diff --git a/scripts/clean_profiles.php b/scripts/clean_profiles.php
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..470d6c1b91
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/clean_profiles.php
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env php
+<?php
+/*
+ * StatusNet - a distributed open-source microblogging tool
+ * Copyright (C) 2008, 2009, StatusNet, Inc.
+ *
+ * This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ * it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by
+ * the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+ * (at your option) any later version.
+ *
+ * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+ * GNU Affero General Public License for more details.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License
+ * along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+ */
+
+define('INSTALLDIR', realpath(dirname(__FILE__) . '/..'));
+
+$shortoptions = 'y';
+$longoptions = array('yes');
+
+$helptext = <<<END_OF_HELP
+clean_profiles.php [options]
+Deletes all profile table entries where the profile does not occur in the
+notice table, is not a group and is not a local user. Very MySQL specific I think.
+
+WARNING: This has not been tested thoroughly. Maybe we've missed a table to compare somewhere.
+
+  -y --yes      do not wait for confirmation
+
+END_OF_HELP;
+
+require_once INSTALLDIR.'/scripts/commandline.inc';
+
+if (!have_option('y', 'yes')) {
+    print "About to delete profiles that we think are useless to save. Are you sure? [y/N] ";
+    $response = fgets(STDIN);
+    if (strtolower(trim($response)) != 'y') {
+        print "Aborting.\n";
+        exit(0);
+    }
+}
+
+print "Deleting";
+$profile = new Profile();
+$profile->query('SELECT * FROM profile WHERE ' .
+                'NOT (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM notice WHERE profile_id=profile.id) ' .
+                'AND NOT (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM user WHERE user.id=profile.id) ' .
+                'AND NOT (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM user_group WHERE user_group.profile_id=profile.id) ' .
+                'AND NOT (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM subscription WHERE subscriber=profile.id OR subscribed=profile.id) ');
+while ($profile->fetch()) {
+    echo ' '.$profile->getID().':'.$profile->getNickname();
+    $profile->delete();
+}
+print "\nDONE.\n";