GM banning for spamming.

[AnonDuck]

Ahem! It has been brought to my attention by another player (he/she will remain anonymous unless they want to come forward) that CapitanAwesome spammed the announcements AND invisibility (if that is abusable maybe not...). Anyway, I just thought I'd point that out, nothing against Cappy.

Jesus DL, shut the **** up and leave. Make your own topic if you want to ***** like a little girl.

+1. DL, Dude, seriously, lay off. I know you're a kid but stop acting so childish. Every time I read the forum you're acting like you're 5. Contribute constructively (or at least humorously as some of the trolls do), or just stop posting.

Back on topic: The spam detection system was/is a pet project of mine, so I'm currently looking into ways to improve it. I do have a tighter set of values to plug in to it that could help.. I don't think it'd be helpful to have differing values for differing areas. Tighter spam controls in Hurns exclusively would just lead to more false positives and discourage general discourse for fear of the auto-banhammer.

The whole idea of an anti-spam algo is to minimise false positives while still removing the worst offenders. Currently it takes into account caps, excessive punctuation, and of course repeats. If anyone has any creative suggestions as to other things it could take into account I'd be glad to hear them. I've already thrown out the idea of looking for specific words (buy, sell, etc) as too disruptive to commerce.

As with anything, an automated system cannot properly handle all cases, so I say yes, GMs should have more room to deal with spammers as they see fit. Warping them to pachua or banning them after the first offence seems appropriate to me.

Oh and a trade tab is a great idea, but as Jax said it's hard to implement nicely due to current technical limitations. Sometimes you have to work with what you have

[Jaxad0127]

I thought I saw support for multiple channels in the client code at one point so I didn't realise it was so implausible.

Excuse me for my ignorance in asking this but since the current chat system is so inflexible could you not implement something else? Like having an irc chat built into the client that could simply connect to irc.themanaworld.org with designated channels?

Just asking...

Manaserv supports chat channels. That's what you saw.

[Big Crunch]

Three things.

1. The establishment of an auction house would eliminate, in theory, trade spam. Trade spam is probably the bulk of spam.

2. Spells shouldnt be included in spam detection.

3. Genuine spam doesnt happen all that often. I spend alot of time ingame and really dont see it enough to warrant such aggressive action as long term banning in the vast majority of cases. Most seem to be noobs who dont read the rules and nonenglish speakers who dont seem to understand the verbal warnings to start with.

Just my opinion.

BC

[August Knight]

A jail... how wonderful.

On top of that, future and other excessive forms of breakage of the rules can result in more excessive fines, such as loss of gold. Items, even lvls.

[meway]

I voted yes.
Camel made the spam system.
When it fails to recognize a spammer I completely agree that a GM have the ability to ban with out question. Also its been a long time since I have saw MC so please mind me posting here if this topic is old. I don't mean any disrespect to MC ether.

MC if your still you know alive.
I would take all case sensitivity out.
Increase warning count more than 3

I love the idea of adding common words in there I think If a person says a sentence with the word Sell sells selling, all tense of the word, in more than 3 sentences in a row they get banned.

(optional) If you can make it detect at least one sentence em-between, that they did not say the word (sell) like
you: I sell apple
you: I sell apple
Server: Warning you are about to be ban for spamming or flooding
you: I like cake its not a lie
Server: If you attempt to trick the server you will be bann for double the amount of usual time
you: I sell apple
server: you have been banned for 2 hours because you attempted tricking and spamming the server
or (if normal spam)
server: you have been banned for 1 hour for spamming or flooding the server

[Big Crunch]

Honestly, that seems far too elaborate. It seems as though more conversations are about cracking the whip than improving content.

[DarkWater]

I am listening to what is posted. Conversation is what this thread is about. We need to talk.

How about a bulletin bot.

The bot simply takes in lines. For sale, 10 snakes skins, see so and so. Or looking for ore, see so and so.

Then a person can whisper the bulletin board. Asking for the list.

Trade bot does this. Why cant we just change a few lines, have no idea if this will work.

As for the rest of the conversation.

There is one rule, Do not spam. But there is not set guide lines on what happens if you do spam and the gm steps in.

That is the problem. There is no set guide lines for punishment. The gms deal out random justice. 1 hour here, 6 hours there.

This makes the convicted feel singled out. Everyone else does it, why cant I. He got an hour ban, cappy hates me because i got a 6 hour ban.

With clear punishments, consistency in punish is enforced. Consistency reinforces the sense of equality. Equality makes the community grow closer and reduces the feelings of being singled out.

I applaud all of you for taking your time to to voice your opinions.

But I still feel that in order to reduce the spam that gets past the filters and to reduce the resentment that is felt from ad hock enforcements.

A clear ABC punishment system needs to be adopted. And enforced. A popular vote is a good idea so the gms can say this is what the community wants. This is what you guys have chosen for us to do. We are only doing what you asked of us.

[Big Crunch]

I am listening to what is posted. Conversation is what this thread is about. We need to talk.

How about a bulletin bot.

The bot simply takes in lines. For sale, 10 snakes skins, see so and so. Or looking for ore, see so and so.

Then a person can whisper the bulletin board. Asking for the list.

Trade bot does this. Why cant we just change a few lines, have no idea if this will work.

As for the rest of the conversation.

There is one rule, Do not spam. But there is not set guide lines on what happens if you do spam and the gm steps in.

That is the problem. There is no set guide lines for punishment. The gms deal out random justice. 1 hour here, 6 hours there.

This makes the convicted feel singled out. Everyone else does it, why cant I. He got an hour ban, cappy hates me because i got a 6 hour ban.

With clear punishments, consistency in punish is enforced. Consistency reinforces the sense of equality. Equality makes the community grow closer and reduces the feelings of being singled out.

I applaud all of you for taking your time to to voice your opinions.

But I still feel that in order to reduce the spam that gets past the filters and to reduce the resentment that is felt from ad hock enforcements.

A clear ABC punishment system needs to be adopted. And enforced. A popular vote is a good idea so the gms can say this is what the community wants. This is what you guys have chosen for us to do. We are only doing what you asked of us.

I think that the auction house (actually not my idea) is a good one. It gives an interactive environment for everyone to participate in and if you want to just hang out, Hurn's foursquare is still there. You want to trade, go to the auction house.
r
I totally agree with clearcut rules and guidlines. I would just warn to avoid overly harsh penalties for something as relativly innocuous as spam. However there are times where it is a problem. In those times, Gm's should bfele able to say ' felony spam ' and go right to the banhammer. However that needs guidelines as well

[Katze]

I haven't read all this...

But I want to say that spam is a bannable offence and it is being enforced! But sometimes a spammer stops soon enough not to be banned. And that's just fair. Everybody has the right to be warned before they are banned. Even the proposal suggests warnings. Further you need to consider if a certain person is able to understand you...

So I don't see the point of this poll. Sorry.

[Platyna]

I also did not read all that stuff, since I am Platyna, I get bored after third sentence so all input directed to me should be enclosed in max 2 sentences...

There is nothing to be discussed, spam = ban.

But you seem to lack of understanding of idea of bans...Bans are not to punish people, they are to prevent them from doing wrong things, so if a person willingly agrees to stop doing wrong things they can avoid ban (of course if we believe it).

Regards.

[Black Don]

I think the autoban should be tightened up some and the GMs can still do what they do best when it comes to controlling the spammers. And to any spammer who uses the 'I am only trying to sell stuff' excuse I only hope that some Door to Door salesman knocks and rings your door bell at your home for 15 - 20 mins trying to sell you the same product. The only reason they don't is because they are smart enough to know its bad business. Spam does not equal sales, Spam = BAN.

[lien]

but
if Mr spammer* is alone on the map
if Mr spammer* has a bad computer and it has a lag ..... he speaks but it does not display then he continues and he think it's nothing but it is banned for that reason


in my computeur the lag is/was frequent because it's so old

*Mr spammer: is an anonymous tester he is maybe not a spammer i don't know him because he don't exist

[meway]

but
if Mr spammer* is alone on the map
if Mr spammer* has a bad computer and it has a lag ..... he speaks but it does not display then he continues and he think it's nothing but it is banned for that reason


in my computeur the lag is/was frequent because it's so old

*Mr spammer: is an anonymous tester he is maybe not a spammer i don't know him because he don't exist

My older ones work when I take GPL off in the settings window of the client

MadCamel or Other programmers, If you have some extra time to throw in, can you think of an appropriate fix for the #magic glitch/ accidental spam?

Platyna: I think there should be situations where the GM also holds the rights to unbanned someone who spammed. under the following circumstance: witnessed by a gm, is gm opinionated and not required of a gm, that it was accidental and can perform this action.

[Katze]

Platyna: I think there should be situations where the GM also holds the rights to unbanned someone who spammed. under the following circumstance: witnessed by a gm, is gm opinionated and not required of a gm, that it was accidental and can perform this action.

Regardless of whether or not it is approved of I've already done this several times in the past. Common sense told me to....

[Necromokron]

Why don't we have a prison for spammers/minor offenders, an idea I came up with a while ago, but never really told many people.