Official Luthiers Forum!

First place! That's great. When I voted you were a ways from first. Have to tell you it's pretty inspirational also. Your video was very well done David. My daughter and I were on a road trip last summer that took us through Idaho. Lots of beautiful rivers with lower class whitewater. It got me thinking about a long, one way river trip which is pretty doable in that part of the world. After watching your clip it's on the bucket list. We have an old 18' Grumman that's big enough, I could even pack a guitar. When does this end? I'll see what I can do to get you more votes. I'd love to see you win a high end canoe!

Thanks again everyone! It's shaping up to be a close contest, but you've helped me gain some ground that I hope to increase in the remaining week and a half.

I have found that you can vote from different IP addresses, like if you go somewhere with a different router/connection, or when you restart your mobile device the IP is generally reset on the 3g/4g/whatever-g (I'm sure you'd have to delete cookies on a device too). In any case, it seems like if anyone were interested in voting more than once, you would probably have the chance if you move from one place to another or when you reboot your phone.

I don't really know, as computer technology isn't really my thing. We've actually taken an even more old-school approach, printing out flyers to give to her friends at school, dance, neighbors, etc. I'm sure there are tricks to these things that I don't know, but we seem to be doing pretty good so far.

Thanks again, and all the help here is much appreciated. This will mean so much to my daughter if we win this!

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

Wife and I were out on the Oregon coast voted there . When I got home it let me vote a second time

Well I figured out how to game the system for multiple votes, as have the two top contestants (that's how online contests work of course). Unfortunately, it's very labor intensive, and only works with some wireless providers (not AT&T which I have).

So it's become a game of who is willing to spend more hours at their phone clearing cookies, restarting, and revoting, over, and over, and over again (I'm 99% sure they are using this exact same weakness I found).

Given the free time the current leader seems to have for this, and that they may be willing to do this hours each day for the next eleven days, I may have cede early. Honest votes aren't going to win it (with ever really thought they did in these contests?), and the time it takes to stack up repeat votes is simply looking to be too much.

So thanks so much to everyone for your efforts! I hate to throw in the towel after all the enthusiastic help so many have given, but I don't want to spend the next ten days bothering everyone for votes, and still have to devote 40 hours to cheating on top of that to win. Just have to let the chips fall where they may.

Thanks again so much! Ava really appreciates all the efforts from everyone, and we will find a way to get her a new boat this spring one way or another.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

OR.... we can each vote legally at once and rack up a few thousand votes. At least make the guy work for the win if he knows a way to add more votes.

Shane

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Canada

Well the way I found to cheat is to switch the wifi off on your mobile and connect through cell data network, erase cookies, then restart the phone. With cookies gone and a new IP address you can vote again. Of course my AT&T service cycles through a limited batch of IP addresses, but I tried on my wife's work iPhone (which uses Verizon), and found that it never issues the same IP when you reboot.

This process of deleting cookies, restarting, and revoting takes about 70 seconds per vote on a new iPhone 6 with a fast network. When I played with it last night, I found something interesting - the other two leaders in the contest received a new vote every 70 seconds as well. I spent about an hour doing this, and it was absolute clockwork - a pretty reliable confirmation that they were doing the same thing I was. Eventually their votes stopped cold when they tired out and stepped away, which indicates they were also manually manipulating and not using some bot program.

So this presents a few problems. One is that the current leader spent about 3 hours straight stacking up fake votes today, something I'm not keen to try every day for the next week an a half. Second is a matter of conscience. Aside from being exhaustively boring, I've discovered that cheating like this doesn't feel that great, and I'd rather not have my daughter recall "wow, my dad cheated real hard to get me this boat" every time she gets in it.

So, I'll let the contest play out with fair votes on my part, and if I win a 2nd/3rd place paddle I'll probably give it away (I hate the style shaft they use on that one).

If however, someone did know how to write a program to cheat even more votes by automated means, that would be cool. I wouldn't accept the boat if won by this method, but would tell Old Town to ship it off to the 4th place contestant who made the cool Lego video and has not tried cheating. I admit, I would find a strange sense of satisfaction in being able to cheat the cheaters out of a win, and pass it on to someone more honest.

Anyway, one way or another I'll find a way to get Ava her boat.

Thanks again everyone!

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

Just voted and I hope she wins!
Chuck

Done

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https://www.instagram.com/fostinoguitars/
https://www.facebook.com/PuraVidaUkuleles/

Well I hate to have wasted your time, but the votes have been cleared.

This is a good thing though, as the voting system was so susceptible to cheating (I found the flaw and ashamedly used it myself). It didn't make me happy though, and my conscience got the better of me (plus the other contestants were much better cheaters than I could ever be). So I wrote Old Town and confessed, and revealed the voting weaknesses which were being taken advantage of.

Their response was quite good, and decided to just reset all votes to zero and start over again. Now it does require a Facebook login, which adds a layer of security to keep it honest. So if you feel like going back for another vote (just one this time ), I feel I have a good chance of winning this boat for my daughter honestly with all the help from my friends.
Thanks again!!!

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

OK, Done. Glad to try and help, Dave. Looks like you're in a tight race
with one other video. Hope you win!!

And Hesh, thanks for all the help you give, not just to Dave, but to all
your fellow luthiers. I really missed your inputs the couple of years
you were gone!

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Gene

Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason- Mark Twain

I just re entered my vote, and Ava is still 15 votes behind! Come on OLF'ers, do the quick click, and help Ava. This isn't the kid down the street trying to sell you a .99cent candy bar for $4 so his elite team can buy new bandanas! Come on! We're the good guys & gals, aren't we?

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Done

Just voted in the new and improved contest and wanted to thank everyone else too who has voted for Ava to win a new canoe!!!

For folks who want to help Dave's daughter, Ava win here is the link again and Ava's entry is the video showing the bike and canoe: https://www.facebook.com/OldTownCanoe?sk=app_403834839671843&brandloc=DISABLE&app_data=chk-54b66ed21aaaa

Additional thanks to Lance for letting us mine the OLF for votes for Ava too!!

OK folks if you have not voted yet OR voted before a couple of days ago the contest was reset to make it more fair and restarted so you can now vote again.

Thanking you all in advance too!!!

Honestly I would not normally vote for something out of context like this, sort of like when parents bring in their daughters girl scout cookies to sell at work , but being an avid peddler and paddler myself I had to vote up! I love the bike trailer, pedal on.

Also.. It looks freakin' cold out there

I have an Old Town circa 1985 and she still glides across the water. Best canoes out there and can take a heck of a beating. Mine looks pretty beat up these days, need to get new seats, but is still a great canoe.

As I check through the daily threads I check this one as well. Still in second place.....anyone else able to vote? The vote count was reset once so if you haven't voted recently then your vote may have been erased and needs to be redone. Let's support our OLF family.

Thanks
Shane

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Canada

Bump AND thanks to all OLFers who have cast a vote for Ava so far!!

Hesh, start a new thread on this in case some people who voted before don't know to vote again because they don't return to this thread. 765 views on this topic but 107 votes for Ava and David!

Thanks
Shane

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Canada