Where did all Subscribers come from?

If you look at your WordPress site’s login form, you’ll need a “Register” link.

Most of these are just bots preemptively getting around WordPress’s “must be registered and logged in to comment” anti-spam option. Despite the role’s name, WordPress itself doesn’t send any subscription content, and over time since the role was introduced, no subscription plugins make use of WordPress’s registration system (they all run their own now).

Unless further extended by a plugin, “Subscribers” in the Users section of your site’s Dashboard can only edit their own profile and comment.

If you *don’t* need WordPress’s registration system to be open, it’s safe to uncheck “Anyone can Register” at Settings > General in your site’s Dashboard and delete all of the “Subscribers” from the Users section of your site’s Dashboard.

Hey James,

Thank you for your informative explanation.

Is there a way we can make sure that all those are bots rather than people, before be proceed with deleting them?

There’s no perfect way, so go with your best guess on that (weird looking email addresses, etc).

I’d recommend removing all of them. If you aren’t using anything to further extend the role, all these folks can do is edit their own profiles and comment, and if you haven’t made registration a requirement of commenting, then there’s no need for any of them (again, despite the role’s name, WordPress does not send subscription content).

Thanks again James!