Recently, a very serious breach of forum etiquette came to the attention of staff. Because it affects the entire WF membership, and some members directly, we feel it is necessary to forgo normal protocol and make it public knowledge.
After some commendable work by our moderation team, we discovered that the member going by the username 'Hemlock' created ten multiple accounts, or sock puppets, in order to assign extra votes to his/her entries in numerous WF challenges. This is not only an underhanded and inexcusable practice, it also violates a number of rules regarding the use of more than one account. The sock puppets have been destroyed, and Hemlock has been permanently banned from WF and stripped of all victories in the challenges. They have now been awarded to the rightful victors.
We apologise to the members who frequent the challenges, the judges who give of their time voluntarily, and the moderators who work sedulously to tally the votes. Rest assured that future violations akin to this will be swiftly and mercilessly rooted out and the perpetrators punished accordingly. We do not tolerate cheating at WF.
On behalf of WritingForums, Admin wishes to thank the moderator who first discovered this cheat, and our entire moderation team for its swift and decisive resolution of this messy debacle.
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