully be a driving force to address them.

I'm not sure where all the 'moot would have to do stuff once he became President' business came from, I thought the winner just got on the cover of a magazine. I guess you're implying that someone could poll skew a presidential election? In that case it's best people ferret out security problems like these in polls that mean nothing rather than find them when the vote actually means something. Again, if that's the case then this whole affair would contribute toward a meaningful problem.

[Edited on April 28, 2009 at 9:01 AM. Reason : -]

4/28/2009 8:59:24 AM

This is OLD.

4/28/2009 9:13:20 AM

4chan is terrible

4/28/2009 9:13:20 AM

Poor form.

Please post reasons 1-46 first.

4/28/2009 10:17:59 AM

Some more details about brute-forcing captchas, etc., including nuggets like this:

Quote :

"To further optimize their voting they created a poll front-end that allowed you to enter votes quickly while giving you an update of the poll status (and since it is a 4chan kind of crowd, they also provided the option to stream some porn just to keep you company while you are subverting one of the largest media companies in the world)."

http://musicmachinery.com/2009/04/27/moot-wins-time-inc-loses/

4/29/2009 1:10:06 AM

/b/, anon completely skewed that poll. --nevermind, i see the link shows the marble cake--

The poll is entirely bullshit and while it may be funny, it makes Time look like a bunch of amateur dumbshits just accepting what was done to gain the media attention of having such a no-name be #1. I wouldn't be surprised if the ceo of time frequents /b/.

[Edited on April 29, 2009 at 9:11 AM. Reason : minus marble cake]

4/29/2009 9:11:09 AM

LOL, Time magazine got trolled.

4/29/2009 9:17:13 AM

They should've been voting for Rick Astley.

4/29/2009 2:37:30 PM