acronimous
  Junior Editor

Beautiful and heartwarming!

Thanks, Will! Not complaining — it's an honor and a pleasure to be here. I'll do my best to gain your trust.

Yes, I help manage the site.

We've shared the results of our investigation on the contest summary page here: https://www.poetry.com/contest-summary/02/2025

Hi! How can I help?

Hey Jeffrey,

We’ve removed suspicious accounts that were manipulating contest voting. While we do monitor commenting as well, I assume some cases slip through, so user reports help us address them more effectively. If you spot anything, please let us know!

One improvement we’ve recently implemented is awarding points only for unique feedback to discourage spammy, repeated comments. Overall, the rewards program has been a positive force, driving engagement and encouraging more interaction and feedback among members. That said, we’re always open to improving things, so if anyone has thoughts, we’d love to hear them.

Appreciate you bringing this up and your tremendous contribution to our websites in general!

Best,
Yigal more »

Hi everyone,

We’ve had some concerns raised by several of our senior members about the results of the February and January 2025 contests, and we’d like to update you on the outcome of our investigation.

Unfortunately, we found that someone attempted to manipulate the contest results by creating multiple accounts to vote for their own poem. This individual won first place in both January and February.

After reviewing the details, we discovered that the suspicious accounts were all linked to the same IP addresses in Nigeria, among other indicators that suggested inappropriate activity. Furthermore, the individual took advantage of our rewards program to gain free contest passes, which were then used to vote for their own poem. Some of these accounts voted for the same member in both contests.

We also reviewed all the other winning entries and can confirm that they are legitimate and fair.

As a result, we’ve banned the involved accounts and will be adjusting the contest results. This means all the other winners will move up a spot and receive their prizes accordingly.

We’ve already implemented measures to prevent AI-generated submissions, including a legal declaration when submitting poems and methods to detect AI-generated content. Moving forward, we’ll also be strengthening our security to avoid future multi-accounting attempts.

While this situation is unfortunate, please know that we are fully committed to keeping the community a fair and welcoming place for everyone. We truly appreciate everyone who brought this to our attention, especially Symmetry60 for being the first to flag this. Big thanks to you, Steve!

Finally, congratulations to ‘Heyjude’ and ‘Inactiveuser’ for earning first place – very well deserved!

Let’s continue to support each other and keep making this community an inspiring and trustworthy space for all poetry lovers.

Best,
Yigal & team more »

Hi there! We're aware of the concerns regarding new members and voting patterns, and we're already looking into it. We take the integrity of the contest seriously, so rest assured we're on it and will update everyone soon. more »

Right, I used the member's username. :-)

Congratulations to all the participants in the February Poetry Contest! It’s always great to see so much talent and creativity in our community. A special shoutout to Tenthousandsaints for being the first member to win two contests in a row. Well done! more »

Are you sure it's not there?

As mentioned before, the view count only includes voters who fully open your poem for reading, not those who see the preview. Most voters read a good portion in the preview box before voting, but those interactions aren’t counted. more »

It's there -- take a closer look... :-)

LOL

Congratulations, Mark! Love seeing you being such a great sport!