DJmag has uncovered a number of voting irregularities in this year’s DJmag Top 100 DJs. Several DJs are currently being investigated and the magazine is taking any attempts to garner more votes by cheating very seriously. For the last 4 years DJmag have been aware of advancing attempts to score fake votes and subsequently tightened all computer systems and guidelines to ensure this cannot be attempted successfully. Rest assured, every year thousands of votes are discounted that we deem suspicious and 2010 will be no different.
Since the poll began, almost 300,000 votes have been received via Top100DJs.net for a wide range of DJs. At the back end of the online poll, the IP addresses and emails of all votes have been monitored for any dubious practices and already many of these have been removed.
In addition to this, on Monday 9th August, we were alerted to a video detailing how a DJ could cheat using a well-known international jobs site. As a result of investigations into this site and others, it was found that a number of DJs or their representatives were allegedly trying to pay coder companies in India and elsewhere to obtain thousands of votes for them illegally.
As the magazine went to press, we were in the process of confronting these DJs and their teams with the evidence. The first two DJs confronted flatly denied any improper methods, as did their agency, so as yet no DJ has been disqualified. Instead, the focus has now been turned to the Indian coders and whether their mysterious job offers had not been created by DJmag Top 100 DJs denigrator’s intent on causing mischief, or fellow DJs trying to tarnish the names of some of their bigger competition.
DJmag is determined to ensure that the poll is as fair and representative to the current worldwide DJ scene as possible, and to this end we have now decided to set up an amnesty to highlight illegal voting practices. Please note, investigations are continuing in earnest and will not cease to do so until voting ends on September 23rd, giving you over a month in which to pursue all genuine votes. There is still everything to play for…
**Anybody with any evidence or suspicions about a DJ receiving illegal votes is invited to email us at amnesty@djmag.com in complete confidence**
Also, any DJ or their representative who has already been using illegal voting methods can email DJmag in full confidence detailing how they obtained illegal votes. If they do so, these votes will be immediately discounted but they themselves won’t be disqualified. Again, please note, if a DJ doesn’t own up to acting illegally and they are found to have cheated, they will be immediately disqualified and publicly named and shamed.
We will keep you posted on our findings.
James Robertson, Publisher
