It's time to stop being polite and start being real. Farcaster is a super cool open protocol, but Warpcast, the main client 95% of us use to engage with it, is a closed sandbox with a lot of unwritten rules and culture that you have to figure out to do well. 91% of you failed to figure it out and got a spam label and now you are invisible. No one see your tags. Only your followers see your casts. Few people see your replies. You feel ignored and don't know how to get out of this purgatory. You must understand why you got this label and how to avoid it in the future.

Spam vs. Spammy

We all know spam when we see it: viagra ads, a Nigerian prince who just needs a small favor, constant repetitive text. We, and algorithms, are pretty good at detecting this. But Warpcast isn't looking for Spam, they are looking for users who are being SPAMMY and this is a key difference. It's not about if you are a Bot or Not. It's not about proof of humanity. It's about if the algo thinks you are being spammy and labels you as such.

What does Warpcast consider "Spammy"?

This is the million dollar question. Here is the official cast about making spam labels public and the definition of Spam and Spammy behavior by the Warpcast team. The Github contains a JSON file of all the FIDS the team has labeled. At first release, the raw data set says: { likely_spammy_users: "236865", might_spammy_users: "200705", unlikely_spammy_users: "44054" } which means 91% of active users on Warpcast are labeled as spammy (This data was from January 23, 2025 when the labels were first made public).

Varun Srinivasan on Warpcast

We're making the Warpcast spam dataset public. Over 400,000 accounts have been processed by our model, which determines the accounts that are most likely to generate inauthentic content or unwanted notifications. https://github.com/warpcast/labels

Farcaster

From the Warpcast Team:

Warpcast's spam models predict the probability that an account might exhibit spammy behavior. Spam is defined as behavior that intentionally generates notifications for other users in a way that benefits the author and annoys users who receive them. Some examples include replying with generic llm generated responses, bulk following accounts, posting irrelevant or generally offensive responses to other people's posts. Spamminess is not related to whether an account is being controlled by a human. There are many bots that are not spammy and many humans that are.

Our models make these predictions based on the combination of a number of factors including the account's historical activity, social graph, message content and the moderation actions that other users have taken on their account. No single factor will get an account labelled as spam.

There isn't ONE single action you can do to be labeled as spam. It's a combination of many factors, but the above text is purposefully vague. If we know the exact mechanisms the team is using in their model, the spammers will learn to avoid them. The best way to see what the algo thinks is spam is to look at a sample of accounts that are not spammy and a sample that have spam labels.

I choose to look at the Top 100 OpenRank accounts by engagement, the Top 100 Organic FarScore (FarRank) aka Airstack accounts, the top 100 accounts by Neynar Score, and the top 500 accounts on the Warpcast Rewards Leaderboard. All of these data sets are publicly accessible and give us great insight. While the Warpcast Spam Algorithm is secret, these public data sets are a good approximation for high quality accounts and correlate highly with each other.

Do I have a spam label?

You can look up your FID directly in the GitHub JSON file linked above, or you can use one of these two frames on Warpcast:

Compez's Frame is beautifully designed and let's you check friend's spam labels as well. He tries to make it a little more user friendly by color coding your status, but his language does not match 1:1 with the JSON file in the GitHub causing some confusion on the timeline. Your goal is to see Green on his frame and be labeled as "Low Risk: Unlikely to engage in spammy behavior." Anything else means you have a Warpcast Spam Label.

C O M P Ξ Z on Warpcast

🎉 Announcing Warpcast Labels frame beta 🚀 🧵/5 We’re thrilled to introduce Warpcast Labels frame, a powerful new feature designed to bring clarity and transparency to account behavior on Farcaster. With over 400,000 accounts analyzed by FC team advanced spam detection models, Warpcast Labels help users identify accounts that are most likely to engage in spammy or inauthentic behavior. Let’s dive in! 🔥 @v @dwr.eth @horsefacts.eth https://warpcast.com/v/0x04ad8f78 https://labels.genyframe.xyz

Farcaster

MVR's frame is an exact pull from the Warpcast data. Level 2 means you are "unlikely spam". Level 1 or 0 is a Warpcast spam label.

mvr 🐹 on Warpcast

I Am A 2 What about you? https://spammer.hamst.art/frames/spammer/230238/iam

Farcaster

How to Get out of Spam Jail

If you have a spam label you need to stop what you are doing immediately and completely change your behavior on Warpcast right now. Spend the next hour cleaning up your feed. Think of your personal feed as your Warpcast resume. Make it look good and cast differently going forward.

1. Stop Sharing Frames Excessively*

Most spammers feeds are full of frames. Allowance frames, game frames, whatever the new Farcaster meta is. Frames are fun and viral but you are overdoing it. Oversharing frames looks Spammy. If you are casting mostly frames or casting the same frames everyday, you look spammy. Top Casters rarely cast frames. When they do cast them, they usually write about why they chose to cast the frame and tell you why you should use it/try it out or give a shout out to the person who built it. They are sharing something cool, but they usually share it once and they are overly cautious in sharing. You can share frames, but your profile should not be littered with them.

The best way to see what the algo loves is to study the Warpcast Rewards Leaderboard and draw your own conclusions. Look at the Top 10 on any given day. Look back 7 days on their casts. How many frames did Top Casters share?

*@V aka the CoFounder of Farcaster shared some clarifications: "Posting frames is not bad"

Varun Srinivasan on Warpcast

Generally good advice, but I want to correct a few misconceptions: 1. Posting frames is not bad 2. Recasting is not bad The best advice is to post original thoughts. It's OK to quote, reply to, tag and engage with someone when you have something useful to add. https://warpcast.com/pichi/0xa84514e6

Farcaster

2. Less Recasting, More Quotecasting**

Most spammers feeds are also full of recasts with very little original content. Your feed needs to be mostly original content. When you hit the recast button 100 times a day, you look spammy. You can recast others cast, just not excessively.

Top casters quote cast. They add color, insight, or shout outs to the things they cast. They layer their own original content on top of the cast to make it more relevant to their own followers. They promote others, but with context. Quote casting is the HIGHEST honor on Farcaster (and the Original Caster gets notified about the quote cast in a way that stands out in their notifications) so sharing this way is a great way to get others attention.

**@V aka the CoFounder of Farcaster shared some clarifications: "Recasting is not bad"

Varun Srinivasan on Warpcast

Generally good advice, but I want to correct a few misconceptions: 1. Posting frames is not bad 2. Recasting is not bad The best advice is to post original thoughts. It's OK to quote, reply to, tag and engage with someone when you have something useful to add. https://warpcast.com/pichi/0xa84514e6

Farcaster

3. Be Original

80% of your timeline needs to be original content. Don't steal content from the web and post it as your own. If you do this in highly curated channels, Top Casters are going to block and mute you and NEVER interact with you. It's better to not cast at all than to cast slop. 20% of your casts can be quotes, recasts, and the occasional frame thrown in, but most of it must be unique on the network. Your home feed needs to be engaging and I need to be able to make a judgment call on you in one minute. When people look into your feed to decide to follow you, this is what they see. Make sure its good. Quality is key.

4. Don't Tag people who aren't your friends

If you have a spam label, people who don't follow you don't see your tags anyway. You are wasting your time. Do not cast a frame that excessively tags people. Do not cast a top level cast and randomly tag people. The algorithm hates excessive tagging and punishes it swiftly.

Tag your friends all you want. But anyone who doesn't follow you is a stranger. Do not tag them. They don't see you tag and therefore don't reply. When they don't reply, you look even more spammy.

Use channels to your advantage. Engage with people who don't follow you in channels and respond authentically to your content. This builds trust and they may start replying back. Once you have a rapport, you can engage with them more if they keep engaging back (likes OR comments). If they don't respond, move on or try again once your spam label is upgraded.

5. Be a Reply Guy, but ONLY in Channels

If you see a cast on your home feed that doesn't have a channel tag and the person who casted it doesn't follow you, skip it. DO NOT REPLY to it. The person who casted it won't get a notification of your reply anyway. They most likely will never see it. Your reply is orphaned: it gets zero likes or comments and looks like SPAM.

You shouldn't engage with Top Casters who don't follow you back, unless you see them casting into a channel that you are also a member of. Engaging with them outside of channels will probably get you a spam label. It's not worth it to try to get their attention. Join their hypersub or a channel they moderate. Unfollow them. Do not engage with people who don't engage back.

But, the rules are different in channels. If you are a member of that channel, everyone will see your comment. You have an equal shot of being seen. Use this to your advantage. Find well moderated, well curated channels who are building community. Spend most of your time in these channels. Engage authentically with other members of the channel and slowly build your network. YOU CANNOT GET A SPAM LABEL PARTICIPATING IN CHANNELS. Lean into channels. Find topics you are interested in and contribute.

Most Farcasters WANT authentic connections, but they are hesitant to interact with people who behave in a spammy or bot like way.

6. Don't use ChatGPT to fix your English

Many people with spam labels are non native English speakers. Many use Chat GPT and other AI tools to "fix" their English. Do NOT do this. It makes you sound like an LLM Bot. It's way better to say something in English and also say it in your native language to give English speakers a heads up that you aren't a native speaker. I don't care that your English isn't perfect. I care that you are genuine. If people think you are am LLM bot, they will ignore you. If they are unsure, they will ignore you. When people ignore you and your comments are orphaned with no engagement, you look like SPAM.

7. Don't reply with emojis, gms, or other internet speak

When interacting with a stranger on Warpcast (aka someone who doesn't follow you), you need to use full sentences. gm, hi ser, and random emojis look like spam and are not appropriate. Do this with your friends (aka people who follow you) not with everyone else. Automated accounts engage in this behavior, so most casters ignore them. The more your are ignored, the more you look like spam. It's better to not reply at all than to reply with low level slop. Do not attach some random photo or some AI generated nonsense to a reply to stand out. This just makes you look even more like a bot, and everyone will ignore you. When no one engages with you, the algorithm thinks you are spammy and will label you appropriately.

Varun Srinivasan on Warpcast

Deboosting Engagement Rings We're seeing more rings of users promoting "slop" - typically generic images produced by llm or copied from other places on the internet several times a day. Will be aggressively deboosting these with algo changes and also marking such users with stronger spam labels.

Farcaster

8. Unfollow Accounts with Level 0 Labels

You can use the Dune query below to find out who YOU follow that has a Level 0 Spam Label. You will need to sign up for a FREE Dune account and then add your FID to the box on the left hand side to run the query.

https://dune.com/jkavithamahesh/farcaster-followers-and-following-with-spam-label-by-fid

Scroll to the bottom and you'll see your following and who you follow. You can't do anything about who follows you, but you can investigate who you follow and take action. On the bottom right you'll see : Farcaster - Following with Spam Label - By FID; click the "label" heading to sort the table and go through the Level 0's.

Who are you following with a label? Are they honestly being spammy? Check their account and look at their recents casts. If they are being spammy, unfollow them. If they are marked incorrectly, help them get out of Spam Jail using the resources below.

What now?

The spam algorithm runs daily, but we only see public updates on Thursday evening (US Pacific Time). If you change your behavior today, maybe in a month you will be re-labeled. We don't know. This is the first time the labels have been made public, but all hope it not lost. Change now and hope for the best. You can also create a new account and start over following these rules.

There is a small chance you are labeled incorrectly. The algorithm is far from perfect. If you believe you haven't done any of the above and shouldn't have this label, get a Farcaster friend who is willing to stake their reputation on this and have them plead your case to the Warpcast team. Remember, the Warpcast team won't see your tags or comments because you have a spam label.

The Consequences of the Level 0 Spam Label

If you want to participate in Warpcast Rewards, you have to avoid a Spam Label of 0. You aren't counted as a follower and your comments are basically invisible to most casters. More developers are going to take these labels into account over the next few months, so it's important to do everything you can to stay in the god graces of the algorithm. Being "a real human" is not enough. You need to respect the culture of Warpcast and cast in an authentic way.

Varun Srinivasan on Warpcast

Level 0 is not eligible. Level 1 is eligible if you get enough engagement

Farcaster

Varun Srinivasan on Warpcast

Warpcast will remove "likely to be spam" accounts from follow counts soon. Likes and recasts from spammy accounts have been removed from counts for several weeks. We're now going to remove follow counts from these accounts as well.

Farcaster

Resources

Save Farcasters from Spam Jail: A How To Guide

Today, 256,912 Farcasters have a Level 0 Spam Label, meaning they are likely to be spammers. We can't check them one by one and see if they are a false positive; there are too many. But you can save your friends from the Spam Label right now.

https://paragraph.xyz

This is @V's original thread about the Warpcast's Teams thinking about the spam labels and how they built the algorithm. It is required reading IMHO.

Varun Srinivasan on Warpcast

Some thoughts on spam on Farcaster and how we tackle it. First question - What is spam? The naive answer is "automated activity" but this isn't right. Over 75% of spam we find comes from real humans who have phones, wallets and x accounts. The best definition is "inauthentic activity". It's that feeling you get when you realize that someone who is following, liking or replying to is doing it to benefit themselves and not because they're interested in you.

Farcaster