[wp-testers] "spam" attacks on WP.org / plugin rating

Aaron Harun admin at anthologyoi.com
Sun Apr 20 21:20:03 GMT 2008


I agree that it is an interesting coincidence, but not completely
unreasonable when taken into context of the number of downloads
(roughly 1%).

I have filed a "bug report" on wp.org. We will see if anything comes from it.

Aaron.

On Sun, Apr 20, 2008 at 4:30 PM, deliciousdays
<oliver.seidel at deliciousdays.com> wrote:
> In total we're looking already at 45 1-star ratings, which is for some other
>  plugins (I believe 4 to 5 of the top rated ones got hit), about 1/3 to /1/4
> of their
>  overall votes.
>
>  It all happened withing a few days and considering that it took for some of
>  these 12-18 months to build up a good rating, based on good and consistent
>  support and coding, it's unnecessary.
>
>  Coincidentally a new plugin had emerged not so long ago (roughly two weeks
>  old) and despite quite negative press, already has 56 (!!) votes and
> deducting
>  some negative actual ratings, leave the plugin with about 30-40 some 5-star
>  ratings - v*e*r*y odd?!
>  I don't want to point fingers, but the coincidence is striking (14 days!).
>
>  Oliver
>
>
>  Aaron Harun wrote:
>
> >
> >
> >
> > The cause of the problem is that WP.org doesn't require unique email
> > addresses. If you really wanted to be unethical, it takes about 2
> > seconds to register a name, change it slightly and register another
> > one. You basically end with a list of users and passwords that you
> > just need to copy and paste.
> >
> > The highest rated plugin has 217 ratings. If you were to take 2
> > seconds per registration and 5-10 per rating. It would take about
> > 20-40 minutes for someone to _manually_ vote that many times. If
> > someone made a bot, it would take seconds.
> >
> > This is the cause of the problem and the hole that should be closed.
> >
> > The fact that there were only 15 one-star ratings should make the
> > plugin author feel glad that the rater didn't feel like spending more
> > than a minute or two doing it.
> >
> > Aaron.
> >
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> >
> >
>
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