question
2
Votes
Votes
10
Answers
Answers
M$1.00
What do you think of Darcy's explanation?
Darcy has now given her side of the story here:
http://www.mahalo.com/answers/mahalo-answers-community/mahalo-response-to-recent-inquiries
Basically she says:
- She had a second id called DarcyL
- She used it for playing around to try things out
- She wasn't trying to intentionally get Best Answer
- Mahalo didn't give her a proper chance to explain.
As in my comment to Darcy's post, I hope Mahalo will let us know *exactly* what evidence they have. Like how many answers she's supposed to have voted for herself on, how many Best Answers she gave herself, and what ids she used.
Having an id called DarcyL certainly doesn't sound like anything intended to be deceptive.
Overall I find Darcy's explanation pretty plausible.
I think Mahalo needs to explain their evidence and actions in detail, because either Darcy is quite unlike the person we thought she was, and even now is telling lies, or Mahalo has screwed up in coming to judgement on weak evidence, and not allowing Darcy a proper chance to respond.
Either way, it will matter a great deal to the community, so the full facts should be made known.
http://www.mahalo.com/answers/mahalo-answers-community/mahalo-response-to-recent-inquiries
Basically she says:
- She had a second id called DarcyL
- She used it for playing around to try things out
- She wasn't trying to intentionally get Best Answer
- Mahalo didn't give her a proper chance to explain.
As in my comment to Darcy's post, I hope Mahalo will let us know *exactly* what evidence they have. Like how many answers she's supposed to have voted for herself on, how many Best Answers she gave herself, and what ids she used.
Having an id called DarcyL certainly doesn't sound like anything intended to be deceptive.
Overall I find Darcy's explanation pretty plausible.
I think Mahalo needs to explain their evidence and actions in detail, because either Darcy is quite unlike the person we thought she was, and even now is telling lies, or Mahalo has screwed up in coming to judgement on weak evidence, and not allowing Darcy a proper chance to respond.
Either way, it will matter a great deal to the community, so the full facts should be made known.
No Best Answer Selected, Tip Refunded
3 answerers thought this was fair.
3 answerers thought this was fair.
answers (10)
I'm kind of torn by this. On one hand, if she was trying to be deceptive, she obviously wouldn't use the name DarcyL to vote for her own answers. On the other hand, there is no way she didn't know that voting for her own answers was wrong. "Playing around" as she said is one thing, but if she continuously voted for her own answers, that's entirely another matter. What reason would she have, other than the obvious, for voting for herself repeatedly? That goes beyond playing around. Furthermore, why would it stop when votes became transparent? If it was an innocent act, as she claimed, why would it matter?
Also, I don't buy that Mahalo didn't give her a chance to explain her side. If she was contacted by telephone by members of the Mahalo staff, how did she not have a chance to explain? That explanation sounded a bit like a cop out to me.
As you can see, this has just brought up more questions for me than answers. I kind of want this whole situation to just go away. It's getting a little ridiculous.
Also, I don't buy that Mahalo didn't give her a chance to explain her side. If she was contacted by telephone by members of the Mahalo staff, how did she not have a chance to explain? That explanation sounded a bit like a cop out to me.
As you can see, this has just brought up more questions for me than answers. I kind of want this whole situation to just go away. It's getting a little ridiculous.
I think the problem here is a problem we all have. How many of us actually read the terms of service before saying we agree? Darcy deserves the benefit of the doubt, for sure. But if there's something in the TOS about this (I admit I haven't read them either), when you click accept there is a presumption that you read them and even unknowingly breaking the rules does not exempt you from them.
Just in terms of ethics, though I'm not sure that if I had two accounts I would vote up my own answers. I actually refrain from voting when I've answered and if I had the chance to vote for myself I don't think I'd do it either.
I am glad Darcy explained herself. But I don't think Mahalo abused their power in this situation. The truth is that they reserve the right to kick someone out especially if they judge there is abuse. Whether that's fair or not is irrelevant. It's just the way the rules work.
Just in terms of ethics, though I'm not sure that if I had two accounts I would vote up my own answers. I actually refrain from voting when I've answered and if I had the chance to vote for myself I don't think I'd do it either.
I am glad Darcy explained herself. But I don't think Mahalo abused their power in this situation. The truth is that they reserve the right to kick someone out especially if they judge there is abuse. Whether that's fair or not is irrelevant. It's just the way the rules work.
It was fair to choose no best answer
It's an opinion question. Maybe these kinds of questions should be in a poll category without an option to select best answer.
It's an opinion question. Maybe these kinds of questions should be in a poll category without an option to select best answer.
Your right, nobody reads the terms of service. Who wants to sit at a computer for an hour reading 15 pages of legal stuff the average person can't fully comprehend. This applies to all websites, software EULA's, ect. Perhaps they're there so that if someone is looking for a specific tidbit, they can find it.
Mahalo Answers needs a forum for this garbage. These are discussions not the quality questions Mahalo Answers strives to achieve. I don't see a need for question after question on the SAME subject. Keep it in one question and discuss there. Give it a rest, or give darcylogan her own category that doesn't show up on the front page, doesn't give tips, and doesn't give points.
voted helpful: demanda, jeffhoard, dumblonde, interzone, robbrown, srgothard, jfinke, rslakinski, nalkinburgh, bbrookin, vandal913, easyeboy, stephenk
It was fair to choose no best answer
As you can see from my answer, this question shouldn't even have found fame on the front page. It is a discussion meant for elsewhere, and did not need it's own question (there was one question updating the community on the issue).
As you can see from my answer, this question shouldn't even have found fame on the front page. It is a discussion meant for elsewhere, and did not need it's own question (there was one question updating the community on the issue).
I agree. I find it interesting, and I'd be willing to talk about it more with other MA geeks. However, I don't think it's helpful to keep bringing it up via questions. The average MA user just coming here to ask a question or check things out doesn't want to see this stuff, I'm sure.
I brought it up in questions in case people missed Darcy's explanation. Which is now just the 20th answer to an untipped question over a day old.
I only noticed it myself cos I happened to see it on Spy.
It would be great if we had a Forum for Mahalo Community discussions, but we don't. Here, everything, even the bug reports and the "what happened to my payment" issues get done as questions.
I only noticed it myself cos I happened to see it on Spy.
It would be great if we had a Forum for Mahalo Community discussions, but we don't. Here, everything, even the bug reports and the "what happened to my payment" issues get done as questions.
Which I would have to say, contact@mahalo.com would probably work quite well for those questions/bug reports.
If people don't go back to the original thread, my guess is they don't care or they don't want to deal with it anymore.
If people don't go back to the original thread, my guess is they don't care or they don't want to deal with it anymore.
Sorry for any offense taken, getting a little sick of
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r102/takravd/beating-a-dead-horse.gif
"You're being a bit patronising @orange. People don't use the system the way you think they should, so they're wrong."
Just my opinion that coming to Mahalo Answers for the first time seeing investigations of cheating the system and unsent payment glitches plastered on the front page could surely ruin the first impression of many. Wouldn't be surprised if it actually turned people away. It is quite obvious to me that those two problems do not represent the community well.
Just my opinion that coming to Mahalo Answers for the first time seeing investigations of cheating the system and unsent payment glitches plastered on the front page could surely ruin the first impression of many. Wouldn't be surprised if it actually turned people away. It is quite obvious to me that those two problems do not represent the community well.
In orange's defense, I also worry about the first impressions we are giving to the the flood of new users, which is why I originally mentioned it in the Darcy thread.
I think perhaps a forum should be created, since many of the questions are becoming a bit too cliquey or aren't even questions, but are instead political or religious statements, or even self-promotional non-questions. I am not sure what the best place for this, but there should be some type of forum.
I think perhaps a forum should be created, since many of the questions are becoming a bit too cliquey or aren't even questions, but are instead political or religious statements, or even self-promotional non-questions. I am not sure what the best place for this, but there should be some type of forum.
I agree with this. There should be some form of communication within the community to discuss and share information that is not a question. I probably would not have gone back to the original question to see what was "new" after yesterday's interaction.
@philipy once or twice might be playing around... but when the number creeps beyond three dozen times, that's when you have to start wondering about the interests of the user and her intentions towards the community. We all wish this abuse was caught earlier, but later is better then it not being caught at all. Good news is, new features recently added will avoid this type of gaming in the future.
This is still a young service and a young community and we are all learning as we go. The best thing to come out of this is the fact that we know our system works and we can find users who are cheating, white belt or black. I hope people come out of this trusting that our service is legitimate, we are continually working to improve the product so that all users get a 100% fair shot at reaping the rewards.
This is the 6th thread on this individuals situation, and really, there should have only been one. As a community manager here, I take some responsibility in this getting out of control. Our mistake was made when we suspended the account prior to informing the user, most cases this would not matter but Darcy being so prominent people got curious right away.
We wanted to give Darcy a chance to respond and she did by closing her account, I really wish we can all move on from here, because the more we speculate and beat the dead horse, the more it hurts our community, I don't want MA to take a step backwards because of this.
I personally would love to work something out where we can invite her back into the community and put this behind us, maybe even laugh about it down the road, I think we all can agree that Darcy has consistently done great things for this community and I believe in giving good people second chances. In order for that to happen though, she is going to have to open up a dialogue with us privately.... Until that happens we should really put this to rest and move on.
This is still a young service and a young community and we are all learning as we go. The best thing to come out of this is the fact that we know our system works and we can find users who are cheating, white belt or black. I hope people come out of this trusting that our service is legitimate, we are continually working to improve the product so that all users get a 100% fair shot at reaping the rewards.
This is the 6th thread on this individuals situation, and really, there should have only been one. As a community manager here, I take some responsibility in this getting out of control. Our mistake was made when we suspended the account prior to informing the user, most cases this would not matter but Darcy being so prominent people got curious right away.
We wanted to give Darcy a chance to respond and she did by closing her account, I really wish we can all move on from here, because the more we speculate and beat the dead horse, the more it hurts our community, I don't want MA to take a step backwards because of this.
I personally would love to work something out where we can invite her back into the community and put this behind us, maybe even laugh about it down the road, I think we all can agree that Darcy has consistently done great things for this community and I believe in giving good people second chances. In order for that to happen though, she is going to have to open up a dialogue with us privately.... Until that happens we should really put this to rest and move on.
voted helpful: demanda, philipy, jasoncalacanis, morriss003, tracebooks, phillipluther, rosshann
voted unhelpful: stephenk
Thanks Jeff.
I thought the matter was pretty much closed til I saw Darcy's version of events. The basic problem for me here is that I trusted Darcy, and I trusted Mahalo. Now that there are conflicting accounts, I'm not sure which I believe, and my trust in both has been eroded. Esp when in one version she refused to explain, and in the other she wasn't given a chance to explain.
I don't know how other people feel, but for me it is pretty important to remove that uncertainty so I can feel good about what I'm doing here again.
I thought the matter was pretty much closed til I saw Darcy's version of events. The basic problem for me here is that I trusted Darcy, and I trusted Mahalo. Now that there are conflicting accounts, I'm not sure which I believe, and my trust in both has been eroded. Esp when in one version she refused to explain, and in the other she wasn't given a chance to explain.
I don't know how other people feel, but for me it is pretty important to remove that uncertainty so I can feel good about what I'm doing here again.
@jeffhoard
"I think we all can agree that Darcy has consistently done great things for this community and I believe in giving good people second chances."
Why are all of her answers and comments being purged from the system? Is it a technical thing where to reallocate the points and M$ that the content she generated must be removed?
"I think we all can agree that Darcy has consistently done great things for this community and I believe in giving good people second chances."
Why are all of her answers and comments being purged from the system? Is it a technical thing where to reallocate the points and M$ that the content she generated must be removed?
What content is being removed? We have not intentionally removed any content outside of her user profile.
Oh jeeze... I'm really sorry. I had a quick look at a couple of the questions that her and I were both involved in and see that no content has been removed.
Sorry - I was completely wrong.
Please, delete my comments under this answer. I'd hate for my ignorant mistake to whirl anyone up.
Sorry - I was completely wrong.
Please, delete my comments under this answer. I'd hate for my ignorant mistake to whirl anyone up.
Mahalo Answers is one small place on the Internet.
After reading her reply, the feeling that I've lost a little faith in humanity still stands. However, I wonder if she voted her answers up so that her voice was heard. Everyone wants their voice to stand out from the crowd and here, the answer on the top of the page is usually the first to be read. Since I'm an optimist, I'm going to rationalize things this way so that I don't become jaded.
I don't think that the Mahalo Answers staff took the decision to ban her account lightly. They appear to be unconditionally positive that she clearly broke an important part of the TOS.
Regardless of ANYTHING that Darcy can say, a decision has been made to remove her from the system. I don't feel good about any of this but Mahalo Answers and importantly the community is owned by Mahalo - they can do whatever they want.
Regardless of ANYTHING that Mahalo could say, I don't think that anyone (including Darcy) would want to come back here after what has happened. Mahalo has banned Darcy, they are purging the content that she has contributed from the system and by (thankfully) opening discussion on this have knocked her good name down.
Again, this is one small place on the Internet. I bet Darcy fills her need to help people in a variety of places online. Beyond gaming, It makes me sad that Mahalo won't be one of those places because I spend time here and enjoyed what she had to say.
So... back to questions and answers for me. I'll miss Darcy and personally would like to thank her for making this a place where I like to spend time.
After reading her reply, the feeling that I've lost a little faith in humanity still stands. However, I wonder if she voted her answers up so that her voice was heard. Everyone wants their voice to stand out from the crowd and here, the answer on the top of the page is usually the first to be read. Since I'm an optimist, I'm going to rationalize things this way so that I don't become jaded.
I don't think that the Mahalo Answers staff took the decision to ban her account lightly. They appear to be unconditionally positive that she clearly broke an important part of the TOS.
Regardless of ANYTHING that Darcy can say, a decision has been made to remove her from the system. I don't feel good about any of this but Mahalo Answers and importantly the community is owned by Mahalo - they can do whatever they want.
Regardless of ANYTHING that Mahalo could say, I don't think that anyone (including Darcy) would want to come back here after what has happened. Mahalo has banned Darcy, they are purging the content that she has contributed from the system and by (thankfully) opening discussion on this have knocked her good name down.
Again, this is one small place on the Internet. I bet Darcy fills her need to help people in a variety of places online. Beyond gaming, It makes me sad that Mahalo won't be one of those places because I spend time here and enjoyed what she had to say.
So... back to questions and answers for me. I'll miss Darcy and personally would like to thank her for making this a place where I like to spend time.
voted helpful: tracebooks, karj, rosshann, philipy
voted unhelpful: stephenk
I am thrilled to pieces that Mahalo Answers was up front enough about this to tell us what happened and not sweep it under the rug. Any other issues/concerns are Darcy's to deal with, and we need to stay out of it if we want Mahalo to continue to be up front with us. Let Darcy fight her own battle. Meanwhile, we've learn not to vote for our own answers.
voted helpful: tracebooks, jasoncalacanis, stephenk
Look at some basic facts. Jason is the CEO of this site - an Internet pioneer, a guy with his own Wikipedia article, and overall an incredibly successful person that gave all of you the opportunity to have this community in the fist place.
Jason was personally involved in the decision to eliminate a user.
Someone show me in the history of the world where the CEO of any company would even involve himself in such a dilemma. Most don't even know what a "user" is, and if there were anything controversial, a CEO would do everything to distance him/herself in the decision.
But Jason is posting replies to your questions, seemingly EVERY question.
He doesn't have to spend his time doing this but he does it anyway.
And as I said, he could've swept it under the rug, but he didn't.
I don't think a person of this caliber would go to such great lengths and attach this to his name if he hadn't carefully reviewed the evidence and wasn't perfectly sure of the circumstances.
Jason was personally involved in the decision to eliminate a user.
Someone show me in the history of the world where the CEO of any company would even involve himself in such a dilemma. Most don't even know what a "user" is, and if there were anything controversial, a CEO would do everything to distance him/herself in the decision.
But Jason is posting replies to your questions, seemingly EVERY question.
He doesn't have to spend his time doing this but he does it anyway.
And as I said, he could've swept it under the rug, but he didn't.
I don't think a person of this caliber would go to such great lengths and attach this to his name if he hadn't carefully reviewed the evidence and wasn't perfectly sure of the circumstances.
voted helpful: gabby7, tracebooks, jeffhoard, stephenk
As I said previously, we were sorry to lose an active user like Darcy from the system, but she requested her account be closed out immediately after receiving our first e-mail on the matter (which merely pointed out what we had observed and suspended, not terminated, her account). No explanation that justifies a long-standing and egregious violation of the Terms of Service of Mahalo Answers was offered then or now.
None of the information presented in my initial post above is inaccurate - a second account was created, many more than a dozen votes were cast for Darcy's own answers from this account, and this action violates not only our site's Terms of Service but our sense of fairness. Attempts to hide or not hide the existence of this account are immaterial.
Darcy has now admitted the wrongdoing publicly. I'm not sure what is meant by the term "a proper chance to explain," but we at Mahalo were perfectly happy to resolve this matter in private. Darcy chose not to take that opportunity.
I feel that this matter has played itself out, and there is little more to be said.
None of the information presented in my initial post above is inaccurate - a second account was created, many more than a dozen votes were cast for Darcy's own answers from this account, and this action violates not only our site's Terms of Service but our sense of fairness. Attempts to hide or not hide the existence of this account are immaterial.
Darcy has now admitted the wrongdoing publicly. I'm not sure what is meant by the term "a proper chance to explain," but we at Mahalo were perfectly happy to resolve this matter in private. Darcy chose not to take that opportunity.
I feel that this matter has played itself out, and there is little more to be said.
voted helpful: robbrown, jeffhoard, gabby7, jasoncalacanis, stephenk
It was fair to choose no best answer
This was a difficult situation and I think most of us did not know how to react.
This was a difficult situation and I think most of us did not know how to react.
"I feel that this matter has played itself out, and there is little more to be said."
Yeah, this is getting old now. Viva la interesting questions! Daddy needs a new pair of shoes.
Yeah, this is getting old now. Viva la interesting questions! Daddy needs a new pair of shoes.
Thanks for that Lon. As many of us have said over and over we were willing to give Darcy a chance to explain/appeal/discuss the issue.... she didn't want to and asked to turn off her account. What else could we do? We can't force her to discuss it or explain why she did what she did in public.
Not wanting to flog a dead horse again, but Mahalo needs to have place to sort these issues out, and it should not be done in public... certainly leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
On a personal note, Darcy is/was one of the best community members out there, but that should not stop Mahalo from taking the correct decision. Remember, even the best swimmers can drown!
Quite simply, if Darcy has stopped voting once it became transparent, then her intentions are clear, and Mahalo has done the right thing.
Hope thats the end of the story, and no other related issue gets raked up.
C'mon people, let's get the community back on track - it's more than just about being the best...!
On a personal note, Darcy is/was one of the best community members out there, but that should not stop Mahalo from taking the correct decision. Remember, even the best swimmers can drown!
Quite simply, if Darcy has stopped voting once it became transparent, then her intentions are clear, and Mahalo has done the right thing.
Hope thats the end of the story, and no other related issue gets raked up.
C'mon people, let's get the community back on track - it's more than just about being the best...!
Related questions
140 characters left
ask any question
If Mahalo says she did it a dozen times over two months, I find her explanation perfectly plausible. If they say she did it 500 times, I don't.
After all, one vote isn't even going to change the outcome most of the time anyway.
Even if I bought that explanation, why vote for your own answers? I'd feel weird voting for my own even if I knew no one else would ever know. It's just sketchy.
Heck, I've often been tempted to vote No Best Answer on some questions I've answered just so I could find out if there is any voting happening on the question. Now we get told when people vote for our answer, but before the voting was exposed you could be sitting there for weeks wondering if anyone even looked at the answer.