the excitement meter game is a JOKE.... it's the same 5 or 10 members that ALWAYS win.... they just buy the votes needed
and the whole "touch the heart" thing?!?! really? all that shows is how little people really think of you

Don't worry about it...it's all levelling out....
Lots of people feel the frustrations about asking for something,but if you don't ask you don't get..some can generate more votes than others by asking when others don't.

"These things like the excitement game and Touch The Heart were never meant to be a political campaign. I thought it was all about, if you are excited by a person you gave them a point, or you like the person you touch their heart."
Nicely put Jayman..

I generally look for boobies...if I like the page I give an excitement vote as a 'I visited you' the heart is more of a personal thing,if I think that person is genuine and fun even if I don't interact with them that much...

Dear John and Jeff,

Thank you for kindly outlining the merits—or lack thereof—of these new games. I felt I should respond and clarify my position since “the thirdleg” was mentioned by JohnS. 

The new games can be a source of great mirth, and a fun, innovative way to garner user interaction on Showitoff.org. The King of the Mountain game is quite daunting because it is so subject to individual whim. “Leachings” can occur by anyone (and someone can enter the game solely to leach from someone!). I tend to shy away from “negative” games (like voting NOT in Pic of the Month). I like games that build us all up, not rip us all down.

Frankly, I was very “excited” by the excitement game when it first debuted. It was fresh and seemed right up my alley. I thought it rewarded those who created bonding social capital on the site--those who interacted with many different users (hopefully not JUST for the game, but as a way of saying “hello, you excite me somewhat”). I thought the spirit of the game was to really get users to connect, i.e., by looking for friends’ meters to tap, PM'ing about the game, clicking down the leaderboard of users looking for boobies. I’ve interacted with a few people I would have probably never seen otherwise—all because they voted, and I returned the vote in kind. There’s now an economic incentive to all of this with the boobies, but that feature was not there the first few rounds.

I stayed up all night long the first night of the first round, finding friends to hit the meter on, and hoped they would return the favor. The very well-documented “Ben Franklin” effect is also at play. You can ask a friend to do you a favor, and they might be inclined to (see blog post /blogs/28277.html)

I can’t speak for others; however, on my part, there has been no colluding or conspiratorial plotting to win a game (we’re busy people… who has the time? lol). “Vote laundering” with hot voting pics also was never a strategy. It takes the fun out of the game, really. The best part of it is “tapping” people who have voted on your pics before, or commented on your pics. It’s a great way to reconnect with folk you lost touch with, as well. Now, you can tap that a pic is exciting and that goes to the excitement tally. The Admin is doing some interesting things here. I respect the spirit of what he is doing.

I was blessed that some were nice enough to buy multiple votes and vote for me. This was mostly a reaction against other users who were getting 200 votes at once and bouncing past me. These were not all individual votes like I was receiving; but, rather block voting (buying 5 votes for 25 points). Every time I would surpass the user in the lead, they would inexplicably receive 100 more votes all at once. It was just impossible! And I was already tired from staying up trying to play the game somewhat fairly. However, I don't blame the user who received the block voting. That's part of the game, I guess. "**** the game, not the player," so to speak.

But, I soldiered on and visited friends and voted on their meters, advised them of the new game (basically doing publicity for the site!).

Personally, I would abolish block voting across the board. I’m a “one person, one vote” kind of person. This voting method seems to be built into the game, but I rather not have users spend much currency on me. I also would get rid of games that do not promote friendliness, ****/sisterhood, and the like. At least I was never mentioned in a forum post before the games.  I’m just going to stick to posting pics, I think, and leave the shenanigans alone. But, it’s all been a great sociological learning experience—this much I can say!

Thanks for your time in reading this and hopefully seeing my perspective a bit better. Be well and enjoy your days!

I don't know how that happened in the beginning. I only put my 10 votes in after the game reset. 3 hours later somehow I went way up, but not from my doings. There are a handful of us that do play fair. I am guessing the system made a mistake for me and 2kinky, cause I am assuming it was caught and that's why 30 points were taken from us so fast. Keep in mind there are those who have multiple fake accounts. Same as they are used for donating points. They use multiple accounts for these games and contests as well. If you had 3 other fake accounts you could enter the game and use the 3 fake accounts to vote multiple times for yourself. That's what I'm thinking is going on. How else do you explain jumping 30 to 40 votes in 24 hours. Either that or they have lots of loyal partners helping.

That is awesome to hear that 8 different dudes leached me. See to me that makes me popular. If there talking about me, whether good or bad. I'm alive and in their heads. It's when they stop talking about me that scares me. Thank you.
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Wife is worried about 8 dudes leaching me.