Blog

Blog entry Can you ever have too much Freerice?

05 August 2011

On Freerice, we aim for one thing: more rice. However, there are times when more rice is not necessarily good for Freerice or the people we help. This may seem like a contradiction, but we’ve noticed that some Freericers are employing automated scripts, or Internet bots, to play the game at many times the speed of a human.

Only rice that is raised legitimately on Freerice, with real people playing the game and answering the questions, will help Freerice and do good in the world.

Rice that is raised through bots is actually damaging to the online game you love. Here’s a brief explanation as to why:

  1. Because of the massive number of questions an Internet bot is able to answer in a short period of time, the site can become overloaded and crash so that real people cannot play and learn. This means less rice is earned for the hungry.

  2. Bots can damage our reputation to the advertisers who support Freerice. If the banners below the questions aren’t seen by Freericers, the rice isn’t paid for – and we risk losing an important source of revenue.

  3. At times, the Internet bots raise more rice than we can pay for! We want to continue ensuring that every correct answer does in fact have a direct impact in the lives of the hungry. Bots disrupt the systems we have in place to pay for the rice.

While everyone naturally wants to raise as much rice as possible, please keep in mind that Freerice only works if it’s played by real Freericers.

If you notice anything you think should be brought to our attention (i.e. if you think you spot a bot), please don’t hesitate to email us at WFP.freerice@wfp.org!

Thank you for challenging yourself while feeding the hungry on Freerice!

Freerice is maintained by and supports the United Nations World Food Programme, the world's largest humanitarian organisation fighting hunger worldwide. To find out more go to WFP.org

Comments
Sat, 08/18/2012 - 16:06 dude3003

there are tons of you tube videos about how to make bots i noticed it when i was waching videos about free rice

Sat, 08/18/2012 - 11:01 tyrique882

They diserve to be fed. They work allday. Moms cant feed there children.
they need our help.

Thu, 08/02/2012 - 18:12 HuskyGuy

Using bots is ridiculous. Your not even helping others because your being to lazy to use your brain to help others!
#stb (stopthebots)

Sun, 12/18/2011 - 19:15 Rina Berman

"Not all bots are fast. Some bots donate every 5 seconds or so and go unnoticed by Freerice."

That's totally irrelevant, littlefighter. The concern is not that the bots are fast, or that every single one is noticed by FreeRice. The concern is that all bots load up the servers and don't generate rice because they are not real players who see the sponsors.

Tue, 10/04/2011 - 21:16 Brittany Fransen2

People in Africa do get off their butts and work (the capable Africans, at leadst) however the people they work for don't pay them enought to get food! They are paid so little they can't even afford A BOWL OF RICE!!! You people should stop acting like rice costs soooo much money that we can't give Africa any. Plus, it's the government that's in debt, not the people who run this site. Get your facts straight before you start bashing the people giving rie to the poor people in Africa.

Mon, 10/03/2011 - 00:51 DoubleAwesome

No offense or anything...I think Taylor Powell is a bot...because he answered 6789 questions IN A ROW!!

Sun, 10/02/2011 - 23:04 PigLover454

Good job Wazup1

Sun, 10/02/2011 - 22:16 BratandRosie

i agree with wazup1 but i think we should still help alittle but we should be first. This website is good though. in my 5th grade gifted and talented class we used it to learn spanish!!!!! GO FREE RICE

Sat, 10/01/2011 - 16:48 Midnight8254

I have never had a problem with bots but they sound bad

Sat, 10/01/2011 - 05:53 penguinsarethebest11

There should like a verification code every 10k grains

Fri, 09/30/2011 - 18:56 Brittany Fransen2

TYou do realize people in Africa are to weak from sickness and hunger to "get off their butts"? if they hadn't been invaded and torn down so many times, they'd be okay, but they aren't. if anyone needs to get off their butts and work, it's the perfectly capable people in our own country.

Thu, 09/29/2011 - 18:57 wazup1

You know, I understand that Africa is hungry, but I think we need to concentrate on the kids in our own country before we worry about others. We give Africa money,food, and people to help them learn how to plant stuff, but if they don't get off their butts and start working for themselves, we are going to eventually run out of stuff ourselves! We're already like 3.5 trillion dollars in debt...we don't have any money TO give away!!!

That's just my opinion.

Thu, 09/29/2011 - 18:51 wazup1

These questions are two easy! I've gotten over 2,000 grains for spanish, and I'm just 10!!!

Tue, 09/27/2011 - 13:12 bunnyfromhell

Good point Loedingup. But don't forget, normal people do things like sleep, eat, work?, see friends?? Therefore the total possible in a day is much lower. If freerice just looked at the site they can see who the bots are. Look at the daily/weekly rankings. Also I don't believe anyone can get 5000+ answers right in a row , however easy the questions. I have dedicated hours of my life to this site to get my total up to nearly 3 million and the fun of the game is, apart from knowing you're feeding people, is to climb up the rankings. If you are constantly overtaken by cheats, which is what bots are, much of the fun of playing is removed. It seems a shame that freerice want us to do something about bots, i.e reporting them, but are not removing the cheats.

Tue, 09/27/2011 - 07:48 animallovers101

dislike dislike dislike. much better to actually play the game

Mon, 09/26/2011 - 08:31 Loedingup

If a person played for 24 hours straight and it took them exactly 2 seconds for each question, They would get 432,000. If you see someone in the 600,000 a day, they have a large possibility of cheating. If they get 1,000,000 grains a day, they have to be cheating.

Thanks,
Loed
"Loed up already!"

Mon, 09/26/2011 - 01:22 littlefighter

Not all bots are fast. Some bots donate every 5 seconds or so and go unnoticed by Freerice.

Sun, 09/25/2011 - 18:20 Sofia Grace

Why would someone be stupid enough to even USE a bot? YOU ARE STUPID BOT PEOPLE!!!

Sat, 09/24/2011 - 03:47 xXNotchXx

Bots are an abombination to the internet. Nothing more to be said.

Fri, 09/23/2011 - 16:35 IAmAnthony

NO MORE BOTS!!!! NO MORE BOTS!!! One time i was answering questions so fast i don't know if i caused my screen to freeze or it was those stupid bots. The questions are easy do them ON YOUR OWN!

Fri, 09/23/2011 - 16:25 HorseCr8zy

I agree! Stay away bots! These questions are SOOOOO easy! I can answer 10 questions per minute they're so easy.

Fri, 09/23/2011 - 04:28 Joe Cox

I don't think the people who used the bots meant any harm, in fact, I think they meant to do good. They just really wanted to have more rice donated to help feed people and probably did not know the info just given. So, now they know to and hopefully will stop. If not, well..... what's the point of botting anyway? Being mean? Just like to annoy people? Anyway, I hope now they know not to do it anymore.

Peace! =)

Fri, 09/23/2011 - 01:41 breeq

ok wierd

Fri, 09/23/2011 - 00:15 poplulu9090

why would somebody hack the site or any thing anyway?

Fri, 09/23/2011 - 00:11 Bengals14

im just saying theres a kind of glitch where if theres an easy question and u get it right, u can skip back a page and get the same question

Wed, 09/21/2011 - 05:12 UltimateGoku121

seriously people, why are you using AI to answer the questions??? if you don't know what AI is, look it up, but you are just being laze if you are using AI. 1 times 1 isnt that hard. if you are going to use free rice, play fair.

Tue, 09/20/2011 - 05:15 FriedRiceIsAwesome

Bad bots, bad! Let me feed the hungry! >:U
Let's all get rid of bots! Keep up the good work, Freerice. :3

Tue, 09/20/2011 - 01:06 korinabean

there r lots of cheats i figured out i don't use em though the questions r easy enough already

Mon, 09/19/2011 - 16:44 HorseCr8zy

my freerice questions keep freezing up on me. stay away bots!

Mon, 09/19/2011 - 16:27 HorseCr8zy

sorry kitty! I was just making sure. please forgive me!

Sun, 09/18/2011 - 17:03 helpingout4you

i have a question.... Does Freerice help the people in the Philippines?

Sun, 09/18/2011 - 01:10 Lupus

Really people?! They use bots (not saying everyone does)... Sorry to say this but that means their being lazy, it's not that hard to answer 9 multiplied by 1. Well go Freerice and good job for the people that actually answer the questions!!
Luv
Lupus

Sat, 09/17/2011 - 19:12 vidhibhanderi

I don't like how all these bots are making me lose my rice. :( I used to come from a poor family, and giving a helping hand is something that I want to do, but sometimes I get logged off too, and I lose all my rice! :( These bots are making me angry, 'cause I really do want to help. Like, no joke.

~ VDB(:

Sat, 09/17/2011 - 04:01 kitty

i am 100% not a bot ,you Member since: September 14, 2011 .why you tell me a bot ???
freerice please me a reason .

Fri, 09/16/2011 - 06:47 jetfighter123

I think nobody can have to much freerice. Including that gye named "I aint got rice".

Fri, 09/16/2011 - 03:31 bcd500

I just want to say thank you to all those donors out there and the United Nations World Food Programme for doing this!

Fri, 09/16/2011 - 03:22 PigLover454

WHY BOTS WHY! 8 [

Wed, 09/14/2011 - 17:28 Keyon Saymone

I LOVE FREERICE.COM THANKS EVERYBODY FOR THE SUPORT AND KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK....... AND ANOTHER SPECAIL THANKS TO THE STUDENTS IN MR.LUCAS GED CLASS.

Wed, 09/14/2011 - 16:18 HorseCr8zy

In case you didn't get my Email freerice, I think Kitty is a bot.

Mon, 09/12/2011 - 23:57 luckypiggy45

every time i go on the computer i go on this website its for a good cause and people shouldn't be ruining any chance we have to feed the hungry

Mon, 09/12/2011 - 02:14 Lizziebird01

I think that free rice is for a good cause and should not be cheated. People who have good hearts will do it for fun and for the super nice cause. :)

Mon, 09/12/2011 - 01:56 PigLover454

I think tommajlo and quad002 are both bots. though i am still not really clear what a bot is. 8\

Mon, 09/12/2011 - 01:46 PigLover454

noom HAS TO BE a bot.

Sun, 09/11/2011 - 21:18 ive0076

Your right. I dont raise that much rice though because I dont have that much time to play=( but that is great advice for other people but I still totally agree! <3I LUV FREE RICE<3

Sun, 09/11/2011 - 02:17 bunnyfromhell

i reckon Nick Jaber is a bot- i don't believe its possible to get 300,000+ grains day after day.

Sat, 09/10/2011 - 19:21 paulfrank28

Nothing's happend w/ me yet. However, I will e-mail you if anything does.

Sat, 09/10/2011 - 06:48 PigLover454

There is never a time to stop giving
- piglover454

Thu, 09/08/2011 - 01:20 Math whiz

i know they're only trying to help, but real freericers are a THOUSANd times better than those stupid bots!

Wed, 09/07/2011 - 17:46 bakuking001

i've been a user for only three weeks and just yesterday i earned 7000 grains of rice. and i think that tommajlo has a bot. thanks freerice for this cool game.

bakuking001

Wed, 09/07/2011 - 06:41 achbachfamily@yahoo.com

Its no fair to the hard working pepole that have no money. ID bet they would want real pepole to earn them rice. I know they have good attentions but it is actullay descraesing the total amounts of rice.

Ps. Join my group its the "Helping Hands"

ADD COMMENTS

FAQ récentes