Silenced again - Blue Tracker

#0 - April 15, 2010, 11:07 p.m.

Ok this is starting to get a bit ridiculous. I wrote an addon to respond to profanity in trade in a polite and humorous way, and I keep getting reported for spam. My responses are limited to once per minute, which is in no way excessive, and there are several people harassing me in an attempt to get my addon to trigger a response just so they can report me for spam. I put in a ticket last night concerning the harassment and abusive spam reporting and the GM did not even bother to read it and instead gave me a canned response telling me to delete my addon folders and reinstall them. My addon is working as intended, people have been reaching out on a limb to find some policy my addon breaks. This addon is ToS compliant and I am being harassed about it.

I have told people if they did not want to see the responses that they could put me on ignore. One response per minute (assuming people are constantly swearing) is not considered spam. But the people intentionally just saying a single word in trade, (a swear), repeatedly in order to set off my addon should be considered spam.

A clarification on the spam policy would be appreciated as well.

Since communication is a key part of this game I demand to be given compensation for the time I was not allowed to chat.

Malkorix

#24 - April 15, 2010, 11:23 p.m.

I provided a response to your prior concern here:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=24262369109&pageNo=2&sid=1#37

Q u o t e:
Interestingly, none of the listed phrases were what appear to have generated this situation. Actually, before we continue this conversation, you might want to bear in mind that I can see what characters on your account have been up to in public channels.

Suffice to say that a member of our staff will review your activities and make a determination then. In the meantime, this is an excellent opportunity to consider how you interact with other players in public channels, and why you are currently facing this situation now.

Also, an addon which generates automatic responses to other players in public channels could cause one to run afoul of our spamming policy. It would be very wise to avoid such a course.

Moreover, any addon which contributes to 'spam' and generates an automatic response like this can indeed generate the spam reports you were actioned for. It is not the responsibility of other players to /ignore you, if they do not like your addon. They utilized the correct tool to deal with the situation: the Report Spam tool.

We do take harassment, profanity and inappropriate language quite seriously. If you want to help us, though, we welcome your reports. When submitting such an email ([email protected]) or in-game petition, please include the name and realm of the a character in question, as well as a description of what was said. That is the appropriate method to deal with inappropriate language in game.

Malkorix

#80 - April 16, 2010, 2:36 a.m.

Q u o t e:
Instead of saying LOL GET RID OF IT, suggest ways to make it even more ToS compliant. I was considering whispering the person, but that could be reported as well.

Perhaps you could consider altering your addon so that it does not create a public response at all, nor automated responses. Such responses tend to irritate not only those players who are already inclined to use inappropriate language instead of appropriately reporting them, but also incites irritation from those who are not using the profanity or have already ignored those who use it.

I recognize that your intentions are probably good, but please understand that utilizing an addon which interferes with public chat channels is not a wise course of action, as I've already illustrated. If you persist in using an addon that generates automated responses in a public channel, then you may continue to see your chat privileges revoked as other players report what they perceive to be disruptive spam. You may see more stern action taken against your account as well.

To an extent, players have the option of shaping the world they play in via the various reporting processes, such as in-game petitions and the Report Spam feature. If you genuinely want to improve the player community on your realm, please submit in-game petitions, as I mentioned earlier.