IRC Network using fake users to boost ranking

FullSpectrum · none Joined: 15 Jan 2007 Posts: 7

It has recently come to my attention that irc.z0r.org is using a *nix based irc bot on one of their admin's boxes (kossy owns the box) to add thousands of users to their userbase. They are using a server called contr0l.z0r.org to host these users which are essentially bots on kossy's LAN. Although they have hidden this, one can't help but notice that this network (formerly "nsane") has grown from 4000 users to 10,000 in one night, that is in no way possible on irc, unless there is cheating involved. These admins will do anything including cheat to get to the top of the rankings. Just seems a little odd that it's listing 10,000 users and then you do a /list and the biggest channel is 900 and the total number of users listed is less than 3000. Also strange, whenever they get a netsplit that causes users to go from 10,000 to 4000 again, there is not one user in a big channel that gets split off.

I realize that the searchirc admins are very busy and may not notice these attempts at cheating, so I figured I would just point them out. Hopefully the admins will take the appropriate action in this case.

Original /lusers:

There are 1 users and 758 invisible on 1 servers
1 IRC Operators online
111 unknown connection(s)
274 channels formed
I have 759 clients and 0 servers
-
Current local users 759, max 4475
Current global users 3793, max 4475

Cheating /lusers:

There are 1 users and 10864 invisible on 1 servers
17 IRC Operators online
17 unknown connection(s)
490 channels formed
I have 10865 clients and 0 servers
-
Current local users 10865, max 11769
Current global users 10865, max 11769

Current /lusers (they are currently experiencing a split from their fake users):

There are 0 users and 3995 invisible on 1 servers
16 IRC Operators online
26 unknown connection(s)
442 channels formed
I have 3995 clients and 0 servers
-
Current local users 3995, max 11558
Current global users 3995, max 11558

Jason · Posted: Jan 15, 2007 7:03am Post subject:

Userbases do not drop that suddenly in real life, unless it's a major network issue. Given what you are saying, we would normally remove the network. That said, they are currently not faking their userbase, so I'll refrain from removal unless they reinstate the fake users again.

Thanks for the heads up.

Mary · SearchIRC Admin Joined: 03 May 2003 Posts: 692

fullspectrum, actually Jason and I had quite a conversation about z0r. We visited to review it after it had been submitted as a new network. It is HIGHLY unusual (but not unheard of) for a network to have 0 users and 10,000+ invisibles, even more so for a NEW network to have those figures. So we spent a while looking into it. Just to complicate matters, the ircd was configured in such a way as to impede our ability to confirm data. Jason spoke to the admin and discovered z0r was already listed on searchirc under its old name. So whatever doubts we had were laid to rest and they were approved.

A snapshot view is not as representative of the true userbase as what we see in the graphs. Z0r's graphs clearly show large numbers of clients joining and leaving in unison.

We'll keep an eye on them, and trust you will too. If you see any network faking users, email us and we'll check right into it.