What is Blizzard's problem with spam?

#0 - Aug. 25, 2010, 4:08 a.m.

Why can't we seem to get a hold of a decent idea to stop the spam that's occurring in trade chats everywhere? Huge walls of text keeps streaming and streaming at a rate so fast, it's impossible to click their names and report them. Sure, it's not like this at all times of the day... but during peak hours, good luck trying to get anybody to join your ICC10 PUG, or better yet, good luck trying to find somebody to buy your battered hilt for 1k. (1k?! I would love to see that posted at such a price!! - Well... you missed it... trade chat was moving too fast) I hit the "Report Spam" button. You know what my server's GM told me? That button is intended for Gold spammers and the players reported were seen to of not been doing anything wrong... HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?! This is what I get:

[Trade] [Anonymous]: LFG ICC25
[Trade] [Anonymous]: 5.5gs Required
[Trade] [Anonymous]: Link achieve
[Trade] [Anonymous]: LFG ICC25
[Trade] [Anonymous]: 5.5gs Required
[Trade] [Anonymous]: Link achieve
[Trade] [Anonymous]: LFG ICC25
[Trade] [Anonymous]: 5.5gs Required
[Trade] [Anonymous]: Link achieve
[Trade] [Anonymous]: LFG ICC25
[Trade] [Anonymous]: 5.5gs Required
[Trade] [Anonymous]: Link achieve
[Trade] [Myself]: 5.5gs Resto Sham LFG ICC25
[Trade] [Anonymous]: LFG ICC25
[Trade] [Anonymous]: 5.5gs Required <--
[Trade] [Anonymous]: Link achieve
[Trade] [Anonymous]: LFG ICC25
[Trade] [Anonymous]: 5.5gs Required
[Trade] [Anonymous]: Link achieve
[Trade] [Anonymous]: LFG ICC25
[Trade] [Anonymous]: 5.5gs Required
[Trade] [Anonymous]: Link achieve

Of course, they never see my request to join their group, because they are too busy spamming the heck out of the trade channel. I, among other people, have pressed that Report Spam button many times... Nothing happens. I've seen blue posts in which we are assured that if we push this button, it will be investigated... but what is being investigated? Go back up and take a look at the arrow pointing out that line of text... if I were to right-click the name in the line of text and report them, is that the ONLY line of text GMs are getting? It's too the point where the common phrase to look for a group is now "Spamming Trade" I've played this game for a long long time... and never have I seen Blizzard be so inactive on a hot-button topic.

I'm no rocket scientist, but here's my solution: Put a time limit... Limit the players to a certain amount of times they can enter text into chat before they input any more. Heck, even 1 second would work... but why must we suffer through this?

I know what you'll say... "You know you can ignore them right?" or "Type /leave trade you idiot..."
Well I don't want to... Trade chat is a HUGE part of the game. It's where items are found at bargain prices, it's where sellers sell their stuff, it's where people get groups together to do stuff... I'm not leaving.

And I'm not ignoring an average player for just trying to keep up with the competition, especially a player looking for more people to join his group, while I'm looking for a group to join.

Yes, you've told us how to keep ourselves from viewing the spam, but what about STOPPING the spam? Out of the 5 million players who play the game, and the number of players on each server, are you really telling me that you don't get enough reports for spam to do anything about it? And don't say "Nobody ever said that" because I posted this after reading a blue post that did say that.

Say I'm QQing or whatever... I'm just tired of dealing with a problem that shouldn't exist... and I'm sure others are too.

#6 - Aug. 25, 2010, 6:38 a.m.

Q u o t e:
You know what my server's GM told me? That button is intended for Gold spammers and the players reported were seen to of not been doing anything wrong...

I apologize if there was confusion in the initial information you received - the Report Spam feature was originally put in to help alleviate gold spammers in particular, but that does not necessarily mean that is all it is meant for. It should be used for any kind of spam you encounter - Trade spam such as you exampled is a more than welcome report!

Q u o t e:
So tell me, if this button works so well... why have I used it so often, only to be told by a GM that when he looked over my reports, he found nothing wrong?

Again, I can't help but feel there was some miscommunication at hand here. All reports of this nature are taken anonymously - this means that player will never know you specifically reported them, nor will you know what the results of your report were.

Q u o t e:
And what if I don't want them ignored? What if I only want them to stop spamming? There's nothing to prevent it. I don't see how anybody would object to my idea of placing a limit on how many times they can enter a block of text in a matter of seconds... It would eliminate the problem without disrupting the people trying to use it. If you have no problem leaving trade or ignoring the whole damn server, then that's your choice... but I wouldn't mind some control being put in place.

Definitely some solid ideas here - I would highly advise posting these in the Suggestion Forums. This would be the best place to make these thoughts known to the Developers who have the power to input such a limit. =)

Q u o t e:
I will continue to use the report spam button, and I will encourage it's use. I'd say the blue posts I've seen mean more then what that one GM told me... but none the less, should I need to talk to a GM about this, expect another rant, a screenshot, and the GM's name in a complaint letter, should he decide to tell me everything is fine and hunkey-dorey. It's a shame that's all I can do...

While all feedback is welcomed, I would discourage this form of feedback to our Game Masters... but if you do have anything you'd like to share about any Game Master that you encounter, be sure to let their supervisor know via e-mail at [email protected].