3rd party spamemers

arcanaxe

I'm being private msg from these people every 5 minutes, this is very annoying, as you have to report this spam everybody 5 minutes, and it's not just that, when you open your inbox it's cluttered with this garbage. Something must really be done about this.:mad:

serpentzminion

Is your status set to be only visible to friends? Of course, even with that set, the generic chat spamming is so bad... I actually think it's worse now than it ever has been. They seem desperate and even more determined. Not to mention they have tons of leftover bound <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> in their stocks to work with since they keys were bound.

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sockmunkey

So can we at least all agree that restricting chat till level 15 was a complete waste of time and completely ineffective.

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sockmunkey

It hasn't slowed them down one bit. It could be argued that spam has actually gotten worse. The random tells were a rarity, but are now all to common.

Ive seen nothing productive come from this fix. And that is without wondering how many new players this might of cost the game.

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citymystic

sockmunkey wrote: »

So can we at least all agree that restricting chat till level 15 was a complete waste of time and completely ineffective.

That's exactly what spammers want you to believe, because it helps their business when they look as though they're unaffected by anything and they can get around the system. it's all smoke & mirrors, a perception trick.

In actuality, they've raised their prices... likely to compensate the extra work needed to level their accounts. They've also increased the spamtastic-ness of their advertising, which says to me that they're trying too hard to look unaffected by the changes, or seeking retribution for them. either way, I'm pretty sure they were affected by it.

and by all rights, limiting zone chats, raising level requirements for chats etc. has all been done before in other MMOs. I wouldn't be surprised at all if they saw it coming and worked on levelling accounts in advance to get around it when it happened.

zshikara

For a free to play game: where you can make an account with absolutely no financial requirement (or any requirement besides an email address), how exactly do you block the spammers? As soon as they get banned they create another account to spam their advertisements. Their goods are kept on a private account that doesn't spam so it won't get banned (most likely).

IP bans won't work as most people's ISP uses rotating IP addresses. This means if they IP ban people that you could temporarily end up with a banned IP address and then couldn't play for a couple weeks for absolutely no reason.

I believe cryptic does the best they could. If anyone has a good recommendation I would love to hear it, but so far all I see are very very valid (and I share them) complaints.

aulduron

I've had to turn off all channels, except guild, party and legit. It's even been so bad that I've turned off private tells.

wimpazoid

Never loiter in PE. Once they find you, the PMs won't stop coming.

Spammers are the reason my alts and set to visible to friends only and my mains don't stay in PE.

Not being in PE reduces spams considerably.

settko

zshikara wrote: »

I believe cryptic does the best they could. If anyone has a good recommendation I would love to hear it, but so far all I see are very very valid (and I share them) complaints.

Hi, I post very rarely on Forums but I had to try and give a simple resolution.

A GM/Dev/Specialized person constantly online in PE Zone chat, who can and will change zones from time to time (Visit Shar/ID etc.). I understand it's another workplace, another actual human needed to weed out the spammers, but on the other hand it's just the ONE.
He/she doesn't even have to be online 24/7, even an hour or two a day would be enough to reduce the spam considerably.

I don't have any knowledge about software tools available to the company staff, however I believe there could be a way to monitor several Zones. Banning a single spammer by staff, instead of making him mute for 24hrs through community actions would do a lot of good for the community. Auto-mute is a good system, but it still relies on following a strict set of rules.

I won't complain much here, but I can imagine the faces of new players arriving from the tutorial into Enclave, only to be steamrolled by a neverending stream of spam. Also, it's getting worse and worse - to the point where players are deliberately robbing themselves of communication with others, either by completely disabling the various channels or by trying to "Report spam" on each and every spammer. As for myself, I try to keep up but if I don't log into the game for just one day I know I will be clicking "Report Spam" for at least 10 minutes. I like my chat clean and I don't think it's a bad thing.

I'm more than certain that many community members would help the good cause if they were given a chance. I would be the first to apply for a chance to help out the multitude of players.

Small disclaimer: I'm only trying to help people around me in the game. If my views and ideas are considered useless or radical, I will back off in an instant. I've had my posts deleted before, so I don't feel any further incentive to stir the pot or even post anything for months at a time.

TL/DR: Please place one person, who can ban spammers, in Zone chat in Enclave. One person's actions will help thousands.

myowmyow

citymystic wrote: »

That's exactly what spammers want you to believe, because it helps their business when they look as though they're unaffected by anything and they can get around the system. it's all smoke & mirrors, a perception trick.

In actuality, they've raised their prices... likely to compensate the extra work needed to level their accounts. They've also increased the spamtastic-ness of their advertising, which says to me that they're trying too hard to look unaffected by the changes, or seeking retribution for them. either way, I'm pretty sure they were affected by it.

and by all rights, limiting zone chats, raising level requirements for chats etc. has all been done before in other MMOs. I wouldn't be surprised at all if they saw it coming and worked on levelling accounts in advance to get around it when it happened.

That is very insightful - great thinking!

jwmouse

citymystic wrote: »

That's exactly what spammers want you to believe, because it helps their business when they look as though they're unaffected by anything and they can get around the system. it's all smoke & mirrors, a perception trick.

In actuality, they've raised their prices... likely to compensate the extra work needed to level their accounts. They've also increased the spamtastic-ness of their advertising, which says to me that they're trying too hard to look unaffected by the changes, or seeking retribution for them. either way, I'm pretty sure they were affected by it.

and by all rights, limiting zone chats, raising level requirements for chats etc. has all been done before in other MMOs. I wouldn't be surprised at all if they saw it coming and worked on levelling accounts in advance to get around it when it happened.

They should raise the lvl to 60 at least that way we will have about a month before we get bombed with spam

frishter

jwmouse wrote: »

They should raise the lvl to 60 at least that way we will have about a month before we get bombed with spam

Agreed. Not because I think it'd be effective, but because it'd annoy a lot of new players and then Cryptic might actually learn the importance of valuing its players.

kvet

Perhaps a solution would be to implement something akin to the community moderators in game? Other MMOs I've played has a similar program. They are players, not employees and couldn't issue bans or do anything admin/dev like per-se, but they were designated as *special* and while on duty had some additional powers (like chat muting, for example, and I think they could instantly teleport to players, things like that). In NW's case, perhaps they could also issue temporary bans - perhaps a ban that prevents the account from using the AH, chat and mail until a formal review is done by PWE staff. Not just for spammers, but other ToS offenses (like abusive behavior, hate speech, etc). I, for one, would volunteer for this in a hearbeat. Basically, in-game player moderators. If PWE isn't staffed to handle the massive number of accounts doing this, they can enlist players to help out in a more visible and meaningful way than simply reporting spam (since that doesn't seem to be working well enough).

gimpocalypse

arcanaxe wrote: »

Something must really be done about this.:mad:

Simple solution:

Give us “Report 3rd Party Site” option with only 1 report needed to temporary ban 24 hours

No use of chat till level 10 and can reduce no PM to 10 also no Friend Request till level 5 [after tutorial & Theft of the Crown approximately]

...the Report 3rd Party Site should send the text being reported, only 1 person needed to view & verify within the 24 temp. ban window that it is fact it a 3rd Part advertisement...

THEN ACTUALLY ban the account!!!




With the 10 level [5 on Friend] limit to use any communication... just making an account will not be enough to spam [ad, PM and/or friend request], as some time would be needed getting to a point to “annoy” players and only ONE “spam” with a Report 3rd Party Site will negate all that work.

Any higher level characters of theirs would be jeopardized if this was brought to pass... I could un-ignore all past spammers to be able to “see” them again to report.
It would slow spammers down and make it more “annoying” for them hopefully.

… PWE could easily employ this BUT will they?



15 levels may be too high for new players without being able to communicate with others... but 10 levels would be less burdening on them and still enough to slow down the spammers some.


NOTE:

My ignore list is probably a couple of thousand “offenders” long, if I accidentally hit the “IGNORE” tab in Social... the game virtually LOCKS UP for minutes... thus I'm sure that the List has to have some effect on performance/lag while playing.

colonelwing

They should let that community manager, be an ingame GM along with the rest of the clique, instead of holding these lockbox trading events that nobody really wants. I have seen private servers of other games with, less goldspam than this game has plus with actual staff ingame at all times... and since these people are ingame anyways, they should be taking care of the spammers, because they obviously can and should.

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lewstelamon01

o not use the forums to discuss or report violations of any applicable rules. Use the ingame help menu or the support website.