The Great Purge of 2020

A few days ago I purged over 200k inactive user accounts, in the first significant purge since I've been here, and perhaps the first purge to happen in a very long time. Like so many things around atWar, this is not something most people would even be aware of, and yet it really needed to be dealt with for several reasons. If you want to know the story behind this, read on...

Before I pulled the trigger to start the purge, atWar had amassed 871,137 user accounts (this was as of 1/16/2020). If all these accounts were active, atWar would be thriving so much we'd probably require several servers to handle all the traffic. But as you all know, that unfortunately isn't the case right now. A lot of those accounts are inactive, and a lot of those accounts are not even real users -- just spam. All that adds up to a lot of data stored, and a lot of server resources being used, sifting through a lot of useless records in order to find anything.

The other main reason to clean this up now is to prepare for doing email marketing. As any email marketer will tell you, you want a "clean" list. The last thing you want is to waste time sending out emails to 1000's of fake email addresses.

One of the problems that got us here was that we had almost no protection in place to prevent spam bots from mass signing up accounts. There was (and still is) a captcha on the signup page, but this kind of captcha is (I'm guessing) 10 years old, and modern spam bots have no problem solving them.

In 2018 we averaged approx. 5600 new user accounts per month. This includes a big spike in June 2018, almost certainly all due to spam. I don't know the exact number of real signups vs. spam ones, but I estimate somewhere between 1000-2000 of those new accounts each month were spam.

At the beginning of 2019, around the time I acquired atWar, we started seeing another really big spike in spam accounts. This reached its peak in March 2019, at which time I implemented new anti-spam measures in our signup process. This greatly reduced the number of spam accounts being created. From May 2019 to now, we've averaged approx. 3400 new user accounts per month (and this has been growing slightly), but the important thing is that these are at least real people making these accounts, not bots. (Yes, I know, probably half of those new accounts are alts, plus a 100 or so a month from unleashed, but this kind of stuff has always gone on.)

The following chart shows this in detail:



Now it was just a question of cleaning up the mess we had accumulated. Without giving the exact formula away, generally speaking I looked for accounts that had never played a game, had obviously fake email addresses, or no email address at all. That amounted to 231,658 user accounts. That was roughly a quarter of our entire user database!

So I'm happy to say these are now gone. Next we can start our email campaigns with much of the list already cleaned out. (And I'm sure as we go we'll find a lot more to clear out, as those less-obvious fake email addresses start bouncing back to us we'll purge some more.)

On to the next task...

Cheers,
Dave

Could you find some Youtube channels and sponsor them to advertise AtWar? It wouldn't be as costly as advertising, and could bring more players than advertising directly.

Написано Zoe, 19.01.2020 at 01:38

Could you find some Youtube channels and sponsor them to advertise AtWar? It wouldn't be as costly as advertising, and could bring more players than advertising directly.

But, who could promote atWar? Maybe a startegys game/geographic YouTuber

Написано Dave, 19.01.2020 at 01:28

I'm huge statistics-fan, keep sharing those sexy graphs.

Написано Palmitas, 19.01.2020 at 07:22

Написано Zoe, 19.01.2020 at 01:38

Could you find some Youtube channels and sponsor them to advertise AtWar? It wouldn't be as costly as advertising, and could bring more players than advertising directly.

But, who could promote atWar? Maybe a startegys game/geographic YouTuber

this game is kinda what a Drew Durnil kind of audience would play/watch so that is always a possibility down the line.

I am actually kinda surprised by this graphic, there is quite a few accounts being made in a single month (more than i expected). It would be interesting to see how many of them keep playing after the first month.

Why would you delete all my accounts, i was gonna use them to play...

Can you free up "shimazu" and "takeda" too, because they haven't been online in 3000 days

Написано Tokugawa, 07.02.2020 at 15:49

Can you free up "shimazu" and "takeda" too, because they haven't been online in 3000 days

Weeb

Написано Augustus Caesar, 10.02.2020 at 04:38

Написано Tokugawa, 07.02.2020 at 15:49

Can you free up "shimazu" and "takeda" too, because they haven't been online in 3000 days

Weeb

wop

The purge 5

I think the emails are a GREAT idea. I went though a year or so without playing a game. I have to think if I got a little nudge email I'd have come back sooner. Life just got busy and I didn't think to play.

Wait how did I not get purged? Before December 2020 I had last game was 1600 days ago

Написано Richthofen, 28.01.2021 at 04:11

Wait how did I not get purged? Before December 2020 I had last game was 1600 days ago

My goal was to clean out spam and junk accounts. I wasn't targeting inactive accounts specifically (although that was one variable taken into consideration).

Your account has several points in its favor -- a significant history of games played, a valid email address on file, etc. Accounts like yours were saved in the hopes that you might come back someday... and you did

Написано Palmitas, 19.01.2020 at 07:22

Написано Zoe, 19.01.2020 at 01:38

Could you find some Youtube channels and sponsor them to advertise AtWar? It wouldn't be as costly as advertising, and could bring more players than advertising directly.

But, who could promote atWar? Maybe a startegys game/geographic YouTuber

a youtube channel named kings and generals did once for aw. they can ask for it again.

Just go do Drew Durnil and try getting him to help lol he loves maps he will prob like this

Написано TBH0nest., 13.03.2021 at 21:37

Just go do Drew Durnil and try getting him to help lol he loves maps he will prob like this

Tried spamming his comment section before, then he said that he won't do it again cause he destroys the games he comes upon. Wish he sent people to atWar

Tried spamming his comment section before, then he said that he won't do it again cause he destroys the games he comes upon. Wish he sent people to atWar
[then lets bring an army to spam him]

None of the inactive clanmates that I hope will return oneday have been purged. So good job and keep up the good work.

Написано Palmitas, 19.01.2020 at 07:22

Написано Zoe, 19.01.2020 at 01:38

Could you find some Youtube channels and sponsor them to advertise AtWar? It wouldn't be as costly as advertising, and could bring more players than advertising directly.

But, who could promote atWar? Maybe a startegys game/geographic YouTuber

Caspian report!
Geopolitical commentaty with cleanly produced and very interesting videos

Well I wasnt active over 1000 days due life problems:no::-|

Написано Dave, 19.01.2020 at 01:28

A few days ago I purged over 200k inactive user accounts, in the first significant purge since I've been here, and perhaps the first purge to happen in a very long time. Like so many things around atWar, this is not something most people would even be aware of, and yet it really needed to be dealt with for several reasons. If you want to know the story behind this, read on...

Before I pulled the trigger to start the purge, atWar had amassed 871,137 user accounts (this was as of 1/16/2020). If all these accounts were active, atWar would be thriving so much we'd probably require several servers to handle all the traffic. But as you all know, that unfortunately isn't the case right now. A lot of those accounts are inactive, and a lot of those accounts are not even real users -- just spam. All that adds up to a lot of data stored, and a lot of server resources being used, sifting through a lot of useless records in order to find anything.

The other main reason to clean this up now is to prepare for doing email marketing. As any email marketer will tell you, you want a "clean" list. The last thing you want is to waste time sending out emails to 1000's of fake email addresses.

One of the problems that got us here was that we had almost no protection in place to prevent spam bots from mass signing up accounts. There was (and still is) a captcha on the signup page, but this kind of captcha is (I'm guessing) 10 years old, and modern spam bots have no problem solving them.

In 2018 we averaged approx. 5600 new user accounts per month. This includes a big spike in June 2018, almost certainly all due to spam. I don't know the exact number of real signups vs. spam ones, but I estimate somewhere between 1000-2000 of those new accounts each month were spam.

At the beginning of 2019, around the time I acquired atWar, we started seeing another really big spike in spam accounts. This reached its peak in March 2019, at which time I implemented new anti-spam measures in our signup process. This greatly reduced the number of spam accounts being created. From May 2019 to now, we've averaged approx. 3400 new user accounts per month (and this has been growing slightly), but the important thing is that these are at least real people making these accounts, not bots. (Yes, I know, probably half of those new accounts are alts, plus a 100 or so a month from unleashed, but this kind of stuff has always gone on.)

The following chart shows this in detail:



Now it was just a question of cleaning up the mess we had accumulated. Without giving the exact formula away, generally speaking I looked for accounts that had never played a game, had obviously fake email addresses, or no email address at all. That amounted to 231,658 user accounts. That was roughly a quarter of our entire user database!

So I'm happy to say these are now gone. Next we can start our email campaigns with much of the list already cleaned out. (And I'm sure as we go we'll find a lot more to clear out, as those less-obvious fake email addresses start bouncing back to us we'll purge some more.)

On to the next task...

Cheers,
Dave

glad I never got deleted for being inactive for like 6 years lol.

Написано The_Empirezz, 24.03.2021 at 16:16

None of the inactive clanmates that I hope will return oneday have been purged. So good job and keep up the good work.

same here I would hate to see them being deleted. all of the memories we have.

Написано Zoe, 19.01.2020 at 01:38

Could you find some Youtube channels and sponsor them to advertise AtWar? It wouldn't be as costly as advertising, and could bring more players than advertising directly.

get all the mapmakers to make some alt hist RP scens and then advertise them on channels like Mr Z or whatifalthist and make them tie it into the video. They can do their yapping abt alt hist and then say "if u wanna see where would've gone for urself, try today's sponsor, atwar" and show gameplay footage from a nice pyrhhus-style european scen where there are some basic war or alliance rules and other than that it's an RP FFA. Wil attract scenfags. also remove lifetime premium that's such a way to throw money down the drain.

Написано Phoenix, 07.06.2021 at 07:56

Написано Palmitas, 19.01.2020 at 07:22

Написано Zoe, 19.01.2020 at 01:38

Could you find some Youtube channels and sponsor them to advertise AtWar? It wouldn't be as costly as advertising, and could bring more players than advertising directly.

But, who could promote atWar? Maybe a startegys game/geographic YouTuber

Caspian report!
Geopolitical commentaty with cleanly produced and very interesting videos

lol dude caspian report is too serious of a channel to promote a javascript risk knock off on. Try Monseiur Z whatifalthist history legends kinda of channels.

Написано Artasmara, 28.11.2023 at 09:11

Написано Zoe, 19.01.2020 at 01:38

Could you find some Youtube channels and sponsor them to advertise AtWar? It wouldn't be as costly as advertising, and could bring more players than advertising directly.

get all the mapmakers to make some alt hist RP scens and then advertise them on channels like Mr Z or whatifalthist and make them tie it into the video. They can do their yapping abt alt hist and then say "if u wanna see where would've gone for urself, try today's sponsor, atwar" and show gameplay footage from a nice pyrhhus-style european scen where there are some basic war or alliance rules and other than that it's an RP FFA. Wil attract scenfags. also remove lifetime premium that's such a way to throw money down the drain.

This is the smartest thing I have ever seen that you said