A Proposed New Way for Voting Sites

MinecraftMP
Do you do any pruning of your list for inactive/servers that have gone offline? Such as, the server is failing the check for 24 hours, it gets put into a holding tank where the person posting the server has to come back and manually reactivate the server in order for it to be listed again?

Might help to clear out servers.

Any uptime above 90% is usually good. I restart my server often, as I keep up to date with all plugins, dev builds of CB, etc. Where I take a hit in uptime I regain in the ability to run a really stable server. When you look at uptime like that, its not really a measure of stability at all.

Perhaps try showcasing servers that have a steady player base, but low player count? Such as, you average >X players, but usually have players on during "peak" times, or have a constant base of the same players (such as, always seeing the same players show up time and again).

 

Yes there is a pruning system on my list. When a server goes below 20% of uptime the users receive a warning email. He receive another one when it goes below 10%. After hitting a 0% uptime, the server is auto deleted after some time.

But servers with a low uptime are not a problem for the ranking. A server with 0% uptime has a score of 0, even if it has 5000 votes.

 

MinecraftMP
No, you're right, it doesn't affect the ranking, but does spam up the list sites with useless listings.

 

So I will hidde them

 

Hide*
MinecraftMP

I can't remember if we discussed this on skype or not, but tell me whats wrong with this in YOUR opinion.


The ranks are mainly based on how long players are on a server, maybe even if they play on one server more than another. (pretending thats possible)

For example, say a server has an average of 150 members online at one time, but its just new players coming and leaving, and only 30% of the server actually stays and plays on it.

While another server with an average of 30 players on it, 90% of there members actually stay and play on it.

If players actually like the server then they play on it.
Most people vote for the free diamonds and not because they like the server.
So what would be wrong with this system?

If your thinking you wouldn't make as much money, I disagree.
This doesn't mean you have to remove the premium bidding system, servers would still bid for it.

And consider this, say that the small server (in the example above) is ranked higher than the bigger server, that may inspire the bigger server to purchase the premium bid more, so they can get to a higher rank.

You may loose traffic to other server owners, unless other lists change, but people who are looking for a TRULY good server would for sure come to that site!

 

If players care about the diamonds, that means that they play on the server -- And chances are that if the player plays on the server, they like it.

 

Lots of servers tell players right when they get to the spawn about voting, so there like:
"oh, might as well get some free diamonds and get off to a good start"
But then they may get killed rage quit and never come back, so yes, seems like a legit vote.

 

well i see alot of bitching here but lets get the facts right the bigger servers most of them are paying 2 3 and even 4 hundred a month for the dedicated servers they use
then they basically buy their way to the top so through advertising
so add a couple hundred more. so up to about 800.00 a month they can pay
they have not only put the work in to the servers but pay out the ass
now im all for fairness but how can you all bitch when the big servers pay alot more then the smaller servers
you want to play with the big boys pay like the big boys
Im very happy with my medium server and 40 dollars a month and no advertising...

 

These servers also recieve hundreds in donations, BECAUSE of their already giant player bases.

 

they also been around forever and have had a leg up from the begining i just think bitching about the big servers dont do no one any good they are big for a reason and the littler servers are squashed by them but its not their fault..The smaller servers just got to put in their time and better make sure you have a good set up other wise word of mouth dont work either

 

No one is "bitching". We're simply discussing ways that put smaller servers at an advantage on server lists.

 

big or not, my question/concern/thought is what about the false negative votes that slip through cracks, which I'm sure allot of the top servers get. not saying they approve or promote it I am just being realistic. anyone have any thoughts on this

 

That is true, lots of the votes are not because a player likes the server, but for the reward and contest etc. etc.

 

i actually was not referring to this, however good point. I was more so referring to one particularly user voting over 50x in leas than 20 mins. I am sure each voting site has there methods of preventing this, but there are always ways around it.

 

The captcha is what they use. They also don't let you vote from the same IP within 24 hours, or vote for the same username if it hasn't been 24 hours yet.

 

I understand all of this but there are always ways of working around this, as I could do if I wanted to, not suggestion I am. Just stating a fact , which O have verified myself, note though not any ordinary, lack for better words, noob could attempt it but its doable.

 

Not that hard to monitor/prevent if you had security in mind. Here are some of the measures I just brainstormed:
1. Check the voter's IP against a DNSBL
2. Implement a secure, non-recaptcha captcha(most captcha bots are built against recaptcha)
3. Set cookies, just in case an attacker forgets to properly handle them/clear them
4. Store average voting rates for a each server, investigate sudden spikes
5. Block the same username from voting for the same server twice per 24h, if username is not blank, make sure it is a valid premium Minecraft user
6. Rate limit the number of blank usernames a server can vote for per x minutes/seconds
7. Check user agents, block common bot user agents like URLLib(easy to change, but more work for attackers)
8. Check if the voter's IP is running any proxy servers by checking common proxy ports(1080,8080, etc)

 

Here is how I check/control votes for a server:

1. We use the recaptcha from Google. Maybe it doesn't block 100% of bots, but it's pretty good (I can't even myself read what it's written )
2. Like TheBeast808 is saying, I check the voter's IP with a DNSBL
3. I check if this IP and/or the username as already vote for this server in the last 24 hours.
4. Some others controls (that I like to keep for myself)
5. I store for each server the average number of players connected every day. I compare that to the vote ratio per day of the server. If the vote ratio per day if really higher than the average number of players connected every day, a warning is displayed in my backend.
6. If a warning is displayed for a server, then we proceed to a manual control of the votes to see if there is an abuse


I have already warn/reset/ban some servers for votes abused, but in my case most of them was "small servers".


I was also planning to add also a cookies, like TheBeast808 said it's not perfect but it could be annoying for someone trying to abuse, to delete everytime it's cookies

 

A small server can get noticed if they appeal to what people want. I got noticed by appealing to peoples creative wants. I consider my server one of the first few (hundred ) servers to have a fully creative plots system, and that is why I think I was noticed and now have a pretty steady user base.

If you get within the first few pages of any server list, you will be noticed because players usually check the first few pages or search what they are looking for, from what I've been told.

Oh, about the original post. I think I would of completely agreed with this when I was really small, but I get hundreds of users a day that play for awhile, but don't vote. So, this would hurt me, rankings wise I also don't offer anything for voting because I don't want to become like other servers that hoard votes. That's the only reason they are popular, just because some kid wants a diamond.

MinecraftMP Your server list is my favorite. Keep up the good work

 

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np98765
Eh, my Admin likes adding things that he thinks will help us grow, but I never intended to add rewards and I still haven't, it just says that..

Edit: What I said still stands because I do not offer any rewards for voting. People want me to add rewards, but I don't think that clicking a 'Vote' button is worthy of a diamond, what's the fun in that?