SketchBattle Rigged! Proof inside!
HOLY COW. Just when you thought the Drama would end…. You know, I tried to do something fun by entering SketchBattle, and the admin seemed really great when I first applied and he was excited to have me on board. So, last battle that ran all weekend, I BARELY won it… and I was immediately IM’d by the guy who runs the site. The entire IM is published HERE for you to read. In that I.M. he clearly was agitated that I won, close to accused us of cheating, told me to take it easy on the next competitor and told me not to post my opinions. He pretty much didn’t want a popularity contest, which is understandable, but clearly showed bias toward the next round…
So, today I was careful not to mention that I was losing the battle, but readers who went and voted e-mailed to alert me that something didn’t seem right with their vote numbers. This made me pay careful attention to the numbers which stayed 50/50 almost all day long. Anytime Yirmumah would pull ahead, BAM, it was back to 50/50. The more people who asked, the more my suspicion arose that something was being rigged. And if you simply go and look at the numbers from previous battles to the ones I’m in, well, any monkey could tell you that something wasn’t right.
LONG story short, at 8pm east coast time when that round ended, I had won by a SLIVER. I was pretty surprised, And I took a screenshot JUST IN CASE the hunches were correct. Here it is for proof…. ScreenShot!
Alas, I come back a half hour later and, SHEBANG! Suddenly the numbers are different and I lost by a hair! See for yourself.
So I instantly IM’d the guy when I saw the numbers were fudged.. you can read that WHOLE transcript RIGHT HERE Let me give you some cliff notes on that conversation:
The guy running the Sketch Battle admitted he fudged the numbers so the other guy would win, because he felt I didn’t deserve to win. He also called me a crybaby, and said I can’t stand losing…. look, I’ve lost a lot of battles! But I want to lose my battles legitimately. He also, during that IM, posted that I had been “kicked OUt” for repeatidly cheating and breaking rules… which is not true. He did change that at my request. I want to be as fair as possible to this prick.
Look, I don’t gain ANYTHING by joining the Sketchbattle. I was bored and thought it’d be fun! And everyone seemed really pleased that our site was helping to bring them more traffic as well. The guy even thanked me for being involved for increasing the exposure of the thing… but in that IM he turned around and pretty much dissed the site, the fans, and me. So what to do now?
Well, I’d tell any creators out there, you shouldn’t be involved with it, and don’t let the guy fool you into thinking it’s suddenly a legit contest. Creators shouldn’t be treated like that. I think I found the site on Comixpedia, announcing submissions for season 3 were open– so, they solicit this competition between creators, and the guy rigs the outcome? So the conclusion I’ve come to is, they just use the creators to bring in traffic, sell advertising on thier site, and then rig it to whoever he thinks deserves to win that week. Hell, he even told me to take it easy on the guy next week “the routine” because he only had 20 readers.
Anyway, as club members will tell you, yesterday I was contemplating just dropping out anyway, because honestly, I didn’t want my comic’s popularity to unfairly crush some other guy. But you know, I have faith a lot of you people voted against me. And I KNOW I have some enemies reading that couldn’t wait to go vote against me! hahaha…. This is just sad. I hate to see young creators being used and manipulated by a 19 year old kid in Australia with an admitted Hitler complex (YEAH, you better go back and read that IM!)
Seacrest, OUt!
UPdate– The guy deleted my link on their forum over to this. Guess he doesn’t want people to read the truth.
October 25th, 2005 at 11:50 pm
What an ass. I want to hear from cracka Keith on this one!!! TELL IT LIKE IT IS MAN!!!!!!!!
October 26th, 2005 at 12:13 am
I was tempted to go to this site, join the forum, and bitch him out, but then I realized he would be gaining even from that. I was hoping someone would create a good enough comic that I could vote against you, because I love even my favorite comics to get a good ribbing. Honestly though, they all sucked, so I voted for you. As for it being a popularity contest? No shit! The funniest comic is going to become popular. Maybe if the people you were competing with could come up with something better than “I have sex with Mrs. Coffman” jokes every time, they would have appreciated a vote. Hell, those comics were so UNFUNNY that the only reason they could get votes was from their own fans. I mean, why else would anyone else vote for that mediocre crap. Sorry, rant over. We love Yirmumah and that’s all that matters D.J.
October 26th, 2005 at 12:21 am
What a bunch of shit. It’s like that old bit, that on the internet no one knows you’re a dog…..or in this case, no one knows you’re a pimply faced teen who’s running a fake contest to build up your website’s hits, until you get blatant about it. Someone’s got problems with his dad that he’s projecting on to anyone over the age of 30.
October 26th, 2005 at 12:22 am
What a manipulative fuck. It could be that telling the truth and messing with the numbers to try to keep you from “throwing” the results, which is bad enough, but it’s also entirely possible that he just up and fucking rigged the thing from the attitude he took.
I enjoyed that site a lot and was stoked that you were joining it, but sketchbattle just went up next to pvp on my “this guy’s an ass, don’t increase his hitcount” list.
If he was worried about fanbase, he should have had some weight classes for pagehits and probably some statistics as to the referrers to the site and how they voted.
October 26th, 2005 at 12:24 am
P.S. I voted for Lucas and Cannan anyways.
October 26th, 2005 at 12:26 am
Now if only there was money or something of value involved aside from pride. Then we could call a lawyer.
October 26th, 2005 at 12:29 am
Unbelievable, man. And yet, perfectly believable. The mind boggles.
My favorite part is still the “u r a girl” crack. Let’s all pitch in some cash so Calypso can fly down to Australia and kick his ass. Then we’ll see if he likes using “girl” as an insult.
At least *that* battle wouldn’t be rigged…
October 26th, 2005 at 12:32 am
Eh. We could all register and flood the forums, but what would that accomplish? DJ won every round he was in, and probably would have won the whole thing. He’s got nothing to prove.
Just ignore the fuckers. That site will fade into obscurity soon enough.
October 26th, 2005 at 12:38 am
Feh, a bunch of people trying too hard to make forced “you suck” jokes… Didn’t find any of them funny.
October 26th, 2005 at 12:43 am
Sucks this happened to you, DJ. I thought your sketches were pretty funny.
Gotta admit that I’m not too surprised, though. This guy registered his “comic” on buzzComix and people raised a stink about it because he wasn’t drawing or writing anything. He was using the talent of others to draw attention to his site - just like you said.
Anyway, a couple of people called him on it and he was a prick about it then, too.
It’s a shame that the guy is such a douche because it’s actually a very inventive concept for a web site. Take all this brewing animosity (real or fabricated) between creators and exploit it for profit.
No, wait. That’s not inventive. Isn’t that what gun runners do to opposing factions? Play both sides against each other?
October 26th, 2005 at 12:44 am
I second that notion Adam. That would be the only reason that I would EVER get on a plane! I’d give him an ass beating like he’s never had before! Oh, and then I would make him dinner in bed! :p
October 26th, 2005 at 12:48 am
It was a good idea for a site, but the guy’s a douche.
I vote Yirmumah starts a competing sketch battle.
Actually I just want to see a DayFree v. Boxcar sketch-cage match.
October 26th, 2005 at 12:50 am
>>I vote Yirmumah starts a competing sketch battle.
Sure. How about, “Yirmumah takes on all comers!” Practically writes itself……
October 26th, 2005 at 12:54 am
I like that Dayfree VS. Boxcar idea. We’re very similar groups. I think we’d gel well.
Hey, DJ. I was combing around this guy’s forum and he had a post about Google Ads asking people to click on them. He might not be aware of Google’s policy involving telling readers to click. You should totally narc on him and get him banned. That would put a real dent in his side.
Here’s the URL of the forum thread. Take a screenshot for proof!
http://www.sketchbattle.com/forum/index.php?topic=336.0
October 26th, 2005 at 12:55 am
HEHE, screw him. Thank GOD I didn’t get the chance to email him about yearly advertising rates, huh?
I think I will let him know about that little tidbit.
October 26th, 2005 at 1:01 am
I’ll let someone else report him. I think all the info I’ve collected and published here, it’s pretty clear the guy is a douche. Sad thing is, he seems to have cleaned his forum of any mention of this and will continue to do so so that other creators might not learn the truth about him rigging things up.
Sad.
October 26th, 2005 at 1:11 am
Haha, I thought this was too perfect, you’re actually spending money now to prove this guy is a douche to his readers.
(Yirmumah in the adspace, im guessing you bought this after the drama)
http://img463.imageshack.us/my.php?image=yirmumah2ev.jpg
October 26th, 2005 at 1:23 am
Actually, you ignorant twat…
If you had been paying attention you would have known that the Yirmumah banner ad has been there for over a week.
October 26th, 2005 at 1:36 am
So anyways. Yirmumah.com still delivers me my sweet sweet comics, and thats all that matters tomorrow morning to me
Keep up the good work DJ!
October 26th, 2005 at 1:50 am
Well, I certainly won’t be going back to the sketchbattle site. If you hadn’t posted about it, I never would have heard about it. You’re better off without them. It’s your blog and you can post whatever you want. The readers don’t HAVE to do anything.
October 26th, 2005 at 1:53 am
The little bastard may delete all traces of this from his forums but that doesn’t stop a few obsessive compulsive fans from emailing any talent that decides to post on his site about how much of an ass dripping he is.
You won fair and square. I never believed any of that 50/50 bullshit when I saw it because the other comics clearly sucked.
Calypso, I’d be happy with the dinner in bed part. DJ, I envy you because you get dinner in bed.
October 26th, 2005 at 2:00 am
Wait, wait wait. What if you were running for President of the USA. And you posted in your blog, “VOTE FOR ME! I’ll Make America Less Sucky!” Would your opponent email you and say “stop cheating you lousy candidate!” I think not.
By the sketchbattle admin’s rules, buying advertising on TV for presidential candidates is tantamount to cheating! This guy’s a fool! I thought about reading all of his archives but not now!
October 26th, 2005 at 2:36 am
“I’m not in any way defending what I did. It may look like an attempt to make Lucas and Cannan win. Not that I care who wins, Yirmumah was bringing in hits, what would I have against him winning? Nothing.”
So, rather than altering the votes in favor of the individual you had already had mentioned you didn’t want to have the same abilitys or oportunities as the other combatants, you altered them in such a manner to further affect his votes.
Hot.
“I actually voted twice myself on this battle, once at home and once at my girlfriend’s. One vote each way. That is what I do on any battles I can’t pick a definite winner on.”
So… you voted twice… in something you yourself have stated you want only one vote per person. And are telling us that you balanced it out by voting for both parties… After telling us you lied and falsified vote totals…
Hey, something’s not adding up…
“In the end, it comes down to everyone believing what they want, if you don’t like the site, don’t come to it.”
Except “Everyone believing what they want” tends to run contrariwise with “I went in and altered vote counts to produce effects within the voting populace, in an attempt to justify my actions toward an individual”.
But hey, whatever you tell yourself to make it feel like you screwed D.J. over any less, run with it, man.
The Above was written in response to the Sketchbattle site’s administrator’s posts concerning the Yirmumah battle, and posted to their forums.
October 26th, 2005 at 2:45 am
I could of told you it was rigged because holy bible got too many votes for the same joke that was used in the previous battle only it was weaker this time around.
October 26th, 2005 at 3:06 am
I was actually familiar with the site prior to Yirmumah being involved. I was so stoked to see DJ rip these dudes apart.
So much for that crap. I’m never heading back there again. Not unless he hosts an “I’m sorry Yirmumah” playoff round or something.
Someone mentioned a good idea, DJ. You should start a blog calling people to challenge you. You could take on anyone and everyone and we could vote for the ones that we thought were best.
October 26th, 2005 at 3:15 am
See, the thing about that idea is that it’s a magnet for drama. DJ doesn’t pull his punches the whiny, fragile-ego types that are common among the world of obscure webcomics. These people will assume that just because he’s so venomous, he will naturally cheat. Hence, drama.
October 26th, 2005 at 3:56 am
/agree with the fact that the Aussie’s a douche.
I wouldn’t have looked through the site after I’d read this post, but I did cruise the past battles a few days ago, and I gotta say that some of them are pretty funny. I particularly like Johnny P, who does Game Out of Order. (gameoutoforder.com, I think )That guy showcased some real talent, and it would have been nice to see an actual matchup (like you versus him por ejemplo) from time to time, instead of battles between the same 6 or 8 guys over and over. (If I have to see another Max Radical comic, I will slit my eyeballs open with a rusty grapefruit spoon.) Anyway, long story short, I will no longer be visiting sketchbattle, despite the fact that I liked some of the stuff, and it’s a great idea for a site. I do this for you, DJ. (that and to save my eyebalss from a terrible fate.) Oh yeah, and there were way too many penis jokes, as well. I’d been repressing those memories until just now. God dammit. Now I need some kind of cleansing fire in my brain.
October 26th, 2005 at 4:14 am
Just went to “the” site- don’t tell me you paid him for ad space? Becuase your ad for the shirt preorder was on the site when I looked at it.
That just makes it even better. Not only are you providing free advertising in the form of hits, you are also providing free content AND paying him for ad space? And then he goes and treats you like this.
Lower than low.
October 26th, 2005 at 4:34 am
His Google Ads violations?
Reported.
October 26th, 2005 at 5:25 am
You know, I had visited the site now and again when DJ posted about it.
Why? I read Yirmumah and I like it. So occasionally I would hop over there and read archives, and vote for whomever I believed was funnier that week. Sometimes I thought the opponent was better, sometimes not.
There was a lot of talent there. I actually browsed through the Holy Bibble archive because of the battle. I believe I voted for them in the sketch battle as well.
Yes, there is a good chance that people linked from Yirmumah might vote for DJ. Does that mean much? Not really. Chances are if the other guy is better, people will vote for him and check out their comic. It’s not like people are restricted to reading only one comic or anything.
I really like stuff like The Daily Grind, and Sketchbattle. But it’s down to the talent really, and it’s not even that much. Shouldn’t it be about having fun, taking a prod at one another, and doing something as a group effort that can’t nessessarily be achieved on one’s own?
Oh well, thats the internet for you. Anyway, I think a Dayfree X Boxcar battle would be awesome. I read a number of comics from each, and I’d love to see what would come of it.
October 26th, 2005 at 8:04 am
I never would have joined up with Sketchbattle if I thought it sucked… I looked through previous battles and thought it would be fun.
Now it’s the person running it I have a problem with. I don’t care that he fudged the numbers to make us lose, but you know what? He’s obviously done it before, and he will do it again. And that’s not fair to the creators there.
And no, I paid for advertising when I joined up, and it was only 15 bucks a for a week, and they never took my ad down, especially after the Lucas and Canan joke referenced it. Just goes to show, I was even willing to donate some money to having a site like that running… but not now, never again.
It’s my duty to report to you, the truth.
Good night and good luck.
October 26th, 2005 at 8:39 am
Certainly messed up and unfair, both to yourself and to the “Lucas and Cannan” people. This is one of those times you wish natural selection was prominant…I just don’t think the guy would survive.
October 26th, 2005 at 9:20 am
DJ is the Edward R. Murrow of web comics.
October 26th, 2005 at 9:24 am
Well DJ, I don’t like your assumptions…
You paid for a week, I gave you extra time. You can see the stats here:
www.sketchbattle.com/ads
username: yirmumah
password: password
The date has been the same since the second I added it, I gave you extra time from the start because of you being a competitor. I haven’t taken it down because you did pay and I’m not going to rip anyone off.
Also, I haven’t “obviously done it before” and I won’t be doing it again.
October 26th, 2005 at 9:31 am
Yeah what a collosal waste of oxygen that fucktard is. I love the idea of the site but someone else should definitely be running it. I agree with the previous posts about creating your own DJ, or maybe one of us could. Hell I’ve designed some sites (ok about 100) and would be more than willing to get something started that would totally annialate his.
October 26th, 2005 at 9:51 am
“Also, I haven’t “obviously done it before” and I won’t be doing it again. ”
I think you’ve sufficiently cornholed your credibility by doing it once. Thanks for coming out.
October 26th, 2005 at 10:42 am
Ha! the funniest thing is that he mentions that one of the competitors has no readers, and yet by steering a fraction of Yirmumah’s traffic to his lameass site, he can pick up a few hundred new ones. ( I did check the guy’s site out but prolly won’t be back because it’s not very good.) The guy who runs comic battle is a moron and this is what happens when morons and computers mix. It’s not pretty.
October 26th, 2005 at 11:00 am
This news was just reported on Comixpedia, so obviously it’s newsworthy.
I feel bad for the creators still playing along with this guy’s game.
He just IM’d me and accused me of defaming his character. I told him he did that himself in his own IMs, and people can decide for themselves.
October 26th, 2005 at 11:00 am
DJ,
When you joined the sketchbattle did you send in the original art or was it just a scanned picture? I’m just wondering if it’s a ploy to get original artwork.
October 26th, 2005 at 11:01 am
Fuck’em.
(note the period-> . )
October 26th, 2005 at 11:12 am
Yeah, that guy’s being a total BIOTCH by acting like you’re using those of us who read your webcomic to gain votes for you. Personally, I DID vote for you on not just this battle, but the other ones as well, and that is simply because your comics WERE better than the other guys’, at least in my opinion they were.
October 26th, 2005 at 12:49 pm
Ah, aren’t you glad Sambro isn’t trying to rob you of your money, but instead was just looking to cheat you out of a rightfully earned win? I tell ya, the guy’s practically a saint!
October 26th, 2005 at 4:41 pm
It really is amazing how people with so little maturity manage to manuever themselves into places of power, so the can lord it over others. Kids these days! No respect for their elders.
I really like the idea for a Dayfree vs Boxcar battle. It poses a more even matching, while removing the possibility that the admin could be accused of favoritism, especially if it is a jointly monitored and administered site. Maybe invite other artists to participate, etc.
As for the various retalitory ideas that are circulating through the blog, my question is, why bother? Are worthless little ants, who have nothing better to do with their days then to cheat hard working, decent artists out of a hard earned win.
And a quick note to Sambro. Dude, after reading those IM’s, if your not a biased little control freak, then I’m the King of France.
October 26th, 2005 at 6:32 pm
DJ, I know you already said that you wouldn’t have joined if you thought it wasn’t good initially, but I was surprised that you did it. Anyway, the guy complained that your expose went public? At least he’s consistent with himself.
Best that you’re done with that group of bad comics circle-jerking themselves anyway, pardon my harsh criticism.
October 26th, 2005 at 9:34 pm
*gets machine guns* time to kick his sorry ass…….
October 26th, 2005 at 11:41 pm
As you possibly know, I’m one of YOUR readers who voted for the OTHER GUY’S comic because I did think it was better… but, when I saw the votes at pretty much the same time you did, I was baffled: how the HELL did they recover THAT much in such a short time notice, given the votes aren’t that fluent?
Which means it’s total and absolute bullshit…
I hope, though, that such scenario leads people into knowing the truth and stop visiting a site whose administrator would go as far as rigging the votes “just because his mom said so”.
Hell… Yirmumah is seriously the best comic, creator-wise, from all the competitors at SketchBattle. Better to remain doing what you do best and leave those jackasses alone with their petty rigged competition for others who find “illegitimate voting” fun. Their loss, after all.
I’m with you, DJ. Ever since you went to PetPro’s forums back in the day it started, since then I’m yirmumahing the world!
October 28th, 2005 at 2:21 am
This moron “Admin” needs to get his head on straight. I get the feeling that it’ll be twisted round for him sooner or later, I mean, when it gets around that the little bastard messes with the polls the whole point of it is gone, dont’cha think? Who’ll want to compete with that sort of whiner’s random bias going off?
October 29th, 2005 at 2:59 pm
I was reading Sketch Battle around the same time I found your site. The idea is novel and had a lot of potential. The longer I read the site though, the more it sucked. Too many artists just lost interest and didn’t follow through with their obligations. Or one artist was lightyears beyond his competition and just destroying them.
When I saw that you had joined I was excited about the site again. Your sketches were funny and in the spirit of a true “battle”. To see that he rigged the outcomes further supports the fact that this site is going down the shitter. Of course popularity has something to do with the contest. You can’t remove that. If you have talent, you’re comic is going to be more popular than the dude that can barely churn out stick figures. Also, if your joke is funnier, why shouldn’t you win?
I would love it if you do decide to run with the Boxcar vs Dayfree Press idea. The “battle” concept is still a great one. It would be nice to see professional web cartoonists run it the way it’s supposed to be run. Fairly and with no vote tampering.
September 20th, 2006 at 8:13 pm
Penis articles. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penis