At 11/23/07 06:25 PM, phantomlassuk wrote:
At 11/23/07 06:17 PM, ZeroNuclear wrote Thank you for you really helpful responce ,i did not know that many accounts had been made. I`am glad the mods are doing something about it, but i not lost any whistle points yet. I want to know how would you know for sure its a alt account?,if its a a series of the same spam on every review .
Glad to help.
I'm no expert on review flagging or anything, so don't quote me on this, but here's a few basic "red flags" you should look out for if you don't know whether the goldmine you just stumbled upon is really an alt account.
Also, any more experienced whistlers, feel free to correct or amend/add to what I'm saying here. this is just the set of guidelines i personally use.
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1. The account was created very recently.
- This is probably the biggest tip off. If someone has like 50+ reviews and they've only been on NG since this morning, chances are they created the account just to post mass reviews. Most people will only review submissions that they actually have a real opinion about, and that doesn't happen 50 times in one day. I've been visiting NG since like 1998, and signed up on NG since 2002, and I don't even have 30 reviews yet (but then again, I'm not that opinionated when it comes to submissions). But lots of reviews in a short time span = big red flag. Which leads me to the next one...
2. Lots of similar reviews.
- This one again will stand out clearly. If every review on an entire page of the persons reviews says the same exact thing, its probably an alt account. this can even include positive reviews like "LOL all my 5 are bLong 2 u!!!!!" If there's lots of duplicates, it's probably an alt. not to mention it's just annoying to look at.
3. New reviews keep streaming in as you periodically refresh their reviews page.
- This one was seen by many users in the infamous "youihate39" case. As we were tracking the account, the review count kept going up every minute or two. This means the user is online and posting pointless review after review and is usually a red flag. Your average user won't be going around posting review after review at such a high rate (like 3-4 reviews per minute.) If the reviews were legitimate, it would take far longer than that to post reviews, simply because it would take time to actually watch each movie or play each game you were reviewing. If the count is rising rapidly, its probably an alt.
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That's about all that I go by personally. Again, anyone with other helpful advice, feel free to add to this or offer different advice if you think i'm wrong. Like i said, im not an expert, this is just how I personally handle these things.
