IP-Prior / Squashing / voterToken

This system protects the integrity of click data. It detects when click patterns look unnatural, for example when many clicks come from the same IP addresses or are artificially directed at a page. Such suspicious clicks are filtered out ('damped') before they can influence ranking.

The system uses IP-address-based trust priors and a 'ballot' system (voterToken). The ballot system identifies individual click units to prevent double-counting.

unscaledIpPriorBadFraction is the share of suspicious clicks per IP range before scaling. It serves to dampen manipulation. voterToken is a unit that identifies a click 'ballot' to make repeat voting harder. [B fields, C mechanics]

Only Trust applies, and only indirectly. The system makes no statements about content. It protects the reliability of measurement data and is the quality guardian for all behavioral signals.

No direct action is needed here. Clickbait campaigns and purchased click packages remain ineffective, because they are filtered out before they touch the ranking. Genuine user satisfaction is the only sustainable strategy.