Comments on: Watching Times of Malta’s polls has become a spectator sport

By: Mela darba.....

Mela darba..... — Fri, 05 Dec 2014 23:14:28 +0000

Note that Times of Malta has now completely removed the polls section.

By: Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu — Fri, 05 Dec 2014 15:31:06 +0000

If Times of Malta want to be taken seriously they should protect their polls against voting by bots. Like having the voter recognise and key in random letters and numbers shown as scribbles.

By: A Mifsud

A Mifsud — Fri, 05 Dec 2014 14:23:32 +0000

If they are tampering with the Times of Malta polls than I shudder to think what will happen in the general elections.

By: M.Mifsud

M.Mifsud — Fri, 05 Dec 2014 13:38:47 +0000

In reply to George Pisani. I think it's actually quite easy to write a computer program to do the voting for you....no need for repeated manic pressing of buttons

By: M.Mifsud

M.Mifsud — Fri, 05 Dec 2014 13:36:23 +0000

In reply to L-iehor.

I agree with Daphne…it’s an outside hacking job.

I don’t believe the two reporters who quote the polls in their TV programme are so unprofessional.They seem to me very good at their job.

By: observer

observer — Fri, 05 Dec 2014 13:26:17 +0000

It’s a good think we do not have electronic voting as yet.

There have been enough ‘mistakes’ in vote-counting after the
March 2013 election. (Remember the Courts are still grappling with them in order to arrive at the correct outcome).

Just imagine what can be possible were we to adopt the, admittedly quicker, electronic system.

By: Osservatore

Osservatore — Fri, 05 Dec 2014 11:22:57 +0000

There was another poll this morning that was already going haywire. Times of Malta appears to have pulled it.

There are two possible explanations.

The first is external manipulation by our friendly elves using bots/different VPNs/blocking and/or deleting cookies, allowing for manipulation of the polls with just a few hundred clicks per ‘elve’.

A second and more sinister option would be internal manipulation by TOM themselves, but I doubt that they would stoop to that level. The fact that they pulled the poll probably shows that this was not the case.

Either way, this would be a very Chinese way of dealing with public opinion. If they cannot censor the internet, they will at very least try to twist things to skew public perception their way.

By: Mim

Mim — Fri, 05 Dec 2014 11:13:28 +0000

Does Times of Malta ever ask questions?

”Malta International Airport has heightened its security procedures in line with international protocol following global reports of increased threats to airports.”

Why are no other airports speaking about this now, are the global reports of increased threats recent or did MIA put out this statement out now when other airports were on heightened alert at least since last July?

The lack of information in that article is astounding.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20141205/local/heightened-security-at-airport.546985

By: Observer S

Observer S — Fri, 05 Dec 2014 10:54:44 +0000

I challenge Times of Malta to release their analytics around the type and source of hits on their site and votes on their polls. What would they be hiding?

By: Libertas

Libertas — Fri, 05 Dec 2014 10:53:19 +0000

It happened also with the previous poll asking whether one agrees with Simon Busuttil that Manwel Mallia should go.