Oh god so it's not just me. I too have been getting almost a dozen of these.

some of those accounts are from people who forgot their email and or email password that they used for their own FA accounts.

I know at least a dozen people that this happened to

Happened to me since my account was linked to my old email address that I no longer have access to. Emailing support got it fixed though (after a day or two).

I used to have 20 email accounts, now I only have three.

each of those three I have had since 1997, however *shrugs*

Haven't noticed anything yet but wow. Seems like something to keep an eye out for

I think a lot is people who can't remember the email linked to their account

so thirty people in a row wont even upload their old icon on their new account? I dont know about that. :-/ These accounts are completely barren.

you know some people only come here to jerk off, right?

except you though. Instead of fapping and not caring about what journals are posted, you're reading up on those journals to make sure your bot attack continues on unnoticed! :O

I'm kidding. or am I!?

I was honestly just clearing my journals and really wanted to know about this conspiracy.

As one of the people with little artistic skill and even less income to commission my own works, I can attest to that.

I don't have a profile avatar and I've been here for years.

I suspect flying is right. People who don't have sonas etc just need an account to access adult stuff

Maybe they just wanted to rewatch everyone first before filling out their profiles and such?

Just a guess really... =\

but...like...all 30 of them in a row? doing the exact same thing? in unison?

Maybe they're brothers and sisters? ='D

I have no idea honestly, just wanted to throw in my 2 cents lol

Honestly, I wouldn't worry too much about it. I mean, what can they do? Watch you? I mean...I would welcome it really, its watchers and everything after all, right? *shrugs*

I just hate spam and fakes/dishonesty in general. if I notice strange bot like activity existing in a site that I utilize, I will call it out if I can.

pretty much, there's a shiiiiiiiitload of people with that problem, including myself. I only put any kind of work into this back-up account in case it has to become my new main, but at the same time I'm waiting for help to get my previous account back. Same goes for them, presumably!

30 watchers are about 0.27% of your total watchers. Out of all the people watching you, this is an anomaly, at best.

Well, if I lost my FA account, I'd have to make a new avatar. I lost the old one in a hard-drive failure and that'd take a bit of googling to find a proper source to crop.

A lot longer than just making a new account.

It might be an issue of priorities for these people. They feel it more important to re-build their watchlist and not miss any art, and are waiting to upload things like icons and submissions until later. I'm getting these watchers, myself.

People making new accounts because they don't have access to their old emails on their old FAs, and copying their watches over.

It freaked me out, so I grilled a couple. o-o

I'm one of them. I couldn't remember the email I used for my old account when they reset the passwords so I'm just rewatching everyone. I fucking hate this site.

It just looks like a scam bot attack when 30 of you do this at the same time. (also doesnt look too legit when none of you even bother to set your icons) :P

Fair enough, it's pretty suspicious. I never had an icon though, I'm more invested in not missing any uploads right now, I lost almost 1000 with my old account.

ah, sorry to hear that. I believe that some non icons are legit too, it's just making me raise my eyebrow when there's like 20 accounts in a row that have watched me that have been up for hours and hours, and none have an icon.

Scam bot attacks don't spam watches on art galleries, they do stuff for a reason; plus the mass of usernames should also give hint to whether the were random or not. This is 99.99% just people who FA left out of the circle, don't worry!

I have only had one new watchers. I kind of find it odd that so many people don't remember their emails. I mean seriously. keep track of your crap if it is that important.

Iknowright?

even going to other sites is not viable because nobody is on or it focuses on the popular artists.

I just hope I don't loose too many people

To play devil's advocate, if someone made an account and never bothered to change their emails overtime, its likely that the emails in question are like, eight to ten year old emails they made in high school and never use for anything anymore.

I still remember mine even though all i get is junk.

I mostly feel violated that some IT furry felt it was necessary to prove themselves and wreck FA as much as they could

At least in my case, a number of them are people I actually know, who, as someone said, can't remember the email they used to create the account or don't have access to it, so they're creating new accounts- in at least two cases the account name is the same as the old account, just with a 2 on the end.. I suspect a lot of the lurker types, the account is kind of throwaway anyways, easier to just create a new one.

Regardless of the power behind it, it's creepy *shivers*

Once in a while I get a random watcher who has only had their account for an afternoon, but they're already past two and a half thousand people they're watching.

What really creeps me out, are the folks who have an empty gallery for years... and I'm the only one they're watching. O__o;; I've had that happen several times.

OH GOD yes. that is fucking weird. I've seen that about twice.... and that's me not really checking each blank watcher. >.>

And they NEVER say anything to me, or fav anything. They're just there... watching silently... judging, maybe?...

I can't even remember how many times that's happened to me over the years.

I mean, these accounts have often been around for half a dozen years or more, and just then decide to add me as their one and only watch. Maybe I should feel flattered that they found my work worth of their sole attention, but still... at least say "hi" to me once in a while, you know? Lol.

*Shudders*

Oh No! Someone is reading between the lines, and drawing perfectly reasonable conclusions. Quick, everyone realize this person is crazy and start ignoring the conspiracy theorist. You can trust me, I'm the government/mainstream media/hive mind/etc./etc..

Honestly don't know anything about it. It likely is just people forgetting email/password to email sort of thing and being to lazy to really try to do something about it. The only way to find out is to look out for spam or other suspicious activity unfortunately.

No accounts that look like just created spam accounts, but I did just get like 8 more watchers, posting reupload arts in the middle of the night, which is kinda weird.

Well, a week's worth of watches and accounts were lost, I imagine some people are trying to rebuild their damaged watchlists.

I would like to add an additional conspiracy theory to merge with yours.

Ever notice how these major FA attacks happen whenever there's a new competitor site showing up? They wait just long enough for word to get around, make some havoc here, then wait for the flood of "I'm leaving FA forever for this new hotness"

Of course then everyone comes crawling back in like a month or two, but the conspiracy is real I tells ya!

Hmm... well what could they possibly hope to gain from making spambots here?

I have had zero new watchers since the site came back, so clearly this isn't just hitting everyone.

The site has only been back up again for less than 24 hours after the forced password reset. Whatever the reason for creating new accounts, uploading an avatar is probably low on the priority list for watchers vs creators. I'm on my 3rd username for my 'NSFW' secondary accounts in 10 years here, and I've not had an icon for any of them yet. That is extremely common.

As a recovering fave-spammer addict, the 800+ watch, icon-less accounts are not that strange to me at all. I was one of those people not long ago, and still am to a degree. I actually created this new username in the window between the backup cutoff and the attack, with the intention of trying to become a little better than that, so I watched a bunch of people just before the attack, and then again after (because my new account was erased). I INTEND to create an Icon and identity for myself this time Eventually... but creating one will take time.

I think the others are right ... it is probably just a bunch of watchers that never HAD icons and have not logged out in years since changing emails, thus needing to start over. 30 users is NOT very many, considering how many HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of users FA has, internationally. That is just a glass of water in the swimming pool.

This is incredibly insightful. I had no idea people function on this site in such a way ^^; at least not at that volume.

This is why that is happening. (Inkbunny Journal and comments of users who lost their FA accounts due to e-mail)

https://inkbunny.net/journalview.php?id=230787

... users not having access to the emails they registered with is surprisingly common, it seems.

Awww, and here I thought this would be a conspiracy about Furry Network coming out of beta and FA suddenly getting attacked. I'm surprised no one has thought of it yet (not from what I've seen anyway).

No. I am forever not famous by getting watched.

I'll post a new crafty thing on my gallery and suddenly get a random watch. I only think it's because my stuff was at the top of the page.....

I'm doing everything from my phone

considering what's just happened with the password lock out, and the fact that your average user joined up over 4 years ago, meaning an email could have been deleted or is no longer used, so is forgotten about. it's not the slightest bit weird that suddenly a bunch of people are making these new accounts.
though, i dunno why they would, when FA's admin team has posted that they will be helping those who have lost email addresses. y'all just have to email them. even if it takes a couple days to get sorted. don't need to flood the site with a bunch of new accounts...

/me wishes spam bots would come to me

I suspect it's a mix of people trying to sign up during the downtime mass watching everyone they found during the read only mode, and some poor souls who forgot their passwords. however it could be truly some kind of conspiracy I actually plan on changing my password a few more times in few days