139957-oh-lets-give-the-entire-world-forum-access

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			Yeah, some kind of forum validation or thread creation limit seems like it would be a smart idea here.	
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and you see the results.
 
No, I'm not talking about the Freebot Rage Logic Invasion.
 
I'm talking about freaking Babji and the other Chinese (Russian? Polish?) Gold Spammers taking over these boards every single day, several times a day, to the point that EVERYTHING is drown out.
 
Something needs to change. I don't care if I have to play the "Captcha" game or do an extra log-in step, or validate my humanity via email or whatever.
 
This crap is EXACTLY what we told you was going to happen when you threw open the flood gates and handed us that line of crap about "not wanting to fragment the community" ...
 
When the first two pages of a forum is nothing but Gold Spammers, then not only have your designs on community failed, but so have your moderation team and community managers.
 
When it happens several times a day, every day, maybe it's time to re-evaluate your priorities. Maintain a functional forum or let the entire world tromp through here without a care or single freaking hurdle.
			
				
	Edited October 9, 2015 by TexArcana	
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			yea i made a post and it got flooded out by some chinese shit *sadface*	
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This is just a phenomenal level of failure (and I don't throw that word around lightly) on every level of planning and moderation.
 
Send your complaints to
 
theredphone@carbinestudios.com
 
Use strong, pointed language and express your displeasure with the lack of 24 hour moderation and COMPLETE LACK of any kind of system to help prevent this joke.	
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There must be a human being at some point, how else is the ip getting approved... 
 
Anyway. Not one to restrict to pay only, but captcha or something... Needed. Or more on point moderation. I mean, how can it take 30 mins to notice the new thread ages are flooded?!?! Are we too busy moving threads about to ban spam, people?!? Priorities are messed up. 
 
Also with f2p you need better "assure us you're human" methods and 24/7 moderation that doesn't take 30mins to 1hour to do something.	
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aaaaand they're back.
 
Again.
 
For the third time since I logged in this morning.
 
Disgraceful. Simply disgraceful.	
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			This really should have been stopped the first time it happened. They are wasting time and manpower ignoring the source of the problem and constantly cleaning it up every day. It's starting to look just as bad as the first few days of launch. Nothing says "professional" like a forum full of spam bots, it really makes me feel like they are taking things seriously. Are their login/billing servers just as clean and secure as their forums?	
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This really should have been stopped the first time it happened. They are wasting time and manpower ignoring the source of the problem and constantly cleaning it up every day. It's starting to look just as bad as the first few days of launch. Nothing says "professional" like a forum full of spam bots, it really makes me feel like they are taking things seriously. Are their login/billing servers just as clean and secure as their forums?
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At least they're focusing their spamming efforts on the forums rather than in-game?
 
I can't say that I've noticed gold spam in-game as yet.	
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the same thing happened to RIfts forums when they first went F2play, it will pass
I'm pretty sure Carbine knew it would happen just as well as we did and are doing their best
 
Edit: Rift didn't add any character restrictions on posting. On the rare occasions that I pop in to the forums there I post on an account that has never even logged in to the game, Has no characters at all and never has
			
				
	Edited October 9, 2015 by Galactic007	
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I remember the Rift forums where full of this black magic, marriage and love questions threads over a year ago.
Unfortunately I can't remember what they did do to stop this (nor can I find the thread in the moment), but I think you needed a character above lv10 to be allowed to write in the forums.
This didn't prevent all the spam to 100 %, but it did help.	
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At least they're focusing their spamming efforts on the forums rather than in-game?
 
I can't say that I've noticed gold spam in-game as yet.
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			There needs to be some kind of in-game milestone to be allowed to post on the forums. Getting off the Arkship would suffice. Just a small hurdle to make it more difficult for the automated spammers. A determined gold spammer will bypass this measure of course, but much of the constant spam on these forums of late isn't actually gold spam, it's more generic spam that you see in any forum that isn't properly nailed down.	
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... and are doing their best
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I think Sir Hiss has the right idea.
 
We can't just say "off the Arkship" since that's just one click now and can be skipped.
 
No, it needs to be level 6 at least, since they way you'd have to have at least finished the starter zone.
 
I don't like restricting legitimate players (or potential players) ... and maybe there could be a part of the forum open to new accounts who haven't gotten to play but would still like to ask questions - and of course, the customer service forums for those with account issues.
 
Otherwise, nope. Nope. Nope. Play the game for a whole hour before you can post or GTFO.	
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the same thing happened to RIfts forums when they first went F2play, it will pass
I'm pretty sure Carbine knew it would happen just as well as we did and are doing their best
 
Edit: Rift didn't add any character restrictions on posting. On the rare occasions that I pop in to the forums there I post on an account that has never even logged in to the game, Has no characters at all and never has
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Other MMORPGs that restrict forum posting only to paid accounts still end up suffering periodic [not constant, not quite chronic, but occasional waves of] "gold-seller spam."  I don't know that restriction is the answer, since the investment may simply be worth it for the 'companies' involved.  Really, it seems more a mark of WildStar being a visible choice as a game in the industry, more than anything else.
 
The "need to get a character to a low-investment level" idea might work, because account banning would then make the investment be person-hours in game, not a matter of money.  That would complicate things.  Reliable banning of accounts after any given wave of spam would then require the company to again invest in someone playing the game for a time on yet another new account, and it might just become inconvenient enough to slow the waves down some.
 
Even then, other MMOs with lots of restrictions still need to dedicate forum staff to moderate the heck out of gold spammers.  It's a strange 'industry,' that.
 
As for restricting to paid accounts only, I've an obvious bias.  I'm a free-to-play account player, and what little I've contributed to this forum thus far would be gone.  Negligible to almost everyone, yes, but hopefully it would be missed to one or two folks here.
			
				
	Edited October 9, 2015 by Gnapoleon	
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I think Sir Hiss has the right idea.
 
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			The level requirement is the ideal solution.	
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As for restricting to paid accounts only, I've an obvious bias.  I'm a free-to-play account player, and what little I've contributed to this forum thus far would be gone.  Negligible to almost everyone, yes, but hopefully it would be missed to one or two folks here.
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Honestly just logging into the game once would work. These aren't targeted bots, the person who set them up has no idea what WildStar is and has no idea the bots are posting here. These bots scour the internet for forums, any forums, and attempt to make an account and start posting, all automatically. If they can't get in or post they move on, nobody looks any deeper as they are hitting thousands of forums per day. This is also why it's never going to "go away" on it's own.
 
I was a member of a small private forum for a few years, just a handful of people posting to each other, the bots found that and caused havok for about an hour. I banned it and deleted all the posts, it came back minutes later, then the guy running the forum spent 15 minutes hooking in a free "captcha" plugin and stopped it right then and there. If 5 people on a freeware private forum can beat these bots...	
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If you mean me: I'm actually not a sir. But I'm neither a snake, so I guess it's ok. :P
 
 
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			I was actually wondering if a captcha for having to start a thread would make any bit of difference. I'm assuming that all the threads started by Mr Babaji and his cohorts are being done with a bot.  If Captcha is truely bot-proof then could that mean that registration and authentication are being done by a person? and then the spam threads are being done with a bot? would adding a captcha to the thread posting interface help? and/or maybe make it several types of captcha/authentication mechanisms? the one where 12 pics are shown and the question is "3 of these are pizza, which ones are they?".	
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Definitely more Kaa. Who doesn't love Kaa? :D
Although I must confess I never watched the original (english) version. I grew up with the german one. ;)
But someday... !	
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Definitely more Kaa. Who doesn't love Kaa? :D
Although I must confess I never watched the original (english) version. I grew up with the german one. ;)
But someday... !
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just make these things read only unless you've either purchased a box, paid for a sub at least once, or spent at least 5 dollars in the store.
 
Anyone who is truly 100% free really doesnt need to post anything.	
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I with Tex and Orphielle on this topic.
 
I too dislike the idea of discouraging new players from being able to post on the forums but something has to be done. I do like the level 10 approach to forum posting because honestly, what do new players actually know about the game before that? (IMO you don't know the game until 25ish. Think: tier points/amps)
 
It's ~feels~ like some sort of 'testing' of our system to start hacks/gold spam and other related hateful stuff.	
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just make these things read only unless you've either purchased a box, paid for a sub at least once, or spent at least 5 dollars in the store.
 
Anyone who is truly 100% free really doesnt need to post anything.
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I *do* think that "Can not MAKE threads until level 10" would be the optimal solution. That way newbies could still join a conversation, use the search function to find a thread already in progress (or older thread with the same subject) and be part of the community preemptively.
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While I like your moxie, there are LOTS of reasons why a prospective F2P might want to come and ask questions.
 
We don't want to prohibit potential players (read: customers) from being able to get involved before committing.
 
I *do* think that "Can not MAKE threads until level 10" would be the optimal solution. That way newbies could still join a conversation, use the search function to find a thread already in progress (or older thread with the same subject) and be part of the community preemptively.
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While I like your moxie, there are LOTS of reasons why a prospective F2P might want to come and ask questions.
 
We don't want to prohibit potential players (read: customers) from being able to get involved before committing.
 
I *do* think that "Can not MAKE threads until level 10" would be the optimal solution. That way newbies could still join a conversation, use the search function to find a thread already in progress (or older thread with the same subject) and be part of the community preemptively.
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Guess where all that spam would go then?? Right into the current threads  :(
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I don't think I've ever seen a spambot post in a preexisting thread. I guess it's probably happened, but I've never seen it.
 
/shrug
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just make these things read only unless you've either purchased a box, paid for a sub at least once, or spent at least 5 dollars in the store.
 
Anyone who is truly 100% free really doesnt need to post anything.
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I'm pretty sure Carbine knew it would happen just as well as we did and are doing their best
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*scratch scratch* as long as the mods banish them away i don't really mind, it's not as bad as other forums...besides you can't have a f2p game with an exclusive forum :/
 
Even blizzard had to tackle them and they still do on the hearthstone and heroes of the storm forums, both f2p games.
			
				
	Edited October 9, 2015 by xRaymanx	
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Even blizzard had to tackle them and they still do on the hearthstone and heroes of the storm forums, both f2p games.
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			Captcha won't fragment the community and will get rid of automated bot spam. Lots of forums have them, it's time this one did too.	
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			Its bad but i dont know why you are making it like its a big of a deal seriously.	
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Its bad but i dont know why you are making it like its a big of a deal seriously.
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new players can always ask for tech help trough support tickets.
 
Restrict forum usage to players that don't have lvl 15 char or above, make it any lvl yout think it will do the job.. It's common thing, and everyone is used to it.
It's not invention.
It's common sense.
			
				
	Edited October 9, 2015 by Shivah	
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While I like your moxie, there are LOTS of reasons why a prospective F2P might want to come and ask questions.
 
We don't want to prohibit potential players (read: customers) from being able to get involved before committing.
 
I *do* think that "Can not MAKE threads until level 10" would be the optimal solution. That way newbies could still join a conversation, use the search function to find a thread already in progress (or older thread with the same subject) and be part of the community preemptively.
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Yey. I wonder how long it will take Carbine to implement something of the sort.
 
Either way I learned to ignore these spamm threads so it isnt a problem for me.	
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Hm, maybe you did create the account before the new rules?
 
Found the thread in the Rift forum and it says:
"Starting today, in order to post on the official RIFT forums, you’ll need to have a character at level 10 or above in RIFT. To receive these updated permissions, you will need to log out then log back in on the forums. This new requirement has been added to foster a more constructive online community by preventing spam and the creation of duplicate accounts to harass other players"
 
Sorry, for quoting an CM from another game!
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			This is the first time I have ever seen this happening. Not here, but, in my many years of MMO'ing, I've never seen another game's forums spammed like this. Crappy forum software?	
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			Reddit employs a 10-minute waiting period between thread creations. Why not use that?	
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Carbine can't afford to do nothing (not suggesting they are btw) and hope the problem will go away, because it won't. I've admin'd enough forums myself to know it's a constant battle. Anyone saying "I don't mind, it doesn't seem that bad" likely hasn't seen the first two or three pages of these forums totally dominated by spam. If it happens outside of Carbine's office hours it can take quite a while before they are purged.
 
Linking forum access to in-game level is a good solution but I suspect technically difficult - there's no game-web interface already in place (no way of accessing character information via the WS web site etc). So it's probably going to need to be something done at account level, some kind of posting cooldown, or the dreaded captcha.
 
Irony is that for genuine, legitimate members the forum keeps regularly logging us out anyway (and has done for many many months). If they can't fix that I'm not optimistic about fixing the spam.	
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			You people get way too angry over this forum stuff.	
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You people get way too angry over this forum stuff.
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			 Im all for capcha and level requirements to post new threads on the forums. Id go as far as to support only sigs can post .. but that wouldnt be good for the f2p players out there who maybe later on paying customers.	
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			i play the game, not the forums ;)	
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i play the game, not the forums ;)
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Have you seen the bot rampage every night for the last 9 or so days, or only heard of it? Anyone that's seen it and been caught in it knows how bad it is, there is no overreacting in this thread at all yet.
Now if someone were to want a "4 characters at level 50 along with at least $250 spent in the cash shop" rule to post on the forums, then that would be overreacting.
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Yes, it sucks. You people are still being WAY too angry.
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 Im all for capcha and level requirements to post new threads on the forums. Id go as far as to support only sigs can post .. but that wouldnt be good for the f2p players out there who maybe later on paying customers.
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			One of the things that REALLY bothered me about SWTOR's forums is that F2P players can NOT post at all.  I don't think WIldstar needs to go to that extreme, nor do I think that extreme is any kind of good solution.    All this problem really requires is a couple of fairly easy measures:  Account needs to exist longer than a week or something, better forum moderation, and possibly at least one character above level 15 or something.  Throw capcha into the mix and I think things would be just fine. 	
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			Isn't this like, newbie-level security? 	
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Isn't this like, newbie-level security? 
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			I totally wanted to spam this thread with gold to sell. But I dont have any. So I refrained.	
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Funny one would think they would have had the extra moderators in place at launch to control the forums since they mostly subcontract them out. Not sure what happened, but a lot of the F2P launch has shown a lack of oversight, maybe it's the lack of a studio head for a year.
 
Crafting just got the bejesus smacked out of it, and one of my gadgets never got fixed and now gives 0 support power. AWESOME JOB!	
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			Babaji has the night off? Or is it K-pop night?	
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			Where is baba? I have girl problems	
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No babaaji or any other India-based ones, and I'm glad. That name is too similar to mine for comfort.
 
Korean things now.
			
				
	Edited October 10, 2015 by Zazaaji	
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			They are faster than normal tonight. Maybe Korea has more willpower than India?  :huh:	
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			Wow, 4 full pages of spam. That's gotta be a new record, right? lol Yeesh. -_-	
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Wow, 3 minutes and it's already off the first page.
Yup, they are way more aggressive than molvi ever was.
			
				
	Edited October 10, 2015 by Zazaaji	
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Page 2 again but holy crap, In the sea of Korean bot posts, I found a single India based Vashikaran one. They both are here apparently.
 
Also, come on people, help me keep this bumped.
			
				
	Edited October 10, 2015 by Zazaaji	
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Wow, 4 full pages of spam. That's gotta be a new record, right? lol Yeesh. -_-
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the new guy is on shift in the asian gold selling shop now.
 
 	
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			Bump for great justice.	
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			I wonder if they sell black magic to make HL3 happen.	
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			This is getting really crazy. Should be some way to stop these bots.	
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			Just for the record, at the time of writing (8.50pm server time) the first ten (yes ten) pages of the forums are 100% spam. And growing fast, might be more once I've typed this.	
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and you see the results.
 
No, I'm not talking about the Freebot Rage Logic Invasion.
 
I'm talking about freaking Babji and the other Chinese (Russian? Polish?) Gold Spammers taking over these boards every single day, several times a day, to the point that EVERYTHING is drown out.
 
Something needs to change. I don't care if I have to play the "Captcha" game or do an extra log-in step, or validate my humanity via email or whatever.
 
This crap is EXACTLY what we told you was going to happen when you threw open the flood gates and handed us that line of crap about "not wanting to fragment the community" ...
 
When the first two pages of a forum is nothing but Gold Spammers, then not only have your designs on community failed, but so have your moderation team and community managers.
 
When it happens several times a day, every day, maybe it's time to re-evaluate your priorities. Maintain a functional forum or let the entire world tromp through here without a care or single freaking hurdle.
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