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We’re Not Cheating
So I’ve gotten my fair share of hate mail since this started accusing me of cheating in this event. When the Tokio Hotel fan blog accused me of being a spammer this morning, I figured it was about time I publicly addressed some of their concerns.
But before I do that, I’d like to quote someone I’ve been in contact with since we’ve started this campaign.
Neil O’Brien who runs the official Rick Astley website had this to say about what Rick Astley (and this potential award) means to him.
“Back in 1987, whenever you heard “Never Gonna Give You Up”, you knew that you were listening to something quite special. Yes the song was fantastic for its time but it was the voice of Rick Astley that gave this song so much success. Rick has one of the most unique and recognizable voices of modern times.
20 years later, I am the webmaster at Rick’s Official Website. The thing that has struck me the most is how diverse his fanbase is. Possibly this is down to the fact he can belt out a great pop tune one minute and then cover the likes of Sinatra and Bacharach the next but for whatever the reasons, his fans range from teenagers through to the elderly and they are from all over the globe.
Putting my own personal affection for Rick to one side, I don’t know of many pop acts that can boast a fanbase like his. I think Rick’s Nomination at the MTV Europe Music Awards is very fitting for a popstar who is truly unique.”
I absolutely share those sentiments mate.
We’re Not Cheating
The simple fact, is we (the 100 thousand plus people voting for Rick) are not cheating. Sure our methods may be a little unconvential but the truth is that it is not against the EMA rules on “How Voting Works” - you can find that document here (we’ve also saved it incase it somehow magically changes later)
There is nothing in that document that says you can’t use additional tools to vote. Not a single line against it.
“But you’ve voted so much…”
I’ve heard & read something along these lines countless times. So what? MTV are encouraging us to vote multiple times and a screenshot of their site can be found below that shows this.
So let me run through it again.
1) Massive Public Support? - Check
2) Not Against the Rules? - Check
3) Doing what MTV want us to do (Vote multiple times?) - Check
Given I’m certain we (the people supporting Rick Astley) have gotten Rick such a commanding lead so far and I’m sure that if Rick does not win this award then the results will have most certainly been altered.
If that does happen, we sure as hell wont be the ones who are cheating.
If you do want to support Rick Astley for Best Act Ever, grab our new WinRickVoter tool from the utilities page and Vote for Rick!
TL;DR = Not cheating, Vote Rick 08
October 14th, 2008 at 9:21 am
This post is succinct and irrefutable, V4R. Bravo.
October 14th, 2008 at 9:33 am
If TH people accuse US of cheating, it takes one to know one.
October 14th, 2008 at 9:47 am
The people have spoken. We want Rick!
October 14th, 2008 at 10:21 am
Rick 4 Life
October 14th, 2008 at 10:28 am
im rick james bitch
October 14th, 2008 at 10:42 am
I’m ODB and I support this message. Also: I has maed Fæcesbook.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=31220373909 plox to be joining and spread the word.
October 14th, 2008 at 10:46 am
“Not cheating, Vote Rick 08″ True words. Go Rick!!
P.S: Good call on saving the document in case it “magically” changes.
October 14th, 2008 at 11:48 am
I just [iframe]‘d the RickVoter into a Tokio Hotel forum thread. HAHAHA!
October 14th, 2008 at 11:50 am
@Xero - ok, that’s probably cheating
Thankfully the WebRickVoter tool is well on its way to it’s final resting place, so it shouldn’t matter too much.
October 14th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
I posted on a TH to say they were hypocrites for saying we were cheating when they were happy to do the same thing.
I promptly got banned for having the username ‘Rick’
October 14th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
I found this thread super funny: http://tokiohotel.pop24.de/forum/us/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=8194&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=Rick+Astley&start=0
October 14th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
What about fans of the other contestants? Are they also doing the same thing?
October 14th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Ahahaha oh god, these are even dumber than “worried parents”.
October 14th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
@polycarbonate Yep, I know of metallica, Linkin Park, Foo Fighter and Tokio Hotel fans voting in the headliner act (I was actually asked by fans of the first 3 how to change scripts which I declined)
TH, Britney and Us in Best Act Ever, but it would be naive to think other more hardcore fans for other acts/categories haven’t been doing it.
October 14th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
We should win - we will win this. It’s hard to imagine any other actor but Rick will get this many votes. You were talking about 160.000 people voting constantly? The average is 1 vote every 3 seconds. Does that mean Rick gets about 55,333 votes a second? No way another actor or band is coming near that amount of votes…
Rick, you never gave us up and we will never let you down. You got my word!
October 14th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Not 160k people, more like a couple K on the tool at any one time. 160k all up tho.
October 14th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
@V4R: Yeah, I figured that must be the case. So I guess it may come down to the voting scripts having to battle it out?
@Peter: “Rick, you never gave us up and we will never let you down. You got my word!” Precisely.
Oh, and I just passed 40k.
October 14th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
@polycarbonate - I’d say it would be reasonable to say we have a commanding lead
October 14th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
http://www.theage.com.au/national/australian-man-rickrolls-mtv-20081011-4ysc.html
At the end of this article it says you have been contacted by Rick’s manager saying he has been invited to the awards. Can this be confirmed or debunked?
October 14th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
@V4R - I would think so. Any way to get actual figures from MTV to see what we’re up against?
October 14th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Seeing as this is an Australian newspaper and we tend to really suck at getting things right don’t hold it as too reliable of a source, but it says MTV is saying we have 99.98% of votes going for Rick http://www.theage.com.au/national/australian-man-rickrolls-mtv-20081011-4ysc.html
October 14th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
That was news some days ago. It’s true, MTV really said we had 99,98% of the votes on last count.
Maybe they’ve reset it, though.
October 14th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
@Spotswood that article was about me (Mark) and unfortunately I was misquoted a little.
Firstly it’s obvious this is a collaborative effort, but she decided to credit me.
Secondly, she took the numbers from the LA times article (see the press page above) which I later gave David Sarno some corrections but I don’t think she took note of these corrections.
The 99.98% thing was for the poll of “Does Rick Astley deserve his nomination” in which the final tally was about 20 million to 5k
Anyway, Melissa had no idea about rickrolling as one of the first questions she asked me was did I invent it?
Hope that helps clear things up a little.
@polycarbonate
:) 
ummmmm
October 14th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
@Doktor heres the email from Tony “tops” Henderson - Rick’s manager
http://www.bestactever.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/invitebmg.jpg
Basically I’m not sure if it was a coincidence or not, but I emailed him to find out if Rick was going or not, found out he wasn’t invited, raged & posted with links to the PR departments of the sponsors of the show + the show producer’s email (which I later removed), got an email 5 hours later saying he was invited.
Not sure if it’s coincidence or not, but who cares - at least Rick was invited - that’s a win in my eyes.
October 14th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
@V4R - Definite win.
October 14th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
“If they do it long enough and mess with the big wigs they’re gonna get into trouble soon. Can’t wait!”
Ha ha ha!
What a chimp!
I have a plan and it involves the longest cat in my arsenal.
October 14th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
How long is longcat?
October 14th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Dear World - \"We\’re Not Cheating!\" re: Rickroll | Deliggit.com…
\r\nThe simple fact, is we (the 100 thousand plus people voting for Rick) are not che…
October 14th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Roughly the same length.
October 14th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
So twice the distance from the middle to either end?
October 14th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Yes. It is fair to say that longcat is long.
Did you know Bill Kaulitz is male?
I’m shocked.
October 14th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
you know, this is a true story (not an anti TH rant) I first saw a pic of them and thought “Oh ok, so its like a teenage version of evanescense” … then someone told me the she was a he.
October 14th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
@ Vote4Rick Haha, thanks for clearing that up. don’t you love the news always delivering the facts, straight up!
October 14th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
my fap folder was a trap folder :s j/k
but not really
October 15th, 2008 at 2:48 am
/b/ will march on to victory
October 15th, 2008 at 2:59 am
LongCat = looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong!!!1 V4R
October 15th, 2008 at 9:18 am
V4R, WHAT?
Well then you just made the news for me then. How is that even possible?
http://www.hitzonly.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/tokio-hotel-mtv.jpg
October 15th, 2008 at 9:24 am
@flammbar cos I’m win.
October 16th, 2008 at 4:36 am
Don’t forget to vote Foo Fighters for Headliner! Tokio Hotel fans think they’re going to win that one but Foo Fighters are THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST
October 25th, 2008 at 1:14 am
[...] I feel about that, but I do like Rick Astley. Go read it all for yourself. They allege they are not cheating and that what they are doing is not against the [...]
October 29th, 2008 at 9:10 am
I accidentally over 12,000 times and counting
November 7th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
all you cheat i cant believe it rick A. didnt deserve it ,he is only a pop star of the 80s who only had one hit ,green day deserve it YOU ALL CHEAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THATS DISGUSTING
November 7th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
@sara
die in a fire plz