[DragonLordJones]

I think the only way to solve this is for UMC to step in and send a registration code type poll to the people for the Cripper Award Vote(like the feedback survey) give it one week for the cruisers to pick their fav and be done with it. (I realize this is more work for them, but I don't see any other way to make it fair) If they are willing to do it. otherwise I say there is no winner this year.

next year include it with the feedback form.

yes this poll is invalid and ruined our history of this majestic award

[meshuggah]

Maybe Cripper has to be onbroad every year and oversee this process first hand. We'd all win if they were regulars. Jeff Waters & Cripper annually.

[DragonLordJones]

Maybe Cripper has to be onbroad every year and oversee this process first hand. We'd all win if they were regulars. Jeff Waters & Cripper annually.

I would be okay with this

[Phoenix]

I agree with everything bodomdragon said in his last post. I don't know how I feel giving the voting choice to UMC but I can't really think of a better way than that. I guess we could try to brainstorm something over the next year.

You're right, this year there should be no winner. A shame to the bands who were great and didn't want to get involved in any sort of foul play, but at this stage giving the award to anyone feels wrong.

[klons]

Somebody went and got Dalriada's hopes up by telling them they won

I'm fully with DLJ on this one (isn't it Joey and yourself and somebody else actually in charge of this officially?), either UMC steps in or there can't be a winner this year, it's just too screwed up at this point.

[Witch]

Hey Witchtrapmaniacs Sailors on board 2017, we (Witchtrap) want to say thank you to all the sailors who gave support to our band WITCHTRAP not only at our shows on board and thank you to the sailors who gave the support and votes to the poll about the Cripper Award.

we send our congratulations to the band Dalriada as winner of this poll started on the 70000 tons of metal forum.
best regards and...
Stay Evil, Stay Ugly, Stay Metal
United We Stand inthe:
METAL ARMY MARCH.

Enforcer, Burning Axe Ripper, Witchhammer & WITCHTRAP.
we hope to meet you in future issues on board at 70k or anywhere we were touring or playing live.
best regards.

[Pellaz]

And upon further review,DALRIADA Wins!(Look at vote count lol)

If UMC were somehow able to remove the votes of all the band-bot people who registered solely to vote, AND remove all the spam/fake votes for Dalriada....and they STILL won, I'd accept that.

You mentioned that the vote counts had decreased, and it might have something to do with the forum going down (I don't see anything different after it was brought back up, anyway), but it's hard to tell what UMC actually did.

[Sgt. B]

And upon further review,DALRIADA Wins!(Look at vote count lol)

If UMC were somehow able to remove the votes of all the band-bot people who registered solely to vote, AND remove all the spam/fake votes for Dalriada....and they STILL won, I'd accept that.

You mentioned that the vote counts had decreased, and it might have something to do with the forum going down (I don't see anything different after it was brought back up, anyway), but it's hard to tell what UMC actually did.

The vote counts look to be the same as before maintenance.

[Sgt. B]

Somebody went and got Dalriada's hopes up by telling them they won

I'm fully with DLJ on this one (isn't it Joey and yourself and somebody else actually in charge of this officially?), either UMC steps in or there can't be a winner this year, it's just too screwed up at this point.

Britta asked the committee to weigh in on this in a previous post. The members were listed as : DragonLordJones, Stained Class, abodrocc, bodomdragon. 3 of the 4 have replied recently in this thread.

[meshuggah]

And upon further review,DALRIADA Wins!(Look at vote count lol)

If UMC were somehow able to remove the votes of all the band-bot people who registered solely to vote, AND remove all the spam/fake votes for Dalriada....and they STILL won, I'd accept that.

You mentioned that the vote counts had decreased, and it might have something to do with the forum going down (I don't see anything different after it was brought back up, anyway), but it's hard to tell what UMC actually did.

Maybe Jill Stein can start a fundraiser to do a recount.

[deathmetalpat]

And upon further review,DALRIADA Wins!(Look at vote count lol)

If UMC were somehow able to remove the votes of all the band-bot people who registered solely to vote, AND remove all the spam/fake votes for Dalriada....and they STILL won, I'd accept that.

You mentioned that the vote counts had decreased, and it might have something to do with the forum going down (I don't see anything different after it was brought back up, anyway), but it's hard to tell what UMC actually did.

The vote counts look to be the same as before maintenance.

I thought Witchtrap won with about 150 votes,at the end it was crazy with the vote count jumping.

[deathmetalpat]

And upon further review,DALRIADA Wins!(Look at vote count lol)

If UMC were somehow able to remove the votes of all the band-bot people who registered solely to vote, AND remove all the spam/fake votes for Dalriada....and they STILL won, I'd accept that.

You mentioned that the vote counts had decreased, and it might have something to do with the forum going down (I don't see anything different after it was brought back up, anyway), but it's hard to tell what UMC actually did.

Maybe Jill Stein can start a fundraiser to do a recount.

The irony is not lost here lol ,think we need to "build some sort of FireWall" to keep the illegal votes out!#MTCAGA (Make The Cripper Award Great Again),I blame PEPE for all this confusion,he has brought Chaos and Disorder into the World.Maybe Witchtrapsucks was a Russian agent?

[DragonLordJones]

Hi Britta, and thanks for your input.

I would like to ask the committee to weigh in on this - DragonLordJones, Stained Class, abodrocc, bodomdragon.

I will leave any decisions on how to proceed in your able hands!

This award was never meant to become something big, let alone a popularity contest. It all started going downhill with Nervosa last year, when they begged their Facebook fans to vote for them. We hoped that would be an isolate case and that the award would remain true to its spirit. We were wrong, as we have seen this year. Thus, only two things can happen from now on. Either the award disappears, or the voting system is changed to something that cannot be corrupted - not so easily at least. I think most of us agree than the latter is a better solution.

As for what to do with the award this year, I have confronted feelings.

First of all, my very personal thought about this. Vote begging on social networks should be avoided, as it obviously distorts the results as we've seen for two years in a row. It is not a written rule, it is just a matter of common sense. That's why I would give the award to the band that got more votes without doing this, and we all know which band that is.

On the other hand, though, that "winner" wouldn't be clean either, because of what happened with one person repeatedly voting for them. The band is not to be blamed for an individual's attitude which doesn't seem to be related to them, so excluding them would seem extremely unfair to me. But, this is yet another proof that the current system is obsolete.

Like it or not, it's the end of the Cripper award as we know it, because, quoting Overkill's wise words, it is "Rotten to the Core". It died because of its success, and it is time for a change.

I don't support the idea of creating a private Facebook group for many reasons, such as the difficulty of checking each and every applicant - also, this check should be done very year-, the privacy issues, or the fact that many cruisers don't use Facebook. If we want to save this, it is time for UMC to get involved and let cruisers vote using official methods. Either include the question in the feedback survey, or launch a new survey only for this topic. My advice to UMC would be: let the cruisers decide the award candidates the same way it's been done so far, and take it from there.

Finally, and back to the current year's situation: we all know that some bands have corrupted the poll, and while that's unfair to the ones who did not, I would leave the award void. It is not like anyone's losing anything, as I said in the beginning this is just, or should be, a small thing for us cruisers, so no drama. Let us hope that next year we can make it work better with some help from UMC.

tl;dr: no winner this year, help needed from UMC from now on or the award disappears.

I agree with a lot of this ... as you can tell from my post - except for one point is I would like it to have been big enough for everyone on the ship to have their chance to vote and I know from experience that some of the Cripper bands had no more than a dozen people at their shows and played their hearts out - to be crushed by bands who had a larger fallowing ...... maybe it is best to end what we felt was a good idea ...................... I'm all for new bands to be discovered and shown their effort is worth them hitting the roads and grow even if it takes them 20 years to be discovered by a larger audience . All I can think of is to include the award in the feedback survey so everyone gets a chance to vote who was on the cruise (if they wish to fill that part out) and hope for the best people will check out the bands listed (whether they saw them on the boat or not) and vote for the one they like .

Just my 2 cents on how to carry on with a great idea to support what all us metal heads believe in most THE MUSIC

[bodomdragon]

And upon further review,DALRIADA Wins!(Look at vote count lol)

If UMC were somehow able to remove the votes of all the band-bot people who registered solely to vote, AND remove all the spam/fake votes for Dalriada....and they STILL won, I'd accept that.

You mentioned that the vote counts had decreased, and it might have something to do with the forum going down (I don't see anything different after it was brought back up, anyway), but it's hard to tell what UMC actually did.

The vote counts look to be the same as before maintenance.

I also have no idea whether or not UMC did something to the votes or not. But if they did, it would be much simpler if they just said they did. Meanwhile, I will keep thinking the poll is completely invalid.

[Memnoch]

The vote counts look to be the same as before maintenance.

Indeed. And all the WitchtrapSucksXX users are still listed as members of the forum, so I think the fake votes are still there.

The easiest way to get the fake accounts out is to have a moderator approve new users before the account is activated. Would take away the spambots as well. And multiple accounts from the same IP could be detected (and banned if need be).

[abodrocc]

I would like to ask the committee to weigh in on this - DragonLordJones, Stained Class, abodrocc, bodomdragon.

I will leave any decisions on how to proceed in your able hands!

If I understand well, 3 of we 4 agree with the declaring void this votation, unless UMC confirm that did something to invalidate duplicated / fake votes

Very sad, but maybe the best choice

[Razor Ramon]

Eh, Dalriada should be the winner anyway.

[Downvod]

I really don't feel UMC would have a major issue getting involved with this and adding a small field to the feedback form. Traditions in the 70K community like this one are embraced by UMC, and are what keep people coming back and talking about this all year. Hell, they've already gotten involved to some degree by officially posting about the Cripper vote on social media, and they seek out and market bands as 'Cripper Contenders' every year. As I said, it is in their best interest to support traditions like this in any way possible, and I think they are well aware of that.

[Stained Class]

Hey guys, sorry I've been absent. Super busy so I didn't even think to check the forum for a few weeks. I think the best decision has been made here. I was already pretty turned off by how seriously people were taking it last year, especially considering how little winning this award actually means. If we could work with UMC and think of a way to actually make sure the only people voting are people that were on the boat, and only one vote each, then we could make it work. But, I think that too would take the spirit out of the award as it was meant to be run by the fans and be a fun, silly thing that we did to pass the time between cruises. It's a shame that it lost that.

[Britta]

So let's leave this year's Cripper Award void and see if it happens or does not happen next year. It should be a fun thing, not give anyone a headache. I'm not sure if UMC wants to be more involved in this, since it's a fan-initiated idea. I guess we will just see. I will definitely stay in touch with UMC about this and spin some ideas that I will share with you guys before the next cruise.

Happy St. Patrick’s btw