dozens and dozens of spammers registered as players

Started by BootsMcGraw

BootsMcGraw Lv 1

Has anyone done a look through the "Players with Profiles" section of the soloist scores, and drilled all the way down to people with scores of zero?

You'd be amazed. There are people selling real estate, beauty products, even sex toys. And they have their spam as their profile.

If I make a list of these… coughspammerscough …players, could someone please banish them to the depths of electronic Hell? I truly detest these low-lifes.

infjamc Lv 1

I looked through the players page, and…

«GASP»

Almost everything after Page 7 ( http://fold.it/portal/players/profs?page=7 ) is spam. I could post a few links here, but an automated process is needed for fetching all of them (while making sure that we don't delete the accounts of real newbies by mistake).

BootsMcGraw Lv 1

OMG. I can't believe the number of spam profiles I am seeing! Ilya, it will take weeks for me to make up a manual list.

Infjamc is correct: an automated mass spammer deletion is necessary. Having managed a message board for several years, I can tell within seconds who's a spammer and who's legit. They are all painfully, boringly similar in how they infect memberships.

I know the FoldIt team has the ability to manage the player database the same way I manage my message board. Below is my suggestion on how to do a mass cleanup, without accidentally nuking newbies.

From the player database:

  • filter for players with profiles, then
  • filter for players with links in their profiles, then
  • filter for players who have made less than 10 moves, then
  • DELETE EVERY S.O.B. WHO REMAINS!

I guarantee you that this will eliminate every bot-generated profile. No newbie who went through the trouble of creating a profile will play less than ten moves. Perform this purge weekly, and be amazed at the integrity of the player database.

I've been told that allowing spammers to remain subscribed to a website somehow draws in more spammers, as they have apparently found "a safe place to peddle their wares". It becomes a cancer, which will grow out of control if not addressed. Please perform this database surgery ASAP, lest FoldIt end up with one thousand players, and a hundred thousand viagra pushers.

BootsMcGraw Lv 1

I've done the math….

It's already that bad! With over 1200 pages of "players" and about eight players to a page, we already have about a hundred thousand spammers registered here.

HELP!!! Stop the madness!