A geofence is a virtual perimeter for a real-world geographic area. A geofence could be dynamically generated (as in a radius around a point location) or match a predefined set of boundaries (such as country boundaries).
The Geofencing feature allows your contest site to restrict voting specific locations based on IP addresses, as well as stopping votes from Proxies and VPNs.
Later in the article, we look at how the system quarantines votes which fail Geofencing rules and how they can be reinstated.
How to setup Geofencing
Log into the Administration dashboard:
https://<yoursite>.us.launchpad6.com/admin
Go to the Global settings. This is the cog icon
in the top right hand corner of your screen.
Scroll down to the panel EMAIL / DOMAIN / IP BANNED LIST
Press the Open Blocking Manager button. A new dialog will appear.
Select the Location Blocking tab.
Press the Add Geo Rule button, a new dialog will appear.
Enter a rule name. This is the name you'll refer to when assigning the rule in the Voting Round. For this example, we'll call the rule: Block VPN and Proxies - Aus NZ Only
The dropdown list Select level of Vpn/Proxy blocking is used to allow or prevent the use of IP address that are known VPNs or Proxies. For this example, will will select the option Block Proxies and VPNs
From the Country list, select the countries that will participate in the voting round. By default, the All option is selected. For our example, we will select the country options Australia and New Zealand.
To complete rule setup, press the Add button. The new rule should be visible in the Rule list, as shown in the screenshot below:
You can create as many rules as required.
We now have to apply the rule to the voting round. Navigate to the Voting Round: Contest > Manage (contest) > Settings > Voting & Judging
Press Manage for the vote period you want to add the Geofence rule to.
Scroll down to the field Which countries can votes come from? and click the empty field. The list of available rules will appear.
Select the option Block VPN and Proxies - Aus NZ Only. In practice, you can apply multiple rules here. Rules are applied in an 'AND' fashion, meaning the voter must satisfy all rules - not just one of them.
Press the Update button to save the voting period configuration.
Geofencing in Practice
You may worry that Geofencing may lead to votes being blocked mistakenly, leaving valid users unable to engage with the contest - but fortunately this is not the case.
Any vote that fails the Geofencing rules is silently placed into Quarantined Votes. By silently, we mean the voter is unaware that their vote has been flagged or an error has occurred. The voter receives a success message with their vote.
The screenshot below shows a vote from made from country outside the Geofence rules - the vote has been placed into Quarantine.
More importantly, within the Quarantined Votes section, any quarantine vote can be reviewed and selected by the contest Admin and released into the Validated Votes section using the Tools button.