FourPawnBenoni Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 The barrage of spam from bots is getting very irritating...very surprised they can't implement some kind of spam filter to weed these out. My ignore list is just growing and growing Even getting spam whispers and messages in my inbox Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Feargal Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Gonna be a problem as long as there is FTP. So, essentially, it's gonna be a problem forever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPsus Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 The only messages on fleet of any value are my glorious messages about the glory of roleplaying, these filthy spammers are disgusting because they take up valuable space that is reserved for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LyraineAlei Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Say they filter out words, then the bot programmers will find ways of working around. Ex. Let's say I can't say Death Star. A work around could be D e a t h s t a r. |]€47574®... Stars, they could go crazy with the work arounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andryah Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 (edited) The barrage of spam from bots is getting very irritating...very surprised they can't implement some kind of spam filter to weed these out. My ignore list is just growing and growing Even getting spam whispers and messages in my inbox /report and then ignore (not on your ignore list.. because they are going to go POOF fairly shortly). Use your very best filter -----> your mind and the ability to choose what you pay attention to and what you simply ignore. Edited December 9, 2014 by Andryah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rafaman Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Can't we go to their web sites and spam them back? Even if it is just emails? Lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eythiofr Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 I'm still leveling my first character, so I spend almost no time at Fleet. I can't imagine it being any more annoying than the spam ads that players in EVE have to endure in the safer parts of highsec. That being said, I have seen a few of them. A quick glance at topics similar to this one indicate most posters are aware that gold sellers violate section 5 of the TOS. However, an escalation on their part (the gold sellers) into personal whispers and inbox messages to player accounts can be considered harassment as well as currency trading. I'd suggest taking screenshots of such inbox messages, after reporting them ingame, and sending it to customer service.* Unless there is an out of game dedicated report function I'm unaware of. Not the forums or another public place. Customer service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andryah Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 I'd suggest taking screenshots of such inbox messages, after reporting them ingame, and sending it to customer service.* Unless there is an out of game dedicated report function I'm unaware of. There is no need to do this. The mail GUI has a button right up top where you can report mail as either spam or harassment. It will forward the email directly to Bioware security. Not the forums or another public place. Customer service. 100% agree. The forums are not a roll of toilet tissue for general consumption. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FourPawnBenoni Posted December 16, 2014 Author Share Posted December 16, 2014 It must be a lucrative business. I've now seen three different websites spamming messages to buy credits Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dev Post EricMusco Posted December 16, 2014 Dev Post Share Posted December 16, 2014 The barrage of spam from bots is getting very irritating...very surprised they can't implement some kind of spam filter to weed these out. My ignore list is just growing and growing Even getting spam whispers and messages in my inbox We definitely have quite a few systems in place to try to stop this type of thing and we are always continuing to improve them. As you can imagine, those spammers are doing the same. What is really important is that you always report them when you see them. It helps us immensely in tracking and removing that spam! -eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Golathe Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 Is it not that "Free to play" is only half of it, in tandem with the "Micro transaction" business model? If players were required to acquire items in the game more like days of old, and earn them through actual game play? Many of the issues could be quelled with ease quite honestly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foambreaker Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 We definitely have quite a few systems in place to try to stop this type of thing and we are always continuing to improve them. As you can imagine, those spammers are doing the same. What is really important is that you always report them when you see them. It helps us immensely in tracking and removing that spam! -eric Things you could do to help: 1. "consume" and not show any chat message which contains a URL 2. Make it so Report Spam and Ignore don't take so many clicks, and get rid of the confirmation dialog, that is just another click 3. Take serious action against players who buy and sell out of game and make it public so people know buying gold can cost your account. Remember the customer are paying them, if they were not this would not occur 4. If you ban a spammer and another account spams the exact same message, ban that account too. The bottom line is you are not taking a tough public stance and so people are not deterred from buying, as long as people buy there will be sellers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DataBeaver Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 Is it not that "Free to play" is only half of it, in tandem with the "Micro transaction" business model? If players were required to acquire items in the game more like days of old, and earn them through actual game play? Many of the issues could be quelled with ease quite honestly. How do you figure cartel market (i.e. microtransactions) contributes to the problem? If anything, it provides players with an official way to convert real money into in-game credits (after a fashion). I'd say GTN is more of a problem, since much of the credits bought from gold spammers are probably going there. As well as the plethora of other money sinks, like strongholds and guild ships. Solution: Remove credits from the game and/or prevent all trading between players (any tradeable item can become a substitute currency; barter economies in MMOs are a pipe dream). Then the gold farmers will have to move to selling powerleveling services instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MillionsKNives Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 Things you could do to help: 1. "consume" and not show any chat message which contains a URL What constitutes a url? Anything with .com? What about .c0m or .co/\/\ 2. Make it so Report Spam and Ignore don't take so many clicks, and get rid of the confirmation dialog, that is just another click Agreed. A one click process would be much improved. 3. Take serious action against players who buy and sell out of game and make it public so people know buying gold can cost your account. Remember the customer are paying them, if they were not this would not occur Obviously wouldn't completely solve it but serves as a good deterrent. 4. If you ban a spammer and another account spams the exact same message, ban that account too. This would be easily circumvented, but would at least require them to adjust their message every time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raphael_diSanto Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 My report spam button has been broken for the last few weeks. Every time I click it I get an error message. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DataBeaver Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 Things you could do to help: 1. "consume" and not show any chat message which contains a URL But what constitutes an URL? http://www.buygold.tld probably is one. What about http://www.buygold.tld? buygold.tld? buygold dot tld? b u y g o l d dot t l d? The spammers will invent some way to get people to their site. And what of legitimate URLs? Suppose someone asks for an ops guide? 3. Take serious action against players who buy and sell out of game and make it public so people know buying gold can cost your account. Remember the customer are paying them, if they were not this would not occur It's not trivial to track which transactions are related to gold sellers. You wouldn't want to ban someone receiving two million credits from their friend to help them get started on a new character. It's unlikely the gold mules are the same characters or even on the same account as the advertisers. 4. If you ban a spammer and another account spams the exact same message, ban that account too. This one at least would likely have no negative effects, though the spammers would quickly find a way around it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
varietasplus Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 (edited) I would like to have an option that does not allow anyone else send me message but my: - alts - guild members - friends - ingame message system (GTN, story messages, CS, etc.) Edited December 16, 2014 by varietasplus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twin Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 We definitely have quite a few systems in place to try to stop this type of thing and we are always continuing to improve them. As you can imagine, those spammers are doing the same. What is really important is that you always report them when you see them. It helps us immensely in tracking and removing that spam! -eric SWG had a quite successful system in place - The Warden system. Every server had a chosen ammount of players that acted as "Wardens" and had the power to mute all communications for other players. Chat, mail, whisper - everything locked. Obviously this could be abused by any "Warden" so several steps were taken to assue that wouldnt happen (Like signing an application) and if anyone were to abuse it anyway, we all knew we would likely be facing permaban from the game. When a Warden muted another player, a report was automatically filed to the GM's who would then investigate chat history etc and take the final actions against any spammer. Ofc, this kind of system requires a certain ammount of trust and BW handing out a tiny ammount of power...so i guess we're stuck with spammers huh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordArtemis Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 A warden system would work, if all of the warden actions are reported to GMs on a regular basis so they can investigate them. There are a few particularly well known and helpful/mature players that I think would make good wardens. Dulfy is one of them IMO. Bio could offer free subs to folks in the Warden system, as an incentive to act appropriately. You abuse the privilege, you lose your free sub status. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andryah Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 (edited) I don't spend much time on fleet.. so I really don't see much of the fleet spam. But when I do.. I mentally ignore it. I do see a good amount of mail spam targeted at characters I have on starter planets and in Strongholds. Which is exceptionally easy to report to Bioware using the report spam feature in the mail client. The fun part though is the character is often deleted before I open the mail (it shows the sender as "character deleted"). So they are getting squashed. /report and mentally ignore them. Also, in game currency selling predates the emergence of F2P business models. So those claiming that this is because of the new business model....... WRONG. It's been a problem since the glory days of AC. They will try to proliferate inside any MMO with an active player base. And it is extremely easy for them to bypass spam filters... so that too is a failed argument/complaint. The spam is a product of multiple competitors trying to under-cut each other and draw you to some website (which is probably full of malware). In the old days... they simply posted and sold on Ebay... but that route is long closed due to pressures by the game companies. So.. they simply adapt and pop up some other way. Edited December 16, 2014 by Andryah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andryah Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 (edited) A warden system would work, if all of the warden actions are reported to GMs on a regular basis so they can investigate them. There are a few particularly well known and helpful/mature players that I think would make good wardens. Dulfy is one of them IMO. Bio could offer free subs to folks in the Warden system, as an incentive to act appropriately. You abuse the privilege, you lose your free sub status. This might have worked with players a decade ago. But the modern MMO player base.. not a chance. Seriously.. the modern player base is beyond any expectation of reasonable responsibility and diligence. Evidence: coming to the forum to complain about credit spammers, rather then using the report features in game to actually let the security team at Bioware know who/what/where/when (all data automatically included with a /report). Besides.. it will just mean players will be on the forum complaining about "Wardens" not doing their job, yada, yada, yada. And if you think a Warden system would not get abused and cause more problems then it solves..... I have water front property in the high desert to sell you. TL;DR we are all defacto wardens who can report any offender for review and action by Bioware. Edited December 16, 2014 by Andryah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Technohic Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 We definitely have quite a few systems in place to try to stop this type of thing and we are always continuing to improve them. As you can imagine, those spammers are doing the same. What is really important is that you always report them when you see them. It helps us immensely in tracking and removing that spam! -eric Not sure if someone mentioned this, but I think some feel its better not to report them because then they just create a new spammer that is no longer the same one that is on our ignore list, and we run out of room on who we can ignore eventually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drockter Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 Eric, Thank you for responding... and for looking into it. I have to be honest, however, I really do not see any action on the part of EA/BW since I have joined the game. I faithfully report the spammer each time. If, I do not add this person to my ignore list, the messages continue (for several days, I've tried it). I agree with the idea above for the one click fix (Report spam automatically ignores the reported player)... might I also suggest that after a certain number of reports, say 5-10, the account is silenced until a review can be done? It might also be worthwhile to look at the the IP of the connecting account, and blocking that for entering the game. I believe the majority of offenders come from 2 sites... personally, I would silence anyone typing a chat message with those names in them... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b-morgan Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 We definitely have quite a few systems in place to try to stop this type of thing and we are always continuing to improve them. As you can imagine, those spammers are doing the same. What is really important is that you always report them when you see them. It helps us immensely in tracking and removing that spam! -eric If it is really important that we report them, then make the process to report them as painless as possible. To me, this means 1) Single right-click, select menu option from main menu. 2) Automatically add reported character (and account?) to ignore list (on all characters on my account). 3) add a date to the ignore list so the oldest entry can automagically be deleted to make room for this new entry. Optional but nice to have would be a separate, account-wide, spammer ignore list (i.e. anyone reported by the above method). This list would include a date field so the oldest entry could be deleted to make room for the newest. You can then leave the present ignore list and functionality alone. Even nicer, after some number of people report a spammer, automatically ignore all messages from that account. Wardens or individuals that are not Bioware employees may be problematic, but ,IMO, a large enough vote threshold should have a minimal chance of error. Suspend an account but not delete it and let the GMs take the final step (or reverse the suspension if in error). We want to help control this problem, please give us the tools necessary to do so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordArtemis Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 This might have worked with players a decade ago. But the modern MMO player base.. not a chance. Seriously.. the modern player base is beyond any expectation of reasonable responsibility and diligence. Evidence: coming to the forum to complain about credit spammers, rather then using the report features in game to actually let the security team at Bioware know who/what/where/when (all data automatically included with a /report). Besides.. it will just mean players will be on the forum complaining about "Wardens" not doing their job, yada, yada, yada. And if you think a Warden system would not get abused and cause more problems then it solves..... I have water front property in the high desert to sell you. TL;DR we are all defacto wardens who can report any offender for review and action by Bioware. I actually think YOU would make a good candidate for a warden Andryah. So would someone like Dulfy. There are members of the community that have demonstrated a certain measure of restraint and maturity. You would be one of those folks IMO. And note, this is despite the fact that we disagree often. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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