One of the cool things about WordPress is they provide you with all kinds of useful data about your blog; not only do you get an accurate count of how many people are visiting and what they’re reading, but it also lets you know where they are coming from. With one click, I can see which sites are linking to me and how many people visited Darth Mojo as a result of those links. Naturally, if I see an unfamiliar site suddenly pointing hundreds of people my way, I click over to them to see what all the fuss is about (usually it’s someone telling his or her readers to check out a post). Today I noticed a few dozen people had been referred to my blog from a discussion group I’d never heard of, so I clicked the link to investigate. And that’s when I discovered the cheaters.
One of the finalists in my XXL Kirk contest apparently really wants to win, because he created a thread in this forum asking people to check out the contest and vote for him. Not a big deal, really – I’ve gotten plenty of emails in the past asking me to help out a friend and cast a vote in his favor – but there were a few things in this thread that made me sit up and take notice.
First of all, the general attitude of the thread was “who cares which image you actually think is best, just vote for our buddy!” Is winning this contest really so important that people need to betray their artistic integrity for it? What was even more sinister was the pledge of multiple users to find a way to vote more than once. Basically, the polling software only allows for one vote per IP address – so, if one person can get access to multiple computers, they can cast a vote from every computer they can get their hands on. That means if the suspect in question is a student, they could hop onto every machine in school, go to Darth Mojo, and potentially cast hundreds of fraudulent votes for their friend.
While there is nothing illegal about this, it clearly goes against the spirit of fair play and, in the eyes of most people, would constitute cheating. I am therefore left with little choice but to make a public announcement and officially tell the contestant in question GOOD FOR YOU! If Kirk can get away with cheating on the Kobayashi Maru – an act that fans have not only tolerated but applauded – then clearly such action is in the spirit of Star Trek and I wholeheartedly endorse it.
Creative thinking is rewarded here at Darth Mojo and if you can come up with a clever way to secure more votes, I say go for it! Cheat your little hearts out. I may even come up with an extra prize to whomever most flagrantly and obviously cheats in order to win.
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Darth Mojo 
Just for that, I’m going to attempt to Photoshop this Kobayashi Maru image too. If someone gets to it first, then someone gets to it first.
/snicker
That post did not end in the way I anticipated. Mojo, you should get a Commendation for Original Thinking by brilliantly taking what some people would be upset about into a perfect moral lesson from Trek itself!
Wow! Although I was hoping to see what people genuinely thought of the entries I do love that some have their own campaign going – and even more, I love Mojo’s take on it! Superb.
Getting others to vote for you, even if cheating, why not? Truly in the spirit of our hero James T Kirk!
I love it!
So that’s a “yay” in favour of a “1 million strong for that tribble pic” Facebook group? :)
I’m not concerned at all about winning. Infact, I wouldn’t want to. But since I assumed others would be doing the same, I did encourage a few friends to lend a vote for my entry. Some got carried away and voted more than once, or said they’d vote again the next day. I took a rather blasé attitude to this, thinking a couple of extra votes here and there wouldn’t make much of a difference amongst the many hundreds of others being logged. But in any case it was wrong and I extend my apologies to all the other contestants.
Mojo, feel free to lever tribble-gorging Kirk out of the contest if you see fit.
I can hear the apple crunching from here.
I really hated the way the Kobayashi Maru test was shown in the last movie.
The Klingon ships almost blew up by themselves. Anyone would have realized the someone was cheating in about 5 seconds…
Mojo, you magnificent bastard! I read your book!
This post makes me feel as if I had struck a Gravitic mine and have lost all power.
From the figures, it looks like I’m the only guy NOT cheating. Bummer! I was already spending that million dollar first prize. (This was the million dollar Kirk-Photoshopping contest, right?)
I really did not see that end comming. Extra brownie points for the most amusing u-turn.
The only thing that would make this post funnier is if you posted a video of you writing this entry while eating an apple.
In case anyone doubts me, I really do mean what I said – if Kirk can be rewarded for cheating, so should the contestants in a Kirk contest!
Snazzy, seriously – go for it! You have inspired everyone.
Voting is still on for a while and I think I may extend it until Monday.
Never expect Mojo to do the Expected..
If a picture paints a thousands words, and I post a picture of someone voting, does that count as a thousand votes?
Why relay on hard work and talent to win when you can just cheat?
God bless America.
Hey let’s be fair now – I don’t think Americans have an exclusivity deal on cheating…