Candidate sweetens 'poll' numbers with help from 'freeping'

[LTR]

Ahhh, freepers are at it again. And they get called out for it:

http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/8834070.htm

Online activists defend freeping's ethics

While Grand Forks City Council candidate Scott McNamee's recent poll-stacking stunt has outraged some, others are outraged at the outrage.

His defenders, including members of the FreeRepublic.com Web site that he frequents, said there is nothing wrong with organizing people to overwhelm online polls, an activity known as "FReeping" after the Web site.

That's just what McNamee did a week ago when, posing as someone close to the candidate, he asked FreeRepublic.com members, FReepers, to vote for him on the online poll of Grand Forks radio station KNOX 1310's "Voice of Dakota" talk show.

That's not unethical, McNamee's defenders say, because online polls are unscientific, and no one takes them seriously. Besides, they say, liberal activists do it, too, so conservatives such as McNamee and his FReeper buddies are only returning the favor.

(snip)

The evidence was a link to a discussion board at DemocraticUnderground.com, the liberal's answer to FreeRepublic.com. One group member, "slor," explained poll stacking, which is known as DUing for DU members: "If a poll result might influence even one person from supporting these idiots in charge, then I have no qualms with it."

(more)

[sniffa]

1. bwahaha

i Love it when freepers, compLain about LiberaLs 'freeping' first... hmmmm, that's obviousLy why it's caLLed freeping.

[mistertrickster]

2. Actually, the problem is the poll itself. On-line polls have very little

randomness, so they don't reflect the larger population, ANY larger population, not even the larger population of internet surfers.

CNN, MSNBC, etc. should just stop running them. They mean nothing, except how willing people are to delete cookies so they can vote a thousand times.

Really a waste, all in all.

[Joanne98]

3. LOL Are they saying we started it first?

Can't they EVER tell the truth?

[tandot]

4. This is just plain stupid

I guess some of those freepers are too stupid to understand that freeping a poll does not change the REALITY. How else would they spend hours after hours trying to change Internet polls?

Hey Freepers, GET A LIFE! GET A JOB! DO SOME CHARITY WORK, IF YOU HAVE TOO MUCH TIME ON YOUR HANDS!

Besides that, DUing to me means each DUer voting once (for most DUers) while the freepers delete cookies or write scripts so they can vote dozens or hundreds of times each.

[djg21]

5. Some don't agree.

Besides that, DUing to me means each DUer voting once (for most DUers) while the freepers delete cookies or write scripts so they can vote dozens or hundreds of times each.

Unfortunately, there are many here on DU who don't understand how incredibly stupid and hypocritical it is to encourage the casting of multiple votes in on-line polls while chastizing "Freepers" for doing the same! I guess that there are "morans" everywhere.

The fact that on-line polls are less-than-scientific, or that "the Freepers did it first" is simply a juvenile and silly justification.

[LeahMira]

6. Governing is not a horse race.

That's not unethical, McNamee's defenders say, because online polls are unscientific, and no one takes them seriously.

No one should take them seriously, but unfortunately some people do. With all due respect to Smarty Jones and Birdstone, this isn't a horserace. Being on the "winning side" about running the country and improving the lives of all of its people is not as important as being on the correct side.

(Geez, I can't say "right side" these days.) :-)


The evidence was a link to a discussion board at DemocraticUnderground.com, the liberal's answer to FreeRepublic.com.

In no way do I see this board as "the liberals' answer to FreeRepublic.com." I don't know which board actually went up first, but that's not the point. I find their board to be self-congratulatory and banal at best. While we do sometimes refer to their more ridiculous threads for a chuckle, this board has much more in-depth discussions of issues and many, many far better informed folks posting information for the benefit of one and all. In fact, if liberals spent all their time "answering" the Freepers, we'd probably wind up as nutso as they are. Wasn't it Annie Oakley who's supposed to have said that you can't fight bull plop with buckshot? As I see it, we tend to ignore them rather than "answer" them.