GW Hoops / Deletion of Users

**Posted by BGF** 8/19/2019 10:51 am

Folks, I want you to know that I deleted two new users this morning, both of whom had registered in the past 48 hours. Both had Russian email addresses (ending in .ru). While it is possible that GW has Russian fans, I am inclined to err on the side of caution. Neither had made any posts and both had registered from a time zone in Russia itself. While lurking is a socially acceptable message board practice, my gut tells me that leaving them on could expose to issues unknown.

I'm not in the business of censoring needlessly, but if I suspect something that is not on the up and up, I'm going to take action, even if there is no proof. In this case, I deleted their account and banned the email addresses from coming back in. Letting you know only so that if you see anything on the board that looks spammy or not belonging on this new site, to direct message me so I can take action immediately.

Thanks.

Barry

**Posted by BC** 8/19/2019 12:58 pm

We did have Russian players or was it Belarus? But it could have been early election tampering.. Honestly you could have been jumping the gun a bit, but likelyhood of Bots is high.

**Posted by chrisw** 8/19/2019 8:00 pm

My suggestion would be to shoot them a welcome email. If they're bots they won't reply, and then you can lose them. Frankly I'd suggest that for everyone!

**Posted by MG14** 8/20/2019 10:58 am

I'm all in for deleting bot/troll accounts. Thanks for the diligence.

**Posted by RobSmithoasas** 8/20/2019 1:27 pm

Jarvis' connections were in Belarus, I believe. Lithuania and Latvia were already spoken for back in those years. Don Nelson had what seemed to be a pipeline from Lithuania.

Apart from that I also wanted to thank you for your diligence in removing suspected bots/ trolls, Barry.