Its already "fixed". BranFlakes stated its working as intended. Check post #30 in this thread.
May 2013, automatic permanent ban for mentioning gold-seller sites pwebranflakes: this system is currently in place and working the way it should. moradum: I got banned for saying "I started my day with cutting off 3 MM off of the bottom of my cabinet"
I just got banned about an hour ago.
The exact same reasons as the thread creator.
I put a post into a channel as we were having a discussion on not being able to delete mail and I mentioned that my inbox is full of exchange sales and spam from that certain company. Curious when my message did not appear, I posted it again to receive a message saying I had been forcefully disconnected from the server and when I tried to log back in, I was banned.
I have submitted a ticket and sent an e-mail as was suggested in page 1 of this post.
Now, I received no warning message. I was on a chat tab that I set up, in which I have deactivated all other channels except the specific one for that channel. This is very common.
I have poured a lot of time, effort and money over the years into STO. I am a lifetime member and have been around for years.
Is this how you treat your customers? Don't tell me the warnings are clear and punishment it just, because it isn't.
If they were this thread wouldn't be 11 pages long of angry customers.
24 Hour Update: - Still no word, but this I suspected as it is still Sunday night on a long weekend in the U.S.
Annoying for me as my time zone means the ban issue most likely wont be resolved until Wednesday at the earliest.
Well here's the update: my account has been unbanned it seems, however according to the chat box I have been silenced for 1075613 hours 55 minutes and 20 seconds... Will submit a ticket shortly.
irwin109, you are the only one who I have seen in this thread to be unbanned. Did your mute issue ever get resolved?
I would still think it to be unfair that all of us get unbanned but have a perma mute on.
I will pass along your feedback, but this system is currently in place and working the way it should. If you see anyone trying to trick others, please report them to a GM immediately so an investigation take place and appropriate action taken.
To note: Players are given a detailed warning stating what they did wrong, and to not do it again, before being banned -- continuing to do it past the warning will cause the ban. The warning is there for a reason
This has got to be the most unfair system I have ever heard of. It's literally censoring chat when most people, myself included, don't even know what shouldn't be said. I have received spam before and I report it and I'm sure most others do also. There has to be a much better and more fair way to deal with such an issue other than banning actual players. I also have my system messages off in the chat channels I use. On a side note, I'd love to see the odd user get a temporary ban for popping in chat after chat basically advertising they want to buy Veteran BO's and are willing to pay X amount of EC for them.
The staff DO read every forum and the gameplay bugs do get developers attention, regardless if you think they post a lot in here or not. This has been said numerous times and been proven. All I can say is just be patient it'll get handled next week (and I know that isn't really comforting.)
I have to disagree with that statement. If they actually read every post, then a lot less bugs would actually make it to the Holodeck server. We have mail we can't delete, there are audio issues, black on black loot timer bars (that was reported during Tribble testing), paid C-Store costumes with color pallets that don't match up and don't work properly, and the list goes on to be quite a lengthy one. Actions speak louder than words.
I will pass along your feedback, but this system is currently in place and working the way it should.
With all due respect to you, because you have a difficult job to do:
This system as it currently works is completely inexcusable and could not possibly seem like a good idea to a person who has actually played and participated in MMOs. It seems more like the work of some one who hates customers or his boss, and decided to take the most passive aggressive and least customer friendly approach possible. Basically, some one hates their job and needs to be relieved of that burden before their dissatisfaction with their job relieves Cryptic of hundreds or thousands of paying customers.
I have friends who have been banned because they said the forbidden word in /tells with other friends of theirs talking about the very emails that you're supposedly trying to stop. Odd how the spammers can still get their message out by playing around with different characters and punctuation, and the automated system can't detect that behavior, but honest players who are having a private conversation can be "caught" and banned.
Of course, most players don't even see the warning message because it appears in the same channel that Cryptic uses to spam players messages about lock box ships (which almost every veteran player turns off). So the people who are most concerned about useless spam are the ones who are most likely to fall afoul of this policy. Does this seem like good design to you?
If your system is not smart enough to tell the difference between two friends talking conversationally and some one spamming for their gold selling site, then your system is not smart enough to ban any one, period. I think it's hilarious that some one can send the most heinous and foul racial, sexual, or otherwise provocative language in chat, and unless they are reported and a GM reviews it, nothing can happen to them, but if some one makes the horrible mistake of repeating a company name that they have no way of knowing is not to be discussed, they themselves can be banned.
If your automated system is SO smart that it can be trusted to ban people for using an offensive word, then why doesn't your automated system just censor the use of the offensive words? Or why doesn't it exclude those with mature, level 50 accounts? Why not an escalating series of suspensions before a ban?
No customer should ever be banned without having that ban automatically reviewed by a flesh and blood person (in reality it should always be a real person doing the banning, not just reviewing after the fact).
People spend real money on your game and your very best customers have spent literally thousands of dollars. Do you really think it makes sense to ban such lucrative customers because some one is too lazy or cheap to review a chat log before a ban goes through? Is that how little regard Cryptic has for their customers?
What's the point of "protecting" players from a gold selling web site if your own software is driving away more customers and making the remaining customers angrier than the site you're trying to censor?
So, just to reiterate: The system is a total failure as currently implemented, and saying that it's "working as intended" only makes you guys look even worse, because it makes it seem like no one there has the least bit of sense when any one of us can come up with a more effective (and customer friendly) system with about 5 minutes of thought put into it.
I don't even know how much money I've dropped on this game, but until you guys are committed to a more sane way of dealing with this problem, I won't spend another dime. Not because I'm worried that I'll accidentally say this magic word, but because I have no way of knowing what the next magic word will be or whether the next time it will be some OTHER automated process that maybe bans me because it seems me make "too much" dilithium in an hour, etc.
Cryptic needs to review every single one of these incidents and un ban the people who weren't advertising, and stop doing this in the future.
Today I logged on and started talking to my friend via PM.
I told her "I started my day with cutting off 3 MM of the bottom of my cabinet"
The message didn't go through, instead I got some yellow text but zone was scrolling fast so I just chalked it up to lag and typed it again.
Next my account was forcefully disconnected and banned!
WTF? Apparently they implemented some kind of super aggressive anti gold seller PM filter?
I'm guessing they banned me because my message was a private message with "MM and ended in "net".
This was CONFIRMED by a fleet mate who typed in the same message I did when I spoke to them via teamspeak and was able to capture a screenshot for me.
My account is not compromised, password is secure, this is just a case of cryptic's bad Q/A TRIBBLE paying customers again.
My tickets are perpetually lost in their system. I've submitted a ticket 2 weeks ago asking to raise the spending limit and still nothing. So I have no hope of them getting to this one and unbanning me in a timely manner.
If correct, this is completely bloody ludicrous. For all the good it'll do you, try hitting all the Cryptic twitter account, maybe one of them will be in a generous mood and actually sort this out for you.
We are PWE. Your forums and game accounts will be added to our own. Your community will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.
With all due respect to you, because you have a difficult job to do:
This system as it currently works is completely inexcusable and could not possibly seem like a good idea to a person who has actually played and participated in MMOs. It seems more like the work of some one who hates customers or his boss, and decided to take the most passive aggressive and least customer friendly approach possible. Basically, some one hates their job and needs to be relieved of that burden before their dissatisfaction with their job relieves Cryptic of hundreds or thousands of paying customers.
I have friends who have been banned because they said the forbidden word in /tells with other friends of theirs talking about the very emails that you're supposedly trying to stop. Odd how the spammers can still get their message out by playing around with different characters and punctuation, and the automated system can't detect that behavior, but honest players who are having a private conversation can be "caught" and banned.
Of course, most players don't even see the warning message because it appears in the same channel that Cryptic uses to spam players messages about lock box ships (which almost every veteran player turns off). So the people who are most concerned about useless spam are the ones who are most likely to fall afoul of this policy. Does this seem like good design to you?
If your system is not smart enough to tell the difference between two friends talking conversationally and some one spamming for their gold selling site, then your system is not smart enough to ban any one, period. I think it's hilarious that some one can send the most heinous and foul racial, sexual, or otherwise provocative language in chat, and unless they are reported and a GM reviews it, nothing can happen to them, but if some one makes the horrible mistake of repeating a company name that they have no way of knowing is not to be discussed, they themselves can be banned.
If your automated system is SO smart that it can be trusted to ban people for using an offensive word, then why doesn't your automated system just censor the use of the offensive words? Or why doesn't it exclude those with mature, level 50 accounts? Why not an escalating series of suspensions before a ban?
No customer should ever be banned without having that ban automatically reviewed by a flesh and blood person (in reality it should always be a real person doing the banning, not just reviewing after the fact).
People spend real money on your game and your very best customers have spent literally thousands of dollars. Do you really think it makes sense to ban such lucrative customers because some one is too lazy or cheap to review a chat log before a ban goes through? Is that how little regard Cryptic has for their customers?
What's the point of "protecting" players from a gold selling web site if your own software is driving away more customers and making the remaining customers angrier than the site you're trying to censor?
So, just to reiterate: The system is a total failure as currently implemented, and saying that it's "working as intended" only makes you guys look even worse, because it makes it seem like no one there has the least bit of sense when any one of us can come up with a more effective (and customer friendly) system with about 5 minutes of thought put into it.
I don't even know how much money I've dropped on this game, but until you guys are committed to a more sane way of dealing with this problem, I won't spend another dime. Not because I'm worried that I'll accidentally say this magic word, but because I have no way of knowing what the next magic word will be or whether the next time it will be some OTHER automated process that maybe bans me because it seems me make "too much" dilithium in an hour, etc.
Cryptic needs to review every single one of these incidents and un ban the people who weren't advertising, and stop doing this in the future.
Good post! It is definitely the result of someone at Cryptic throwing their toys out of the pram... forget racism, neo nazism, threats of death/violence, incitement of hatred... Say the dreaded 'eg' word and BOOM! you're TRIBBLE is toast! How DARE you mention that name, let alone warn people about it! No! *Stomp foot and pout* you can't play anymore! The person who designed it needs speaking to definitely... but Branflakes... as Community Manager you should NOT be defending this! You should be sticking up for those poor folk who have been banned... those poor folk who are keeping YOU in a job....
'Working as intended'?
'If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed' - Cryptic/PWE ethos... also first spoken by Adolf Hitler...
(SNIP)
So, just to reiterate: The system is a total failure as currently implemented, and saying that it's "working as intended" only makes you guys look even worse, because it makes it seem like no one there has the least bit of sense when any one of us can come up with a more effective (and customer friendly) system with about 5 minutes of thought put into it.
(SNIP)
1) Intercept the 'spam' message and prevent it from being sent to recipient (same as now)
2) Forcibly teleport player to ship bridge - this is to take them out of harm's way for following steps in case they were in middle of combat or the like.. but also to make them realize that something important just happened - so they'll actually pay attention
3) Display a pop-up message that disables the rest of the UI, and requires filling a checkbox and confirm button to make sure the player got the full message, and a link to web page that further explains the system. If disabling the UI is too difficult, then consider making it a special instance instead, from which exiting would require the same procedure (checkbox and confirm).
4) Player can now exit the bridge / instance.
5) If this was the first 'offense', stop here. If second, continue to part 6
6) Squelch player's chat functions for 24 hours. Player can still communicate with those who have accepted them on friends list - if those people have a problem, they can simply remove the player from their friend list. Having a name on friends list should be taken as suggesting a degree of trust and should NOT be tampered with by automated system like this.
7) During that 24 hour period, a real person should be given the context of the 'offending' message for review, and they should react to it by either 'ban' or 'cancel'. If case isn't reviewed within 24 hours, it is automatically labeled as 'canceled' and the chat functions are restored.
8) On fourth and further cases, the chat functions could perhaps be kept disabled for the full 24 hours, or longer - depending on judgement of the person doing the review.
This would STILL make it an extremely heavy-handed system, but should hopefully avoid most of the unwarranted bans. The way the system works right now, it hurts legitimate players far more than it affects the EC sellers - since EC sellers will simply make new accounts, and circumvent the filter on future cases by any of countless possible alternate spellings.
Also consider making chat functions unavailable for F2P accounts that don't have the first character brought to level 10. Allow them to still send friend requests, and chat with people who have accepted the request. Also explain this CLEARLY to people the first thing they enter a tutorial, including the reason being to help combat gold sellers. Most legit players aren't very fond of gold sellers, so they might be somewhat forgiving when made aware it's for good cause. Make a very DETAILED tutorial about how to add friends, and how to find your @handlName so you can inform it to your friend so they can find you.
You might also consider making a separate 'recruit' channel that new accounts will automatically subscribe to, accepssible both to new players and for veteran players that are willing to take a while to help newcomers. Explain CLEARLY in tutorial how to unsubscribe from this channel - because it's possible it will become the prime target of EC sellers. This would still allow a global chat option for new players, which would significantly lessen the feel and impact of being 'muted'.
If the level 10 limit was implemented, I believe the original (and dysfunctional) 'autoban' system would become largely obsolate. The remaining gold sellers could be more easily dealt with through a simple in-game player report system. Creating a new account takes little effort, or can be done through a bot. Taking a character to level 10 takes significantly more effort, only to have the account shot down by reports after the first spam spree.
Well, it took me more than 5 minutes to type this.. although the basic concept was no-brainer. I'm well aware that implementing a system like this would take some effort, but it's an effort you should be willing to make to protect your playerbase from collateral damage as much as possible.
i would like to discuss the issue but this seems like its moderation territory so i wont touch that.
all i will state that you should of used ts to chat, even if it means alt-tabbing to type in ts chat.
I am dumber for having read this comment. The guy did nothing wrong, it's another case of the filter system being sensitive to the point of stupidity. If you can't type in the in-game chat channels for fear that discussing something as inane and innocent as carpentry might get your account banned, then what in the hell is the point in having an in-game chat channel in the first place? Don't post again until you can learn to read, thank you.
Ill refrain from using chat at all now that i have read this post.
just for Cryptic => That is VERY poor programming.
Its like they have board meetings to come up with the worst possible idea's in the world, and then implement the ones that will annoy their customers the most.
Its like they have board meetings to come up with the worst possible idea's in the world, and then implement the ones that will annoy their customers the most.
Why do you do such inane/insane things cryptic??
More a case of "Be careful what you wish for, you may just get it". In the threads on the recent rise in currency selling spam people asked for Cryptic to do something about it. They got what they wanted however not in a way they expected.
They should have started with a filter to block the words first, to go straight to auto ban is extreme as innocent people are getting caught up in it. This way they could fine tune it, then move to an auto silence to be reviewed. Auto banning is just like using a sledge hammer to crack a walnut, otherwise known as over kill.
More a case of "Be careful what you wish for, you may just get it". In the threads on the recent rise in currency selling spam people asked for Cryptic to do something about it. They got what they wanted however not in a way they expected.
They should have started with a filter to block the words first, to go straight to auto ban is extreme as innocent people are getting caught up in it. This way they could fine tune it, then move to an auto silence to be reviewed. Auto banning is just like using a sledge hammer to crack a walnut, otherwise known as over kill.
This is how Cryptic fix things.
Keybind: http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=9355971&postcount=463
Bone1970 don't believe in a no-win senario, Kirk's protege. Fed Tac.
Bone Trader don't belief in a no-win senario, Kirk's protege. Fed Tac.
Bone2 don't believe in a no-win senario, Kirk's protege. KDF Eng.
Warning: Not a native English-speaker, sorry if my English sucks.
This has been a problem since forever. CO has this. STO has this. Now NW has this. The sad part is that people over on the NW side are actually defending this junk. They don't seem to understand that you can do absolutely nothing at all and still get banned.
I am dumber for having read this comment. The guy did nothing wrong, it's another case of the filter system being sensitive to the point of stupidity. If you can't type in the in-game chat channels for fear that discussing something as inane and innocent as carpentry might get your account banned, then what in the hell is the point in having an in-game chat channel in the first place? Don't post again until you can learn to read, thank you.
not sure why you are trying to bait me into an argument so keep that TRIBBLE to yourself.
anyway, thats exactly the point though, the filter is the way it is, so you either get yourself banned for hitting the limit or you use the ts chat and bypass it altogether. one thing is for sure, if i wanted an unrestricted chat sto isnt the place for it right now and i doubt that will change.
T6 Miranda Hero Ship FTW. Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
Have now been banned for 4 1/2 days...STILL no response from anyone on my tickets
If we ever get our accounts back we should all create a fleet called "Banned of Brothers" and Bran, as the community manager, this said fleet should have tier 5 holdings on everything (Starbase and Embassy) as an apology
Yeah, I'm dreaming right... I'll just be happy to get my account back.
not sure why you are trying to bait me into an argument so keep that TRIBBLE to yourself.
anyway, thats exactly the point though, the filter is the way it is, so you either get yourself banned for hitting the limit or you use the ts chat and bypass it altogether. one thing is for sure, if i wanted an unrestricted chat sto isnt the place for it right now and i doubt that will change.
Again with the reading comprehension fail. I'll make it plain.
THE GUY. WAS TALKING. ABOUT CARPENTRY.
How in the sam hill is that anywhere close to hitting a "limit"? Now if he were discussing pornography or a recent drug deal, then I might agree with you, but he wasn't. He wasn't discussing anything even remotely related to the reason he was banned. It isn't about unrestricted chat, it's about being able to talk about anything at all anymore without risking the filter deciding you were talking about some gold sellers website.
The point he and everyone else is making is that the filter is broken, and rather than sitting back and saying "oh well, I'll chat elsewhere" we are trying to bring it to Cryptics attention and get them to realise how utterly broken and idiotic the current filter implementation is.
PWE_BranFlakes twitter has not been active since the 25th of May so no hopes of it being resolved today unfortunately.
It's a holiday weekend in the US, so Bran went to be with his family. At least that's what I can gather from his tweets. I wouldn't expect anything until tomorrow at the earliest.
You can only rely on technology to solve social problems when the technology doesn't suck.
The MO is to say "too bad, so sad" and toss it into a megathread where it's buried, not read, and not dealt with. I guess that's where things go that nobody cares about.
It's part of why I stopped spending cash on STO (except for the Legacy Pack, which I regret).
Delta Rising is the best expansion ever and the players love it! No, seriously! ...Why are you laughing so hard?
I was on the receiving end of that tell, and i can confirm that this had nothing to do with gold sellers or anything like that. It's really f'ed up.
Auto-bans like that has no place at all in today's technology, and the spamming problem could have been solved in a much more elegant way. The problem is that Cryptic does not put customer's satisfaction above all, and this will probably lead to their down fall.
They must not forget that we are the ones who pay their salaries, and when we're fed up with Cryptics BS we will take our money somewhere else.
If we can't talk about issues in game about spam like:
Fleet Recruitment TRIBBLE
"will you join my team" (more than 100 times)
now this?
I've never even heard of this gold selling company let alone you can be banned for talking about a subject.
I bet people have gotten banned because of other things:
politics between fleet people
personal stuff
and anything you can imagine being a little edgy.
This may be the tip of the iceberg, folks.
I'll say if before and i'll say it again, sometimes i wonder if PWE just wants to kill this game so they can start over with Neverwinter and bury Cryptic in a 6 foot hole after they took over the company.
I consider this Exhibit A in my theory.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] "This planet smells, it must be the Klingons"
Comments
You are kidding right?
Its already "fixed". BranFlakes stated its working as intended. Check post #30 in this thread.
pwebranflakes: this system is currently in place and working the way it should.
moradum: I got banned for saying "I started my day with cutting off 3 MM off of the bottom of my cabinet"
24 Hour Update: - Still no word, but this I suspected as it is still Sunday night on a long weekend in the U.S.
Annoying for me as my time zone means the ban issue most likely wont be resolved until Wednesday at the earliest.
irwin109, you are the only one who I have seen in this thread to be unbanned. Did your mute issue ever get resolved?
I would still think it to be unfair that all of us get unbanned but have a perma mute on.
This has got to be the most unfair system I have ever heard of. It's literally censoring chat when most people, myself included, don't even know what shouldn't be said. I have received spam before and I report it and I'm sure most others do also. There has to be a much better and more fair way to deal with such an issue other than banning actual players. I also have my system messages off in the chat channels I use. On a side note, I'd love to see the odd user get a temporary ban for popping in chat after chat basically advertising they want to buy Veteran BO's and are willing to pay X amount of EC for them.
I have to disagree with that statement. If they actually read every post, then a lot less bugs would actually make it to the Holodeck server. We have mail we can't delete, there are audio issues, black on black loot timer bars (that was reported during Tribble testing), paid C-Store costumes with color pallets that don't match up and don't work properly, and the list goes on to be quite a lengthy one. Actions speak louder than words.
With all due respect to you, because you have a difficult job to do:
This system as it currently works is completely inexcusable and could not possibly seem like a good idea to a person who has actually played and participated in MMOs. It seems more like the work of some one who hates customers or his boss, and decided to take the most passive aggressive and least customer friendly approach possible. Basically, some one hates their job and needs to be relieved of that burden before their dissatisfaction with their job relieves Cryptic of hundreds or thousands of paying customers.
I have friends who have been banned because they said the forbidden word in /tells with other friends of theirs talking about the very emails that you're supposedly trying to stop. Odd how the spammers can still get their message out by playing around with different characters and punctuation, and the automated system can't detect that behavior, but honest players who are having a private conversation can be "caught" and banned.
Of course, most players don't even see the warning message because it appears in the same channel that Cryptic uses to spam players messages about lock box ships (which almost every veteran player turns off). So the people who are most concerned about useless spam are the ones who are most likely to fall afoul of this policy. Does this seem like good design to you?
If your system is not smart enough to tell the difference between two friends talking conversationally and some one spamming for their gold selling site, then your system is not smart enough to ban any one, period. I think it's hilarious that some one can send the most heinous and foul racial, sexual, or otherwise provocative language in chat, and unless they are reported and a GM reviews it, nothing can happen to them, but if some one makes the horrible mistake of repeating a company name that they have no way of knowing is not to be discussed, they themselves can be banned.
If your automated system is SO smart that it can be trusted to ban people for using an offensive word, then why doesn't your automated system just censor the use of the offensive words? Or why doesn't it exclude those with mature, level 50 accounts? Why not an escalating series of suspensions before a ban?
No customer should ever be banned without having that ban automatically reviewed by a flesh and blood person (in reality it should always be a real person doing the banning, not just reviewing after the fact).
People spend real money on your game and your very best customers have spent literally thousands of dollars. Do you really think it makes sense to ban such lucrative customers because some one is too lazy or cheap to review a chat log before a ban goes through? Is that how little regard Cryptic has for their customers?
What's the point of "protecting" players from a gold selling web site if your own software is driving away more customers and making the remaining customers angrier than the site you're trying to censor?
So, just to reiterate: The system is a total failure as currently implemented, and saying that it's "working as intended" only makes you guys look even worse, because it makes it seem like no one there has the least bit of sense when any one of us can come up with a more effective (and customer friendly) system with about 5 minutes of thought put into it.
I don't even know how much money I've dropped on this game, but until you guys are committed to a more sane way of dealing with this problem, I won't spend another dime. Not because I'm worried that I'll accidentally say this magic word, but because I have no way of knowing what the next magic word will be or whether the next time it will be some OTHER automated process that maybe bans me because it seems me make "too much" dilithium in an hour, etc.
Cryptic needs to review every single one of these incidents and un ban the people who weren't advertising, and stop doing this in the future.
I told her "I started my day with cutting off 3 MM of the bottom of my cabinet"
The message didn't go through, instead I got some yellow text but zone was scrolling fast so I just chalked it up to lag and typed it again.
Next my account was forcefully disconnected and banned!
WTF? Apparently they implemented some kind of super aggressive anti gold seller PM filter?
I'm guessing they banned me because my message was a private message with "MM and ended in "net".
This was CONFIRMED by a fleet mate who typed in the same message I did when I spoke to them via teamspeak and was able to capture a screenshot for me.
My account is not compromised, password is secure, this is just a case of cryptic's bad Q/A TRIBBLE paying customers again.
My tickets are perpetually lost in their system. I've submitted a ticket 2 weeks ago asking to raise the spending limit and still nothing. So I have no hope of them getting to this one and unbanning me in a timely manner.
Help!!!!!!
all i will state that you should of used ts to chat, even if it means alt-tabbing to type in ts chat.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=702731
We are PWE. Your forums and game accounts will be added to our own. Your community will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.
Good post! It is definitely the result of someone at Cryptic throwing their toys out of the pram... forget racism, neo nazism, threats of death/violence, incitement of hatred... Say the dreaded 'eg' word and BOOM! you're TRIBBLE is toast! How DARE you mention that name, let alone warn people about it! No! *Stomp foot and pout* you can't play anymore! The person who designed it needs speaking to definitely... but Branflakes... as Community Manager you should NOT be defending this! You should be sticking up for those poor folk who have been banned... those poor folk who are keeping YOU in a job....
'Working as intended'?
'If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed' - Cryptic/PWE ethos... also first spoken by Adolf Hitler...
1) Intercept the 'spam' message and prevent it from being sent to recipient (same as now)
2) Forcibly teleport player to ship bridge - this is to take them out of harm's way for following steps in case they were in middle of combat or the like.. but also to make them realize that something important just happened - so they'll actually pay attention
3) Display a pop-up message that disables the rest of the UI, and requires filling a checkbox and confirm button to make sure the player got the full message, and a link to web page that further explains the system. If disabling the UI is too difficult, then consider making it a special instance instead, from which exiting would require the same procedure (checkbox and confirm).
4) Player can now exit the bridge / instance.
5) If this was the first 'offense', stop here. If second, continue to part 6
6) Squelch player's chat functions for 24 hours. Player can still communicate with those who have accepted them on friends list - if those people have a problem, they can simply remove the player from their friend list. Having a name on friends list should be taken as suggesting a degree of trust and should NOT be tampered with by automated system like this.
7) During that 24 hour period, a real person should be given the context of the 'offending' message for review, and they should react to it by either 'ban' or 'cancel'. If case isn't reviewed within 24 hours, it is automatically labeled as 'canceled' and the chat functions are restored.
8) On fourth and further cases, the chat functions could perhaps be kept disabled for the full 24 hours, or longer - depending on judgement of the person doing the review.
This would STILL make it an extremely heavy-handed system, but should hopefully avoid most of the unwarranted bans. The way the system works right now, it hurts legitimate players far more than it affects the EC sellers - since EC sellers will simply make new accounts, and circumvent the filter on future cases by any of countless possible alternate spellings.
Also consider making chat functions unavailable for F2P accounts that don't have the first character brought to level 10. Allow them to still send friend requests, and chat with people who have accepted the request. Also explain this CLEARLY to people the first thing they enter a tutorial, including the reason being to help combat gold sellers. Most legit players aren't very fond of gold sellers, so they might be somewhat forgiving when made aware it's for good cause. Make a very DETAILED tutorial about how to add friends, and how to find your @handlName so you can inform it to your friend so they can find you.
You might also consider making a separate 'recruit' channel that new accounts will automatically subscribe to, accepssible both to new players and for veteran players that are willing to take a while to help newcomers. Explain CLEARLY in tutorial how to unsubscribe from this channel - because it's possible it will become the prime target of EC sellers. This would still allow a global chat option for new players, which would significantly lessen the feel and impact of being 'muted'.
If the level 10 limit was implemented, I believe the original (and dysfunctional) 'autoban' system would become largely obsolate. The remaining gold sellers could be more easily dealt with through a simple in-game player report system. Creating a new account takes little effort, or can be done through a bot. Taking a character to level 10 takes significantly more effort, only to have the account shot down by reports after the first spam spree.
Well, it took me more than 5 minutes to type this.. although the basic concept was no-brainer. I'm well aware that implementing a system like this would take some effort, but it's an effort you should be willing to make to protect your playerbase from collateral damage as much as possible.
I am dumber for having read this comment. The guy did nothing wrong, it's another case of the filter system being sensitive to the point of stupidity. If you can't type in the in-game chat channels for fear that discussing something as inane and innocent as carpentry might get your account banned, then what in the hell is the point in having an in-game chat channel in the first place? Don't post again until you can learn to read, thank you.
Sig by my better half.
just for Cryptic => That is VERY poor programming.
Its like they have board meetings to come up with the worst possible idea's in the world, and then implement the ones that will annoy their customers the most.
Why do you do such inane/insane things cryptic??
More a case of "Be careful what you wish for, you may just get it". In the threads on the recent rise in currency selling spam people asked for Cryptic to do something about it. They got what they wanted however not in a way they expected.
They should have started with a filter to block the words first, to go straight to auto ban is extreme as innocent people are getting caught up in it. This way they could fine tune it, then move to an auto silence to be reviewed. Auto banning is just like using a sledge hammer to crack a walnut, otherwise known as over kill.
It looks like whoever did it just typed in the word with no thought whatsoever, then went on holiday for a long weekend.
I feel for those who where simply warning others.
Reading the threads, it seems that the system is flawed in the extreme, to the point it's existence is an abuse by the devs.
As for Brandon's post, that is the single worst reply I've ever seen made by a Mod.
His, and the team's, silence ever since shows graphically their disregard for their loyal player base.
This is how Cryptic fix things.
Bone1970 don't believe in a no-win senario, Kirk's protege. Fed Tac.
Bone Trader don't belief in a no-win senario, Kirk's protege. Fed Tac.
Bone2 don't believe in a no-win senario, Kirk's protege. KDF Eng.
Warning: Not a native English-speaker, sorry if my English sucks.
Horrible system is horrible.
Mine Trap Supporter
not sure why you are trying to bait me into an argument so keep that TRIBBLE to yourself.
anyway, thats exactly the point though, the filter is the way it is, so you either get yourself banned for hitting the limit or you use the ts chat and bypass it altogether. one thing is for sure, if i wanted an unrestricted chat sto isnt the place for it right now and i doubt that will change.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
If we ever get our accounts back we should all create a fleet called "Banned of Brothers" and Bran, as the community manager, this said fleet should have tier 5 holdings on everything (Starbase and Embassy) as an apology
Yeah, I'm dreaming right... I'll just be happy to get my account back.
Again with the reading comprehension fail. I'll make it plain.
THE GUY. WAS TALKING. ABOUT CARPENTRY.
How in the sam hill is that anywhere close to hitting a "limit"? Now if he were discussing pornography or a recent drug deal, then I might agree with you, but he wasn't. He wasn't discussing anything even remotely related to the reason he was banned. It isn't about unrestricted chat, it's about being able to talk about anything at all anymore without risking the filter deciding you were talking about some gold sellers website.
The point he and everyone else is making is that the filter is broken, and rather than sitting back and saying "oh well, I'll chat elsewhere" we are trying to bring it to Cryptics attention and get them to realise how utterly broken and idiotic the current filter implementation is.
Sig by my better half.
I hope I'm not in eternal limbo like that other guy who was linked in this thread.
PWE_BranFlakes twitter has not been active since the 25th of May so no hopes of it being resolved today unfortunately.
It's a holiday weekend in the US, so Bran went to be with his family. At least that's what I can gather from his tweets. I wouldn't expect anything until tomorrow at the earliest.
Mine Trap Supporter
The MO is to say "too bad, so sad" and toss it into a megathread where it's buried, not read, and not dealt with. I guess that's where things go that nobody cares about.
It's part of why I stopped spending cash on STO (except for the Legacy Pack, which I regret).
Auto-bans like that has no place at all in today's technology, and the spamming problem could have been solved in a much more elegant way. The problem is that Cryptic does not put customer's satisfaction above all, and this will probably lead to their down fall.
They must not forget that we are the ones who pay their salaries, and when we're fed up with Cryptics BS we will take our money somewhere else.
Fleet Recruitment TRIBBLE
"will you join my team" (more than 100 times)
now this?
I've never even heard of this gold selling company let alone you can be banned for talking about a subject.
I bet people have gotten banned because of other things:
politics between fleet people
personal stuff
and anything you can imagine being a little edgy.
This may be the tip of the iceberg, folks.
I'll say if before and i'll say it again, sometimes i wonder if PWE just wants to kill this game so they can start over with Neverwinter and bury Cryptic in a 6 foot hole after they took over the company.
I consider this Exhibit A in my theory.