UDC team is really sad to see several users faking with the Photocontest.
We thought that we are making a fun and interesting contest for all our users and also give some prices for it, because it is fun to give prices and get them. But we never thought that so many users (tens of users) would start making fake profiles to give maximum votes for their animals and minimum grades for others.

It also surprises us that if we quiety started to remove the fakes, we thought that this is just 1 or 2 users would do. It seems there are much more and with every day, even every hour some users are making new profiles for voting only.

I have always tried to understand our users behaviour, but this is something I do not understand at all - do you really think that winning this way is good? Why you do this, can´t you just enjoy the contest and have fun. Share pictures and give grades honestly.
This is the time that I am really disappointed in some of our users. Some users that we have trusted that have been active and loved by other users have also done fake profiles!!!

Dear users, this is a game, that is supposed to be fun. We asked from our users some time ago, that what would you like to have, and having a photocontest was one of the things - do we really have to stop having anything like that.

We will remove all the fakes from the contest. They will receive a letter from us. We have been doing that already with some users, but kept quiet about it, hoping that no new users will start faking - but we were so wrong.

Sad Elise and UDC team

It´s very unfortunate but not unexpected. I have participated in other online photo competitions that were supposed to be FUN but inevitably there are ALWAYS people who don´t quite understand the meaning of the word.

At the start of the competition I was receiving emails from people asking for votes. I will NOT vote for anyone who canvasses in this way.

In addition to removing the fake profiles, why not also remove the fakers? They need a shake to wake them up.

Lisa, disappointed but not surprised.

hi this is so sad to read about.. i think that is better to end the contest cause u ll never now which votes werr honest votes and which ones are from fake profiles, so it wouldnt be fair for the rest of users....
it s just my opinion..

Fernanda

I suppose there will always be cheats in any competition. Entrants would have to be somehow validated, so that everybody is properly identified when entering or voting.

this really makes me mad. I entered fair and square and was wondering why my pictures kept moving down by ones out of the blue.

I wont enter a contest here again. between people and fake profiles and begging for votes, there is no way to win a compitition on this site without cheating and I wont lower myself to that.

I was already having issues with the contest, and I didn´t even know about the fake profiles!

When I noticed Ozymandias´ picture started doing well in the funny photo competition, I was happy for him. I then found myself looking at other contestant pictures and thinking, "If I vote low for this cat, then Ozzie will do better." But that´s horrible! That isn´t the point! I don´t want him to win that way.

Unless contest applicants can vote fairly on other applicants (which we can´t), then I don´t think we should be allowed to vote. But then who would be left to vote?

I think that there will always be people in the world who think they can win something by being dishonest. It´s such a sad way to be and it´s too bad because it spoils the fun that legitimate contest entrants have when they enter their cats in the photo contest.

This is crazy! It is supposed to be FUN. I was sad to see some great photos go way down the list, but to fake profiles that;s really really sad.

I tend to go with my gut reaction to a photo and then look at who the cat and owner are, so that I am not influenced to vote differently for people that I consider my friends here. But in the end I just wanted to see good pictures of pretty cats.

Also noticed that some profiles were very new with only photos that were entered into the competition. Users that I have never seen before. That´s also sad, cause these people are in here only for the competition and not to partake in this wonderful site!

because of the fake profiles and votes, the whole contest is a sham. who knows who would have really won.

Zuzlik....this whole thing makes me very sad. What has this world turned into? Is it so important that one "wins" that one will do anything including cheating to win? Goodness..this is just a photo contest for fun. It´s supposed to showcase young kittens and very funny cats. It´s just that simple.

Everyone here has been unhappy with all the "Vote for Me" blogs that have popped up. I even saw people asking for votes in the Forum.

I think that all people who have created fake profiles should be banned from this site. What are they adding to it? All they are doing is making other members dissatisified and angry and you may lose some good members because of a few "bad apples". I certainly hope that does NOT happen.

Fair is fair! It´s a great contest so why not particpate honestly and fairly? It´s a great feeling to win something with the knowledge that you won fair and square. I know, because I have won several titles and tons of prizes in my lifetime. Amazingly, I did it without cheating.

A title or a prize would mean absolutely nothing to me if I had to cheat to get it. I hope that I am not in the minority on this viewpoint. I know that I am not as far as the people I know fairly well on UC...they feel exactly the same way. They have submitted their photos and have allowed the contest to take over. They didn´t solicit votes nor did they cheat.

I hope that you catch each and every one of the "fakes"....I would do more than send them a letter..I would cancel them. They will just be back again with more fake profiles and they will continue to spoil the fun for everyone.

I am so sorry Zuzlik...your tried to provide the members here with a contest that should have been fun but is now turning into a bit of a fiasco. Marketa is right..there have been a lot of new profiles that appeared right after the contest started. And, it seemed that they were here ONLY for the contest because they weren´t submitting comments to the Forum, writing blogs or anything except contacting other members.

I would like to wish everyone good luck who has participated honestly in this contest.

I agree Terri. I don´t think I want my cats to be a part of this any more because who knows if Frodo´s place is because people really liked his photo, or just saw him as an opportunity to bump someone else down the charts. There´s no pleasure in being placed in a competition when you know it´s not necessarily been won fairly.

I do hope the people involved are ashamed of ruining what should have been a bit of fun.

I posted my message to let users know that fakers are removed, the ones left are the ones that win in honest way. I hope all the users who know they have done nothing wrong will trust us admins, tthat we give the best of us, to clear the final chart from all the fake points.
We had the ways before, but during this contest we have also improved them - believe me, we have so much information that helps us to spot fakers, that we will see it.

Elise

Thanks Elise....we know how hard you work to make this site fun for everyone. It´s so sad that a few can spoil it.

Thank you for your message...we do trust you. And, know that you are doing everything in your power to make this contest fair.

Sad but true, whenever there´s a competition of any kind, there are people who suddenly become way too competitive. I too feel badly for Admin - it was a fun idea and should have remained fun. I wonder if there is any way of making it more difficult for the fakers. Could there be an application form of some kind (or does that make it too ponderous)? Or maybe entrants should have to have been members (with profiles for their cats) for at least a month. I know that doesn´t sound fair for new users, but genuine new users will remain with the site long enough to enter future competitions. Would it help if the contest time were shorter and the rewards less attractive as well? Less time and less incentive to attract fakers.

Honestly I have tried to removed my cats from the contest when I seen things were going well... the way they were going but it was too late I couldn´t remove them... Sad, this is suppose to be for fun and there is nothing fun about it.

I posted my message to let users know that fakers are removed, the ones left are the ones that win in honest way. I hope all the users who know they have done nothing wrong will trust us admins, tthat we give the best of us, to clear the final chart from all the fake points.
We had the ways before, but during this contest we have also improved them - believe me, we have so much information that helps us to spot fakers, that we will see it.

Elise
Thanks for clarifying that Elise.

The competition is a great idea, it´s just such a shame some people have abused it. Maybe competitions with no prizes other than a little rosette icon or something next to the winners pictures or winning cat´s profiles would be the way to go in future. I´m sure most of us would just be happy to know that people enjoy our photos.

Let´s not let the fakers spoil the fun. We should (and I do) trust the admin and continue to enjoy the contest!

Gee and here I thought people would want to have fun with the photo contest and enjoy showcasing their special babies, but there is always some jerks out there that spoils things for people focus on the real people and remember the fakers are just jealous they are not special like all of us real kitty people.
No one has canvassed me for votes and nor would I give votes to people that ask, I give votes for how I see the picture or other reasons.
May the fakers get caught and may the best pictures win and enjoy the contest.

but the fakers already did damage by pushing some cats way down the list. some that were doing well are now stuck far back becasue of these fakers.

I think we will all see whether there are deserved winners at the end of the contest. Those photos will stand out among all others. If not, I think we are all bright enough to know what has been going on. Anyhow, I am sure the moderators will have nabbed the fakers before voting ends tomorrow. But I am wondering whether the faked votes will be removed from the photos concerned to balance things out or maybe that would involve too much work to resolve. If the votes cannot be excluded/deleted, then the contest would be deemed unfair.

I enjoy looking through the contest photos and love having a laugh at the funny ones. I feel it´s such a shame that some people can go so low as to invent a fake profile to boost the ratings of their cats - they should go hide in the sewer, and we all know what gets flushed down there!!!!!!

I am looking forward to the results now.

OMG I can´t believe people would stup so low as to pretend to be someone they are not, how unfair to all us honest UC members.

I hope they all get discovered by the mod´s before the contest finishes and removed from the competition!!!

Good Luck and Thanks to all the honest UC members who shared their great photos with us all, there really is a lot of beautiful kitties out there in the world!