Multiple accounts are not allowed. It's the number 1 rule in our FAQ Section.

I've just finished spending a couple of hours from my precious time, banning multi-accounts and nuking votes by abusers. Since I was feeling lenient, I have given these people official warnings and 30-day timeouts from voting. I have banned all the excess accounts and have left one working account for each user. This topic was started so that I won't have to do this again. Which means that from now on, multiple accounts will be permanently banned without warning.

So, if you have two or three or ten different accounts, delete them all and keep just one. Now is the time to do it. If you think the latest Babymetal deserves 1 and the latest Insomnium 10, that's fine. Having five accounts to cast the same votes is not fine.

I think the message is very clear. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer, even though this is all very straightforward: one person ---> one account.

They will watch you
They will find you
They will ban you

You better watch out. Spartsn is coming, egeain Sea is ragning.... Good job man

In old ms days user need 100 forum posts before it can open discusion. IMO we need make 100 posts and 100 accepted band related edirs before they can vote and Do thinks

Written by Bad English on 10.02.2020 at 14:23

IMO we need make 100 posts and 100 accepted band related edirs before they can vote and Do thinks

100(!) edits before permission to vote and do things???

Not only would that strongly discourage newcomers, but it'd give more work to admins and mods who need to check the 100 edits per user. Of course, it wouldn't happen, because nobody has the fucking time to find 100 things to edit about bands just to be able to give album votes.

Written by Metren on 10.02.2020 at 14:36

Written by Bad English on 10.02.2020 at 14:23

IMO we need make 100 posts and 100 accepted band related edirs before they can vote and Do thinks

100(!) edits before permission to vote and do things???

Not only would that strongly discourage newcomers, but it'd give more work to admins and mods who need to check the 100 edits per user. Of course, it wouldn't happen, because nobody has the fucking time to find 100 things to edit about bands just to be able to give album votes.

If I could chose there only can be plus perms ppl edit band related things. Now when yaniv is here my life Is boring, database edits is Dead. 100 thinks can be done in one day and ms needs ppl who stays not comes for ms a

Thanks for digging into this N

Written by kilein on 11.02.2020 at 17:33

This is awesome. I love this.

Huh...

Here's a good deal of work for you, Nik: proteff, Ui, Yokogft, Vendk32, Gostyuiop, Ytioop, Hypnosb, Junivik, Tyrant, Tyronio, Tark, Ratsert, Loudfinjk, Uyitrf, Gomeshu12...
(multi-accounts and rating abuse)

Written by Starvynth on 08.04.2020 at 22:18

Here's a good deal of work for you, Nik: proteff, Ui, Yokogft, Vendk32, Gostyuiop, Ytioop, Hypnosb, Junivik, Tyrant, Tyronio, Tark, Ratsert, Loudfinjk, Uyitrf, Gomeshu12...
(multi-accounts and rating abuse)

26 accounts created in less than 2 hours just to rate Venom's Hell with 10. How stupid can someone be? Nuked all votes, banned the IP and all the profiles, deleted all album votes and comments. I can't see how he/she will visit us again.

Thank you, Starvynth. Good catch.

Hey, just posting here because I created another account called doezz back in like 2019 (because I was banned for vote abuse at this point in time... oops). Only problem: lost the account's email and password, so if someone could terminate it for me, it'd be much appreciated, thanks in advance!

Written by Roman Doez on 15.05.2021 at 16:59

Hey, just posting here because I created another account called doezz back in like 2019 (because I was banned for vote abuse at this point in time... oops). Only problem: lost the account's email and password, so if someone could terminate it for me, it'd be much appreciated, thanks in advance!

I haven't got the power to delete the account - we don't delete accounts anyway - but I can ban it. There is no reason to do that though, you have no album votes and only one comment.

Written by nikarg on 16.05.2021 at 01:17

I haven't got the power to delete the account - we don't delete accounts anyway - but I can ban it. There is no reason to do that though, you have no album votes and only one comment.

OK then, I just wanted to make sure it didn't cause any problem, thanks!

I'm pretty sure that berzah / Berzahs is a multi-account.
Please also have a look at the ratings, the 1/10 for Thy Catafalque's Verdak and the recently created profile's average rating of 2.75 is more than just suspicious...

Written by Starvynth on 06.09.2021 at 13:10

I'm pretty sure that berzah / Berzahs is a multi-account.

Did he/she just use the same name twice to downvote a few albums and upvote another? Vote abusers sure aren't getting smarter...

Written by nikarg on 10.02.2020 at 01:57

Also keep in mind that the MS staff has access to a magic "IP ban" thingy next to each of your profiles which, when clicked on, simply nukes all your multiple accounts and your IP to orbit. Which in simple English means that Metal Storm will be forever inaccessible from that particular IP.

What about a VPN? What if someone happens to be on the same VPN so that it looks like we have multiple accounts from the same IP address? Would it even show up as the same IP address? I'm not knowledgeable about these things, which is why I ask.

Written by Zap on 06.09.2021 at 13:51

Vote abusers sure aren't getting smarter...

Exactly my first thought, but I ultimately held back on stating the obvious because I would not have expressed it as diplomatically as you did.

Thanks, I will go through the top album ratings soon, I was planning to anyway since it is something I do when a big band releases an album and therefore fanboy vote abuse is expected. I prefer to let the dust settle first though, that way more get caught in one go.

As for VPNs, IPs, etc, there are a few ways we have to spot multi-accounts but I wouldn't like to share them here, Zap.

Someone please ban these obvious multi-accounts and delete their album ratings:
antiRevisited (ID 203902)
fuckRevisited (ID 203903)

Written by Zap on 06.09.2021 at 13:58

What about a VPN? What if someone happens to be on the same VPN so that it looks like we have multiple accounts from the same IP address? Would it even show up as the same IP address? I'm not knowledgeable about these things, which is why I ask.

Consumer VPN providers have publicly known IP ranges (or at least they are required to tell if asked) and I see no reason not to ban all IP ranges - MS is not something I see banned from any country that would require VPN workaround, maybe aside some regimes in Middle East, but at that point I'm sure they don't allow VPNs either...

Iron Maiden's last album page has gone nuts with trolls, ridiculous. So ridiculous and moronic these people don't understand this behaviour, rating abuse never helps.
https://metalstorm.net/bands/album.php?album_id=133185&page=&message_id=

Written by qlacs on 07.09.2022 at 14:17

Consumer VPN providers have publicly known IP ranges (or at least they are required to tell if asked) and I see no reason not to ban all IP ranges - MS is not something I see banned from any country that would require VPN workaround, maybe aside some regimes in Middle East, but at that point I'm sure they don't allow VPNs either...

Thanks for the info, this is interesting. Although I'm still not sure if my initial question was ever answered, haha.

Written by Zap on 08.09.2022 at 10:54

Written by qlacs on 07.09.2022 at 14:17

Consumer VPN providers have publicly known IP ranges (or at least they are required to tell if asked) and I see no reason not to ban all IP ranges - MS is not something I see banned from any country that would require VPN workaround, maybe aside some regimes in Middle East, but at that point I'm sure they don't allow VPNs either...

Thanks for the info, this is interesting. Although I'm still not sure if my initial question was ever answered, haha.

If you're using a VPN you'll appear from a different IP

Written by Zap on 06.09.2021 at 13:58

What about a VPN? What if someone happens to be on the same VPN so that it looks like we have multiple accounts from the same IP address? Would it even show up as the same IP address? I'm not knowledgeable about these things, which is why I ask.

Sorry Zap, I did not answer that on purpose. I don't want to go deep into it, but I assure you that we only ban IPs when we have other adequate info that it is one person creating multi-accounts.

Written by qlacs on 08.09.2022 at 11:32

If you're using a VPN you'll appear from a different IP

Yes, I know that. But my initial question was what MS staff would do when two people appear to have the same IP but both actually happen to use the same VPN server. In any case, that question is a year old; I completely forgot about it until you quoted me yesterday. I don't really care anyway, it was just a hypothetical question.

Written by nikarg on 08.09.2022 at 11:39

Sorry Zap, I did not answer that on purpose.

I figured; which is probably why I didn't press the issue at the time. As I said, it was just a hypothetical question anyways.

I suspect that Mnajdra is a multi-account, or more precisely, a continuation of a recently banned or otherwise inactive user profile.
Please have a look at the profiles of roejogan, Bihargam and Plato.

I could be wrong, but I suspect that Vadim and VadimV have more than just a very similar user name in common.

Written by Starvynth on 19.10.2023 at 10:39

I could be wrong, but I suspect that Vadim and VadimV have more than just a very similar user name in common.

They don't share the same IP and I don't see any rating abuse from any of them. So for now, I'd say it's good.