This is a video Traveler uploaded to his YouTube website...
He did such a good job it even made it into the HeraldNet!
...and the HeraldNet's response?
Top player fan poll sabotaged
By Mike Cane, Herald Writer
What started as a potentially fun opportunity for local high school football fans to share their opinion dissolved into a mean-spirited online campaign.
On Thursday, a reader poll appeared on Heraldnet.com with the question: Who should be named The Herald’s All-Area Offensive Football Player of the Year?
Some context: At the end of every fall season, The Herald picks its All-Area Football Team, based on reporters’ first-hand observations and coaches’ feedback. The top All-Area Football honors are Offensive Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year.
The online multiple-choice reader poll was intended to engage area fans and start a conversation, but the results won’t factor into The Herald’s All-Area selections. That’s a good thing because — due to web-based antics — the results are severely skewed.
As of 2 p.m. Monday, the poll included 11,653 votes; one player, Lake Stevens High running back Duke Dolphin, had received 10,583 of the votes (90.8 percent). Dolphin is worthy of consideration for the All-Area POY honor, but Dolphin’s incredible vote total is the result of an online scam.
On Friday, a self-described “Pro Youtuber” who calls himself Traveler successfully convinced many of his online followers to vote for Dolphin. Traveler — a young man who, according to his YouTube profile, lives in Santa Monica, Calif., and apparently has no connection to or interest in Snohomish County high school sports — chose to support Dolphin in response to what he called “spam.”
On Thursday, a reader poll appeared on Heraldnet.com with the question: Who should be named The Herald’s All-Area Offensive Football Player of the Year?
Some context: At the end of every fall season, The Herald picks its All-Area Football Team, based on reporters’ first-hand observations and coaches’ feedback. The top All-Area Football honors are Offensive Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year.
The online multiple-choice reader poll was intended to engage area fans and start a conversation, but the results won’t factor into The Herald’s All-Area selections. That’s a good thing because — due to web-based antics — the results are severely skewed.
As of 2 p.m. Monday, the poll included 11,653 votes; one player, Lake Stevens High running back Duke Dolphin, had received 10,583 of the votes (90.8 percent). Dolphin is worthy of consideration for the All-Area POY honor, but Dolphin’s incredible vote total is the result of an online scam.
On Friday, a self-described “Pro Youtuber” who calls himself Traveler successfully convinced many of his online followers to vote for Dolphin. Traveler — a young man who, according to his YouTube profile, lives in Santa Monica, Calif., and apparently has no connection to or interest in Snohomish County high school sports — chose to support Dolphin in response to what he called “spam.”
According to a video Traveler posted on YouTube, a young female fan of Marysville-Pilchuck High quarterback Tylor Klep posted a link to the Herald reader poll under Traveler’s photo on a website called DailyBooth. Like Lake Stevens’ Dolphin, M-P’s Klep was among the nominees in the All-Area football poll. Traveler took offense to the M-P fan’s request that Traveler vote for Klep.
In response, Traveler, whose YouTube channel has 142,767 subscribers, set out to make sure Klep lost.
“Today, we’re going to do something a little petty,” Traveler said in his video, which has been viewed more than 26,000 times. “ … We’re going to (sabotage) this one girl’s dream to get” Klep to win the Herald reader poll.
At that point on Friday, M-P’s Klep had received 95 votes and was among the leaders; Dolphin had received just two votes.
“We’re going to vote for someone (other than Klep),” Traveler said in the video. “How about this guy? Duke Dolphin. He doesn’t have a lot of votes. Maybe we should help him instead.”
Traveler added: “I’m sorry if you think this is a little petty, but this sure will feel good if we do it.”
Traveler’s online friends responded, quickly flooding the poll with thousands of votes for Dolphin.
In addition to the nearly 12,000 votes, the poll has more than 100 comments, mostly from Traveler’s so-called “YouTube Army.”
THE MIGHTY TRAVELER WINS!!!
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