I wouldn't say it's cheating per say. When you open this kind of event to the the world, you're definitely attracting going to attract alot of people who are good at tech stuff - and throw that in with human tendencies, creativity and competitiveness sets in.
Maybe it's because I play quite a bit of online games (so I don't find it too troubling. Since there's no real stakes in play in this DB Race) but most gamers are always looking to calculate (or exploit), pushing the boundaries and efficiency of their playing experience. The only difference is the various levels each party takes it to.
To me (as a outside audience), the boring way is to get real students to sign up. Creatives and non conformers (trying to win) will be the ones to watch for. Whether it's auto email generation and sign ups, poking at DB servers to do w/e, or even posing as another university and massively signing up and crashing the servers and getting them disqualified. Imagination and how far/risk you're willing to go is the limit.
(And this is even more common and evident in competitions, like cute Dog photos, where most likes/votes win something - and you get people generating fakes and voting. Kinda expected more 'action' with all these tech schools involved.)
And those crying foul at the US Leaderboard being at the top - I'm pretty sure it depends on your position/location cause I'm seeing Canada leaderboard. So let's all calm down :D
It seems like cheating/fraud to me. Dropbox provides a service that usually costs money. They're also offering to provide service for recruiting new users instead of charging money.
If you fake users, you're getting the service without fulfilling your side of the bargain (paying money or recruiting users). That seems like fraud to me.
That being said, I'm sure Dropbox expected some of this behavior and is still happy with the legitimate signups and overall press they're getting.
Maybe it's because I play quite a bit of online games (so I don't find it too troubling. Since there's no real stakes in play in this DB Race) but most gamers are always looking to calculate (or exploit), pushing the boundaries and efficiency of their playing experience. The only difference is the various levels each party takes it to.
To me (as a outside audience), the boring way is to get real students to sign up. Creatives and non conformers (trying to win) will be the ones to watch for. Whether it's auto email generation and sign ups, poking at DB servers to do w/e, or even posing as another university and massively signing up and crashing the servers and getting them disqualified. Imagination and how far/risk you're willing to go is the limit.
(And this is even more common and evident in competitions, like cute Dog photos, where most likes/votes win something - and you get people generating fakes and voting. Kinda expected more 'action' with all these tech schools involved.)
And those crying foul at the US Leaderboard being at the top - I'm pretty sure it depends on your position/location cause I'm seeing Canada leaderboard. So let's all calm down :D