Spamming and tradespamming

Please read carefully, as most counters have already been considered, and my suggestion is NOT to make more rigorous WTS filters...

I was (sadly) away from GW for 5 weeks. When I returned, I quickly noticed that spamming had very visibly increased by an order of at least 3-5. Now people spam not only "WTS urgoz jockstrap" but also "wat armr r u wherng?????".

This isn't just in Kaineng D1 and D2. This is a problem in Kaineng D5, Seitung D3, and even Tsumei-gorram-Village and Zin-fecking-Ku Corridor, where I saw someone spamming "LFG TALK TO EMPORER". *Spamming*, mind you, 3 times in a row, as often as he could. The kicker was when I heard in the same place a tradespammer whining "I can't sell anything on trade. I use local so it stands out more," and an LFGer whining "I use trade so it stands out more". Can we say "back asswards" ten times fast? WTF, mates?

When I ask people to stop, I get responses in these categories:
(1) rude: stfu
(2) whiny: but I really need a celestial hammer of shitkicking!!!!!
(3) petulant: why? who are you? do you work for anet? don't tell me what to do.
(4) confused: wer r trade chanell???

Now, the first two are purely personal problems: it's just some 10-year-old being an egotistical ass-muppet. The second two require some education and coaxing. ANet has helped with these with such upgrades as the "Talk to Officer Chienpo" notice in Kaineng, but they need more notices like a, "hey, maybe you should try using the trade channel" notice and a "y'know, people only enter Tsumei village about one every 10 seconds, so you *really* don't need to be posting anything more than once every 20 seconds."

I think ANet needs to take more action to stop spammers. It's really interfering with my enjoyment of the game now. It's not just a really childish annoyance: it gets in the way of finding a group, chatting, and seeing reasonable trades properly. More rigorous W/T/S (and so on) filters would help limit tradespamming, but what's *really* needed is a statement saying
"ANet requests that the local channel not be used for trading" and "Please don't post the same request more than once every 20 seconds." That
would be really powerful in stopping tradespamming.

Just think of how much easier it would be to see LFGs and WTBs and WTSs if no post was repeated more than once every 20 seconds. Or if there were separate WTS and WTB channels. Or if no trades were in local, and no LFGs in trade.

Alternately, can I have a Furious Hammer of Idiot-Smiting? I promise I'd use it only for good or for awesome.

the problem is how do you stop them?

they worked their way around Anet first lame attempt at stopping the spam..there is no real solution to this besides turning of the channels, granted you shouldnt have to do that but its the only option i can see

WTS/WTB channels wont work as ppl will find a way round this..

they could set up some kind of market district but then ppl would moan about that

the long overdue auction house SHOULD reduce some of the spam

Well, this is almost unsolvable.
If it weren't for people spamming crap, then how would they be able to sell stuff.
And the message suppressor is making me angry, I try to give directions to a guild member then YOU MESSAGE WAS SUPPRESSED BECAUSE WE'RE GAY!
The only action I've seen was Anet making the message suppressor more annoying.
I'm sorry bubs, but I don't think common courtesy will come for a long time..
pooo....
BUT I DO AGREE THAT SOMEHTING SHOULD BE DONE!
just not the message suppressor........

Of course people will get around any filters that are added, which is why my primary suggestion was that ANet present a notice asking people not to spam, telling them that it is unhelpful and unwanted (and possibly punishable...to those immature folks who only react out of fear of retribution ), and politely requesting that they please not spam, and also keep trade on the trade channel.

My other suggestion, that of giving me a furious hammer of idiot-smiting, is still quite open.

Don't say "gay," say "stupid," if you're going to be diminutive at all. Using "gay" with the connotation "stupid" is bigoted.

Anet can put someone to observe the chat channels in big cities like droks, LA and Kaineng. Since spamming traders still can avoid filter using W T B, W T S etc, the game put more restrictions on these and updated daily for more possible ways to avoid filters.

Well, let's face it here. GW isn't such a popular game that hundreds of people want to do the same quest at any one point (at least they don't vocalise it).
Henchmen are there for a reason and many people take henchmen over RPs.

In high-end mission areas where you may want to advertise for a group, spamming isn't a problem so I'd think that spam doesn't really affect group-forms.

The trading spam (amongst others) is a problem, I agree, but ANet has tried it's darndest to minimalise it to no avail. You cannot win. It's simple.

All the spammers are probably stupid kids who shouldnt even be playing this game anyway. The ones that spam pointless shit anyway. I guess I can understand why someone would spam a GLF or LFG message but not something like "OMFG youre all noobs" or "WTF give me money"

You dont have to spam your message 10 times per second to have someone read it. Dont go to LA Dist 1 etc... problem solved

I also hate the emote and ping spammers. I hate having to turn off the emote channel cuz some retard 7-year-old is spamming /dance or /jump
Or when in a Pvp MAtch and youre trying to type callsomething but you cant cuz some idiot is spamming non-stop "I have Bleeding on Me" or "My energy is 4 out of 44" etc. Maybe they should make it so if you call something or enter an emote you cant enter the same thing for another 3 seconds or so

I've discovered the phrase I've been trying to think of for several days now: "Arms Race." That is *precisely* what the spamfest is: a verbal nuclear arms race where the stockpile consists of spams per second. In a sense, almost what a nuclear reaction is to begin with.

A scenario, to feed your imaginations:

"wts donkey poop"
"lfg ass/warrior"
"wts piss-colored dyes of all flavors"
"wts pig vomit"
"wts donkey poop"
"glf5m"
"lfg ass/warrior"
"wts pig vomit"
"wts piss-colored dyes of all flavors"
"wts big red engine"
"lfg ass/warrior"
"wts donkey poop"
"wts donkey poop"
"glf5m"
"glf5m"
"glf5m"
"wts ~~~~piss-colored dyes of all flavors~~~~~~~~"
"wts !!!!!!!!!!pig vomit!!!!!!!!!"
"wts !!!!!!!!!!pig vomit!!!!!!!!!"
"lfg ass/warrior!!!!!!!!!"
"lfg ass/warrior!!!!!!!!!"
"lfg ass/warrior!!!!!!!!!"
"OMGWTS ///////////zealous donkey poop of uber-stink\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"
"OMGWTS ///////////zealous donkey poop of uber-stink\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"
"OMGWTS ///////////zealous donkey poop of uber-stink\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"
"OMGWTS ///////////zealous donkey poop of uber-stink\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"
"wer benk"
"wer benk"
"wer benk"
"wer benk"


People will always evade the filter. People are egotistical, inconsiderate, and immature; that's what they do. But if ANet makes a very public and solid position on the issue in a stern-yet-kind tone, people will respond. It's gotten much worse in the last 6 weeks, and it's just going to get...er...more worse. It's time to take up arms against the sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them.

on AOL, we have a "Notify AOL" button right beside the chat. When you report someone there, it automatically takes a screenshot of the chat in progress, plus a time, date, and room stamp. Its true that people will hit that button for no reason. A message that states:
"You are reporting violators of Lions Arch Dis 1. Only one report is neccesary, please use this once per violation. False reports could lead to administrative action on your account, do you wish to continue?"

-they click yes-

Next one (like entering a town you have a bajillion "yes" buttons to hit for compliance) reads: You are about to report vilotators of the Guild wars community, are you sure you wish to continue?"

-click yes again-

When they hit yes, it sends the report so people dont have to take a screenshot, collect all info needed, and goto the net everytime taking away from gaming time, since there are so many violators on all the time.

This way if you constantly click, you could be a violator yourself by tieing up ANET resources who are attempting to get rid of so much spam. ANET could also key into a certain town at a certain time, etc that has multiple reports at the same time from different players. This type of report could also be from the game itself and not from someone trying to do a good thing and not sending all the required info, which in turn leaves the violators free to continue.

You need a carrot, and a stick.

In this case a suitable carrot would be broadcasting the trade chat across districts.
If a message in LA D1 trade channel was broadcast over the trade chat in all 'local' LA districts (not across regions, but English D1, English D2, English D3 etc.) there would be a real incentive for people to use it over the local chat for their WTS/WTB crap.

Then the stick.
You may not have called for stricter filters and more message supression, but I do. Repeat a too similar message more than 5 times in a 60 second period and you're hit with a ban from the local and trade chat (not guild/alliance) for increasing amounts of time, resetting each 24 hour period. First trigger - 30 second ban (most that would accidentally trigger it wouldn't even notice), second one - 1 minute, third - 2 mins - etc and so forth each strike doubles your ban.

It is possible to set up such filters to detect the most common ways to try and get around it - like adding some alternating garbage on the end of each as to not make them 100% identical. But yes, some would get through if they really, really wanted to. Still it would cut down significantly on the up arrow enter ever 5 seconds spam.

It's not like we can do anything about it...
Turn of the trade channel and add those who spam the chat channel to your ignore list temporaly.

apparently you never heard of the origin of leetspeak. It was actually invented in order to get around word filters. And due to its ever-changing nature can continually avoid word filters no matter how harsh they get.

And Why dont you just turn your local chat and trade chat off when you go to Kainang Center? Is that very hard to do? You expect Anet to do a thing to affect 2 million people because you cant turn trade chat off?

Do you really think anyone chats in Kainang center with or without spam?

This game is full of idiots... get real.

Another option would be to let players open "shops" in town (when a player opens a shot an icon appears above his head, click him and it opens a windows with 10-15 items for sale with a price set by the seller, who can go afk). I don't know what effect it would have on GW population but it worked in other games.

People are stupid. You can make the best trade system in the world, and people will still spam the channels. To think otherwise is naieve.

Look at games like World of Warcraft.... even with a fully functional auction-house, you've still got people spamming up the main channel hawking their wares and being disruptive.

It won't ever change, don't whine and complain, just accept it and move on.

Well said, and a very good point. Every time I map to a town or outpost, someone is *always* spamming something. Whether they're trying to buy/sell something, or they're looking for help. They spam. This, is the primary reason I've turned off all channels bar my Guild and Alliance chat. The only time I turn on trade chat, is when I'm buying/selling something...I always have local off.

The idea of Anet introducing WTS and WTB channels, imo, is a brilliant idea. It would reduce people clogging up channels with pointless posts, and would be easier to navigate if your buying/selling items.

I really hope Anet does do something about this, as it has been happening for too long now. It needs to be sorted out - pronto!

Why do you blame people? Blame Arena Net™. They have neglected the players suggestions more then once. We asked for Auction House, they didnt listen. Don't blame people, they want to sell stuff -------- WHY?

because :

a) They nerfed farming, so make a decent earning out of selling items
b) No space in storage, so constant selling.
c) Its hard to get a buyer when there are lots of people spamming, so why not you?

I blame Arena Net fully.

d) because they are idiots

I mean whats the point of spamming W.T.S hand axe 5-27dmg, vampiric, +22 hp for 3 hours.


Why not go straight to the merchant or give it to someone in Ascalon?

Use trade channel exclusively.

"WTS: This and that, 50k"

Then send this once every minute.

It's what I do. I spend 5 minutes at most selling stuff.

Spam does not guarantee sales. Spam does not get you into groups faster. Spam is only annoying, and nothing more.

Any and all artificial mechanisms to prevent it wouldn't work. This is simple fact.

The only true solution here, is to solve the problem, not the symptom. GW is not a social game, and was never intended to be one. As such, there is no responsibility anywhere. In addition, with such absurdly short ignore lists, one can't even solve the problem.

In other games, my ignore list would simply grow over time to dozens, even hundreds of entries. And if the ignore were account based, rather than character, then spam once, and you're outta here.

"Expand ignore list to unlimited entries. Adding a character to ignore list ignores their entire account." - The only solution that works.

Why? You're free to spam as much as you wish. But you'll soon learn, that nobody is listening anymore. So you learn to behave.

A-Net could tackle the problem indirectly by opening an actual trade system in the game, maybe like the auction system in FFXI. Does anyone know why they've never done this? It seems like common sense to me.

whether you have a auction system or not, if peoples things arent selling, they'll spam no matter what.