Vote for University of Michigan (Susan Shore) Tinnitus Research — Winner Gets a Write-Up

[Pero1234]

Hi everyone! I heard the news today oh bou...

No matter what happened...

I'm still proud of what we did! We were the strongest contender. I'm sure we got noticed! If this was a more logical / professional voting system we would have won hands down. Strategic thinking and the system already made it three votes against one because we were in the lead from the beginning.

There's nothing more to do than to inform Stat of the automatic voting, with screenshots and see if they care. (I think they won't)

Let's also inform Susan of this possible cheat and the screenshots. Just to let her know we've been pushing to the end.

And perhaps we should address the organizing pharma company directly.

The purpose of this all was that Susan's device (and the need for it) would get noticed by a big pharma player, keen to invest in innovative solutions. I think we still succeeded in that... and perhaps pointing out that we got beaten by a macro, would garner enough interest for them to have a chat with Susan.

After all... we are a much cooler cause than "antibiotics are bad for you" :-D

Thanks all! Life goes on...

But we did something amazing! We ended 3rd place of 160! We got attention!

PS: Let us know if anyone reaches out to the pharma company / Susan's team with the screenshots.

Take care all!

 

[Pero1234]

Because this is a huge embarrassment for them and we could see raw vote totals others probably didn't know how to see.

Nah, their voting system is mainly used for burning questions like "who has the best haircut: Justin Bieber or Lady GaGa."

They don't care about how secure / transparent their system is They will not feel embarrassed.

 

[spedgas]

I emailed the STAT people. I'm betting I hear nothing from them. How can anybody explain them getting almost 10,000 votes in 11 minutes. All for mice and antibiotics.

 

[Watasha]

Hi everyone! I heard the news today oh bou...

No matter what happened...

I'm still proud of what we did! We were the strongest contender. I'm sure we got noticed! If this was a more logical / professional voting system we would have won hands down. Strategic thinking and the system already made it three votes against one because we were in the lead from the beginning.

There's nothing more to do than to inform Stat of the automatic voting, with screenshots and see if they care. (I think they won't)

Let's also inform Susan of this possible cheat and the screenshots. Just to let her know we've been pushing to the end.

And perhaps we should address the organizing pharma company directly.

The purpose of this all was that Susan's device (and the need for it) would get noticed by a big pharma player, keen to invest in innovative solutions. I think we still succeeded in that... and perhaps pointing out that we got beaten by a macro, would garner enough interest for them to have a chat with Susan.

After all... we are a much cooler cause than "antibiotics are bad for you" :-D

Thanks all! Life goes on...

But we did something amazing! We ended 3rd place of 160! We got attention!

PS: Let us know if anyone reaches out to the pharma company / Susan's team with the screenshots.

Take care all!

This isn't over...

 

[Markku]

I'm not surprised someone cheated their system (not STAT's, but Brackify's, which STAT had just embedded onto their page), it really didn't appear to have any proper validations in place (i.e. you could disable cookies altogether and keep voting as many times and as quickly as you wanted to).

That said, I do have hopes that Brackify will have recorded the IP addresses of the voters. Based on a quick check it seems to me they might do. It's very likely those thousands of votes in a short period of time all came from one single IP address, maybe even from the same user agent - it's unlikely someone was so sophisticated that they were able to use thousands of proxies. Then Brackify, upon STAT's request, can disqualify those votes, seeing as they broke the "one vote every 5 minutes" rule.

It's then up to STAT how they deal with that.

Finally, no matter how this turns out, I commend ALL OF YOU who voted even once. And those of you who kept voting time after time, while spreading the wonderful spirit and energy for this campaign, it is my humble privilege to be surrounded by people like you. I apologize for my poor involvement, I really wanted to be more involved with the semis, but I got hit with a really bad case of food poisoning over the weekend and had other urgent things to look at after that. Yesterday I was very convinced of UMichigan going into finals, and before I went to sleep last night, with the 400 point lead or so, I had already opened Photoshop to start drawing a banner for the final round of voting.

This is one of the few - and rare - occasions on Tinnitus Talk history where people rallied together like this. I'm ecstatic about that because it is evidence of when a campaign or call to action is the right kind, it can get people going. We've often talked about how mindbogglingly difficult it seems to be to galvanize the community, but under the right circumstances it seems to be possible.

Now what I'm going to do later today is to email a lovely, dedicated journalist I know who has connections to STAT and inform them of this development, in hopes that they know the right people to look into this.

I also wouldn't be surprised if UMichigan gets the write-up from STAT even if we don't formally win. It might take a bit more time for that to happen, but it's definitely not out of the question. Dr. Susan Shore and her team are obviously doing the kind of legitimate and groundbreaking research that warrants a write up - not just by STAT, but by more publications as well.

I feel this STAT Madness campaign has potentially done something very good here, setting a group of members on the right path - patient advocacy, promotion of tinnitus research, making some noise about the condition and the people who are tirelessly working to find solutions. This kind of work can be done outside the realm of contests and competitions - it's maybe not as fun and engaging and results may not be immediately visible in the form of vote counters, but maybe we can get some of you to volunteer for the cause after this good experience. Awesome!

PROUD OF YOU!

Markku

 

[Ed209]

I'm not surprised someone cheated their system (not STAT's, but Brackify's, which STAT had just embedded onto their page), it really didn't appear to have any proper validations in place (i.e. you could disable cookies altogether and keep voting as many times and as quickly as you wanted to).

That said, I do have hopes that Brackify will have recorded the IP addresses of the voters. Based on a quick check it seems to me they might do. It's very likely those thousands of votes in a short period of time all came from one single IP address, maybe even from the same user agent - it's unlikely someone was so sophisticated that they were able to use thousands of proxies. Then Brackify, upon STAT's request, can disqualify those votes, seeing as they broke the "one vote every 5 minutes" rule.

It's then up to STAT how they deal with that.

Finally, no matter how this turns out, I commend ALL OF YOU who voted even once. And those of you who kept voting time after time, while spreading the wonderful spirit and energy for this campaign, it is my humble privilege to be surrounded by people like you. I apologize for my poor involvement, I really wanted to be more involved with the semis, but I got hit with a really bad case of food poisoning over the weekend and had other urgent things to look at after that. Yesterday I was very convinced of UMichigan going into finals, and before I went to sleep last night, with the 400 point lead or so, I had already opened Photoshop to start drawing a banner for the final round of voting.

This is one of the few - and rare - occasions on Tinnitus Talk history where people rallied together like this. I'm ecstatic about that because it is evidence of when a campaign or call to action is the right kind, it can get people going. We've often talked about how mindbogglingly difficult it seems to be to galvanize the community, but under the right circumstances it seems to be possible.

Now what I'm going to do later today is to email a lovely, dedicated journalist I know who has connections to STAT and inform them of this development, in hopes that they know the right people to look into this.

I also wouldn't be surprised if UMichigan gets the write-up from STAT even if we don't formally win. It might take a bit more time for that to happen, but it's definitely not out of the question. Dr. Susan Shore and her team are obviously doing the kind of legitimate and groundbreaking research that warrants a write up - not just by STAT, but by more publications as well.

I feel this STAT Madness campaign has potentially done something very good here, setting a group of members on the right path - patient advocacy, promotion of tinnitus research, making some noise about the condition and the people who are tirelessly working to find solutions. This kind of work can be done outside the realm of contests and competitions - it's maybe not as fun and engaging and results may not be immediately visible in the form of vote counters, but maybe we can get some of you to volunteer for the cause after this good experience. Awesome!

PROUD OF YOU!

Markku

It's crazy how many votes they received right at the end; it's definitely dodgy. I logged a load of votes and we were well up, and now I've just woke up to find out we lost. The STAT website was a problem from the start and I feel like everybody has been screwed over.

I will email Forbes to see if they will write an article.

 

[Jcb]

Well this is a load of bolloxs! They must have some kind of macro to get that many votes within that short amount of time.

I'm pissed, we all broke are fingers and hands and noses and feet voting.

Thanks to everybody who's been voting, we tried guys and for what it's worth this thread has been made fun by everybody involved and we got a bit of attention I suppose.

 

[PerturbedDude]

Total load of crap. Well, we did prove that working together people needed to cheat to overcome us. We just need to find other ways to direct this positive energy towards getting tinnitus research noticed!

 

[Pero1234]

Did someone contact Brackify to report this?

 

[dayma]

The way that site was working and the ability to vote programmatically does not surprise me someone introduced a macro/program to loop through and maximize votes. Better to do it towards end of voting than expose the issues early on.

 

[TheDanishGirl]

I'm so depressed about I had really hoped we would win! We did such good work and then.......nothing

 

[Tanni]

Time to get this meme out again then

 

[OnceUponaTime]

Hey guys,

I had to go to sleep after last night's "fiasco". It gave me a headache to see how that went at the end.
I just want to thank you all for a great ride, tremendous effort and the new friends made a long the way.

We did worked together beautifully. Markku could have not said it better....

This is one of the few - and rare - occasions on Tinnitus Talk history where people rallied together like this. I'm ecstatic about that because it is evidence of when a campaign or call to action is the right kind, it can get people going. We've often talked about how mindbogglingly difficult it seems to be to galvanize the community, but under the right circumstances it seems to be possible.

It can be done!

Thanks to everybody who's been voting, we tried guys and for what it's worth this thread has been made fun by everybody involved and we got a bit of attention I suppose

Absolutely! We did get attention and we did have some fun. 3rd place out 160 is not so bad!

I feel this STAT Madness campaign has potentially done something very good here, setting a group of members on the right path - patient advocacy, promotion of tinnitus research, making some noise about the condition and the people who are tirelessly working to find solutions. This kind of work can be done outside the realm of contests and competitions - it's maybe not as fun and engaging and results may not be immediately visible in the form of vote counters, but maybe we can get some of you to volunteer for the cause after this good experience. Awesome!

Agree. What's next on the agenda???

We were the strongest contender. I'm sure we got noticed! If this was a more logical / professional voting system we would have won hands down.

Since the beginning we had the lead all the way until the last 20 minutes when they cheated so bluntly.

@Markku Please feel better soon.

Big Hug to you all.

Once

 

[Tanni]

Well done everyone for an amazing result!! I think we surpassed everyone's expectations!

It is genuinely heartbreaking that we were beaten so unfairly, but it was such a massive achievement to get to the semi-finals in the first place.

Not only have we raised awareness, we've also shown the Michigan team how much we support them, and the science journals just how important tinnitus research is.

I doubt STAT will go to the trouble of disqualifying Baylor, but they are also doing a write-up of their choosing, so perhaps we could contact them about that? We deserve it after all, and we've proved that the interest is there. Pioneering treatment for a previously untreatable condition? It's a no-brainer.

I sincerely hope that it wasn't anyone on this forum who threw the vote. We may all have different viewpoints, but I haven't met anyone here who doesn't seem to sincerely want a cure for this terrible condition.

Thank you all for entertaining me with this thread and giving me hope

 

[Jack Straw]

Holy shit. Have someone tried to contact the website?! This is obviously a case of someone vote botting.

So angry right now!

 

[OnceUponaTime]

Holy shit. Have someone tried to contact the website?!

Some of us have emailed them already. Maybe we should all bombard them with emails about this scam!

 

[Watasha]

Holy shit. Have someone tried to contact the website?! This is obviously a case of someone vote botting.

So angry right now!

A few of us contacted STAT, I know I did. I don't know if anyone reached out to Brackify.

 

[Watasha]

I just received word that they have temporarily shut down the bracket while they look into it. We'll see what develops.

 

[OnceUponaTime]

I just received word that they have temporarily shut down the bracket while they look into it. We'll see what develops.

REALLY?????????

 

[Tanni]

I just received word that they have temporarily shut down the bracket while they look into it. We'll see what develops.

Wow, so they have. Fingers crossed!

 

[Starthrower]

Bummer. I have been voting everyday but not posting in this thread. I loved how this brought so many of you guys @OnceUponaTime involved in something proactive!!

 

[OnceUponaTime]

THE STAT MADNESS BRACKET HAS BEEN TEMPORARILY CLOSED. PLEASE CHECK BACK SOON.
Cross fingers guys!!!

 

[Markku]

I also got a confirmation from STAT's executive (an admirable 1-minute response time) saying they're on top of this, and investigating.

I'm encouraged by the response to be honest, it was not your run of the mill "thanks for contacting us, we'll look into it", but went into more detail than that and they also cc'd a few other key persons into the email after that.

Now let's allow them some time to look into it! We are persistent folk, hungry for justice!

 

[OnceUponaTime]

I also got a confirmation from STAT's executive (an admirable 1-minute response time) saying they're on top of this, and investigating.

I'm encouraged by the response to be honest, it was not your run of the mill "thanks for contacting us, we'll look into it", but went into more detail than that and they also cc'd a few other key persons into the email after that.

Now let's allow them some time to look into it! We are persistent folk, hungry for justice!

This is encouraging. I hope they do the right thing.

HurtingOnce

@hurtingdream lol

 

[Jack Straw]

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[hurtingdream]

This is encouraging. I hope they do the right thing.

HurtingOnce
View attachment 28268
@hurtingdream lol

We can't lose! Our hands are tired lol.

 

[OnceUponaTime]

@Jack Straw

 

[Jcb]

 

[OnceUponaTime]

 

[MBH]

I was voting but at the semi-finals there was a check mark on Michigan and no voting button in the final box, it was automatic, and I thought it was supposed to be that way. Also, I think we surprised them to come so close to winning. I think that was awesome tinnitus awareness.