Asking/paying for votes in anything = perm ban from it

By the usertitle "Banned from competitions"

E.g.

 

Lose the user title and its an OK idea. Seems a hassle though for negligible benefit.

 

If it's provable it's no more of a hassle than reporting and dealing with a scammer (which, give the value some people seem to give to miniranks, is comparable).

Dave's suggestion seems perfectly reasonable. While I agree with Moes that the forced user title could be tough for those who have donated enough to get a custom title.. Well, if you've cheated enough times and are aware of the penalty, I dare say you'd have forfeited your right to a custom title at that point.

 

Are we really going to compare minirank hoarders to scammers...
Scammers hurt the site...This hurts peoples ego when they find they aren't the most popular.

 

I only make the comparison because, as had already been pointed out, miniranks hold a monetary value to some people as they are tradeable and quite a few people buy them. If something is worth real money and someone obtains it by cheating that would be considered scamming, no? If a competition was held with a prize of $20, for example.. anyone cheating would be banned for sure wouldn't they?

 

Personally, I think the user title is a bit farfetched. I mean, how many people do you really think are going to banned from competitions at one given time? 5 max? if that? Why not just have a sticky set up in the sand box with "Users banned from competitions" as the title, and have the users listed within..

 

^ In that case UT's are less hassle than a sticky for 2 people. It's a deterrent more than anything hopefully.

 

Fair enough, yeah I believe if you enforce strict rules it will deter people from trying to rig the competition.

 

Of course people don't want that user title. But you have to remember $100 is quite a lot to donate to a website and it would be fucked up to destroy their perks because they (accidentally) broke a rule, as Dave suggested that user title to be given on the first offence already.

 

I misinterpreted what you said, my bad. It isn't "accidental" - it's blatant cheating to buy votes..

 

Users know the repercussions from rigging competitions; so if they don't want the UI, they won't ask for votes - simple. You can't accidentally break the rules, it is done purposefully to benefit yourself.

 

Support, but ban them for a month instead and remove all votes they received from any member.

 

Approved and added to the rules.