Wilderness and Free Trade Vote

The Wilderness and Free Trade Vote was a petition created by Jagex in order to gauge the popularity of reverting the updates which removed the old style of player killing and instituted the trade limit. Jagex cited an increase in their ability to combat bots and account stealing as the reason behind the interest in reverting the updates.

The petition is set up so that players who want the updates to be reverted must provide their account name and place a vote. There is no option to vote against reverting the updates, though Jagex states that players can oppose by simply not voting.. The poll is open to all RuneScape players and will close on 14 January 2011. Players who have not yet voted can do so on the petition page.

Reaction
The decision to remove the Wilderness and free trade is viewed as one of the most controversial updates to date, and a large proportion of Runescapes demographic to see them reverted.

Several hundred votes were being cast every second. So many players accessed the website that it caused server instability and website down-time. There was also a spike in related discussion on the RuneScape Forums with many players debating the merits of both sides of the argument.

Criticism
Initially, the petition page had a footer mentioning the Guinness World Records. This led players to believe that the poll was not genuine and was only an attempt to set a world record for a number of votes cast in a given time, and therefore no matter what the results of the poll, there would be no change. A Jagex moderator stated that it was for promotional purposes, and that it was removed due to players making the mistake that the poll was fake.

Many players also note that, since there is no publicly stated threshold of votes which would make this motion successful, no matter what the results of the poll, Jagex could decide to take whichever action they see fit, thus negating the voting stage of the process completely. A number of players take this as Jagex eschewing any commitment, regardless of how the community feels.

Perhaps the most widely criticized aspect of the poll is the inability to vote against reverting the changes. Critics argue that the system places disproportional burden on the supporters of the petition, since any person who doesn't vote has their vote counted as opposition, whether they truly oppose or not. For instance, someone who does not vote because they are neutral, or even because they did not know a vote was going on at all, will have their abstinence counted as an opposing vote.

Another criticism is the inability to vote for either the Wilderness or free trade. If a player chooses to vote for the petition, their vote is counted as support for both, when they may only support one. In some cases a player may feel forced to oppose both changes, despite strongly supporting one, because of strong opposition to the other.

Because the poll does not require inputting a password, there is strong potential for abuse. Any player could place votes using their friends' names, and even the names of complete strangers, or others who have publicly stated their opposition to the proposed changes. Players also have the ability to vote numerous times, but not with the same username. Once a username is registered by the petition, it will no longer count as a vote if entered again.

Because of all these flaws in the process many players believe that the vote will not change anything. Players are also starting to think, that because Jagex has spent so much time implementing the Grand Exchange and trade limit that it would be "stupid" for Jagex to remove/change this after all the hard work. It has also been said that if the old Wilderness was brought back, it would just be a desperate attempt to bring back old players.

Trivia

 * People who supported free trade and wilderness to go back to the way it was wore pink skirts. They soon became known as 'Pink Skirt' supporters.
 * On the 22nd of December World 1 crashed. Some believe that Jagex temporarily closed it to stop the riots that were happening on it but it's most likely that it crashed due to the vast number of 'Pink Skirt' supporters rioting on it.