AS Wall Of Shame
The ArtistSignal Artist Alliance (ASAA) is committed to helping all fair playing artists have a chance at winning the AS $10K grand prize and expose the cheaters who rob them of that opportunity. This is a public awareness campaign to educate the Artistsignal community on the various threats of cyber-crime.
About: ArtistSignal Wall Of Shame
In August of 2015 the following message was posted on AS for all artists and fans to read...
"Our idea for ArtistSignal is simple.
We want to give artists a platform on which they can energize their fans and organize them to support new artists. We want to do that in a way the fans don't have to spend any money. At that we think we have been moderately successful. Lately, there has been a lot of discussion about people organizing in ways that subvert the essence of our goals, even if they don’t strictly speaking break the rules. What little money I have I choose to spend on maintaining the site and slowly improving it. Also, I believe people are basically good, and want to do the right thing. So, I’m not going to hire a police force to make sure everyone plays fair. If the site becomes just a place to game the system, and not a place to discover new music, then those of us who do this, for the love of music, and dedication to the artists who create it, will just go do something else.
Thanks, Rick Ayers (Co-founder and Funder)"
Since AS is not going to hire a "police force" to enforce their own rules, to ensure everyone plays fair ... this website has been created to show "verifiable proof" of artists and fans that game the system. In essence, the artists that cheat, rob other fair playing artists the opportunity to win the $10K grand prize. This is a Cyber-Crime.
WIRED Magazine UK had a study on why people cheat on video games written by Phillipa Warr. The researchers concluded: "[The study] shows that deviant behaviours online such as game cheating are largely influenced by the "online social groups" people feel they belong to. An online group, despite its fluid, unstable and "imaginary nature", is powerful in constructing and changing its members' attitudes and views on behaviours. Hence, a behaviour that is perceived as problematic and deviant can be reconstructed with a different interpretation." The implication here being that if we can alter what is considered normal in online communities we might be better able to counter negative behaviour like cheating as well as flaming, trolling and other forms of abuse.
While many artists and fans DO play fair, some online communities that have a good knowledge of computer programs ... use iMacros, bots, scripts and any other form of automation to win. (click to read more about bots).
A bot will always win against a human. Soon as a human gets more humans to vote, more bots are introduced to counteract the final outcome.
Cheating, in order to gain an advantage over other AS artists that use real human hands and real time to vote, has been going on since AS was founded in 2012. In the past, AS enforced their rules and disqualified the cheaters, however lately, with the arrival of many Second Life residents to AS and with so much concrete proof of cheating going on, nothing has been done. Hence this website was born.
We feel that if cheaters are exposed, then most fair playing artists and fans will stop voting, trading votes and supporting them. Sometimes fans don't know their artist is cheating. If they knew, would they continue supporting them? We don't think so. No one in real life likes a cheater. The only ones that do, are the ones that prosper from the cheaters actions.
From professional athletes who take steroids to win, to major label artists who lip-sync, to high profile automobile companies who scam the public...cheaters should never prosper.
This website was not set up to harass anyone. It was not set up to be vindictive. If we see it and we have verifiable proof, the cheater will be called out. If AS did their job, their would be no need for this website. If you don't want to be exposed on this wall of shame... don't cheat and play fair. It's that simple. If this is not enough of a deterrent, cheaters will be reported to the authorities under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
At the end of the day, all that needs to be remembered on AS, is that each and every artist is trying to make a name for themselves. Do you want to be known as someone who won with integrity and fairness, or do you want to be known as someone who cheated and gamed the system?
Let's not lose sight of what we're here for. Money is a fleeting thing, money runs out and then all you're left with is you and your actions.
ASAA
