Written by F3ynman2000 on 17.08.2023 at 17:28

As mentioned in the shoutbox, here are examples of rating the top 20 albums of 2023 in a very deliberate way
- https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=336013&r_order=year
- https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=334198&r_order=year
- https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=336054&r_order=year

All three are the same user. Will take care of it when I get home. Nice catch.

An overuse of 10's
https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=143121&r_order=year

Written by F3ynman2000 on 01.09.2023 at 16:53

An overuse of 10's
https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=143121&r_order=year

I don't know about this one. It is really spread out since 2013 and there's not that many votes either. He might just be voting mainly on his absolute favourites. Idk...

Written by Guib on 01.09.2023 at 16:59

Written by F3ynman2000 on 01.09.2023 at 16:53

An overuse of 10's
https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=143121&r_order=year

I don't know about this one. It is really spread out since 2013 and there's not that many votes either. He might just be voting mainly on his absolute favourites. Idk...

This is the problem with people rating. Every album they listen to is a fucking masterpiece. I will always consider it rating abuse when someone is piling up 100+ 10s. If you really, really like an album give a 9 and be happy about it. A 10 is a special album that you will spin regularly, year after year, listening to EVERY song because every song is fucking awesome, not something you like at the moment and never come back to again or listen to occassionally. There are users that have several hundreds or even thousands of 10s. No way that they listen to all those albums on a regular basis, hence all those albums are not 10s. With this little rant, a warning for rating abuse have been sent.

Written by Nejde on 01.09.2023 at 19:07

Written by Guib on 01.09.2023 at 16:59

Written by F3ynman2000 on 01.09.2023 at 16:53

An overuse of 10's
https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=143121&r_order=year

I don't know about this one. It is really spread out since 2013 and there's not that many votes either. He might just be voting mainly on his absolute favourites. Idk...

This is the problem with people rating. Every album they listen to is a fucking masterpiece. I will always consider it rating abuse when someone is piling up 100+ 10s. If you really, really like an album give a 9 and be happy about it. A 10 is a special album that you will spin regularly, year after year, listening to EVERY song because every song is fucking awesome, not something you like at the moment and never come back to again or listen to occassionally. There are users that have several hundreds or even thousands of 10s. No way that they listen to all those albums on a regular basis, hence all those albums are not 10s. With this little rant, a warning for rating abuse have been sent.

Yeah I get what you're saying and I agree lol, there's a lot of albums that I absolutely love and spin regularly which I'm not even rating a 10. But it's just
that this specific case doesn't look like someone trying to abuse or manipulate votes for whatever obscure reason and just dump on other releases
just because he hates what the drummer looks like. Know what I mean? But in any case, I suppose a warning is fair.

Written by Guib on 01.09.2023 at 20:18

Yeah I get what you're saying and I agree lol, there's a lot of albums that I absolutely love and spin regularly which I'm not even rating a 10. But it's just
that this specific case doesn't look like someone trying to abuse or manipulate votes for whatever obscure reason and just dump on other releases
just because he hates what the drummer looks like. Know what I mean? But in any case, I suppose a warning is fair.

Some are more obvious than others. The easy ones are those who who have an average way above 9, several hundred 10s which are over half of their total ratings and have entire discographies rated with only 10s and/or have multiple accounts.
Then there are those who are more sneaky, trying to hide rate boosting or tanking by spreading random votes using the whole scale but you learn to see patterns.

But I don't frequently look for rating abusers, I just check album ratings a little now and then and usually on newly released albums. So this thread is helpful so keep posting suspect ratings here, and that goes for everyone who wants to help out keeping the ratings fair.

The rating for Ice Nine Kills' The Silver Scream is suspiciously high for an album with 25 votes, and I was wondering if any vote abuse was involved, or if it's just the damn best metalcore album ever made

Written by Roman Doez on 04.09.2023 at 13:31

The rating for Ice Nine Kills' The Silver Scream is suspiciously high for an album with 25 votes, and I was wondering if any vote abuse was involved, or if it's just the damn best metalcore album ever made

Strangely enough those who rated the album actually seem to like it. Had to permanently ban one user from rating because of a previous warning and repeated behaviour and I warned one other user but other than that I would say that those ratings are all in order. Who knew?

Overuse of extremes?
https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=108390&r_order=year

Written by F3ynman2000 on 10.09.2023 at 15:57

Overuse of extremes?
https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=108390&r_order=year

Oh god lol 300+ 10's wtf...

Written by F3ynman2000 on 10.09.2023 at 15:57

Overuse of extremes?
https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=108390&r_order=year

Some dodgy ratings, definitely worth looking into.

Here's another candidate. https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=33744

On the one hand, giving 9s or 10s ratings to all albums of: Alice Cooper, Amon Amarth, Black Label Society, Bloodbath, Children of Bodom, Death, Deicide, Gojira, Hate Eternal, Iron Maiden, King Diamond, Morbid Angel, Nevermore, Nile, Suffocation, Therion, ... you get the idea

And on the other hand, bombing the ratings of all albums of: Burzum, Deftones, Korn, Lamb Of God, Theatre Des Vampires, and Trivium

ironshervin actually got a total ban from a mod back in 2015 for rating abuse that didn't take effect so he's been able to continue with his questionable rating behaviour. I gave him a permaban from rating instead and deleted his ratings.

Zakkpaulo hasn't been online in 13,5 years so I just deleted the ratings.

Thanks for the help guys.

Not sure if I'd call it rating abuse on the grand scale of things, but just looking at this years ratings alone, it looks a bit suspicious too me, with all the two's and tens? Not sure what others think though? https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=171334&r_order=year

Not so glaringly obvious as others. Overall the votes seem relatively reasonable. But here I found the user is going a bit overboard when giving almost all 10s to the discographies of certain bands. See especially Epica, Kamelot, Lacrimosa, and Metallica.
https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=112211

Written by F3ynman2000 on 16.09.2023 at 17:07

Not so glaringly obvious as others. Overall the votes seem relatively reasonable. But here I found the user is going a bit overboard when giving almost all 10s to the discographies of certain bands. See especially Epica, Kamelot, Lacrimosa, and Metallica.
https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=112211

Yeah he also bombs entire discographies, for example 1s on all Atreyu albums. He's been more subtle with Maiden & Korn but still.

Well, here's an obvious one https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=210841

(And, judging from the date of registration, the user signed up just to give Batushka - Hospodi a 10 )

Written by AndyMetalFreak on 14.09.2023 at 10:25

Not sure if I'd call it rating abuse on the grand scale of things, but just looking at this years ratings alone, it looks a bit suspicious too me, with all the two's and tens? Not sure what others think though? https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=171334&r_order=year

This user had his 2023 ratings deleted since it was obvious that he was trying to manipulate the Top 20.

Written by F3ynman2000 on 17.09.2023 at 18:55

Well, here's an obvious one https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=210841

(And, judging from the date of registration, the user signed up just to give Batushka - Hospodi a 10 )

Taken care of. Warned and all ratings deleted because of rate boosting.

Written by F3ynman2000 on 16.09.2023 at 17:07

Not so glaringly obvious as others. Overall the votes seem relatively reasonable. But here I found the user is going a bit overboard when giving almost all 10s to the discographies of certain bands. See especially Epica, Kamelot, Lacrimosa, and Metallica.
https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=112211

This user hasn't been online for 2,5 years but I gave a warning and deleted the ratings for the mentioned bands plus the tanking of Atreyu with 1s.

Written by Nejde on 19.09.2023 at 23:26

Taken care of.

Thank you for your service

Another really obvious one. Account started today. 70 total votes =70 2's !
https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=336293

And here we have a huge Iron Maiden and Bruce Dickinson fan (their entire discographies are 10s), while other bands get only 2's, 3's, and 4's
https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=157085

Written by F3ynman2000 on 20.09.2023 at 16:25

Another really obvious one. Account started today. 70 total votes =70 2's !
https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=336293

Seven accounts started today actually, both boosting and tanking albums. Nice catch!

Written by F3ynman2000 on 20.09.2023 at 16:28

And here we have a huge Iron Maiden and Bruce Dickinson fan (their entire discographies are 10s), while other bands get only 2's, 3's, and 4's
https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=157085

Dealt with. Thanks.

https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=161390
https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=187261
https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=179301

All three have pretty incredible ratios of 10s given, including multiple bands who got 10s for everything.

Written by Sir Yupp on 27.09.2023 at 05:42

https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=161390
https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=187261
https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=179301

All three have pretty incredible ratios of 10s given, including multiple bands who got 10s for everything.

Two of them were the same user. Banned one account and permanently revoked permission to rate on the other. Both accounts have been inactive for 1,5 year though and hopefully the user won't return. Third account has been inactive for 5 years so I just permanently revoked the permission to rate. And of course all ratings were deleted. Thanks for the help.

Enthusiastic user of 10s:
https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=156424&r_order=year

Obvious Overkill fanboy:
https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=198740&r_order=year

Maybe too few votes to be certain, but this looks like a Saturnus fanboy trying to tank the 2023 competition:
https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=335574

Written by F3ynman2000 on 03.10.2023 at 07:16

Enthusiastic user of 10s:
https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=156424&r_order=year

Obvious Overkill fanboy:
https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=198740&r_order=year

Maybe too few votes to be certain, but this looks like a Saturnus fanboy trying to tank the 2023 competition:
https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=335574

They're all good calls imo, it's always sad to see, when what you consider a quality album, take an unnecessary battering in the votes.

Written by AndyMetalFreak on 03.10.2023 at 08:44

Written by F3ynman2000 on 03.10.2023 at 07:16

Enthusiastic user of 10s:
https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=156424&r_order=year

Obvious Overkill fanboy:
https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=198740&r_order=year

Maybe too few votes to be certain, but this looks like a Saturnus fanboy trying to tank the 2023 competition:
https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=335574

They're all good calls imo, it's always sad to see, when what you consider a quality album, take an unnecessary battering in the votes.

https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=156424&r_order=year

Was already warned and I'm keeping track.

https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=198740&r_order=year

Warned and ratings deleted.

https://metalstorm.net/users/album_votes.php?user_id=335574

I had already given this user a 60 day ban from rating and deleted the ratings. I see now that the rating behaviour more or less is the same after the ban was lifted so a permaban is imminent.