dotorya's blog

Multiple accounts for one person should be banned
By dotorya, history, 6 years ago, In English

Recently, There seems to be so many multiple accounts among various rating ranges.

In top 10, there is DearMargaret, who became Legendary Grandmaster in 2 months. He should be a great genius, right? There is better hypothesis: He is someone's smurfing account.

Everybody knows that jiry_2 = Syloviaely. He performed quite a long ago, but it's the fact that he has multiple accounts, both having 2900+ ratings.

In Div2 contests, many black-colored people are at top of the scoreboards. Why there are always a lot of talented newcomers? You will know the reason.

Why don't Codeforces ban those multiple accounts? They ruins contest scoreboard and rating system. For example, DearMargaret "absorbed" other participants rating for about 5-6 contests to be Legendary Grandmaster. On those contest's scoreboard, there were always him on top pages.

One account for one person. That was the rule. Smurfing accounts should be banned.

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Comments Comments (187)
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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +11 Vote: I do not like it

Auto comment: topic has been updated by dotorya (previous revision, new revision, compare).

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +141 Vote: I do not like it

Can you also propose a method to detect fake accounts? I am sure codeforces or any social media website will be happy to implement it if it actually detects fake profiles.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +31 Vote: I do not like it

    lol I tried to make a twitter account, put my cf profile pic on, and twitter banned me for being a spam bot

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    Maybe some sort of an additional verification after an unusually good performance (such as becoming red in 5 contests). Could be a phone verification or mapping the handle to an old-enough Facebook profile (Facebook already has a good system for detecting fake accounts)

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +6 Vote: I do not like it

      Facebook already has a good system for detecting fake accounts

      No they don't; my friend got account deleted for 2 months once.

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +6 Vote: I do not like it

      It is easy to get old Facebook accounts, as long as someone wants to.

      And many don't have Facebook ID, me too. I didn't register an ID because of the GFW.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +16 Vote: I do not like it

    For codeforces maybe we could develop an algorithm that identifies users based on coding style. If trained with enough examples I think a neural network could learn to do this.

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +182 Vote: I do not like it

      Much easier said than done LMAO

      You can try to develop it, good luck.

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
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      2 people may have very similar coding style.

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        6 years ago, # ^ |
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        Especially if they trained a lot together for team olympiads.

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        6 years ago, # ^ |
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        Maybe they have trained together, and maybe they are using the same template and contest libraries. But still, one can imagine a superhuman being that can distinguish those cases.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it -18 Vote: I do not like it

    maybe IP tracking .because the user will mostly use his laptop for both the accounts.

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
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      What if they have dynamic ip?

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        6 years ago, # ^ |
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        yes but some sites can well track if someone is using proxy or not and not allow the site when someone tries to open by using VPN or proxy.Codeforces can do the same which forces the user to remove proxy to open codeforces.

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          6 years ago, # ^ |
            Vote: I like it +70 Vote: I do not like it

          Very bad idea. I use VPN sometimes to enter codeforces, because in our country codeforces is blocked by some internet providers.

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            6 years ago, # ^ |
              Vote: I like it +9 Vote: I do not like it

            Just use uBlock/uMatrix and block request to vk.com and yandex.st (or even set them to 127.0.0.1 in hosts file).

            Codeforces itself isn't blocked but requests to those two don't go through and you have to wait 30s timeout on each page load.

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            6 years ago, # ^ |
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            Why is codeforce blocked?

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              6 years ago, # ^ |
              ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

              because it uses some russian elements which are disrespected in the Ukraine

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +24 Vote: I do not like it

      I sometimes do a programming contest in the same house with other people, in different rooms but behind the same NAT. That's not forbidden, shouldn't be forbidden, but are from the same IP.

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6 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +80 Vote: I do not like it

Is there really a way to prove that for example DearMargaret is smurfing account?

Your explanation seems to be really true but there should be a mechanism for provoing that.

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +18 Vote: I do not like it

i think YuukaKazami was banned for having multiple accounts but it was a long time ago. dont know why they stopped doing it.

inb4 posting this from an alt account :/

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -9 Vote: I do not like it

Someone needs to calculate if having fake accounts absorb rating offsets people making fake accounts to compete whenever they drop below 1500.

Maybe we can just get rid of the hacky heuristics and add a bunch of fake accounts to the top of the leaderboard to combat rating inflation.

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +6 Vote: I do not like it

The ease of making a fake account in the codeforces is very large

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -127 Vote: I do not like it

Is there a problem with that ?

Why did you take only DearMargaret as an example ???

Why you didn't mention xumingkuan or jhn333 or another handle that got red in less than 10 contests ???

What if you have an alt too ?

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +45 Vote: I do not like it

    I'm pretty sure xumingkuan is not an alt account

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +77 Vote: I do not like it

    at least you are using fake account too :p

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
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      you are master in just 4 contests

      You are using an alt too.

      Again pointless blog!

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        6 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +116 Vote: I do not like it

        Exactly. I should be banned with you.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +179 Vote: I do not like it

    Is there a problem with that ? — Yes. Because they didn't follow Codeforces' terms of agreement.

    Terms of agreement:

    The registration confirms that you:

    • have read the contest rules and will not violate the rules
    • will not communicate with other participants, use another person's code for solutions, share ideas of solutions
    • will not attempt to deliberately destabilize the testing process and try to hack the contest system in any form
    • will not use multiple accounts and will take part in the contest using your personal and the single account.
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      6 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it -222 Vote: I do not like it

      Do you really think that people care about these terms of agreement ?

      Pointless blog.

      I think that dotorya is whining because someone DearMargaret is dominating him.

      Stop crying like a baby!

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        6 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +218 Vote: I do not like it

        Another problem for multiple accounts: People afraid of downvotes makes an alt account, and writes cancerous stuffs in our community. If you surf through the CF community, you can notice half of the shitposts originating from weird alt accounts.

        For community level, I think this can be done — For example, putting a mandatory round participation barrier, or making them wait for 3 days to post something.

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          6 years ago, # ^ |
            Vote: I like it -41 Vote: I do not like it

          except shitty posts and comments , i don't think there is any issue because noone gives a damn to these shit,and i hope DearMargaret despite of having fake account became red because of his own skills .....

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        6 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +37 Vote: I do not like it

        Do you really think that people care about these terms of agreement ? // Yes, I do.

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +6 Vote: I do not like it

      jiry is a great master, but the terms of agreement of CodeForces should be follewed.

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +15 Vote: I do not like it

I BET the least contributor dxymaster2002 is not an alt account.

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +66 Vote: I do not like it

I agree with you. I guess it is quite hard to avoid people from making accounts for stupid downvoteable comments, or from creating new accounts if they get desperate by hitting too low rating. However, what I find really disappointing is that such great champions such as Syloviaely and whoever is behind DearMargaret are doing these fake account barbarities. I believe that the top rated people in CF should have a greater understanding of the competitive community and fair contesting, and serve as an example for all the rest of us to honor the rules.

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -117 Vote: I do not like it

Why do you only mention Chinese coders? It's discrimination

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +152 Vote: I do not like it

    thanks for pointing out that both are Chinese, I did not notice that before

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it -118 Vote: I do not like it

      Taiwan is also chinese although they don't use chinese pinyin as does DearMargaret

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        6 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +180 Vote: I do not like it

        Krrr.... Bowwow! bowwow! woof! woof woof! ruff! ruff! ruff ruff! krrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr bowwow bowwow! arrrrrrf Woof! woof!

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it -100 Vote: I do not like it

    Simple, because the Koreans hate us.

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it -105 Vote: I do not like it

      Yes you are probably right. dotorya hates us simply because they would have got gold in beijing if no chinese teams were above them

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        6 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +34 Vote: I do not like it

        Krrr.... Bowwow! bowwow! woof! woof woof! ruff! ruff! ruff ruff! krrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr bowwow bowwow! arrrrrrf Woof! woof!

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        6 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +15 Vote: I do not like it

        People don't hate another person just because he or she is Chinese. People hate trollers.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    That's because it's so easy to discriminate those who divided in our cruel world!

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6 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +96 Vote: I do not like it

Well, in my opinion, the most unforgivable thing is to use an alt account for malicious purposes, for example, posting assulting words or cheating in competitions.
I think it's important to figure out whether the user is using the alt account for bad purposes before you ban it.
Also it's more effective to prevent registering fake accounts than banning them only after you have noticed them.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +13 Vote: I do not like it

    how is what they are doing "for practice"? and why can't they practice on their real account?

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
      ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +64 Vote: I do not like it

      I mean we needn't worry about them if they don't cause trouble to the community.
      It will be too much work for the administrater to ban all the fake accounts.
      But it'll be much easier to ban those who try to harm the community.

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        6 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +18 Vote: I do not like it

        Cheating doesn’t cause trouble to the community, so it is justified in same way.

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          6 years ago, # ^ |
          ← Rev. 3   Vote: I like it +49 Vote: I do not like it

          Sorry for my words, they have caused some misunderstanding.
          I don't mean cheaters can be forgiven.
          Currently, our best method to punish cheaters is to check if they have submitted similar codes and ban them.
          I was just talking about those who use alt accounts to assault others.
          As for behaviors mentioned in the blog, I think the rule-breakers should apologize to the community.

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          6 years ago, # ^ |
            Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

          There are basically different definitions for cheating derived from different ideas of legitimacy definition. The demonstration of seven was absolutely against the law, but was it bad? Assuming that was good had we justified going against a law or against a majority or against a society?

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            6 years ago, # ^ |
              Vote: I like it +34 Vote: I do not like it

            Law is not everything != You can break the law as you want

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              6 years ago, # ^ |
                Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

              Surely, but still I have no idea why multiple accounts are something evil unless you use them simultaneously during a contest aiming to get better results and I know at least one case when rule against multiple accounts contradicts my opinion of the case.

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                6 years ago, # ^ |
                  Vote: I like it +36 Vote: I do not like it

                Because your "unless" thing is a very realistic option, and it's a burglary on another person's ratings, and there is troll alts everywhere..??

                I think this things are pretty clearly mentioned upon these article. Or you can check here.

                Maybe making account dotoryb, dotoryc, dotoryd and sending them into top10 would help people understand this :p

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                  6 years ago, # ^ |
                    Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

                  Trolls are everywhere.

                  I surely do not understand those who are playing div2 from fakes as I surely do not understand anyone who are proud of winning div2 contest at all.

                  Also the problem you mentioned is a problem of CF model by design and is almost as old as CF is.

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        6 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

        All high level alt accounts harm the community, because they are taking rating from other people, thus inflating the rating even more, and making everyone else have less rating.

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +4 Vote: I do not like it

At least need to add SMS verification.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it -10 Vote: I do not like it

    I too think SMS verification can work just fine to some fair extent.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +17 Vote: I do not like it

    Lots of Free SMS Verification Service online...

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

    What about fake cell phones then? Lots of free cell chips in the black market here in Buenos Aires...

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

I'm strong agree with you.In my view,it's a kind of cheating.

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +322 Vote: I do not like it

Scrolling this thread be like

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +18 Vote: I do not like it

In my point of view, the terms of agreement said: "will not use multiple accounts and will take part in the contest using your personal and the single account." So that means we cannot use multiple accounts in the contests only or under any circumstances? I think using 2 or more accs in a contest is unfair, obviously, you can read my blog for the reason. But I don't think having multiple accounts is bad, when participating in contests, it's their own effort and ability.

Moreover, even big social networking sites like Facebook still struggling in getting rid of all fake account , so it would be too hard for Codeforces and does it really worth the effort generating a new complex system?

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6 years ago, # |
← Rev. 8   Vote: I like it +10 Vote: I do not like it

It's not ok if you use 2 accounts to apply one contest because it's unfair

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +6 Vote: I do not like it

What about a vote?

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -130 Vote: I do not like it

Can we have this blog deleted ?

We don't want to see dotorya crying like a kid.... like a baby!

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +154 Vote: I do not like it

    This seems to be a better example of what crying like a baby is.

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -23 Vote: I do not like it

I think IP test could censor a lot of alt accounts. Of course not all alt accounts can be eliminated, but this will work well enough for there

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +71 Vote: I do not like it

    IP test is a not a good idea. Google is blocked in China, so in order to register, Chinese participants have to use a VPN, which causes frequent IP conflict.

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

      I wasn’t even thought about that...

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        6 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

        Browser fingerprint is what you really want.

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          4 years ago, # ^ |
            Vote: I like it -37 Vote: I do not like it

          One person has ten fingers, as you know.

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +11 Vote: I do not like it

      Also, anyone else can use a VPN too, to bypass that check. Not to mention families having more than one competitor using the same network.

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6 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Well I think there's nothing much to have more than one account. (But it's better not to do that)(Actually most of the users have.) But, it is really bad to use multiple accounts in one contest. This is really cheating, and should be banned. And another really bad thing is to use fake accounts to say bad words and pollute the environment of the community. This should also be banned.

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +157 Vote: I do not like it

wemel is showing us the very reason to ban multiple accounts. Thanks!

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6 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +26 Vote: I do not like it

How do you know for sure DearMargaret is an alt account? There are not so many people at this level, and his code does not seem to be same style as anyone else?

I've tried using weaselcrow.com to quickly check, and found that several top rated Chinese cannot be DearMargaret: many of them participated in CF #512, and several other have very different coding style.

As a counter example, when peter50216 first appear on both CF and TC, his rating rise up quite fast, but I believe that is his only account.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    peter50216 became red in 2012. At that point of time, I do not think that Codeforces was so popular, or at least, much less popular than nowadays. 6 years ago, "someone knows about Codeforces after he becomes very strong" made sense to me. But today, it sounds really weird that someone is in the top of the world, but does not know about one of the biggest competitive programming website in the world.

    Why do you think that DearMargaret is Chinese. May he be someone speaking Chinese, or knowing Chinese but non-Chinese?

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
      ← Rev. 3   Vote: I like it +21 Vote: I do not like it

      TC was very popular (probably same as current CF in competitive programming community back then), but peter50216 did not participate in it. AFAIK Peter did hundreds of problems on some Taiwan OJ at that time.

      Anyway this is just an example on top of my head. The main point is that there can be so many reasons one does not participate in CF, e.g. not believing it has much value, prefer training somewhere else, CF rounds are often at inconvenient time, ...

      Of course we don't know 100% DearMargaret is Chinese. I just checked some Chinese because it is the most likely scenario. Maybe someone can do a complete analyze of all top CF users.

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +98 Vote: I do not like it

I don't want to see so many alt account in competitions too , but I think some of them are acceptable, and the most important thing is: you need to find out the effective way before you said something aggressive like this.

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6 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +140 Vote: I do not like it

My guess (pretty sure about it) : DearMargaret is a account where many people use together. Look at these submissions : 42370798 43314103 42172643 41842544 One can see those coding style is obviously different. I know that this isn't a perfect proof but I believe one people changing style so different in a short time is not logical.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it -14 Vote: I do not like it

    Here is another example: 40291873 I think all those submissions are enough evidence to at least have him closely on the watch in the next contests.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +55 Vote: I do not like it

    They look quite similar to me. The biggest difference between them is in parts of code that looks much like library code (Dinic in the code #4) and includes in the code #3 (but the same includes are used in the whole contest, so I guess it was a matter of a template).

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
      ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +131 Vote: I do not like it

      It's normal for person to follow one code style among submissions. But DearMargaret don't follow any:

      1) different casting to long long in expressions: (i64)pos[a]*w[a] 43324397 vs 1ll * P * N 42172643 vs (long long)rk[u] * (rk[u] - 1) 41847210

      2) different ways to set the size of the global array: const int N = 200000; int x[N]; 42172643 vs char s[123456]; 41829219

      3) different ways to read the elements of an array: scanf("%d", a + i); 42382506 vs scanf("%d", &x[i]); 42172643

      4) different aliases for long long: using ll = long long; 41866839 vs using i64 = long long; 42393047

      Nothing of that is an evidence of cheating. But together it looks notorious.

      P.S.: I think it's important to mention that I didn't found such examples during one contest. So probably we have a shared account for a group of nutella-level users...

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        6 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +50 Vote: I do not like it

        Items #1 and #3 are quite apparent indeed.

        Problem #2 is harmless to me. If there is just one array, I often initialize it without the const int for the size. The more concerning part is sometimes using the size of a round number 200000 and sometimes 123456.

        I noticed #4 in the above linked codes, but there ll was a part of library code, so I assumed they changed i64 to ll to not alter library code. Your found code isn't the case and is concerning.

        P.S.: I think it's important to mention that I didn't found such examples during one contest. So probably we have a shared account for a group of nutella-level users...

        I agree this can be the case, the submissions within one contest look more similar than between contests.

        I tried going through the list of all 3000+ coders before and eliminating all that had at least one shared contest with DearMargaret. The remaining ones had too much different coding style. But if this is more than one person, we can't eliminate anyone.

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        6 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +102 Vote: I do not like it

        I think too that Cong, Ling, Dan, Pai and Shang are different people

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          6 years ago, # ^ |
          ← Rev. 3   Vote: I like it +105 Vote: I do not like it

          I'm pretty sure that is not the truth. In Chinese CongLing means starting from zero. DanPai means solo and indicates there is only one person behind the account. Shang3k5 means reach 3500 which refers to cf rating. Base on that I think the story behind the fake account is a joke from some LGM guy. It's definitely not funny though.

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            6 years ago, # ^ |
              Vote: I like it +30 Vote: I do not like it

            Wow... that clears everything for me. I thought it was supposed to be "cong lingdan pai shang 3k5." and the "pai" part confused me a lot and it even made me think that it could be a non-Chinese-speaking guy trying to use pinyin in their handle but did poorly.

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          6 years ago, # ^ |
            Vote: I like it +39 Vote: I do not like it

          "I think too that C,o,d,e and r are different people."

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +73 Vote: I do not like it

Seems like making noob alts to compensate for the points taken by legendary alts is the only option we have so far

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -39 Vote: I do not like it

why fateice wasn't mention when he became LGM in just 9 contests.

dotorya,you just hate us.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    I don't think fateice is an alt either

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +49 Vote: I do not like it

    ![ ]( )

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +8 Vote: I do not like it

      Profound. Is this referring to the dog-eats-dog world in codeforces, and in capitalist america, or a cryptic reference to how wemel is all bark and no bite, and thus a demonstration and how to sway the hearts of the populace?

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +79 Vote: I do not like it

Alt accounts defending claims against alt accounts. How ironic.

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -33 Vote: I do not like it

If you are willing to rewrite the entire rating system, then I'm ok with it. Otherwise no.

The people who reach under 1500 and make booster accounts are helping us fight the scourge of rating deflation. (see https://codeforces.net/blog/entry/62024)

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +31 Vote: I do not like it

(This was in the unrated alts troll thread, so it was deleted together. I think this is an important matter, so I’ll just leave it again here.)

Another problem for multiple accounts: People afraid of downvotes makes an alt account, and writes cancerous stuffs in our community. If you surf through the CF community, you can notice half of the shitposts originating from weird alt accounts.

For community level, I think this can be done — For example, putting a mandatory round participation barrier, or making them wait for 3 days to post something.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

    Codechef has a minimum karma value (similar to contribution here) for a person to be able to upvote/comment on threads. I guess it is inspired from StackOverflow contribution system itself. A pretty efficient way of preventing fake accounts from going berserk.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +55 Vote: I do not like it

    Yeah I'm really disappointed in these fools. Be a legend like me and shitpost on your real account.

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +35 Vote: I do not like it

      Damn dude those are some good shitposts

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +15 Vote: I do not like it

      I bet dxymaster2002 is not an alt account.

      Although he is the least contributor, he has shown us the courage he has.

      He is a real legend, right?

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        5 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

        maybe he do it on purpose, just like someone lowering his rating on purpose as well, such as newbie3141592.

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Sticks are not good.

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6 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +466 Vote: I do not like it

Well, It's true that I have multiple accounts (jiry_2 = Syloviaely)

The first name of this account is "TakanashiRikka". At that time, I was a beginner and I believed it's interesting to play the role of my favorite anime character on CodeForces, just like she is living in our world, and also a good algorithm competitor. I felt a lot of fun in this process.

As time goes on, my rating became higher and higher, and when I had the chance to become one of Top10 players, I finally realized how unfair it would be if I still kept both of these two high-rating accounts. So I gave up jiry_2 immediately and I only use this account in contests from than on.

I want to apologize for my past behavior and its negative effect, and I can promise that I'm not DearMargaret. I don't want to be the "leader" of multiple accounts (although it's the truth), so I think I have a duty to take a stand, and I can accept the result that jiry_2 is banned :)

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +105 Vote: I do not like it

    Thank you for your kind comments. Even though my posts could seem rude to you, you understood my opinions and gave this comment.

    I respect your kind words, and thank a lot for your honesty. Good luck in Codeforces!

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +142 Vote: I do not like it

    Nooo ... I don't want jiry_2 to be banned because you used that account to post the tutorial on segment tree beats.

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +30 Vote: I do not like it

      You know, since this is a thread about multiple accounts...

      Are you someone's alt?

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +35 Vote: I do not like it

      Haha, that's a nice point. I'm glad that you like this tutorial. I've moved this blog to this account :).

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +6 Vote: I do not like it

    I'm a bit surprised to know that your first name is not kujoukaren.

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +30 Vote: I do not like it

      Actually, I've considered changing my nickname to "KujouKaren" for thousands of times. But sadly, I found that this name had been used by KujouKaren. That's quite a pity for me.

      (BTW, my nickname on atcoder is KujouKaren. Touyama Nao is the best in the world!

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        6 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +9 Vote: I do not like it

        Maybe you can change your avatar photo to Karen first.

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        6 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

        Seems that this year you can try to change your handle to KujouKaren due to last year improvement of magic: seems that all requirements hold
        Strange fact: in russian version of that post is written in 2014 or earlier, but in english in 2012 or earlier

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +20 Vote: I do not like it

      It makes a nice middle name. Ruyi Kujoukaren Ji sounds great :)

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +10 Vote: I do not like it

An idea that came recently to my mind is to add the option of "unrated participation" so for example when you register to a contest you could choose if you either want it to be rated for you or not. This can be changed right until the contest starts.

Thus, if you register as rated you just see the usual scoreboard with all rated participants and nothing changes from the current format.

If you register as unrated, you have 2 options: see all rated participants and yourself, or see all participants(rated or unrated) on the scoreboard. All your unrated participations should be private and only you can see them.

This way, people that are afraid to lose rating and make another account won't have the incentive to do it anymore, they can just use the unrated feature to see how well they perform. I realize this is somewhat similar to virtual participation but the difference is that it's all in real time and you get judged on the pretests.

There still remain the people that want to look cool by getting the first place on div2 but there's not many of them.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +19 Vote: I do not like it

    What if someone creates a fake account and submits using the "unrated" mode?

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
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    that just sounds like a complicated "register out of participation"

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
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      Yeah, I forgot that such a feature exists :P

      Still, from the experience of my friends, and mine included, people usually make fake accounts when they are afraid to lose rating of their main account. Unfortunately div2 participants can't participate unofficially in a div2 contests(or was this changed)?

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +10 Vote: I do not like it

There is this 4 years old blog Why do users make multiple accounts?. I think it explains well why many people create fake accounts to participate in div2.

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +170 Vote: I do not like it

What is the purpose of this blog? To raise awareness? Seems unnecessary.

It is highly unlikely Mike or anyone would do something. You mentioned infamous jiry_2 = Syloviaely. It is confirmed by himself but both accounts exist. You can remember sorry_dreamoon fame. It was a cool joke but still second account. Analysis by Enchom seems very convincing to me. In case of DearMargaret we don't have even idea of who it might be.

It would be cool to hear comments from him/her but we probably won't. It is true that CP community is small, at least at the top most people know each other from onsites and/or personal conversations. But it can be that he/she is too young to attend onsites. Who knows.

I want to say my opinion on 3 types of fake accounts mention in blog or in comments + 1 of which I know from somewhere else:
1) Fakes to win in div2. I'm not bothered because I'm not in div2 for some years, and when I was in div2 it didn't look strange to me. Some strong guy take his first contest on CF and finished on top. That seems logical, I can relate to that. I placed 2nd in my first SRM, that was my only div2 round on TopCoder. Maybe after this years that changed. CF is probably the most known site in CP so it is unlikely that someone strong not using it. But it still can be the case for some coaches who thinks that you shouldn't do rounds before reaching some level (I would say that to newbie, I think).
2) Fakes to have 2-3-4 nutella accounts. That bother me because I'm not a good person. It is important for me to estimate that I am top-X in the world now. And that kind of fakes interferes. But it is like 20/50/100 people in the world, it would be easier to agree that we shouldn't do that. And also since the number of people who can do that is strictly limited, it is not a wide problem for all community.
3) Fakes to write shitposts. Oh, this is so bad. If you want to write something and think that reaction of community will hurt you, this is a good sign that you just shouldn't write it. But if you want to write it anyway, do it under your own account, that is your bad deed. Obviously this "but" added to whitewash some guy named Um_nik who regularly writes some shit. Also this "but" don't work with rotavirus. I should respect him for writing literally any delirious thing in his mind but I do not.
4) Fakes to overcome fear of rating loss. It is just stupid, rating is just a number.

Oh, there are more kinds!
3') Fakes to write something for which you can lose something real. Example. This using of fakes is OK, but the fact that we have to talk about these situations at all is not OK.
5) Hello, Dniwe_of_river is my fake. It is somewhat funny that Um_nik is registered on my main e-mail which was created before I came up "Um_nik" (like, the name itself), and Dniwe_of_river is registered on e-mail "um.nik[something]@gmail.com". Why did I create it? Well, I and some other person wanted to write a contest together (you can see that half of submits are on Pascal without tabulation (that's me) and the other half on C++). We understood that it is against the rules that is why we created another account which won't affect our ratings. We probably could wait until the round ends and then participate virtually. Shame on us.

Oh, now I understand. You just wanted to share your thoughts with community. That's cool.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
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    It is important for me to estimate that I am top-X in the world now.
    rating is just a number.
    Choose one

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
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      If all of us will get +1000 rating that won't change anything at all, but the number will change drastically. There are some people who tries to increase their ratings without increasing their skill. This includes 'participating from fake when you are not feeling well', 'if I don't solve C (or maybe A) in 15 minutes, I don't submit anything' and many other things. If you do this, you value your rating higher than your real skills. And such rating cannot be used to estimate 'top-X in the world'.

      I think that I want my skill be higher, not the number. So my point is valid: participating from fake to somehow affect (or do not affect in this case) rating on your main account means that you value the number, not the skill. And this is stupid.

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        6 years ago, # ^ |
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        thanks, got it

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        6 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

        If all of us will get +1000 rating that won't change anything at all, but the number will change drastically.

        Then base rating is just a number, not relative rating — which is what people usually mean.

        I think that I want my skill be higher, not the number.

        And how do you estimate your skill (relative to other people) if not by rankings and ratings?

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          6 years ago, # ^ |
            Vote: I like it +28 Vote: I do not like it

          Suppose that you have a notebook in which you write the amount of money you have every day. You want to have more money but you think that the good estimator is the number in the notebook, so you decide to have bigger number written in notebook. That's so easy, just write a bigger number.

          There are ways to increase your rating (including but not limited to ones I mentioned). I don't want to use these, because I want my rating to represent my skill. So then I could use it to estimate my real skill. But I have to tolerate those who use.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

    Fakes to win in div2. I'm not bothered because I'm not in div2 for some years, and when I was in div2 it didn't look strange to me.

    That's not the problem they introduce (who cares about div2 wins anyway), rating inflation is. Of course, the winners of div2 don't introduce extra rating into the system (they drain it instead), but then there are much more non-winners of div2 that lose rating. It's easier to lose rating if you're not really good, since if you make a new account to participate in a div2 contest, start submitting, but see that you won't win, you just abandon it. I imagine that made ratings increase noticeably faster than a simple influx of newbies due to popularity.

    Fortunately, there seems to be a rating drain recently that would fix this.

    That bother me because I'm not a good person. It is important for me to estimate that I am top-X in the world now.

    Unless this becomes really common practice, ranking of active users is informative enough.

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -77 Vote: I do not like it

Well since nobody has the balls to say it:

DearMargaret = jqdai0815

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6 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it -13 Vote: I do not like it

I can't find either jiry_2 or Syloviaely from the ratings list, did both accounts get banned?

EDIT: I'm dumb

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +10 Vote: I do not like it

    Rating list shows the users participated in recent six months.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +10 Vote: I do not like it

    rating list doesn't contain accounts that haven't done any contest for 6 months

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -67 Vote: I do not like it

I think tourist is Petr's second account.

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +25 Vote: I do not like it

I don't think fake accounts should be banned (please don't downvote this comment if you don't agree to it, present counter-arguments in reply instead :-) )

Codeforces gives its users very poor privacy control options. I can't hide the list of problems I have solved. I can't hide my contest scores from the public. If I use one account throughout my life, people might eventually come to know my username and then they will have access to all of this information of mine (which I don't want to happen). If I create an account before a contest, participate in a contest and then throw it, my result will only be known to me. If someone comes to know one of my usernames, he will only have access to results of only a couple of contests, not all.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +39 Vote: I do not like it

    You can use the private account starting virtual contests, without affecting ohter's ratings.

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +62 Vote: I do not like it

Hi, I'm Alexey Navalny.

it's also known that vml, WHITE2302 and amethyst0 are belong to one person.

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Why do you say Smurfing accounts should be banned? Poor Smurfs... they are cute and nice. I never understood why some people hate them so much.

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +126 Vote: I do not like it

wxh010910 is an alt account of webmaster. MikeMirzayanov please ban it.

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +22 Vote: I do not like it

It was fun with DearMargaret . HINT : From peking university.

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6 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it -44 Vote: I do not like it

.

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6 years ago, # |
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May be i'm too tiny to comment here...but At least Codeforces can have Account Delete Option

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

http://codeforces.net/blog/entry/62929

DIV 2 two guys from top 5 are smurfing...

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -32 Vote: I do not like it

chuochuo looks like an alt to me (he/she reached Master in 2 contests).

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -18 Vote: I do not like it

woookje is an alt account of ko_osaga. MikeMirzayanov please ban it. Every Korean contestant knows it.

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6 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it -85 Vote: I do not like it

.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +67 Vote: I do not like it

    i am in the usaco discord server and i can confirm that they are NOT the same people

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
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    smh

    -USACO discord server

    For example, everyone knows prodakcin is frodakcin.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +54 Vote: I do not like it

    These accounts are not alts or the same people. Also, you're being very hypocritical. There is no way that your account is not an alt, because nobody makes their first codeforces account just to call people out.

    tmw orz

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
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    This is just rude and disrespectful.

    Do you know the amount of work and effort tzuyu_chou has put into practicing cp in between her dance practices and concert schedules?

    She could easily have made IOI if she was in school

    TMW(orz) is very geniosity but he has no alts. This is a fact. prodakcin is frodakcin. Do not disrespect him, He will win IOI golds in 2019, 2020 and 2021. 1021869 is Albert. He is very geniosity. (So is summitwei who is also benericqwei)

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +34 Vote: I do not like it

      You made a typo: it's 1021869, not 1021689.

      Also, everything you said is obviously true.

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        6 years ago, # ^ |
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        it sounds as if you are being sarcastic. Tzuyu had once said in her interview that she likes it when people compliment her skills rather than her looks, but what gogh is doing is attacking her skills. This is very disrespectful.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +79 Vote: I do not like it

    shots being fired

    Why are you using an alt to accuse someone who has alts? If you have the balls to accuse him, do it with your main!

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +51 Vote: I do not like it

    you are speaking about alts , but you are an alt
    ironic
    but your words are true

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 3   Vote: I like it -64 Vote: I do not like it

    .

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +31 Vote: I do not like it

We can implement how dota does it. Unrate the first 5-10 contests of new user. Smurfs atleast need to work hard to participate in rated contests.

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it -10 Vote: I do not like it

    This specific way of protection doesn't work on cf whatsoever due to ease of automation.

    We're programmers, not retards. People who are able to smurf will be able to automate "getting rated" task without really "working hard"

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +10 Vote: I do not like it

      I can't write automated problem-solving bots that have 2100+ skills. I'm a retard :((

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