A lot of weird accounts

General Go Discussion
1

In the last half an hour or so I came across three accounts when playing:
tau.udeskymills.1645805049377
tau.pterodactygr.1659729733601
tau.simonlockwoo.1645822458176

Using the user serach box, it seems like there are many such accounts. A lot of them will join a game, and then not make any moves. They all have the naming format tau.<name>.<number>

I randomly looked at a few profiles using the user search box, they all appear to have been created in the last two years. Most of them have played no games. If they have any games, it’s usually just one or two. Does anyone know anything about these? It seems odd, but they don’t seem to be doing anything nefarious. I’m assuming these are all created by the same person/group. What’s the point of creating so many accounts if they don’t really do anything?

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2

And another few:
tau.procompsogal.1645819819466
tau.benjaminbren.1663860376765

This has to be a bot thing.

3

This appears to be the same as a phenomenon I discovered about six months ago and reported to the OGS developer. This would be at least the fourth or fifth such example. They are foreign networks of accounts that are piggybacking on the OGS platform. The network acts as an intermediary, signing up players at their end and assigning them accounts on OGS. This is apparently done in an automated fashion. The networks always follow a naming pattern, although the patterns differ from one to another. This is not authorized by OGS.

We originally thought they were bot networks because the first one seemed to have accounts that resembled very weak bots. Subsequently, it has become clear that they are mix of humans and bots. Unfortunately, due to the clandestine nature of the operation, the bots are not identified as they would be if they were approved OGS bots. The accounts from these networks notoriously escape from games. I have described this to the best of my understanding.

Added: The first network had over 260 accounts and was growing.

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4

I wonder if it could be something like accounts automatically made by some other product or service with OGS integration, like a “smart” go board.

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5

The word “piggybacking” as I understand it (I’m not a native English speaker, but it has been my everyday language for 40 years) means the accounts were intended for some other purpose than playing games on OGS. Is that what you’re thinking? What would the actual purpose be?

–
Ian

6

Gomoku

7

What I meant was that the networks are conducting their own activities, perhaps pretending to be a platform, but they are using the OGS platform.

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8

Although in this case you’d expect to see more games would you?

9

Not if the developer of the smart go board with OGS integration is a bad programmer and makes an account when you turn on the board, rather than enter OGS mode.

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