Today we disabled 7 accounts for blatant gaming behavior, particularly this time for dumping points from a shill account to a main account. When accounts are disabled, the account owners receive an email, if they have provided a valid email address. Otherwise they will see a note when they try to log in. We will not name the accounts until the owners have had a chance to respond to us.
We continue to monitor activity, including about a dozen accounts displaying unusual similarities.
I would remind forecasters to review the contest rules. Here is an important excerpt:
HOW NOT TO PLAY:
Sponsor reserves the right to penalize, suspend, disable, and/or destroy the account of any entrant that it suspects has engaged in any negative or cheating behavior, including:
- Registering more than once, creating and/or managing more than one account.
- Coordinating one’s trading activity with any other entrant(s)…
- Engaging in any kind of transaction meant primarily to transfer virtual funds from one account to another.
- Engaging in any kind of purposefully losing behavior.
…entrants participating in such manipulation will be subject to permanent disqualification. In any suspected or actual cases of proscribed activity, the nature and timing of penalties and all other determinations will be entirely at Sponsor’s sole discretion and may be applied without prior warning.
These rules apply outside the accuracy contest, but we have special responsibility to enforce them when large cash prizes are at stake. If you think you need a special exception, contact support ahead of time. For example, if you wish to try multiple strategies, the admins can cleanly split your assets for you. Or if you are investigating collusion, we will require that you avoid contests, and that we know which accounts are doing what.
If you have violated these or other rules, you can stay quiet and risk full disqualification, or contact support to see if there is some possible mitigation.
Related
- Contest Rules [pdf]
- Previous post regarding cheating
- First-round questions
- Second-round questions
Users who have LIKED this post:
Woohoo! Thanks!
FYI: Two more accounts were disabled last week for possible gaming/cheating.
Pingback: Survivor: Future! (And Accuracy Contest Winners Will Be Announced Soon) | The Official SciCast Blog