UKNM: The fundamental issue: who is the *real* "Top of the Bots"?

[Mat Morrison]

Jo Guest has won the Star readers' "rear of the year" competition. 


MegaStar is running a similar poll online, entitled "top of the bots"

(http://www.megastar.co.uk/megastar-cgi/vote/vote_botty.pl)


If only they knew how right they were...


In a fit of unusual chivalry, an account director at a well-known

interactive agency took pity on the daughter-in-law elect, Emma Noble (who

was falling behind in the polls, err... coming bottom). He decided to

support the Noble cause.


A quick phone call to one of the more technically minded members of this

list seemed to provide the solution, a neat little piece of code which voted

mindlessly for Ms. Noble about five times every second.


To the account director's joy, Ms. Noble began to creep up the charts.

Quarter of an hour later, however, he was surprised to notice that Ms. Guest

had more than doubled her votes.


A quick flurry of calls later, and the issue became clear. Someone else had

built a better bot, running off a Unix box somewhere.


Internet diva Jo Guest is now well ahead of Ms Noble, and is set to become

bottom of her class.


But the question remains. Who was the *real* top of the bots? Can anyone

shed any light on this?