I found 3 or 4 links using IP/~ on a few forums.
We had an issue a while back (December 2009) and told everyone to use the IP/~ format for about 18 hours, then I deleted all references to it.
That still does not explain the *huge* number of accesses during the 5 weeks we were using vb..
I'd request Google to remove the links as a first step:
If you own the site, you can verify your ownership in Webmaster Tools and use the verified URL removal tool to remove an entire directory from Google's search results.
Note: To ensure your directory or site is permanently removed, you should use
robots.txt to block crawler access to the directory (or, if you’re removing a site, to your whole site). We recommend doing this before or soon after requesting removal of the directory. Otherwise, your content may later reappear in search results. (For more information about blocking search engines from confidential information, see
Blocking Google.) Returning a 404 HTTP status code isn't enough, because it's possible for a directory to return a 404 status code, but still serve out files underneath it. Using robots.txt to block a directory ensures that all of its children are disallowed as well.
Once you have completed one of the steps above, you can request removal of the directory and all of its contents from search results using the URL Removal Tool in Webmaster Tools.
- On the Webmaster Tools home page, click the site you want.
- On the Dashboard, click Site configuration in the left-hand navigation.
- Click Crawler access, and then click Remove URL.
- Click New removal request.
- Type the URL of the directory you want removed from search results and then click Continue. How to find the right URL. Note that the URL is case-sensitive—you will need to submit the URL using exactly the same characters and the same capitalization that the site uses. If you want to remove the whole site, you can leave this blank.
- Click Remove directory
- Select the checkbox to confirm that you have completed the requirements listed in this article, and then click Submit Request.
Be careful when requesting removal of a site. The only reason you should request a site removal is when you want all the contents of a site permanently removed from Google’s index.
Removing
https://www.example.com will also remove
http://www.example.com, as well as
http://example.com and
https://example.com.
If you’re worried that your site may have a penalty, or you want to start from scratch after purchasing a domain from somebody else, we recommend filing a
reconsideration request letting us know what you're worried about and what has changed. If your site has been hacked, check
this article for recommendations.
It sounds like this: Google shouldn't be harassing the site, it should gently caress the site for robots.txt.