Band Madness!
We need to have a little talk about cheating
Without going into dead-horse-beating detail, it became abundandly clear to us this past Friday that cheating had occurred on behalf of AFI in their matchup against Pink Floyd. AFI had received a random, suspicious surge of votes on each of the two previous Friday afternoons, but in the Pink Floyd matchup, AFI gained several hundred votes and Pink Floyd lost several hundred votes in the span of less than an hour, a phenomenon which pretty obviously revealed some sort of tampering was going on. The vote totals were reset to the totals prior to the massive swing, voting concluded on Friday as normal, and Pink Floyd ultimately defeated AFI.
We have no way to statistically prove that similar cheating went on in AFI’s matchups against Ray Charles (won by one vote) and The Ramones (overcame 130 vote deficit in the final hour), but, at the same time, Barry Bonds has never tested positive for steroids, and yet, people drew their own conclusions when the man was getting walked 230 times in a season. I was also pleasantly surprised at the rational, largely congenial reaction on the part of the AFI fanbase, most of whom understood the situation, were upset at whomever was responsible for the vote tampering, and felt more than satisfied that the band went this far. Their unwavering enthusiasm has been an extremely welcome - albeit tremendously unexpected - element to the 2007 tournament.
Below are the results of a poll Chris conducted on Friday, as well as the many, many reactions from Band Madness nation about the cheating ordeal. Now, decades down the road, you’ll be able to help your kid with his history project.
“The AFI Scandal? Put away those books and pull up a chair, son - I was there.”
27 April 2007 at 6:50 am Eastern
Is this because AFI is winning? or do you think someone cheated?
27 April 2007 at 6:51 am Eastern
I would think a whole lot of cheating going on caused it!
27 April 2007 at 7:05 am Eastern
the afi/pf has so many more votes than the other ones. but im not so sure it was just afi if thats who your assuming cheated. i know you didnt say it but it shouldnt be that hard to figure out lol.
27 April 2007 at 7:12 am Eastern
What happened?
27 April 2007 at 7:29 am Eastern
i heard that PF lost votes?
27 April 2007 at 7:58 am Eastern
sorry that your (and everyone elses) hard work is being screwed up by people
27 April 2007 at 8:02 am Eastern
I was asleep. What’s going on?
27 April 2007 at 8:16 am Eastern
Same, who won?
27 April 2007 at 8:19 am Eastern
Same, who won?
I have no idea. I woke up came here and seen it was closed.
27 April 2007 at 8:23 am Eastern
someone cheated. dun dun dun!
27 April 2007 at 8:37 am Eastern
who, how, when?
27 April 2007 at 8:39 am Eastern
its funny that you were berating the phish fans all that time for only voting for one matchup when all along it was the self cutters
27 April 2007 at 8:43 am Eastern
Now not everyone is a cutter. Most have moved on from that.
27 April 2007 at 8:51 am Eastern
or bled out
27 April 2007 at 8:58 am Eastern
If there is proof of cheating by the fans of a particular band, then just disqualify that band and let’s move on.
27 April 2007 at 9:22 am Eastern
You want to know what you should do? Let it go.
At the end of the round AFI had more votes, therefore they win. End of story. I think the whole thing with them is ridiculous. I don’t get why everyone is acting like they don’t deserve to be here. They got more votes than the other bands, period. It doesn’t matter if a lot of you feel they don’t stand up to the almighty overrated classic rock bands that everyone loves but doesn’t actually listen to.
And I think it’s pretty lame to disqualify them. AFI (and their fans) did nothing, random people on the internet did. Why ruin it for the band and all the real fans who did nothing? How do you know this wasn’t done by Pink Floyd fans or others here that just want to see this very thing (AFI being disqualifed) happen?
AFI won this round. Lets stop the whining and move on please.
27 April 2007 at 9:25 am Eastern
Why would Pink Floyd fans take away their own votes? If the PF fans we’re going to cheat, they would ADD votes, not subtract.
27 April 2007 at 9:25 am Eastern
good thinking johnny5. some pink floyd fans were so distraught that afi was going to beat them that they hacked into the server and … wait for it … reduced the pink floyd vote total.
this indicates how clever we are, instead of cheating to win, we cheat to lose.
27 April 2007 at 9:30 am Eastern
You never know with people. Wy get yourself disqualified when you can get the other team disqualified.
27 April 2007 at 9:30 am Eastern
shit! Edit! Wy= Why
damn typos
27 April 2007 at 9:31 am Eastern
Because they knew that by doing it, it would make it as blatant as possible that ‘cheating’ was going down on AFI’s end and knew that AFI would be disqualified.
I was mostly aiming that towards the majority of the people here instead of just plain ‘Pink Floyd Fans’.
27 April 2007 at 9:31 am Eastern
lets move on…i’m so bored with AFI blogs, stories, etc…i wasn’t much of an AFI fan before but now i don’t even want to hear their name…
27 April 2007 at 9:34 am Eastern
Spoken like a true idiot. If cheating can be proven then I say disqualfy them and let the snot nosed emo little crumb snatchers whine ! If AFI are allowed to keep votes that are the result of cheating what does that teach there fans about life? Nothing ! When you disqualify them maybe all their fans will go cut themselves and bleed out and you wont have this problem next year!
27 April 2007 at 9:36 am Eastern
Shit,, thios is an easy one..disqualify A.F.I.(A Fucking Imposter). It’s obvious things aren’t on the up and up. They should have been out 4 rounds ago. How many other bands closed a 300 point gap in one night? If you don’t have integrity in this whole tournament…you have nothing…why even do it then??? A. F. I. is the Pete Rose/Bary Bonds of band maddness…
27 April 2007 at 9:36 am Eastern
I have a feeling you’re going to get quoted a lot for this little gem.
27 April 2007 at 9:38 am Eastern
Spoken like a true idiot. If cheating can be proven then I say disqualfy them and let the snot nosed emo little crumb snatchers whine ! If AFI are allowed to keep votes that are the result of cheating what does that teach there fans about life? Nothing ! When you disqualify them maybe all their fans will go cut themselves and bleed out and you wont have this problem next year!
If you can prove it was AFI fans who did this, then I completely agree. Fact is, that’s not possible.
Go over to the AFI message boards (the place where all the real fans are) and find me one person who has admitted to cheating and has not been told off by everyone there. I’ve been there and I cannot.
27 April 2007 at 9:39 am Eastern
Looks like my last quote got messed up somehow. -
If you can prove it was AFI fans who did this, then I completely agree. Fact is, that’s not possible.
Go over to the AFI message boards (the place where all the real fans are) and find me one person who has admitted to cheating and has not been told off by everyone there. I’ve been there and I cannot.
27 April 2007 at 9:40 am Eastern
Disqualify both or reset totals to zero and let them start from scratch. They have one day to see who wins. It isn’t fair to any legit voters but there was definite cheating and no way to know exactly who did unless you figure out how and trace it, which if they are that good you probably won’t be able to do with your resources.
27 April 2007 at 9:44 am Eastern
Frankly, if we were to do that, Pink Floyd couldn’t possibly win. People expect these things to start on Monday, and there are way too many AFI fans champing at the bit to vote again. My guess is that the Pink Floyd fans don’t even know this happened yet.
27 April 2007 at 9:47 am Eastern
Frankly, if we were to do that, Pink Floyd couldn’t possibly win. People expect these things to start on Monday, and there are way too many AFI fans champing at the bit to vote again. My guess is that the Pink Floyd fans don’t even know this happened yet.
_______
What if you just reset the entire Round and devote all of next week to it?
That way, when fans go to log on to vote next week, they’ll see what happened and re-cast their votes.
27 April 2007 at 9:48 am Eastern
Chris-
If they are watching the boards then they will. Any other solution is even more lop-sided. Let’s be completely honest that not all Pink Floyd votes were even from Pink Floyd fans, but rather those fed up with AFI’s less than enjoyable fans. Anyone who wants Pink Floyd to win can get the word out the same way AFI fans do.
27 April 2007 at 9:49 am Eastern
Thing is, this is the fourth straight round AFI has cheated in. Which means they probably should have lost to Ray Charles to begin with.
So AFI has a history of cheating, whereas Pink Floyd does not. Further, as Chris points out, Pink Floyd doesn’t need this poll for validation. So the evidence heavily points toward AFI being the ones that cheated.
Which is too bad, because while I don’t like AFI, at least they made this thing interesting. It’s much more fun to root against them than my next least favorite band still alive (The Doors). They’re like the Dallas Cowboys, you hate them but it’s fun to root against them.
But at least the Cowboys aren’t allowed to blatantly cheat. And if we know that AFI is just going to cheat their way to the next round every time it takes the fun out of this because we know that ultimately our votes won’t matter. It’s more fun to see if they can muster the votes from their message boards and blogs. If they’re allowed to write scripts that change the voting or hack the site, what’s the point?
Hence, AFI should get shitcanned.
Also, this isn’t a democracy, this is a benevolent dictatorship run by a bunch of music fans who want to keep it fun. And if AFI can cheat, that means it’s less fun.
27 April 2007 at 9:49 am Eastern
Chris, if we were going to cheat, why would we take their votes away? thats retarded. no one smart enough to hack your site would do something that would EASILY show that something happened.
i dont think it was afi fans…
27 April 2007 at 9:50 am Eastern
I go to the AFI myspace page alot. I even messaged the bassist Hunter and told him about this competition. He read my message. This was well over a week ago. I have yet to see AFI posting bulletins and blogs about this. They are not begging people to vote for them. It’s the fans that are. When I send out a bulletin I ask people to vote in the other match-ups. How can you tell where the cheating came from?
27 April 2007 at 9:50 am Eastern
“If AFI are allowed to keep votes that are the result of cheating what does that teach there fans about life? Nothing ! When you disqualify them maybe all their fans will go cut themselves and bleed out and you wont have this problem next year!”
“If you don’t have integrity in this whole tournament…you have nothing…why even do it then??? A. F. I. is the Pete Rose/Bary Bonds of band maddness…”
LOL. I like how u think this tournament i about teaching life lessons like ‘integrity’. Not defending any actions that were taken, but im sure u can come up with better reasoning for disqualifying them then “to teach them a life lesson”
27 April 2007 at 9:50 am Eastern
Thing is how fucking stupid do you think people are? Who the fuck would vote for the band that they want to loose? I dont know about the rest of you but if you think a bunch of teenagers are going to tell the truth you have lost your fucking mind !!!! I have some so I speak from experence and they will lie their ass off just to get their way ! Thats what wrong with them , they have no integrigty . Then they will whine about fairness when their actions cause a negative response . As far as the contest , hey fuck it , everyone knows that AFI will NEVER be a fraction as good as Pink Floyd ! So when Afi can do this ” The Dark Side of the Moon has spent 741 weeks on the USA-based Billboard 200 album chart, the longest duration in history. It is also the fourth highest selling album globally of all time, selling more than forty million units.[2]” Call me!
27 April 2007 at 9:51 am Eastern
What did I say about life lessons? All I’m saying is allowing them to cheat makes this less fun. Wasn’t the point of this to have fun?
27 April 2007 at 9:53 am Eastern
Spoken like a true idiot. If cheating can be proven then I say disqualfy them and let the snot nosed emo little crumb snatchers whine ! If AFI are allowed to keep votes that are the result of cheating what does that teach there fans about life? Nothing ! When you disqualify them maybe all their fans will go cut themselves and bleed out and you wont have this problem next year!
lol. then half of the people voting on this site wont be here next year either. come on, would this be fun without drama? probably not.
and no, if you disqualify us, we will go on about our afi worshiping lives, and love it.
27 April 2007 at 9:54 am Eastern
# Have A Cigar Says:
27 April 2007 at 9:50 am Eastern [ quote ]
Thing is how fucking stupid do you think people are? Who the fuck would vote for the band that they want to loose? I dont know about the rest of you but if you think a bunch of teenagers are going to tell the truth you have lost your fucking mind !!!! I have some so I speak from experence and they will lie their ass off just to get their way ! Thats what wrong with them , they have no integrigty . Then they will whine about fairness when their actions cause a negative response . As far as the contest , hey fuck it , everyone knows that AFI will NEVER be a fraction as good as Pink Floyd ! So when Afi can do this ” The Dark Side of the Moon has spent 741 weeks on the USA-based Billboard 200 album chart, the longest duration in history. It is also the fourth highest selling album globally of all time, selling more than forty million units.[2]” Call me!
he did it! his blatent hate for afi is obvious. haha.
your scared cuz we found you out :p
27 April 2007 at 9:54 am Eastern
Yeah sales equal quality! No offense but your argument was great until you brought that into it. Teenagers don’t tell the truth a lot but they do brag a lot and if they did take away votes from Pink Floyd, which is the real issue, then they would be bragging to someone.
27 April 2007 at 10:01 am Eastern
I think everyone should stop referring to the cheater as “AFI Fans”. I think that’s the most unfair part of all this. AFI did nothing wrong and neither did their real fans.
You can do whatever you want with the competition, at the end of the day it really doesn’t matter. AFI and their fans do not deserve the bad reputation that is being brought on them by the negativity of a lot of the idiots around here.
27 April 2007 at 10:02 am Eastern
Sales don’t necessarily equal quality, but in Pink Floyd’s particular case, the two are pretty closely related.
27 April 2007 at 10:02 am Eastern
How do u know AFI cheated against Ray Charles. I was watching the polls daily and it was close the whole way through. The only concrete evidence of cheating was this PF/AFI thing. You cant say they have a history of cheating…And what is all this nonsense about validation. Its not like Davey and Jade are on their computers constantly checking for “validation”.
27 April 2007 at 10:03 am Eastern
I’ve always believed that the AFI fans are mostly good. Even the comments I read on Despair Faction this morning reinforce this belief. But it’s undeniable that a few take it way too far.
27 April 2007 at 10:04 am Eastern
LOL ! Kids , you kill me. WOOOOO you found me out, I hate AFI . What part of “Have A Cigar” dont you understand? Oh that’s right, that song came out when you were a tingle still running up your daddys back hopeing you mama didnt swollow you. Actualy until this contest I had never heard of them so I went to their myspace to check them out. To see if maybe there was something to them. My honest oppinuion is nothing there worth wasteing any time on.
27 April 2007 at 10:04 am Eastern
Because Chris said they’ve been cheating in every round since Round 3. I believe him.
And I meant AFI fans are using this for validation.
27 April 2007 at 10:05 am Eastern
How do u know AFI cheated against Ray Charles. I was watching the polls daily and it was close the whole way through. The only concrete evidence of cheating was this PF/AFI thing. You cant say they have a history of cheating…And what is all this nonsense about validation. Its not like Davey and Jade are on their computers constantly checking for “validation”.
Well unless Ray Charles has a really rabid Internet fanbase, it was AFI fans using all those proxy sites to vote.
27 April 2007 at 10:06 am Eastern
Thank you! I got to only vote once in each round. Not all fans are cheaters. There has been nothing but arguing and accusations of cheating in almost every round. I have watched the polls everyday myself.
27 April 2007 at 10:06 am Eastern
# Chris Coleman Says:
27 April 2007 at 10:02 am Eastern [ quote ]
Althea said:
Yeah sales equal quality! No offense but your argument was great until you brought that into it. Teenagers don’t tell the truth a lot but they do brag a lot and if they did take away votes from Pink Floyd, which is the real issue, then they would be bragging to someone.
Sales don’t necessarily equal quality, but in Pink Floyd’s particular case, the two are pretty closely related.
how long has pink floyd been around mainstream?
oh ok. and now, how long has AFI been in the mainstream.
you cant compare sales between these two bands due to the huge time diference that pink floyd has had to gain such numbers.
27 April 2007 at 10:07 am Eastern
Sales don’t necessarily equal quality, but in Pink Floyd’s particular case, the two are pretty closely related.
I only like two Pink Floyd songs and am not a fan, so to me it isn’t a measure of quality. I know a lot of people do like them and I also agree they are iconic, but in all fairness no one I know personally listens to them. If you like a band it shouldn’t matter how many records they sell or where they are on Billboard.
27 April 2007 at 10:07 am Eastern
Sales don’t necessarily equal quality, but in Pink Floyd’s particular case, the two are pretty closely related.
Im not sure what u mean by “sales equal quality”. And as for trying to find someone bragging, ud have to check every bulliten board/ forum/ email/ message that was sent after the incident, which is impossible…
27 April 2007 at 10:09 am Eastern
Like other people before me have said… what makes you think that AFI fans were the ones cheating??
okay, sure, maybe AFI will never be like Pink Floyd, but most AFI fans could care less. Pink Floyd was a band for the masses, AFI are a band that have more of a target audience. So, do you really think that we care what you say?? I think not.
27 April 2007 at 10:09 am Eastern
# Chris Coleman Says:
27 April 2007 at 10:03 am Eastern [ quote ]
Johnny5 said:
I think everyone should stop referring to the cheater as “AFI Fans”. I think that’s the most unfair part of all this. AFI did nothing wrong and neither did their real fans.
You can do whatever you want with the competition, at the end of the day it really doesn’t matter. AFI and their fans do not deserve the bad reputation that is being brought on them by the negativity of a lot of the idiots around here.
I’ve always believed that the AFI fans are mostly good. Even the comments I read on Despair Faction this morning reinforce this belief. But it’s undeniable that a few take it way too far.
take it too far. are you saying we are taking your competition to far? would you rather us not participate?
by all means, if you dont want us here, disqualify us. but keep in mind by doing so your losing alot of your voting population, and website visits a day by doing so if its not justifiable.
27 April 2007 at 10:09 am Eastern
LOL ! Kids , you kill me. WOOOOO you found me out, I hate AFI . What part of “Have A Cigar” dont you understand? Oh that’s right, that song came out when you were a tingle still running up your daddys back hopeing you mama didnt swollow you. Actualy until this contest I had never heard of them so I went to their myspace to check them out. To see if maybe there was something to them. My honest oppinuion is nothing there worth wasteing any time on.
I never said you hated AFI that was someone else and I’m not a kid. I’m way past kid. Don’t assume because I don’t agree with you that I’m young.
27 April 2007 at 10:10 am Eastern
This has gone as well as the Glitterboy Clothing line.
27 April 2007 at 10:11 am Eastern
How do u know AFI cheated against Ray Charles. I was watching the polls daily and it was close the whole way through. The only concrete evidence of cheating was this PF/AFI thing. You cant say they have a history of cheating…And what is all this nonsense about validation. Its not like Davey and Jade are on their computers constantly checking for “validation”.
Well unless Ray Charles has a really rabid Internet fanbase, it was AFI fans using all those proxy sites to vote.
You had previously said that you checked and proxy votes didn’t cause the wins…or am I wrong?
27 April 2007 at 10:14 am Eastern
Why even bring sales numbers into this? What about all the rappers and pop bands who are outselling the good rock bands of today by huge numbers? Does that mean they’re better? NO! I’m not trying to make this comparison in relation to AFI and Pink Floyd, I’m just saying, album sales don’t equal quality. Never have never will. Go take a look at the Billboard Top 200 chart right now and you’ll see what I mean.
27 April 2007 at 10:15 am Eastern
The whole thing boils down to this: If the people that run this contest know that their has been cheating by the fans of ANY BAND then in the interest of integrity that band should be D I S Q U A L I F I E D ! Doesnt matter which band it was !
27 April 2007 at 10:15 am Eastern
Sales don’t necessarily equal quality, but in Pink Floyd’s particular case, the two are pretty closely related.
I only like two Pink Floyd songs and am not a fan, so to me it isn’t a measure of quality. I know a lot of people do like them and I also agree they are iconic, but in all fairness no one I know personally listens to them. If you like a band it shouldn’t matter how many records they sell or where they are on Billboard.
—————–
That’s reasonable. You’re supposed to vote for the band you like better. But Pink Floyd isn’t exactly a one-hit wonder (not accusing AFI of being one either). Fans and critics have had plenty of time to step back and re-examine Pink Floyd without the bias of current musical tastes, and they’ve overwhelmingly agreed that the music holds up. Only Pink Floyd’s earliest stuff sounds dated, but even for its time is was often cutting edge stuff, and it’s still good, even if it represents an immature sound compared to what the band would later achieve.
Who knows, maybe AFI will reach the same status in 30 years. It’s not like they just came out of nowhere, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that 30 years from now, most people will be able to look back and say that it really is a reflection of popular tastes of its time, and therefore, dated.
But I could be wrong.
27 April 2007 at 10:16 am Eastern
Well at least we agree on something!
27 April 2007 at 10:16 am Eastern
Disqualifying AFI would not mean that we don’t want AFI fans here. It would mean that we will not tolerate cheating.
27 April 2007 at 10:18 am Eastern
hey uh jsut to let you know, pink floyd fans were cheating (too maybe)?
check THEIR forums
they talk about clearing cookies and proxies.
plus all they do is bash AFI
http://www.pinkfloydonline.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard/ikonboard.cgi?s=65a3e94ebaaed42bf2935835f65e1c6c;act=ST;f=1;t=14344
27 April 2007 at 10:18 am Eastern
Like other people before me have said… what makes you think that AFI fans were the ones cheating??
okay, sure, maybe AFI will never be like Pink Floyd, but most AFI fans could care less. Pink Floyd was a band for the masses, AFI are a band that have more of a target audience. So, do you really think that we care what you say?? I think not.
————
Seems to me that AFI fans would care a lot.
27 April 2007 at 10:18 am Eastern
I’m sorry ATEHA i quoted the wrong comment . My comment was in reference to one above yours. Sorry
27 April 2007 at 10:19 am Eastern
You can clear your cookies all you want. It’s not going to let you vote twice from the same IP address.
27 April 2007 at 10:19 am Eastern
Disqualifying AFI would not mean that we don’t want AFI fans here. It would mean that we will not tolerate cheating.
disqualify us both then. they talked about cheating and were doing it. we never said we did.
27 April 2007 at 10:20 am Eastern
But like I said before why get yourself disqualified when you can get the other team disqualified. Who REALLY knows who cheated? Why would AFI fans hacked into the system and take away votes from the band hey are up against and move those votes to the other side? It seems more obvious to me that someone wanted AFI to get disqualified. That may just be me unless a few others agree with that is what it looks like.
27 April 2007 at 10:20 am Eastern
That’s ok no hard feelings!
27 April 2007 at 10:22 am Eastern
GRRR stupid typos! I hope you guys got what I was TRYING to say!
27 April 2007 at 10:40 am Eastern
???? Must be lunch or nap time at school. 20 minutes and no comment! LOL
27 April 2007 at 10:42 am Eastern
Whoa. I go home and come back this morning to TOTAL CHAOS. This is a lot more interesting than listening to the actual “merits” of AFI.
Accusations! Cheating! Disqualifications!
THIS…IS….BAND MADNESS!!!!
27 April 2007 at 10:46 am Eastern
LMAO!
27 April 2007 at 10:47 am Eastern
This takes restraint. To the person who said a PF fan must have done this so that AFI would be diqualified: why would anyone cheat when they were about to win? So they might win in a different…way?
I can’t believe I just had to type that. I am officially dumber for having participated in this argument.
27 April 2007 at 10:50 am Eastern
No , not dumber just doing like a logical person . You had to verbalize their comment to make sure it was as stupid as it sounds!
27 April 2007 at 10:51 am Eastern
It’s that Madness! It draws you in…no one is safe!
27 April 2007 at 10:59 am Eastern
It’s obvious both sides had cheaters, someone cheating for AFI just happened to be better at it.
The fair way out would be to disqualify both bands.
27 April 2007 at 11:00 am Eastern
no one cares enough about AFI to want them disqualified THAT bad.
logically, the only explanation is someone did what they did in order to make Floyd lose.
and guys, we don’t think ALL AFI fans are cheaters. some of you are amazing people, i’ve talked with some of you, and I like a lot of you. we all do.
but a few douchebags ruined this for everyone.
27 April 2007 at 11:00 am Eastern
Hey all…I’m new to the posting. I’ve been visiting this site since the beginning of the tournament via Deadspin.com. I only have one question…
Who the hell is AFI? I’ve never even HEARD of that band. Are they any good? Can some unbiased person tell me about this band?
And for the record…I’m a huge DMB fan (obviously b/c of the username) but they should have been knocked out awhile ago.
27 April 2007 at 11:01 am Eastern
no, Floyd fans were not cheating. ‘
of this we are 99.9999999% sure.
it was the AFI fans who have cheated since Round 3.
27 April 2007 at 11:03 am Eastern
they started out as a punk band, and progressed into a more commercially acceptable genre of pop punk alternative type music.
they are popular with people of varying ages, for sure.
the lead singer also has a side electronic/electro project called blaqk audio i believe.
there are links to them under all the brackets if you want to hear them on itunes/allmusic.
i’m not a fan myself, but this is my gist.
perhaps dear endlessly or fadednight, who are both big fans can correct my mistakes.
27 April 2007 at 11:03 am Eastern
????? How is that obvious ? As someone stated before , Pink Floyd was already wining why would they cheat just to win a different way. That doesn’t make any sense.
27 April 2007 at 11:05 am Eastern
Ok, I’m as annoyed as everyone else about the fact that we’re in this situation. The person/people who cheated should be fucking ashamed and should probably go see a movie or something since this competition has obviously taken on some wacked out importance to them that they felt compelled to cheat.
But more than that, I’m tired of people acting like AFI had ANYTHING to do with whatever happened… much less even knows this competition exists. They don’t. They haven’t mentioned it at all. And, contrary to what some of you think, no, they would not vote for themselves in this competition. They would adamantly root for some of the other bands, who have inspired them.
Pull your heads out of your asses.
And if you haven’t spoken as if AFI themselves are responsible, then I am not talking to you.
27 April 2007 at 11:09 am Eastern
I don’t think the cheaters were Pink Floyd fans and I don’t think they were AFI fans. I think they just wanted AFI to get disqualifed, and what better way than to do what they did.
Honestly, someone who is smart enough to have been able to get into the system, lower Pink Floyd’s vote and raise AFI’s vote would have been smart enough to know that it would not go unnoticed. They knew those in charge would catch it and they knew they would react this way to it.
27 April 2007 at 11:10 am Eastern
they started out as a punk band, and progressed into a more commercially acceptable genre of pop punk alternative type music.
they are popular with people of varying ages, for sure.
the lead singer also has a side electronic/electro project called blaqk audio i believe.
there are links to them under all the brackets if you want to hear them on itunes/allmusic.
i’m not a fan myself, but this is my gist.
perhaps dear endlessly or fadednight, who are both big fans can correct my mistakes.
Oh you did forget that the bassist Hunter has his own side project. Only 2 band members are original. They did start out in 1991, broke up when members went to different colleges. They later had a reunion show at The Pheonix and decided to get back together and drop out of school. Just some more info on them.
27 April 2007 at 11:11 am Eastern
watch yourself please, you’re out of line.
we had nothing to do with this. why in hell would we create this kind of stress for ourselves?
and if we did, don’t you think we would have just disqualified them?
no, not yet. and we are sitting here arguing with you little snots.
so think logically about this one.
27 April 2007 at 11:12 am Eastern
they started out as a punk band, and progressed into a more commercially acceptable genre of pop punk alternative type music.
they are popular with people of varying ages, for sure.
the lead singer also has a side electronic/electro project called blaqk audio i believe.
there are links to them under all the brackets if you want to hear them on itunes/allmusic.
i’m not a fan myself, but this is my gist.
perhaps dear endlessly or fadednight, who are both big fans can correct my mistakes.
Oh you did forget that the bassist Hunter has his own side project. Only 2 band members are original. They did start out in 1991, broke up when members went to different colleges. They later had a reunion show at The Pheonix and decided to get back together and drop out of school. Just some more info on them.
—-
can you provide some detailed info for that poster regarding how they sound?
i’ve only heard what I heard working in the record store. not enough to actually talk deeply about it.
27 April 2007 at 11:13 am Eastern
????? How is that obvious ? As someone stated before , Pink Floyd was already wining why would they cheat just to win a different way. That doesn’t make any sense.
I wasn’t implying they cheated to decrease their own votes or increase AFI’s, just that there was a bit of cheating to increase their own votes at some point.
Would they have won anyway? Sure, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a few cheaters on their side as well.
27 April 2007 at 11:13 am Eastern
watch yourself please, you’re out of line.
we had nothing to do with this. why in hell would we create this kind of stress for ourselves?
and if we did, don’t you think we would have just disqualified them?
no, not yet. and we are sitting here arguing with you little snots.
so think logically about this one.
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I was not accusing you or anyone else in charge of this site of doing anything wrong. I didn’t even imply it. If it seems I did then I am sorry, but I was accusing someone who was completely outside of all this.
27 April 2007 at 11:14 am Eastern
I seriously doubt anyone meant that Davey and the boys are poring over code, cheating on an internet contest, desparately seeking the moment when they could claim dominance over Pink Floyd.
“Hell yeah guys! We won! This victory fills the black void of sadness and despair that exists in my dark heart! Let’s go ride bikes!”
27 April 2007 at 11:14 am Eastern
So here’s the deal: AFI is my favorite band; however, I am most certainly not an emo kid (I’ve smiled a good dozen times since I woke up an hour ago, and the only time I’ve ever cut myself was by accident), nor am I a scene kid.
I found this site, and thought it would be fun. I voted once in every category and was elated when AFI won. But if some idiot out there tried to ruin the party by running a proxy or some other way of cheating, then by all means, disqualify AFI. I don’t need AFI to win to validate them as a good band, and it wouldn’t be fun if AFI won due to cheating. If they are disqualified, I’ll miss all the AFI hating (it’s hilarious) but I’ll move on.
27 April 2007 at 11:16 am Eastern
watch yourself please, you’re out of line.
we had nothing to do with this. why in hell would we create this kind of stress for ourselves?
and if we did, don’t you think we would have just disqualified them?
no, not yet. and we are sitting here arguing with you little snots.
so think logically about this one.
He wasn’t saying that you or anyone of the Mods/site creators/maintainers had anything to do with it. Just explaining what he meant.
Actually I’m not sure I understand your post in relation to his. I understand your’s independantly though.
27 April 2007 at 11:17 am Eastern
Question is W H Y ? If they wanted AFI gone all they would have to do was wait until the voteing was done in this round. P/F was ahead and I would think the voteing was going to end today. So that theory doesn’t hold up. An honest win is much sweeter !
27 April 2007 at 11:20 am Eastern
Question is W H Y ? If they wanted AFI gone all they would have to do was wait until the voteing was done in this round. P/F was ahead and I would think the voteing was going to end today. So that theory doesn’t hold up. An honest win is much sweeter !
Yeah, and an honest lose is sweeter than a disqualification. If someone truly didn’t like a band on here (and theres been a LOT of AFI hating going on..) this is the perfect way to have them go out in the worst possible way.
27 April 2007 at 11:21 am Eastern
watch yourself please, you’re out of line.
we had nothing to do with this. why in hell would we create this kind of stress for ourselves?
and if we did, don’t you think we would have just disqualified them?
no, not yet. and we are sitting here arguing with you little snots.
so think logically about this one.
______
I was not accusing you or anyone else in charge of this site of doing anything wrong. I didn’t even imply it. If it seems I did then I am sorry, but I was accusing someone who was completely outside of all this.
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i misunderstood.
I just don’t see logic in anyone actually subtracting votes in order to secure AFI’s lose. whoever could do that, if they wanted AFI gone, they would just add votes to Floyd. which we also would have caught.
so I assumed you were talking about chris, dan, nate, me, etc.
27 April 2007 at 11:21 am Eastern
That or they don’t care about any of this but are having fun with all the AFI contreversey and are just fueling the whole thing.
27 April 2007 at 11:21 am Eastern
they started out as a punk band, and progressed into a more commercially acceptable genre of pop punk alternative type music.
they are popular with people of varying ages, for sure.
the lead singer also has a side electronic/electro project called blaqk audio i believe.
there are links to them under all the brackets if you want to hear them on itunes/allmusic.
i’m not a fan myself, but this is my gist.
perhaps dear endlessly or fadednight, who are both big fans can correct my mistakes.
Oh you did forget that the bassist Hunter has his own side project. Only 2 band members are original. They did start out in 1991, broke up when members went to different colleges. They later had a reunion show at The Pheonix and decided to get back together and drop out of school. Just some more info on them.
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can you provide some detailed info for that poster regarding how they sound?
i’ve only heard what I heard working in the record store. not enough to actually talk deeply about it.
Well, let’s see here. What have you heard while working in a record store? Their sound changes with every album. They started out as a punk band then evolved. Every album maintains dark lyrics which reflect on them personally. Even the more sadder songs. Which I would suggest This Time Imperfect. The writting style lets you take from the songs your own interpretation of the meaning.
27 April 2007 at 11:22 am Eastern
Question is W H Y ? If they wanted AFI gone all they would have to do was wait until the voteing was done in this round. P/F was ahead and I would think the voteing was going to end today. So that theory doesn’t hold up. An honest win is much sweeter !
Yeah, and an honest lose is sweeter than a disqualification. If someone truly didn’t like a band on here (and theres been a LOT of AFI hating going on..) this is the perfect way to have them go out in the worst possible way.
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you need to understand something.
no one here hates AFI. a lot of us, a LOT of us, dug the drama. we dug the arguments, and we definitely dug the bunch of awesome AFI fans, because there are lots of them.
no one here hated them enough to do that.
no one here cares enough to do that.
27 April 2007 at 11:24 am Eastern
Which is why I’m saying it’s an outside source. Someone who just wanted to push the whole thing over the edge.
27 April 2007 at 11:26 am Eastern
oh god who would be that retarded.
come ON. you are reaching and stretching. in fact, you brought reaching and stretching to a whole new level.
it’s MUCH more likely a few AFI fans wanted to win sooooo badly as a big “fuck you” to everyone who disliked their band or said shit.
27 April 2007 at 11:28 am Eastern
any word on a resolution to all of this nonsense?
27 April 2007 at 11:28 am Eastern
oh god who would be that retarded.
come ON. you are reaching and stretching. in fact, you brought reaching and stretching to a whole new level.
it’s MUCH more likely a few AFI fans wanted to win sooooo badly as a big “fuck you” to everyone who disliked their band or said shit.
Equally likely is a fan or fans who disliked both bands and saw this as an opportunity to get both disqualified.
27 April 2007 at 11:29 am Eastern
Here is a link to the “video” This Time Imperfect which was taped at a live concert. It’s on the I Heard A Voice DVD.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IDRbGMmmVY
27 April 2007 at 11:29 am Eastern
oh god who would be that retarded.
come ON. you are reaching and stretching. in fact, you brought reaching and stretching to a whole new level.
it’s MUCH more likely a few AFI fans wanted to win sooooo badly as a big “fuck you” to everyone who disliked their band or said shit.
Equally likely is a fan or fans who disliked both bands and saw this as an opportunity to get both disqualified.
—
well i’m gonna go by past experience and assume it was the AFI fans who have clearly made it obvious they will stop at nothing to win.
some of them are so desperate, it’s insane.
27 April 2007 at 11:32 am Eastern
So they did something so stupid as to change the votes this much? Like I said. If they had the knowledge to do what they did they would’ve known all about this competition and how watchful everyone was being. They were being considered for disqualification just for a few proxy votes!
And they’re mostly saying “fuck you” to all the real fans who care more about the band itself and it’s reputation than this competition.
Honestly, do whatever you want (althought I still think disqualification would be unfair) but please don’t release something saying they were disqualified because of the fans cheating. They had nothing to do with it, a couple of stupid people (whatever their reasons) did.
I’m reading the things being said about them on all the announcements and it just seems like everyone here is trying to make AFI fans seem like the scum of the earth when really they’ve been doing nothing wrong.
27 April 2007 at 11:34 am Eastern
oh god who would be that retarded.
come ON. you are reaching and stretching. in fact, you brought reaching and stretching to a whole new level.
it’s MUCH more likely a few AFI fans wanted to win sooooo badly as a big “fuck you” to everyone who disliked their band or said shit.
“Any excuse that can be used will be used”
From the first page of the book “Dealing with Teenagers”. They figure that if they say it enough you will “Dumb Down” and say “Well I guess thats possible”.
27 April 2007 at 11:35 am Eastern
jesus christ.
no, the “fuck you” would be to the admins of the site. i’ve seen it written a hundred times on people’s personal sites and journals.
if it was the AFI fanbase, why shouldn’t we release something about the band being disqualified due to cheating? What special favours do we owe you?
no one here is making the AFI fans look like the scum of the earth. get over yourselves.
they HAVE done something wrong. they have used proxies for the last 3 rounds. that isn’t wrong?
and we STILL didn’t eliminate them because we wanted to give the good fans a fair shake. well, this is too much to not do anything about. and all signs point in one direction.
27 April 2007 at 11:35 am Eastern
oh god who would be that retarded.
come ON. you are reaching and stretching. in fact, you brought reaching and stretching to a whole new level.
it’s MUCH more likely a few AFI fans wanted to win sooooo badly as a big “fuck you” to everyone who disliked their band or said shit.
“Any excuse that can be used will be used”
From the first page of the book “Dealing with Teenagers”. They figure that if they say it enough you will “Dumb Down” and say “Well I guess thats possible”.
—
well there’s a reason i’m not a parent.
27 April 2007 at 11:38 am Eastern
we’ve known about the proxies for a long time.
it was chris who decided not to eliminate them.
frankly, you guys should be grateful for a few things
1) the guys who put this together so you could all waste your time here
and 2 ) the fact that chris and dan are awesome guys who did not feel it was right to eliminate the fanbase immediately.
but if all you’re going to do is whine about how unfair it is when it reaches a boiling point, sorry, it doesn’t cut it.
i’m pretty damn sure you wouldn’t be saying it was unfair if it was a band you couldn’t care less about.
27 April 2007 at 11:39 am Eastern
Hayley: well there’s a reason i’m not a parent.
Me too! Mine’s medical.
27 April 2007 at 11:40 am Eastern
Almost anything is possible…and books on how to deal with teenagers don’t work real well because they were written by adults.
In the end it’s all a moot point. We can discuss it all we want, but it isn’t our competition. Personally I agree that cheating is the worst way to win and although a win would be nice no matter what band(s) you support, None of them gain validation from this. I’m still going to like who I like and you’re still going to like who you like…only the teeny boppers who like whatever is “in” will change their opinion.
27 April 2007 at 11:41 am Eastern
oh god who would be that retarded.
come ON. you are reaching and stretching. in fact, you brought reaching and stretching to a whole new level.
it’s MUCH more likely a few AFI fans wanted to win sooooo badly as a big “fuck you” to everyone who disliked their band or said shit.
“Any excuse that can be used will be used”
From the first page of the book “Dealing with Teenagers”. They figure that if they say it enough you will “Dumb Down” and say “Well I guess thats possible”.
—
well there’s a reason i’m not a parent.
LOL ! I love it ! Nothing like smokeing one of the crumb snatchers at a game of mental chess. I just tell them ” Smell that ? Smells like BULLSHIT to me”!
27 April 2007 at 11:44 am Eastern
Hayley, you and Chris have done an awesome job in maintaining this site, making it fun (for the most part) and putting up with as much shit as you do.
As an AFI fan, it’s unfortunate that a few people chose to stoop as low as they did. If you do decide to disqualify us, I think it’s deserved. I’m disappointed that we couldn’t gracefully bow out to a good band like Pink Floyd. But oh well, it’s just an internet poll, and I’ll still be voting.
Vote for Bowie, fuckers.
27 April 2007 at 11:45 am Eastern
Like I said, it doesn’t matter to me what you do about the situation. You’ve obviously made up your mind so I’m not going to argue anymore. Go ahead and disqualify them, I just think it’s unfair to the real fans. The real fans meaning those who would rather see them lose with honor than to go out cheating, not some stupid prick who felt like changing the votes just to mess with everyone.
27 April 2007 at 11:45 am Eastern
Dan and Chris made the site.
I just help out with bits here and there, and help maintain it.
so, props should go to those 2.
27 April 2007 at 11:46 am Eastern
also, i think it sucks we have come to this point.
i respect a bunch of the AFI fans immensely.
i respect the DF board immensely.
27 April 2007 at 11:47 am Eastern
well unfortunately life isn’t fair.
it sucks.
when you start paying bills, you’ll see what I mean.
27 April 2007 at 11:48 am Eastern
Johnny5, i’ve heard a lot of what we’re not doing right from you.
so provide a viable, reasonable option.
any ideas?
emphasis on viable and reasonable.
27 April 2007 at 11:48 am Eastern
Now comes the attempt at the Guilt trip. “Dealing with teenagers” page 2
27 April 2007 at 11:49 am Eastern
Dan and Chris made the site.
I just help out with bits here and there, and help maintain it.
so, props should go to those 2.
Well props to them then. You know what I mean.
27 April 2007 at 11:49 am Eastern
As well as “retiring” the ultimate champion each year, you guys should have a Hall of Shame of sorts too.
You can “retire” the band that accumulated the least amount of votes.
27 April 2007 at 11:50 am Eastern
Yes, even i have to say that i am ashamed to see that somebody indeed did this. I would love to say that nobody cheated but it is kinda….suspicious that pink floyd lost votes….all i have to say is the person/people who cheated were clearly not smart enough to leave pink floyds votes alone, no, they had to take away votes…..now thats not obvious, dipshits. Wow. I say if you have to disqualify them, then do it. I really just hate to see this happen.
27 April 2007 at 11:51 am Eastern
Thank you.
I also want to apologize for the way i acted on the whole ramones vs. AFI bit.
It was very immature of me.
27 April 2007 at 11:52 am Eastern
we all do.
none of us wanted this to happen.
i pretty much had a heart attack last night.
the majority of you guys are rad. the regular posters anyway.
a lot of you are retarded, but that’s every fanbase.
27 April 2007 at 11:52 am Eastern
Eh, if you have incontrovertible proof someone cheated on AFI’s behalf, ban them. *Especially* if you have evidence someone cheated on their behalf in the previous rounds. It’s precedent setting time, this will deter other fansite people from crossing the line.
Ironically the primary victim of the cheater’s efforts would be AFI and AFI fans who voted legitimately, but I don’t think the honest fans can stop the cheating people/person anyways. If you have reason to believe it will happen again, if you know for a certainty cheating occurred, there’s really only one thing to do.