Uncategorized

This is why we can’t have nice things.

As long as I’ve been in the craft beer community, there’s been a saying I’ve heard most places I go: “Craft beer people are good people”. I’ve always believed that saying, and with a few very notable exceptions, I’ve found it to be true. Today is one of those exceptions.

I woke up this morning to see the polls in our March Madness-style bracket had been tampered with. Matches that had been close yesterday were suddenly a landslide. I found out one IP address voted between 2000 and 3000 times in each poll. In some cases it voted for a specific beer and in others it voted randomly. I don’t know if it was a bot or a person, but either way someone tried to ruin the bracket for everyone. What’s truly pitiful is that the bracket’s only prize is bragging rights. No money, no trophy, not even a plaque.

We’ve upgraded our account with the polling website we are using for this bracket. This lets us do 2 things:

1) We are able to access the raw voting data, which includes IP addresses. We filtered that data so each IP address gets one vote. Whether you played fairly, you voted a few times more than you were supposed to, or you were the person who cast 2000 votes, you get one vote. We’re going to call the winners of the Elite 8 round based on this data.  

2) The free polling account we were using only restricted votes based on cookies. The upgraded account restricts votes by IP address. Going forward, the polls should be more fair.

 

To the bot guy:

Haha. You did it. You ruined it for everyone.

What you don’t know is that we’re running this website out of our own pockets. The web hosting, the beers we review, the event tickets, and the gas to drive across town is almost exclusively paid for by our staff and writers. We’re trying to gain enough of an audience that we can approach advertisers and be able to pay our writers, and you’ve put a giant asterisk on all of our analytics data. Speaking of analytics, your actions put us over the page view limit for our free analytics software, so now we have to upgrade that too.

You owe us $80.

 

this-is-why-we-cant-have-nice-things

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Josh is an Aerospace Engineer and an avid homebrewer. When he's not designing airplanes, he enjoys long walks on the beach, experimenting with fermentation, and drinking craft beer.

Related Articles

  • The meaning of Houston Beer Month

    The meaning of Houston Beer Month

    What does Houston Beer Month mean to me?  Houston Beer Month means being proud and celebrating being in one of the best beer cities in the world, while having the ability to support local year round! It means going to Vallensons‘, Saloon Door, Backyard and sharing a pint with friends, as we talk about beer

  • Goodbye 2020 – Hello 2021!

    Goodbye 2020 – Hello 2021!

    Greetings Houston!  I’m proud to announce that Houston Beer Guide is making a triumphant return in January with new contributors, ready to document and share Houston’s finest craft beers, exploding beer culture and expanding beer scene.  We aren’t real professional journalists, just passionate beer lovers that want to give Houston’s beer community a voice. We

2 Comments

  1. Robert Z Price

    Well said Mr Frink

  2. Darrell W

    Having to spend $80 over a bot sucks.

POST YOUR COMMENTS

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Name *

Email *

Website