Chorizo - I feel you on how frustrating it can get when people have obvious biases and vote accordingly. This situation aside, I've learned in the past that banning people causes more problems than it solves. If you feel like someone isn't voting correctly, try your best to let them know what you look for in a rhyme and why you voted the way you did, and then see what their reasoning is. Granted, some people will only vote FOR someone, some people will only vote AGAINST someone. But hopefully the member will have enough self respect to vote for a good rhyme or vote against a bad rhyme. If anybody on here notices someone continuously voting for the same person, and it is a questionable vote, then please mark the instances that you see this occuring. If you've documented it enough, Fatal and I will contact that member and make sure that the votes are fair. If we feel that the person is voting unfairly, we will not accept their votes in the future (or when the votes come to specific people). I know how frustrating this gets, but if we can just work together and vote accordingly, hopefully this stuff will go away. The last thing we can do is ban someone who votes against a moderator for whatever reason - that will cause more problems than anything.
Some people on this board are biased towards one member or another - they may know the person in real life, they may be "boys" with the person on the net, they may hate the person, etc. For those of you that are conscious of your biases - do what I do: don't vote on those battles. There have been instances on the board where I can't bring myself to vote for somebody for one reason or another - if I feel those reasons are personal, I'll try to avoid voting on those battles altogether.
Let's get real. There is a Vet Alliance on this site, which is cool, but when a battle goes 8-0 and the loser actually banged the "Reigning Champ/Mod." I question the Integrity.
As stated, Fatal is the Reigning Champ. It wasn't until after he became the Reigning Champ that he became the moderator (it seems to be a trend, haha). But the reason he became the champ was because people on the site were feeling him and voted for him. He has a particular style that appeals to this board. If we went to another flows forum on another site, people might think Fatal isn't any good, or they may think that he is missing the necessary "skills" that the site has deemed worthy. But on this site, for whatever reason, we vote for certain skills, and we feel that Fatal possesses them. We gave him props as a Newbie, we gave him props as a Vet. If someone comes on here and blasts Fatal, not only will I vote for him, but I'll also be very impressed.
If anybody feels the threat of dickriding is too great to be evaluated fairly by other members, then you guys can post anonymously: each opponent can send me his verse, and I will post them both up Person X v. Person Y.
Whatever can be done to help members vote fairly will be done. But citing a "Vet Alliance" is a complete cop-out.
The fact of the matter is that I - along with a lot of other people - came on here to rap, not to make friends. I
want the cream to rise to the top. I want to see the best rhymes on here. I want to see somebody so good that they rip Fatal, Dvious, and Seak in a single line. And I think Preach is very good. But nobody should come on here bitching if they lost, especially if they've only been here about a month. The greatest rappers know how to cater to a certain audience. East Coast rappers might be amazing, but they don't cater to the West Coast, so the West Coast isn't feeling them. If you're on the Siccness, read a few battles, see what people like, incorporate those preferences into your style, and see if you can make a rhyme, catered to the Siccness. That's how you get votes. Consider it a challenge - you have a set of skills and an audience - how can you best use those skills to get the audience's applause?
