How do you prevent cheating when using IFTTT with Beeminder, since the IFTTT trigger can be easily changed to something trivial (e.g., ‘connect to Wi-Fi’)? Doesn’t this make it possible to game the system ?
What’s the point?
Is there a way to lock ifttt applets? I don’t see one.
Maybe beeminder can do their own youtube integration?
Or, speak to ifttt solicing for applet locking feature?
If you look closely enough at almost any Beeminder integration, there will be a way to weasel. For example, you could trivially weasel URLminder (counting words on a webpage or Google doc) by copying and pasting a block of text. (I’ll avoid giving more examples, and recommend not proactively thinking about it too hard lest temptation strike.)
So I think it’s worth seeing integrations as ways to make data entry smoother and to make weaseling more difficult and less tempting, rather than adversarially-robust anti-weasel mechanisms. While there might be a possible fix for this particular issue, my guess is it wouldn’t be a high priority (and might risk breaking something else in the process).
At a certain point the best anti-weasel technology is to remember things like:
- You made this goal because it’s something you really want to do.
- If you start weaseling, you risk ruining Beeminder for yourself forever.
- Your beautiful data in your beautiful chart will become unreliable.
These charts do indeed feel different for some reason. I am starting to deeply care about my charts and their genuineness, which I feel might help resist unwanted urges.
I guess it might work, and I guess I might even be willing to pay in the spirit of maintaining the charts’ authenticity, even if I loophole myself out of the payment.
I have doubts and concerns, that’s all. But I’ll see how it goes.
At the moment (this might help others too), I have my phone on kiosk mode with no access to IFTTT (so I cannot change the logic that creates the data points), and I’ve blocked the IFTTT website URL via the registry editor on Windows so I cannot change the logic through my laptop.
Hopefully, the annoyance of having to go to the library to access a computer and make changes needed for cheating will always outweigh the urge to deviate from my chart goals.
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Dreev is going to post the usual link to Fake Data is the Devil. He might consider even bringing up the idea that one could change the trigger and game the system an ‘info hazard’ (As in, the average Beeminder user is never going to think of anything like that by themselves.)
In my opinion, hardening goals is good, and we should be able to rely on technology instead of will power (otherwise, what’s the point). I think you are on the right track with making access to IFTTT harder.
One approach could be to purposefully lock yourself out of the IFTTT account (and related e-mail addresses so that you cannot reset the password). You could do that by giving the password to a trustworthy person and deleting the password on your side. You would then have to ask them for the password to regain access, or you could use a timelock to manage the lock out by yourself.
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Right, I actually use a website called https://lockmeout.online/ to store passwords which remain obfuscated for a certain amount of time of your choice before they are deobfuscated. I was thinking of using this password manager to store the IFTTT account password and the email password. ProtonMail allows creating mail accounts with no need for phone numbers, so I would not even be able to restore access to the email without that password. I’ll see how it goes first, but I am doubtful. I wish there were more direct integrations with Beeminder witout the need if ifttt. Is beeminder working on a yojutube integration? I know some python so I guess eventually i might make one myself