This gets extremely frustrating, especially when you feel like no one wants to do anything about it.

It seems like there have been several people (me included, since I'm sure you keep seeing me go from 4 bubbles to 3, back to 4 and then back to 3 constantly, as if someone is really trying to keep me there to spite me) that have seen their bubble count on the comment section go down awfully fast lately. A little TOO fast to not raise some eyebrows. Several who were at 8 are down to 5 in a matter of two weeks or less, when they've said nothing wrong besides apparently piss off fanboys (and PLEASE don't try to say it's one side and not the other. That gets frustrating, too). It's like someone is just waiting for the minus bubble icon to colorize and clicking it right away without even reading any of the actual comments.

The problem is that, if you have noticed, there's been a lot of new accounts lately, and because of it, there have been some suspicions that some people have been using multiple accounts to take down bubble counts of those that usually don't agree with certain viewpoints, even if the person never said or did anything that wasn't allowed in either zone. Everyone knows this never gets caught by the mods or admins (though I don't want to make people think that I'm taking sides or going back on my word that it wasn't one side and not the other, a lot of pro-PS3 supporters have been victimized, with a lot of the 360 fanboys that usually populate this site being the people making the accounts we know about, and usually, the PS3 supporters on this site get b!tched at by the mods a hell of a lot more than the 360 side does by the mods and admins). However, something needs to change here.

I tried to bring something up here involving a few PMs I got from "flaming_xbot" about him knowing how to bypass IP bans and whatever Catastrophe tries to do to him in order to bring down my bubbles, and was wondering if anyone else got the same PMs from that person. Of course, the post was deleted (either they didn't want anyone knowing that nothing was in suspicion or because the PMs themselves were posted IN that post and they weren't exactly SFW).

Maybe someone can shed some light on why certain people's bubbles have gone down extremely quickly. With me, it's probably the stories I've submitted here lately getting to some people, and what we can expect the admins to do about this (hopefully SOMETHING).

Exactly, I'm having the same issue. I had at least nine bubbles and suddenly I'm down to six in the matter of days. I know people as well who had ten and are now down to eight. Now, I don't care whether these fanboys hate me or not but taking bubbles from other people just because you don't agree with them is CHILDISH, especially when it's done with multiple accounts.

Now I expect the other side to come running in and claiming someone's been taking their bubbles too.

This is similar to a post I made earlier:

"Something must seriously be done with this bubble system. When you start to feel that you can no longer even speak your mind about things in fear that your bubbles will be taken from you for being against, that is just ridiculous. I'm not saying PS3 fanboys run the site or they are the problem or anything but its like if you arent with them you need to be oppressed. Why did I just have 7 bubbles...made a recent comment about how Cry Engine 3 should be great...and now I'm back to 6? Wtf?"

What's more interesting is that a user, Saaking (or however its spelled), I saw recently at like 5 bubbles then in a matter of days he is back at 8? He's someone who is clearly not a great asset to the gamerzone yet he's either getting alot of support or is somehow glitching the system?

Well, I'm not trying to pick on any one side as being the only culprits (I do know that I'm targeted a lot by 360 fans because I've criticized Microsoft a GREAT deal on this site, though I don't want people to think that means I don't like the 360 or that I'm in any way a Sony or Nintendo fanboy). I'm saying that, though, thought my experience and observation, it's been the people who have been critical about Microsoft being the people who have been victimized here. I'm sure we're not the only ones that have been victims to this.

Thing is, however, it's sad that this is another thing that we've been trying to bring up time and time again.

A great suggestion to this is to just make it harder to create a new account.  Well not necessarily "harder" just with more things.  Like that Captcha (or whatever it's called) and Email address tracking.  That way, users would be less inclined to mass produce so many damn accounts just to take down bubbles from other users or gain bubbles.

I'm not taking sides either, ANY user no matter what system they support is wrong.

It's great to see some mod action returning to the gamer zone lately though... heck i've seen some of it in the open zone too.

Of course i believe this site feeds on actions such users take, so why the heck would they make a step in that direction? haha.

We are fully aware that the bubble system is being abused by some members and we know exactly how they do it and how to stop them. To fix it we need howere to re-code the comment system which we are working on, but the changes won't go live until a few more months when we will role out the next big site update. When we do this all members bubbles will be reset.

i agree with dark power and ultimateulo. angry microsoft fanboys are stealing people bubbles. i had like 6 bubbles then it went down to 4 in 2 days. i pm castrophe and she said she will look into it and she gave me a bubble making me have 5

 

In our eyes people who work together to get more bubbles are just as bad as the people who work together to take other peoples bubbles.  We don't care if they are so called Xbox fans or Playstation fans, there is enough members doing this in both camps and we know who they are and how they do it. And it will be dealt with in soon enough..yes many of you should be scared...jk ;)

maybe its the guest thats also taking bubbles away. when i was in electronic class i never had to log on n4g to take or give away bubbles and thers over half a million guest members 501168 guests thats alot

 

sakura2009


maybe its the guest thats also taking bubbles away. when i was in electronic class i never had to log on n4g to take or give away bubbles and thers over half a million guest members 501168 guests thats alot

Is this true? I want to make sure I'm reading this right. It would be one HELL of an oversight. Wow!

Yeah guest accounts can do take/give bubbles....for whatever reason that may be.

The Point is:

"The Gamer Zone is for members who want a more friendly and civilized discussion. This section is heavily moderated by the N4G staff, so leave your fanboyism at the door please. Members who are unable to behave in a mature and respectful manner will be temporarily or permanently restricted from posting in the Gamer Zone. Using words such as Xbots and Sony droids, or other words from the console war vocabulary, is strictly prohibited in this Zone."

Not to beat a dead horse or anything, but I KNOW someone's trying as hard as they can to keep me at three bubbles now, and is tracking me to make sure I STAY there. I had four bubbles for not even an hour today, and I didn't post anything offensive or fanboyish, and maybe even less than a HALF hour, I'm back to three.

I'm convinced now that there IS some bubble terrorism ( *groans* ) going on here. It feels like someone IS tracking certain people and taking them down when they get the chance again, or are making sure they stay at a certain number. My mind is going on a thread MAiKU made ( http://forums.n4g.com/Can-the-Mods-please-explain-this-m744878.aspx ) about a "WenisWagon" that has seemly been hacking into the inner workings of N4G to make it work for him, and I wonder if the same person could have something to do with this bubble thing, too (in addition to the several others that abuse the bubble system), since I've noticed that you really have to do things after you take or give a bubble before you can do so to a certain person again, and since that one guy has been seen to be able to somehow bypass PM blocks and be able to post a new thread as a reply so no one can answer him, I wonder if he's also found a way to let the bubble system give him unlimited chances to take or give bubbles whenever he wants.

Simply put, the bubble system overhaul cannot come soon enough, and I dare say that an immediate solution may be necessary.

i agree with dark power. i told catastrophe about weniswagon too that was like 3 weeks ago i think

 

ultimolu


Exactly, I'm having the same issue. I had at least nine bubbles and suddenly I'm down to six in the matter of days. I know people as well who had ten and are now down to eight. Now, I don't care whether these fanboys hate me or not but taking bubbles from other people just because you don't agree with them is CHILDISH, especially when it's done with multiple accounts.

Now I expect the other side to come running in and claiming someone's been taking their bubbles too.

Well you expect it, here you have it. I was stable on 5 bubbles for about a year. Then suddenly within 2 hours I was down to 1 or 2  bubbles. The SDF stepped in and did its job. Yes its childish although in your case I don't see why you had 9 bubbles in the first place to begin with. Ah wait, that was the positive SDF bubbling up program which ofcourse support those posting PS3 positive stuff... So you didn't really deserve them to begin with, why cry when they're taken away again and you're on the normal 5 bubbles that everyone without a PS3 about is on at max?

Turd fanboys crying about bubbles. You should all have no bubbles. And Dark Power should be IP banned for the crap he writes and posts on N4G.