Saturday, May 17, 2014

How Josh Wise Made The NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race

A spokesperson for the dogecoin and reddit online communities outlined in detail today the techniques used by himself and his fellow members to vote John Wish into the 2014 NASCAR Sprint All Star Race. 

Dogecoin, an online internet currency, sponsored Wise at Talladega Superspeedway three weeks ago, and organized through reddit.com to vote their driver into the All-Star Race, prevailing over presumed favorite Danica Patrick and others. Immediately following last night’s announcement, speculation surfaced that Wise may have benefitted from an automated vote-casting program, or bot, which bypassed online tests designed to prove that voters are actual human beings. These test are referred to as captchas.

A reddit.com user identified by the screen name ihaveabulldoge refuted those charges, saying, “Those saying we used a bot… are incorrect. You need a human to solve those. How did we vote so fast? Skills. 

“(We) read the rules (and) realized we could vote unlimited times with double votes on (Sprint) mobile. I personally was on the slow end and could bang out 2-3 votes per minute on mobile, depending on captcha difficulty. So in one hour of hardcore voting, that is a minimum of 120 votes from just one person. We have over 80k subscribers and a ton more people on reddit to help. 

He revealed that at first, there was no captcha technology on NASCAR’s Fan Vote site. 

“Once we started, NASCAR implemented the captcha,” he wrote. “Instead of discouraging us, it actually helped us, since many fans of dogecoin and Josh Wise are also skilled at the internet. (We) voted quickly by using the back button (to solve) the captcha each vote...instead of re-clicking through 2 other pages. Simply put, instead of using a mouse to slowly click, we used a keyboard shortcut for `go back.'

“We knew our adversary and the awesome fan base we would be up against,” he wrote. “They are a dedicated bunch, so we knew we would have to vote nonstop and whenever we could in order to have a chance. There was no paying for extra votes, or hiring offshore (voters) as some people have theorized. We did NOT use bots, as a bot cannot beat a captcha. It was good ol’ fashioned crowd-sourced voting.

“We had a vested interest in Josh winning,” wrote ihaveabulldoge. “A lot of people donated a lot of dogecoin to get the sponsorship (and) that means that a piece of us -- no matter how small -- was plastered on that car. It was more important for us to win, because we invested real money. Sponsored drivers have a big company behind them, but we had a group of individuals. 

“Community members started streaming their votes live and showing off their speed voting skills.” 

26 comments:

  1. Sure, it could be said that by using the back button instead of clicking forward the 2 clicks to vote again was cheating, but in racing if it isn't against the rules, then it isn't against the rules. I think the folks that paid for the advertisements on those 2 forward pages would be most disappointed.

    As a software developer I can say that the website could easily record votes that were made by using the BACK button be counted as duplicate votes.

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    1. If it was cheating, NASCAR would not have allowed it.

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    2. Anonymous8:26 AM

      LMFAO.

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  2. Anonymous3:58 PM

    This just proves that the UNLIMITED voting makes a mockery of it all just like Driver of the Year voting!!!

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    1. Anonymous7:47 AM

      I was just thinking the same thing, good point, I agree with you 100%.

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  3. Anonymous4:43 PM

    How about we, the NASCAR community, just be happy for Josh Wise and embrace the new segment of fans that have found their way to our sport? The more, the merrier.

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  4. So sad!!! He deserves to be watching from the stands and not on the starting grid. I hope Nascar learns something from this pathetic joke!!

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    1. Lots of arrogance around here today. What makes your vote more important than anyone else's, Denny? Those people are new race fans -- which we all agree are badly needed in this sport -- and they voted for their favorite driver, within the rules. If you had organized yourself and your friends as well as they did, maybe your guy/gal would have gotten in. But instead, you grouse about getting out-worked by a group that CLEARLY supports their driver. Get over it.

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    2. First, they aren't race fans, they are fans of Dogecoin. There is a chance some might become NASCAR fans as a result of this.

      Secondly, Dogecoin says that they didn't pay for votes, they did give money to people who were able to prove that they had voted many times. We should just let sponsors use their dollars to buy that last spot in the race. Have an auction. Give the money to the points pool or NASCAR charities.

      Thirdly, in language that dogecoin users would use. They found and used an exploit in the technology. In all likelihood, that such an exploit existed and was not fixed probably caused this audience to lose respect for NASCAR.

      Lastly, it doesn't matter. Not a single car still on the race track at the end finished behind him and the second place vote getter likely wouldn't have finished much better.

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    3. Anonymous7:25 AM

      First, all those voting for and supporting Josh/PPR #98 from the Dogecoin community may have started off as Dogecoin fans, but once the community had crowd funded the sponsorship, all those who had donated to the effort became invested (see what I did there?). It was not just a matter of seeing what Dogecoin could gain in the way of exposure as it might have been when the idea was first presented. I guarantee that at least 99% of those who voted are legitimate Josh Wise fans now.

      Secondly, Dogecoin redditors tip Dogecoin for a funny comment, a silly picture, a heartfelt story, and just about anything else that strikes their fancy. The fact that people would get tipped for claiming to have voted for Josh xx times that day or that hour is not paying for votes, it's just what that community does and has been doing since its inception.

      Thirdly, the Dogecoin community went above and beyond what any other fan base would have done clearly. There was no exploit per se, unless you find taking the most efficient legal path to your goal an exploit. In this sport, you would think that mentality would be lauded.

      Lastly, it was never about how well Josh placed or what we thought he might do if he got there. We just wanted to get him there, give him his shot. He represented our community so well at Talledega. He is so nice, and hard working, well spoken, driven, and dedicated to his family and his sports. We just wanted to do something nice for him as a thank you for all his hard work on our behalf.

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  5. Anonymous5:25 PM

    I wish they would do away with the fan vote. If a driver wants in the All Star race they should win!

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  6. Way to go from a group of probably new fans

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  7. Anonymous10:25 PM

    Happy to see that someone other than Danica won the fan vote. Wise, while driving a limited schedule for an underfunded team, has been as competitive as Danica in the races where he competes...

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  8. Anonymous11:46 PM

    dale Earnhardt jr's most popular driver record award winning streak is surely over, josh wise will win

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  9. Is this even a story if the #10 car isn't involved?

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  10. Anonymous12:42 PM

    The easy answer is just to get rid of the fan vote. It's stupid. No other serious sport does it. That's why Tim Tebow wasn't in the pro-bowl last year. It's a farce and undermines the credibility of the entire event.

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    Replies
    1. It's strictly a fan thing, like the NBA All Star game. Fans vote, fans watch

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  11. Anonymous12:50 PM

    I would prefer to see someone like Kyle Larson make it in. would probably be more competitive than the winner. maybe next year we can get a bunch of fans together to vote in Dave Marcis.

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  12. Anonymous1:08 PM

    Not suprised by the sour grapes I am seeing. I say good for Josh Wise! It's nice to see a true racer get voted in by some real race fans and not some "celebrity" who's majority of "fans" are the 15 minute of fame pop culture type and haven't a clue about Nascar. Fantastic to see an underfunded team get in the show! AJ looked like he was having a great time with his small team in the show too. We were laughing saying what is DW gonna do without his Godess driving around in circles? We said they will manage to get her name mentioned or scene during the broadcast, and they did. A big story their Queen not voted in and crickets. Again, good for Josh Wise.

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  13. Anonymous2:04 PM

    He deserves to be watching from the stands, yep and boy, sure were a lot empty seats, wonder when Smith will rip them out?

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  14. Anonymous8:56 PM

    Having a career in technology (and life-long race fan), I find it fascinating that technology savvy people pushed Josh Wise to the top. Who would have thought that NASCAR was of interest to the dogecoin community would have this much interest.

    Let's welcome them. Many of them personally contributed to sponsorship of Josh Wise.

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  15. Anonymous5:59 PM

    Josh Wise is such a likable person. Being so negative against him and the new wave of NASCAR fans just shows lack of class.

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  16. Anonymous3:49 PM

    I actually wrote that reddit post. It is she, not he.
    You can make assumptions and be sad all you want, at the end of the day nobody cheated or wanted to cheat a vote because we did not want to risk DQing Josh. We worked in an open forum and any other fan/team/driver was able to see what we were doing at any time. We did the research. We knew how many followers on twitter other drivers had, amount of comments, and media attention. All of this is public info, instead of arguing online, we spent time voting. It is really that simple.


    Myself and my fiance are now NASCAR fans and are planning on going the next race closest to our home. We even carve out time to watch the race, usually online(who even pays for cable??), or at a local bar because we also learned beer makes it more fun.

    Honestly, I thought the sport was for a certain "type" of person, but sponsoring someone made me actually learn about nascar and it's history. If you can say anything about Internet geeks, it's that we do our research. So Wise is my #1 driver and I am looking for a few backups to cheer on now.

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