Ok, just a quick update from me today. I've been extremely busy all week so I'll have to follow this up properly early next week.
As many have pointed out in the comments section, my words of warning have been ignored and there has definitely been cheating on the recent polls. We've had a look at some of the data logs (or something like that, I'm not particularly web-minded) and seen that some people are cheating, which is pretty obvious from this weeks poll results.
It's a real shame and I'm very disappointed that a few people are ruining this, especially after my warning and especially as they are not even trying to be subtle anymore.
So, I'm not going to punish all collectors and take away your choice. What I will now do is either run polls on some of the fan forums (stay tuned for their web address next week) or have an e-mail link where voters can send me an e-mail vote, that way at least each vote will come from one e-mail account and we can confidently track cheaters.
Perhaps we'll try both. I will let you all know soon but don't worry you will still have a say.
As for the polls we've already run, Chameleon and Blackheart are going to stand as the cheating doesn't seem to have affected their victories. Sadly the Avengers poll shall be scrapped and possibly restarted at a later date. Regardless of what form the Avengers poll takes in the future, you will have the chance to vote for these characters again.
Well unfortunately that is the only update this week. We'll start again next week and hopefully put all the cheating behind us. A few bad apples certainly won't spoil my enjoyment of posting updates, reading your comments and getting your opinion on the collection.
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42 comments:
I support your decision to scrap the current polls, it's become ridiculous the lengths some people will go to spoil things.
I'd also like to thank you for still wanting us to choose some of the figurines in the next extension, it's a great privelige. I'm sure if it's easier for you to just choose them in the end, a lot of us will have full faith in your choices.
I'm a little concerned about the email system as lots of people have numerous email accounts - personal, work, email, family etc and could quite easily get other friends and family to vote as well.
Using Grim's site has worked in the past and is a lot more controlled as it's possible to keep track on exactly who has voted for what.
An idea I thought of was to maybe send out another questionairre with a future issue of CMFC, that way only collectors get to vote, and it enables every collector a chance to vote, not just the ones who visit online? Maybe if you keep the same system of choosing 8-10 characters for each MU category and just ask people to pick their favourite?
Thanks Richard too be more intelligent than the cheaters !! lol . Hope we'll have a lot of characters in the futur and , if I don't "like" them , well.....I don't care !! Everybody can have his favorit , the most important is ......WE NEED ALPHA FLIGHT !!! re lol
Its a massive shame people have cheated. I would like to Thank you for putting up with this and not letting the minority ruin for all. I looked forward to finding out what the fans really want.
Excuse my poor english
As the Eaglemoss DC collection website
why did you not make a board ?
I tried to post a comment before you published your decision but I confronted various problems and was unable to do so. I believe you made the right decision and it's a shame some people do not appreciate the confedance and privilages they are given. Not all companies give you the chance to choose which characters you would like to see inclueded in a given series or collection. They just produce what they believe is best and that's that. I am very grateful for the opportunity you gave us in choosing which figurines we wanted. It's too bad some people could not value that.
We are all comic book fans and collectors. This is suppose to be enjoyable,fun and pleasant. When things like this happen,it takes the joy and fun out of your pastime. Please people lets be a little more mature about this and if you don't see your favorite picked be grown up about it and enjoy that you at least had your say about it. This is truly one of the best collection if not the best I've ever seen and I'm sure we will all be able to see at least one of our favorites produced. lets put the fun back into this great series that Richard and Eaglemoss have given us. Excuse me if I got carried away and went on forever,but I just wanted to have my say in all this! Peace and God bless!
It sucks, but I also support your decision to end the current polls. I'd rather have Eaglemoss choose the characters than characters win due to cheating. It's a shame that all this time was wasted though.
I don't think the Questionairre really works, King Chris. Those that don't live in the UK would likely not be able to have a voice in the polls if it was handled that way.
Why not ask collectors to fill in a questionaire that is sent with the magazine to ask any suggestions of what the next twenty they would like to see. Once all have been collected compare and see the most common characters suggested are.
i support your decisions but it really sucks that this has to happen..personally id prefer the email way, sometimes people forget to check weekly on new sites, not like with this blog where i check it almost twice a week...
Hello Rich. It is a shame indeed. I don't understand though how people can cheat on these polls? When I have a poll on my blog each vote is counted by IP address. So one vote per IP... I thought that was pretty safe?
Anyways I don't mind what characters you make as I will collect them all. My only fave was Onslaught and it looks like he's gonna be made someday which is awesome
Sadly but i support your decision.
Make e-mails!
Unfortunately, I agree that the polls need to be rejiggered. Especially since Firestar lost!!
Seriously, I'm up for fair voting. Wherever, however.
Where are the Heralds of Galactus? (yes I have Silver Surfer)
I mean hey, imagine how cool would Morg and Terax be? They have axes!!
Yeap fair voting is the best.Even if we lose our favorites...
I think email suggestions and voter cards are the way to go.
Not like the USA fans really count anyway.
I'm probably the only person to ask but I think there should be a Beyonder figurine. People to this day still talk about the Secret Wars series.
I'd also like to see Molecule Man from Fantastic Four. But I think I'm his only fan.
I'm just glad that there is a blog that lets us know what's going on. The voting thing doesn't matter anyway.
(Like Jack of Hearts would ever beat Firestar in a real vote anyway)
I don't think the email option would work fairly. I have 2 email accounts (I'm not saying I would use them both) but I can guess a few people may have more. As for the cheaters if they are sad enough to cheat they are probably sad enough to make up new accounts just so they can vote again.
I think the paper based ones are better or maybe get people to vote via the comments section? Say pick your 3 best from a set list 1st gets 5 points 2nd gets 3 points and 3rd gets a point and work it that way.
It's bad that people want to abuse the system I kind of agree and disagree with the whole scrap the poll. I agree because its not fair on the characters that suffered due to the cheats but I also disagree because of the unfairness towards you Richard, you took the time to pick a decent set of heroes (who should all be made) and to set up the poll.
Quite frankly the cheaters are just taking the ****
Another Great decision by CMFC!!!
Firstable I appreciate that this vote has been cancelled.
In my personal experience i have never won a single vote from any polls in this blog. My poll for Sasquatch has lost to kingpin, My poll for Echo has lost to Blackheart, even this time every characters that i wanted has lost votes such as Ares, Mockingbird, Firestar and Stingray. And Who is the Quasar dude anyway?????
I sincerely send my thanks to CMFC for having another chance for those of my favorite characters.
I agree the best way is to send out questionairre to the subscribers only.Get us to pick our last 20 list or pick 5 characters from each branch or something?
It would be better for everyone to have a free range of choice rather than a limit range.Like the characters from the last poll might have not made everyones last top 20 list.
Hopefully you will see there is still enough demand for more figures to be made.
I dont think that you need a poll to see that everyone wants alpha flight!
And how about Giant man for the next mega special.
What about Mary Jane, Aunt May and J.J. Jameson? They are basic characters of MARVEL...
Also you can include Cassandra Nova, Pyro or W.Stryker....
And of course Northstar and Aurora.
But my only love is Firestar....................
................
Thor8 said...
I agree with King Chris. I for one have access to various emails and could easily cast in various votes if I so wished to (of course I won't),but not everyone has proven to be as honest as others.
I believe we could just use this blog itself to cast in our votes.
You could list 25 or 30 heroes and everyone could pick thier favorite 5. The 5 heroes with the most votes win their right to be inclueded in this collection. No one would be able to vote more than once because they have to sigh-in in order to vote and we would all know if they already voted or not.
07 December 2008 21:26
Travis: "Not like the USA fans really count anyway."
Well, that was the most ignorant thing I've read in some time.
It's true cbrbeast. In fact just finding the newest issues where I live in near impossible. Most comic book stores in my state won't even bother ordering the figures because they claim noones buying them. And the plinths and binders are nowhere to be found. If you want those you have to buy them from over sea sellers.
Don't even get me started on the exclusive figurines that the UK have.
So yeah, US fans don't and never will count.
Ummm, that's because they're in the Previews Catalog every month and you're supposed to order them if you want them. The stores arn't going to spend money on stock if there's no interest in them. Especially considering our economy right now. It's lucky the stores can even continue operating right now.
As for UK exclusives, there have only been 3 that weren't offered to the US. The original subscriber exclusive Spider-Man Rooftop one, Dark Phoenix, and Blue Angel. And I was able to get the last two very easily from oversees. I didn't care enough about the Spider-Man rooftop one to bother aquiring it.
You may think the US doesn't count. But it's the collection moving into other countries that's also helped keep it growing. And in fact, Diamond just named the Classic Marvel Figurine Collection one of the Top Products of 2008. So yes, we count. We count quite a bit.
I really appreciate the work that Richard and his team put into the polls but I'm glad that the polls were cancelled. E-mail votes will have the same problem (as others have mentioned)... it is too easy to cast multiple votes and there is no audit trail.
Grim's site or the superherofigurineforum would be much easier to monitor and manage.
re voter cards - if you wanted to put a voting card in the magazines (with some kind of watermark to prevent photocopying) and didn't mind waiting until the other countries got their deliveries & had the time to send back their votes, I think that could work too.
CBRBeast, I also asked my LCS to order every new figurines that shows up in the Diamond Previews... I've never had a problem getting my figurines. I also (ok this is a wee bit OCD but bear with me) made a list of all comic stores in my state and called each of them up. Yes, it took me a couple of days during breaks to get through the 6 page listing but I found 3 places between my work and home that carry the figurines and I found a bunch of other places that had Thor, Silver Surfer, Captain America etc (the figurines that tend to be a little harder to find).
RRTSM can be found on eBay (I got mine from the EM site before they stopped selling it). Picked up the Forbidden Planet exclusives at the FPI website.
My nagging question is how I'm going to get the subscriber gift Batman since US collectors cannot subscribe (but that's not a CMFC issue so I'll move along)
Thanks again Richard & team for creating a truly awesome collection!
Any news about Titania or Madame Hydra?
The only problem with voting going on superherofigurineforum is that not everyone is welcome. That's why this place means alot to so many people...
If we are allowed to vote then I think a form in with the magazines would be great. That way everyone can have their say. Instead of afew signed upto a forum.
The only people not welcome on SHFF are the blatant cheats and those who unfairly try to sway others opinions, anyone can register, play by he rules and all is fine as far as I can see.
The advantage of voting via SHFF website is that they have procedures in place to prevent cheating and the staff to constantly monitor what is happening. I know that a lot of members on there are members of the other forums and that causes no problems. All votes are open and the results seen by everyone.
The problem of voting by ballet inclueded in the magazine is that not all countries receive the latest issue at the same time. Sometimes the differance between one country and another are months apart and that would make setting a deadline to cast your votes a little difficult. I still believe voting by SHFF is the best alternative. As The Grim Reaper stated anyone can register,and if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear!
Maybe Eaglemoss could setup an official forum like the DC collection has. This way Eaglemoss could manage all the voting procedures at their end and make sure nobody cheats. This would be fairest way to conduct these polls I think.
Maybe you are right Wadders, but look at how the DC forum degenerated. You should know that running a forum is not a five minute job, EM have neither the staff nor the inclination at the moment.
Fan forums are great but only when run by the fans, corporate management doesn't work as they will quickly realise the extra workload (and cost) just to try and tread water, forum becomes a low priority and then the lunatics take over the asylum.
Ultimately the decision will be Eaglemoss's and I hope they make a sensible choice that suits everyone. What i can't understand is why you would consider it unfair to run the polls via SHFF, you are a member on there and we have members from all around the world, you can log in at anytime day or night and there will be several members logged in posting, chatting and there will always be a Moderator or Admin member in there too. Like Thor says, only those with something to hide will have difficulty on SHFF as they are certain to be found out.
I didn't say I would find it unfair on there but I am sure some people would prefer to do this sort of thing through EM if they can. Not everyone is a member of a forum and some people don't want to join forums. It is a shame that there is no way to make the polls on here cheat proof.
I just hope EM if they want our say on votes do it so everyone can have their voice heard.
As for being a cheat we both know I did nothing wrong
I still believe that the easiest and safetest way of doing the polls is right here! All Richard has to do is list, lets say 30 characters and set a deadline for everyone to write in and post thier favorite 5. The 5 with the most votes win and then a new list is posted and everyone picks 5 more and so forth. I mean how hard can that be?
Probably a lot harder than you think Thor LOL...
first of all ALL the mail needs to be opened and sorted, then from amongst all the CHAT that each letter will contain, the 5 Choices need to be listed, collated and then counted. Now we hav eseen some determined efforts to sway a vote and who is to say that those responsible won't lash out a few quid on stamps and send in 20 or 30 entries.
All this will take time and effort on the part of EM and ultimately there will be a major financial implication to them.
However the main reason this won't work is Richard does not have the time...he already gets more sacks full of fanmail than SANTA gets "Dear Santa" letters at christmas.
I'm not talking about mailing in your choices. I'm talking about posting them the same way I'm posting this comment right now.
I just right in and say:"My favorite 5 are:Swordsman-Stingray
Giant-Man-Antman and Wasp". Everyone will see that I picked those 5 so I will not be able to write in again and revote because every one will know it's me.
Everyone can cast thier votes for all to see and no one can vote more than once. There's no mail to open and read. All Richard has to do is list the # of heroes to vbote for and set a deadline to cast in your votes.
I really like that idea THOR, only problem is it takes a matter of seconds to get a blogger account.
Just like my "UNIQUE" one here.
BTW
Oh and my 5 favourites are:
-The Grim Reaper
-Eric Williams
-Wonder Man's Brother
-Founder of The Lethal Legion
Oh and not forgetting
-The Grim Reaper
;-)
Well I don't suppose we need to come up with an alternative way to vote now that the polls will be conducted at SHFF. At least you cant use the cookie vote trick on a forum.
I got your message,thanks for the"HINT" Grim!
This is getting boaring,its takeing the excitment out of the colletion.Tell us you have extended the list so we all can relax a bit.
Maybe a fix to the cheating would be to provide a list of say 10 characters and work on the basis that for each online poll, one of the characters that finishes top 3 will definitely make the collection.
However, Richard and his team decide before the poll launch, the final positing a character must finish in order to make the set (i.e. 1st, 2nd or 3rd spot).
We all vote and at the end of the voting Richard lets us know if it was the character that finished 1st, 2nd or 3rd that made the set.
This eliminates the possibility of cheating because we do not know before hand what position a character must finish in order to be included.
I know this approach will not please everyone but it would eliminate the point of cheating in favour of a single character. It should also ensure that genuinely popular characters definitely make the final collection.
QUIT YO JIBBA JABBA!
Why hasn't Proff X been included in the figurines? Ive seen him rumoured to be released but nothing else, hes one of the greatest characters and should be made into a figure.
If anyone agrees then lets try a petition type thing n get lots of posts together then maybe the powers that be will atleast include him in a poll if not better.
PROF-X is confirmed Thor, will be a double pack with Lilandra
images on here somewhere but also on my home page ----->
www.marvelcustoms.co.uk
so you did a pretty swift and efficient campaign there LOL
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