The Bet of McKinley Park is off to a roaring start, getting lots of votes, interest and comments in the many categories of our members' choice contest.

In fact, it's getting so popular, we've encountered our first "ballot stuffing" attempt, with lots of votes suddenly going to one organization in the categories in which it appears from brand-new accounts.

I've deleted these accounts and their votes.

There are many elements beyond circumstance that go into determining user and member activity that doesn't align with our Terms of Service , and these are especially obvious to a technically astute publication like the McKinley Park News. In the past, bad behavior inspired nuking accounts of obvious spammers and bots, which haven't returned.

We can distinguish mal-behavior like this this from human-directed activity coming from our local community in the interests of promoting a worthy local organization. However, we still have to support as much legitimacy as we can in voting for The Best of McKinley Park, even if it is only a non-scientific contest solely with value we all assign to it, awarding nothing but congratulations and announcement here in the McKinley Park News.

We recommended to listed entities that want to get votes in The Best of McKinley Park to directly appeal to their constituencies to support them by voting. For example, here's a template that could be cut-and-pasted into a website or email newsletter:

[My Organization] is in the running for [Category Name] and [Category Name] in The Best of McKinley Park, a members' choice contest presented by the McKinley Park News. Anyone can sign up and vote for free, so help out by voting for us! See The Best of McKinley Park at  mckinleypark.news/neighborhood/the-best-of-mckinley-park

In addition to the above, we're working on and will soon distribute some ready-to-go materials for The Best of McKinley Park contestants to use, if they wish, to support their candidacies. 

Organizations can appeal as widely as they wish for votes: For example, a local branch of a national organization could reach out to other branches, or the national organization itself, to encourage promotion and support for that contestant organization. As long as real, individual people are involved in voting, the more the merrier!

We could choose to accept the flood of new accounts to pad our numbers, as many do, but that's not the goal of the McKinley Park News. We want to create local online community that is convivial, trusted, safe, private and real: populated by and for real people.