Incorrectly "permanently unlisted" from public

[NothingButElla]

Hi, I just found out that my account no longer appears in public scoreboards.

After reading the privacy policy, I found I might have been incorrectly labeled as "exhibiting unrealistic solve patterns". However, since I registered for this account around 10 years ago, I have been always solving all the problems honestly. I have never copied answers from anywhere else or done anything wrong.

Could you please explain why my solve patterns are unrealistic or restore me to be public? Thank you!

[hk]

Your name appeared suspiciously short after some problems were spoiled.
I removed the ban but set your account for tracking.
Be careful not to raise suspicions again.

[NothingButElla]

Your name appeared suspiciously short after some problems were spoiled.
I removed the ban but set your account for tracking.
Be careful not to raise suspicions again.

Thanks! Actually I don't know the existence of the spoilers at all. It was just an coincidence.

[DeKlod]

Hello,
I have a similar problem: my account has been set to private because of 'unrealistic' times.
There is however an explanation for these times: I had had an account on PE a few years ago and solved a number of problems. I then deleted the account and started a new one because I wanted to go through the problems using Fortran (as opposed to C/C++ previously).
By now, I am going through the problems a third time trying to improve my code (many of my first solutions took rather longer than a minute, so with more experience I'm reworking my code).
But this means that I no longer need to find the solution 'per se', so that I can sometimes rattle off several solutions in a relatively short time.
Cheers,
Claude

[hk]

You got two warnings
Why did you ignore the first one?
The second one was final

[atiksh.aa]

Hi Project Euler Team,

I recently found that my account has been marked as “permanently unlisted.” I don’t remember receiving any prior warnings or a clear explanation about why this happened.

I’d really appreciate it if you could let me know what led to this, so I can understand and explain if needed. I value this community and would like the chance to keep participating.

Thanks for your time and help.

[Incompleteusern]

Hey!

In a similar situation here. I think there's two main reasons my account would have been flagged
1. I solved problem 942 as a new account, which would from the outside view as unrealistic given the newness of my account
2. I solved other problems tonight too quickly in succession

Regarding #1, problem 942 was given to students at a math camp this summer, and I was recommended and subsequently solved the problem. I can provide proof of the above privately that I attended said math camp, and give evidence toward the verification of the above as necessary.

Regarding #2, I can provide the code I wrote for most of the problems I solved tonight in python as well.

Any tips on not getting flagged or raising suspicions again would be greatly appreciated, and I apologize in advance for the inconvenience.

Thanks in advance!

[hk]

My advice would be to mention the math camp thing in your perso.nal information on the main site (extra information)
Admins here follow things closely.
I will set your account to public again

[atiksh.aa]

Hi Project Euler Team,

I’m following up regarding my account being permanently unlisted. I don’t fully understand the reason, though I see the message refers to unrealistic or ingenuine solve times.

Looking back, I realize there may have been situations that looked unusual. For example, I’ve sometimes submitted multiple answers in a short period. The reason is that I’m still in high school (15 years old), and at school we use software such as GoGuardian that blocks many websites. Unfortunately, these filters aren't perfect and prevent access to sites like Project Euler or math competition resources (e.g., HMMT, amctrivial.com). To work around this, I often take screenshots or pictures of problems beforehand so I can solve them offline during school hours and then submit several solutions once I have access again.

I also started Project Euler a few years ago with my brother, and I believe I had two older accounts that I lost access to. Because of that, when I created this account, I sometimes reused my old C++ code files to re-run and resubmit solutions. I understand this might also make my solve times appear unrealistic.

I want to emphasize that I do not condone cheating. It frustrates me as well, especially since I’ve seen how dishonesty can affect competitions like the AMC. I’m still learning, but I genuinely want to grow through the discussions, forums, and this community. If it would help, I’m more than willing to provide my code for any problems as verification.

Thank you very much for your time and for any clarification you can provide.

[TitanCode]

> I often take screenshots or pictures of problems beforehand

I can recommend using one of the many Project Euler Offline PDF's. There is one mentioned here:
viewtopic.php?t=7496

It is also a fine little programming task to make your own from the minimal descriptions
https://projecteuler.net/minimal=957

For instance to mark problems with prime numbers and exclude those you have already solved from
https://projecteuler.net/minimal=problems

[euler]

I’m following up regarding my account being permanently unlisted. I don’t fully understand the reason, though I see the message refers to unrealistic or ingenuine solve times.

I'm confused. Your account is not unlisted. Have you got a different account?

[hk]

Handled already

[cnPinkRabbit]

Hi, Project Euler Team!

Recently I found that my account is flagged permanently unlisted, due to “exhibiting unrealistic solve patterns”. But I don’t think that I exhibit any unrealistic solve patterns. I solve problems honestly and in the past few months I didn’t even solve any problem.

I suspect the actual reason is I have made 2 commits to a GitHub repository maintained by lucky-bai using my GitHub account GitPinkRabbit. And that repository, uhh, the Project Euler team is very unhappy about it.

I leaked answers to 862, 867, and 868 in those 2 commits, but the Fastest Solvers board are full by then, so I didn’t want to ruin the leaderboard. Conversely, I didn’t use the repository to pass those problems that I cannot solve. Still, I recognize that this is a violation of the Project Euler rules. I apologize for this and promise not to leak answers again. My only request is to restore my account’s visibility.

Thanks in advance!

[hk]

Not incorrectly permanently unlisted, I'm afraid, on the contrary.
The About page is very clear about that, I think.

[policeman]

My account has also been incorrectly permanently unlisted from public.

The only explanation is the message: "This account has been permanently set to private
As clearly indicated in the Privacy Policy:
Most members take great pride in earning ranked position. To ensure that the public tables fairly and accurately represent genuine achievements, solve times for problems are automatically processed. Any accounts that are "Public" and exhibit unrealistic solve patterns are flagged for review by the team and may be permanently removed from public view (unlisted); accounts that remain "Private" will not be flagged."

However,
(1) I have never received nor given help or answers on any problem.
(2) My account has always remained Private so should not have been flagged in any case.

Now I cannot see the thread message ratings or grant Kudos to good comments. It is quite irritating that Project Euler is willing to sweep in false positives in order to combat an alleged problem that makes no psychological sense (what benefit would accrue to a person who cheats?)

[euler]

The issue with the problem threads was caused due to some faulty code logic. You should be able to fully access the threads now.

[policeman]

Thanks euler! I remember you from the old DalNet days, and didn't realize you were still actively involved in the project you founded. But what gives with the false positives? If you can't distinguish those of us who solved problems back in the day on ancient forgotten accounts from allegedly cheating n00bs, why the accusations?

[euler]

There was a recent change to the system and inadvertently you and some other members got caught up in the internal change. I've fixed the issue for all those affected. The good news is that with the new system, there won't be false positive any more.