
Social Roulette has a 1 in 6 chance of deleting your account - muratmutlu
http://socialroulette.net/
======
driverdan
There are a bunch of red flags here. It's possible this app has an ulterior
motive.

At the top it says the author is Douglas Rushkoff but the avatar in the FB
screenshot (under _The Story_ ) is Jacob Appelbaum's[1].

Here are the permissions it requests[2]: "publish_stream, email, rsvp_event,
publish_actions, friends_online_presence, user_online_presence,
manage_notifications, manage_friendlists, create_event, ads_management,
xmpp_login, read_stream, read_requests, read_mailbox, read_insights,
read_friendlists, user_work_history, user_website, user_videos,
user_subscriptions, user_status, user_religion_politics,
user_relationship_details, user_relationships, user_questions, user_photos,
user_notes, user_location, user_likes, user_interests, user_hometown,
user_groups, user_education_history, user_games_activity, user_actions.video,
user_actions.news, user_actions.music"

There would be no point in requesting most of those if all you were doing was
publishing a message or deleting content.

As PaulMest pointed out, apps do not have access to delete most of your
content.

[1]: <https://twitter.com/ioerror>

[2]:
[https://github.com/kylemcdonald/socialroulette.net/blob/mast...](https://github.com/kylemcdonald/socialroulette.net/blob/master/index.php)

~~~
ihuman
From the FAQ:

Can Social Roulette really delete my account?

Yes. While it's very difficulty to "permanently delete" a Facebook account, we
can completely remove all your posts, friends, apps, likes, photos, and games
before completely deactivating it.

------
btipling
The testmonials on that site are complete fabrications. Gawker never said
"Social Roulette just rewrote the rules for online gaming." nor has it ever
mentioned Social Roulette and the Gruber quote also does not exist, only
someone tweeted it at him. Testimonials that are lies are shameful and
dishonest.

~~~
b0z0
The creator was being facetious and the fabrications were meant to be obvious
enough that no one would take them seriously, right?

~~~
btipling
No, it isn't obvious that the listed testimonials are fake.

~~~
onemorepassword
It is pretty obvious to most people.

That doesn't make you stupid, but you may find that you encounter similar
situations in life, and it's something you may want to be aware of before you
start throwing around big words like "lies", "shameful" and "dishonest" where
such reactions are completely misplaced.

~~~
yen223
"It is pretty obvious to most people."

I really doubt most people know who Gawker, Bruce Sterling, John Gruber or
FaltyDL are, which makes it doubtful that most people are in on the joke.

~~~
petsos
These quotes are not out there in a vacuum, they are on a site that randomly
deletes your Facebook account. Even if you don't know any of these people it
doesn't require much to realize they are jokes.

I mean who would ever say "It's the most exciting thing I've done this year"
for a site like this?

~~~
poink
> I mean who would ever say "It's the most exciting thing I've done this year"
> for a site like this?

A typical tech blogger.

------
WA
I once read that the chance of Russian Roulette is NOT 1:6 but more like
1:600, since you play with one bullet and the weight of the bullet makes it
relatively unlikely that the bullet stops next to the top position in the
barrel when you spin it.

Don't know if this is true but in the end, it doesn't matter for this stupid
game.

~~~
shurcooL
I thought it was a theoretical game that no one actually plays.

~~~
forTheRecord
Last year alone four people died in the US while playing the game.
[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/05/dion-von-mays-
dies-...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/05/dion-von-mays-dies-russian-
roulette_n_1859221.html)

~~~
lpolovets
Combining this with the 1 in 600 statistic of the grandparent comment, it
seems like ~2000-3000 people played Russian Roulette last year. To me, that's
even more astounding than the number of deaths -- although the number of
deaths is certainly more tragic.

~~~
cgag
That's a pretty big leap of faith assumption though. Does anyone have a source
or a revolver?

~~~
damoncali
I have spun a revolver with one round in the cylinder. First, you wont wait
for it to settle, so it doesn't matter. Second, a cylinder is pretty heavy, so
even if you did, it's not that big an effect. Third, there is significant
friction between the cylinder and the pin it rotates on, which will prevent it
from settling in that manner. The 1:600 number isn't true.

------
PaulMest
An app using Facebook's API cannot delete objects not created by itself (e.g.
cannot delete posts or photos). So either this requires you install a browser
extension or it's fake.

~~~
hawkharris
I don't know much about the API, but that was my understanding as well. I just
tried the game and survived. Can anyone who has had the experience of losing
describe what happened?

~~~
davecerrado
I just played and lost, 'Bang, your Facebook account is being deleted'. In
panic mode I was thinking I could cancel it, tried to remove Socialroulette
from my authorized apps, but it was too late. Now, no account but I'm gonna
try and reactive it and will you know how it goes

~~~
jt2190
A word of advice: Don't play real russian roulette, as there is no "panic
mode".

------
milkshakes
_Invalid API Key_

Well that didn't take long.

~~~
brebory
I suspect it's because the original app id and secret key are public on the
github repo.[1]

I bet they're registering a new application and secret right now, hence the
invalid API key error.

[1]:
[https://github.com/kylemcdonald/socialroulette.net/blob/ba32...](https://github.com/kylemcdonald/socialroulette.net/blob/ba3267ab9f2c6464e26ef9c39056beec594dee83/index.php)

~~~
film42
Either that or they're starting to exceed usage. I'm sure there's not some
magic mass delete routes for facebook's api. I have to think they're going to
be hitting some kind of limit here pretty soon.

------
Flimm
I really like this idea. I've always wondered whether I should delete my
Facebook account, but I never put the effort into weighing up the
consequences. I might just do this for the thrill of it. If I survive I get an
interesting status, if not, I leave Facebook for silly reasons. Win/win.

I don't understand the purpose of the second rule: "you must play once a day".
If you abide by that rule, then you're guaranteed to leave Facebook
eventually. Where's the thrill in that? Is this rule optional, or does the app
play for you automatically?

~~~
SixteenBlue
It says _may_ play _only_ once a day.

~~~
Flimm
Ah, I did not notice the _only_ word. It seems like a pointless rule to me.

------
minimaxir
Norton flagged the website as a "Facebook Fake Like Count Scam."

~~~
russellsprouts
I got the same thing.

------
guiomie
How save is this? By safe I mean, how do I know they wont steal all my
facebook information and store it somehwere...

~~~
dbrian
You don't! See, it's two games in one.

------
EGreg
Gee, looks like this shows how great it is to rely on a platform to build
something sustainable.

 _Invalid API Key_

~~~
cgag
Do you have any idea what you just tried to play?

~~~
EGreg
Couldn't actually start because the error appeared when authenticating

------
xanadohnt
This probably breaks TOS somehow. There once was another very similar service
that swapped followers between two Twitter users. That was taken down as
breaking Twitter's TOS.

~~~
manojlds
You mean swapped "followed"?

------
aw3c2
Looks like it is by Jacob Appelbaum, at least that is his profile pic in the
screenshot (next to the empty answer box). Would be weird though as it is
using Google Analytics.

~~~
PavlovsCat
Nicely spotted, but the quote on the top left indicates the author is Douglas
Rushkoff ^^

------
austenallred
Is it really that scary to delete your account? It's really, really easy to
reactivate. When I deactivated my Facebook account it was hard to _not_
reactivate it.

~~~
JeremyBanks
Deactivating your Facebook account is not the same thing as deleting it.
Deleting is permanent (though it's delayed to prevent abuse).

<https://www.facebook.com/help/214376678584711>
<https://www.facebook.com/help/224562897555674>

~~~
kyrias
Sure, but you have to wait for (last time I checked) 1 month without logging
in before it's actually deleted.

------
jrabone
It's the <http://www.arcadebliss.com/game/russian-roulette.htm> of its
decade...

~~~
StavrosK
Why would someone _not_ spin the revolver?

~~~
tomjen3
Because it is cheating. The chance of the nth person getting the revolver
(with no spin) is 1 - (n-1)/6, so the chance of the nth person dying is 1 - (n
- 1) / 6 times the chance of a bullet in the chamber which is n/6.

You spin and the last one becomes n/6, which means that the game is biased in
favor of later starters.

~~~
StavrosK
Yeah, but then the sixth person has a 100% chance of dying, I wouldn't call
that biased in their favor.

It's fairer if everyone just always spins.

~~~
tomjen3
They have a 100% chance of dying _if the gun gets to them_ which it will do
only 1/6 of the time.

Wherease if the sixth person spins, then they have a 1/6 chance of blowing
their brains out and a 1/6 chance the gun gets to them, for a total of only
1/36 chance of no brain, compared to a 6/36 chance of no brain for the first
guy, 5/36 for the second guy (5/6 chance that he has to pull the trigger, 1/6
chance he dies _if_ he has to pull the trigger), third guy has 4/6 chance of
having to pull the trigger for a combined 4/36 (which reduce to 1/9), fourth
guy has a fifty-fifty whether he has to pull the guy which gives him combined
3/36 (which reduce to 1/12), fith guy has to pull the trigger only 2/6 which
gives him a measly 2/36 (reduces to 1/18).

That was the spinning case.

In case there is no spin after the first pull of the trigger:

first guy has 1/6 chance of shooting his brains out, which is the same as the
last example. Second guy has 5/6 chance of having to shoot, and 1/5 chance of
blowing his brains out if he has to fire, for a combined 1/6 (same as the
first guy). Guy two has to fire 4/6 and has 1/4 chance of blowing of his head
if he has to fire, giving a total of 1/6.

The numbers work through all the numbers.

While it is true that the last person is fucked if he has to shoot, there is
also only 1/6 chance he has to shoot, so his odds are as good as the rest of
them.

The problem with having to spin the gun in between is that you break the
dependent variable that increase the chance of the gun going of on each non-
bang but keep the one that lowers the properbility of having to fire.

~~~
StavrosK
Hmm, you're right, thanks for the explanation. I was thinking of the iterated
2-person case, but I guess the logic is the same there (you can spin in the
beginning of every round, of course).

------
Epithet
When I click the link, Norton is telling me that it's blocked an attack by
"Web Attack: Fake Like Count Spam", FYI. Curiously, this is happening even
when NoScript appears to be blocking scripts on the page.

------
mct
The source appears to be available at
<https://github.com/kylemcdonald/socialroulette.net>

~~~
leddt
Sadly it's missing all the interesting code (it's gitignored). Not sure what's
the point of putting it on github in that state.

------
orangethirty
Funny bit about this is that someone will give these people millions in
funding or acquihire. All for a:

    
    
        from random import randint
    
        choice = randint(1, 6)
        delete = randint(1, 6)
    
        if choice == delete:
            print "Today is not your lucky day."
        else:
            print "Try again tomorrow."
    
        print "Today's choice was {0}.".format(choice)
    
        #I felt like writing some bad python.

~~~
SandB0x
FYI "choice" is the name of a function in the random module:

    
    
        from random import choice
    
        if choice(range(6)):
            print "Try again tomorrow."
        else:
            print "Today is not your lucky day."

~~~
orangethirty
No one liner? Im disappointed. Did you read the commnt at the end?

~~~
shill

        alert(Math.floor(Math.random()*5)<1?"Boom!":"Click!");

------
wellboy
This should get "acquired" by Facebook and then shut down, otherwise they'll
lose half of their user base, haha^^

~~~
apgwoz
I think you mean a 1/6th...

~~~
gootik
...If everyone played only once...

~~~
wellboy
No but seriously if this goes viral, they could lose several million users. At
an LTV of $75/user right now that can be between $100m-$200M. Better buy these
guys for $50M. :)

~~~
ewang1
Or Facebook can just as easily block them from API access.

------
antihero
> What are you afraid of?

Well, losing my account.

------
ben0x539
Finally, a convenient way to delete your facebook account with fewer hoops to
jump through.

------
brokentone
Quite similar to what Harper Reed and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer did at 7-on-7 a few
weeks back (which was quickly disabled by FB) <http://www.friendfracker.com/>

------
mellis
<http://fffff.at/social-roulette/>

------
BallinBige
whois info: <http://whois.domaintools.com/socialroulette.net>

private of course.. A Happy DreamHost Customer 417 Associated Rd #324 Brea, CA
92821 US +1.7147064182

