| Cheating |
mathmaniac
Kwon-Tom Obsessive
Puzzles: 1293
Best Total: 20m 57s | Posted - 2006.06.19 14:22:38
Foilman, is there any way you could prevent someone from creating a second e-mail address and registering a second player? That way they could solve the puzzles on one account and copy them to the other account in record time. I know you have already prevented people from solving them without logging in and the copying but see if you can do this one. |
astrokath
Kwon-Tom Obsessive
Puzzles: 3258
Best Total: 13m 42s | Posted - 2006.06.19 14:46:33
This issue has come up before, sometime in 2005, but I'm not sure if you were around then. Foilman keeps track of IP addresses (or something, all that technical malarkey goes whooshing over my head), and can identify suspect members. The first time was pretty blatant, really. There were the rest of us clocking, oh I dunno, 3min times or something, so the 1.not-a-lot stood out like a sore thumb.
See this ancient thread...
Of course, back in the days when it seemed plain impossible to do a week-day puzzle in under 1.30, the cheater was pretty easy to spot. Nowadays, well... I think we do have the advantage of being able to watch new members improve either gradually or rapidly, so a cheat should still be reasonably obvious.
Last edited by astrokath - 2006.06.19 14:51:17 |
mathmaniac
Kwon-Tom Obsessive
Puzzles: 1293
Best Total: 20m 57s | Posted - 2006.06.19 15:20:18
good to know that that is taken care of. |
mathmaniac
Kwon-Tom Obsessive
Puzzles: 1293
Best Total: 20m 57s | Posted - 2006.06.19 15:21:14
I joined around november 2005 so I don't think I would have been around then. |
foilman
Kwon-Tom Admin
Puzzles: 3617
Best Total: 24m 6s | Posted - 2006.06.19 16:46:41
There are a few things I do to spot people "cheating" on the leaderboards... it's usually fairly obvious! Like astrokath says, if two people are connecting on the same IP address (or very similar) and one starts the puzzle shortly after the first one finishes it, and achieves a record time, that's a good sign something is up. |
mathmaniac
Kwon-Tom Obsessive
Puzzles: 1293
Best Total: 20m 57s | Posted - 2006.06.19 19:02:42
so rather than disabling it you just hunt down the cheaters. |
foilman
Kwon-Tom Admin
Puzzles: 3617
Best Total: 24m 6s | Posted - 2006.06.19 19:05:27
Yes, but it's usually just a case of resetting their time back to the same as the person they copied and a quick "oi don't cheat" email.  |
