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October, 2024

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An apology for my fraudulent votes and abuse of the photographers program

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Sklar
Posts: 8864 - Karma: 31,612
Hi everyone,
I'm writing this to explain my situation regarding my participation in the photography program, and my use of multiple accounts to aid my own content.
Over the past winter I used multiple accounts, 3 including my normal account, to up-vote my content and down-vote competing content in order to have my content more visible on the homepage and front page, thus gaining more views and in accordance with the photography program receiving more money. This action violated the trust of the Newschoolers staff, content producers and members.
The fraudulent votes also took away the opportunities for the other participants in the program and other members, which is why I've refunded my payment to go back to them and other producers.
I apologize for any who may have been negatively affected by my actions. I'd also like to thank Schmuck and Bishop for their help this winter, working with them was a great opportunity and I'm sorry that it is ending in this fashion. As for others affected or not, I hope I haven't burned too many bridges through these actions.

I will still be around skiing in the future, however I think I'll take a step back from newschoolers for a while and reevaluate what my plan is going forward. In the meantime you can keep up with me at my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MattSklarMedia
See you on the slopes,
Sklar

Jul 1 2013 5:38PM
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Huck_Norris
Posts: 11487 - Karma: 18,627
My apologies, I must have misread your quote. I just feel kinda like an idiot because when he first said something about it, he made it sound like he had only done it on a few things once or twice. At that point I pretty much sided with him... After finding out what really happened I feel like a fucking idiot for having stuck up for him at all. I should have known that the rednames wouldn't have been pissed if it was just a little thing. He pretty much ruined the entire rating system thus far and probably created a shitload of work for them too.

So yeah, sorry about that.


Jul 3 2013 9:59AM
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t_rob
Posts: 6433 - Karma: 11,458
55K! Where is this number coming from?
Jul 3 2013 9:59AM
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Mr.Bishop
Posts: 22708 - Karma: 76,635
Total aggregate payments over the course of the last year to all people who partook in the monetization program, or landed contracts directly through NS because of it.

There are multiple parts to the program. The Photographer and Journalist portion are in their infancy and had very small payouts. The Video program had a lot of people in it and is in its second year - as such it had a dramatically higher budget.

Also, we don't custom produce our own content anymore. If you partake in the system, and get ranked high you become eligible to pitch custom content ideas, or your pre-produced web series to our sales team. Our sales team sells these ideas to advertisers, and the producers get paid to make them happen.

We have cut almost the entire staff travel and content budget in favor of these programs. This is the future of NS, and we're building huge things on top of it.

Soon enough people will be able to make a legitimate living if they're the top-top-top media creators on NS. At least as legit as anyone can make in the ski world.

Every new dollar that comes in for content goes into these programs. We're deadly serious about this thing.
Jul 3 2013 10:05AM
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snocompton
Posts: 2014 - Karma: 268
snocompton for life! support pnw content!
Jul 3 2013 10:07AM
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t_rob
Posts: 6433 - Karma: 11,458
Thank for clearing that up.

From what I've read about the photographer program, it sounded like it didn't pay out much more than 1K so I was like that's a big leap.

Jul 3 2013 10:13AM
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Huck_Norris
Posts: 11487 - Karma: 18,627
Well that is fucking awesome dude, glad to read that.


Jul 3 2013 10:18AM
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Session
Posts: 5375 - Karma: 22,080
Get over it drama queens. It's just Newschoolers. Not like it's important shit like TGR.
Jul 3 2013 10:27AM
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Huck_Norris
Posts: 11487 - Karma: 18,627
inb4 garnishings, spare-checking and angry mobs with pitchforks and torches searching for Andy Campbell's stolen sitskis.
Jul 3 2013 10:36AM
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1337
Posts: 31054 - Karma: 29,231
You weren't here for that, rookie!

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Jul 3 2013 10:55AM
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FreeballinPGH
Posts: 64 - Karma: 23
Dude got his "photo career" moving forward by using NS to highlight his work. I am sure he has real world gigs now(woodward? or did he have that position before all this was uncovered). Bummer but thats how it goes.


Jul 3 2013 11:05AM
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Session
Posts: 5375 - Karma: 22,080
you forgot alias accusations, general paranoia, and Hookers and Blow.
Jul 3 2013 11:13AM
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Mr.Bishop
Posts: 22708 - Karma: 76,635
Yeah the photographer program was only launched right at the end of the season, and was in total infancy. Video program was the same thing two years ago, and this year had massive success.

We'll see the exact same thing from photographer/journalist program heading into next year.

This shit is the future!
Jul 3 2013 11:37AM
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Mag
Posts: 8155 - Karma: 14,809
Who's on the video program? I know eheath is, but who else?
Jul 3 2013 11:39AM
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justchillin
Posts: 72 - Karma: 16
the future is moderated and deleted, same as the past
Jul 3 2013 11:46AM
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skiierman
Posts: 28699 - Karma: -5,563
Hey Sklar, are you by chance related to or friends with Anthony Bacon?

You guys are a scumbag match made in fucking Hell.

And to the kids defending him, you're all pathetic, dick-sucking sheep and your ignorant forgiveness will get you fucked over one day... and that day will be glorious.
Jul 3 2013 11:51AM
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e~b
Posts: 861 - Karma: 2,735
check out his 30 day karma... by the time he comes back he might be at my level
Jul 3 2013 12:02PM
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[~_~]
Posts: 20239 - Karma: 1,273
Which is precisely my point. The upvote/downvote system may work out mathematically, but once you introduce the crookedness of humans (who WILL manipulate it), it loses much of its appeal.

Science!
Jul 3 2013 1:19PM
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Mr.Bishop
Posts: 22708 - Karma: 76,635
Yeah but the crookedness of humans only happens less than 5% of the time. That can be at least minimized through rules and systematic updates.

You can't call the entire system a failure because there is a tiny bit of abuse. Especially when we can find that abuse, squash it and tweak the system to help us find future cases much more quickly.

Jul 3 2013 1:42PM
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FatWhore
Posts: 2213 - Karma: 1,098
isnt this called common sense?
Jul 3 2013 1:48PM
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[~_~]
Posts: 20239 - Karma: 1,273
Wow that's great news. I know other sites have had much larger problems with it; glad you guys can minimize it.
Jul 3 2013 1:57PM
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Huck_Norris
Posts: 11487 - Karma: 18,627
Well I'm sure it helps that this is a community of people rather than just being an internet chat forum with no real-world ties. The ski world is an incredibly small one and everybody knows everybody in some way or another.
Jul 3 2013 2:00PM
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00000000
Posts: 11075 - Karma: 82,508
Yeah -- I would even go as far to say it's a lot less than 5%, and probably closer to .5% if I were to hazard a guess. Note that these estimates are just based on the months I've gone through (winter & spring). And out of that bunch, there were only a very small handful who would make a habit of it. Most were just the occasional double downvote here and there.

With that being said, I'd like to get it down to 0.0005%. We're implementing a lot more automated and manual checks, which simply weren't available when this situation was playing out.
Jul 3 2013 2:12PM
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casual
Posts: 6712 - Karma: 6,748
Is it ok if I continue to create aliases to upvote my selfies?
Jul 3 2013 2:21PM
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.MASSHOLE.
Posts: 7480 - Karma: 11,480
^admin ftw! But I think the admins in this whole case handled this extremely well, keeping it under wraps until they felt like they had enough information to come forward with a strong case. Props to them
Jul 3 2013 2:55PM
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snocompton
Posts: 2014 - Karma: 268
This.

You all need to chill the fuck out. The kid got a few photos on the front page in place of a few other people. And he paid back all the money/apologized. Anyone taking this personally needs to rethink whats important in their lives.
Jul 3 2013 6:05PM
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zahava
Posts: 7791 - Karma: 12,039
Haha this
Jul 3 2013 6:08PM
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FreeballinPGH
Posts: 64 - Karma: 23
New NS trend = act like you know all about TGR
Jul 3 2013 6:18PM
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TheClap.
Posts: 21664 - Karma: 4,140
NS serious as fux
Jul 3 2013 6:35PM
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MLeone
Posts: 725 - Karma: 72
that's the same logic that people use when they say girls deserve/or were asking for rape based on how they dress.....wrong
Jul 4 2013 7:59AM
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Balzberg
Posts: 538 - Karma: 470
.
Jul 4 2013 8:57AM
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00000000
Posts: 11075 - Karma: 82,508
I'm curious as well!
Jul 4 2013 9:10AM
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00000000
Posts: 11075 - Karma: 82,508
I'd love to hear more about how you would have handled the situation.
Jul 4 2013 9:11AM
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Mr.Huck
Posts: 6096 - Karma: 14,896
Click for larger image
Jul 4 2013 12:21PM
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Mr.Sloth
Posts: 5091 - Karma: 13,469
Sounds like you belong in TGR then
Jul 4 2013 1:14PM
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[~_~]
Posts: 20239 - Karma: 1,273
...assuming that the way one dresses determines their chances of being attacked.

This is a simple failure of oversight. Don't be an idiot.
Jul 4 2013 2:19PM
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Turkelton
Posts: 2829 - Karma: 8,558
What a Nobjockey, he should have been banned
Jul 4 2013 3:26PM
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CrotchKiller
Posts: 9037 - Karma: 6,943
This exactly
Jul 4 2013 3:32PM
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Turkelton
Posts: 2829 - Karma: 8,558
No offence to photographers, but I think NS should stop the photography side with money. Not hard to have a Nikon Douchebag 6700 and take a good photo! Writing is a lot harder and can be combined with photos as well, and I can say as I wrote a 45,000 book on fictional baseball combined with real history in the 1950s, whereas it takes me 2 seconds to take a photo. Just saying
Jul 4 2013 3:37PM
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CrotchKiller
Posts: 9037 - Karma: 6,943
oh man, this is a fucking dumb statement
Jul 4 2013 3:46PM
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90053
Posts: 2565 - Karma: 3,728
all you need to write a book is a pen and paper, to take a good photo it takes planning, expertise and a bit of luck. Photography equipment is expensive so photogs need support, also newschoolers use the photos on their facebook page etc.
Jul 4 2013 3:52PM
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Downtofilm
Posts: 6896 - Karma: 20,395
Dont lisent to him, he just has sklar's weiner in his mouth.
Jul 4 2013 6:22PM
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m-ruta
Posts: 160 - Karma: 168
Now, I don't agree with him either, photography is most definitely an art, but that's one of the most benighted statements I've ever seen. If all decent writing takes is a pen and paper, let's see what you've got, Hemingway.
Jul 4 2013 6:49PM
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90053
Posts: 2565 - Karma: 3,728
what i was implying is that you don't need expensive equipment to write a book just interesting experiences/views/knowledge. I personally am not a writer.
Jul 4 2013 6:56PM
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Downtofilm
Posts: 6896 - Karma: 20,395
You also dont need expensive equipment to take a photo, I have seen some beautiful images come out of IPhones and P&S's
Jul 4 2013 8:42PM
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Kretzschmar
Posts: 6707 - Karma: 98,278
im not sure if i'm the only one that thinks this is ironic but sklar has one of casual's quotes on his profile....
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Jul 4 2013 8:46PM
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90053
Posts: 2565 - Karma: 3,728
true, but generally speaking you have to invest more money in it, especially for ski photography
Jul 4 2013 8:52PM
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Big5hifty
Posts: 3243 - Karma: 1,253
You're a fucking idiot.

Also, this whole situation just makes me sad. I have always viewed NS as a community, and although this scenario does not affect me personally, I feel as though it slightly takes away from that community.
Jul 5 2013 12:31AM
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