I guess it had to happen to me, although I didn't expect it to happen so soon. The 'random whisper' from the person was advertising WoW gold with a website listing, and came from someone I have never heard of.
(It should be noted I in no way suspect that C+ or this site had anything to do with it - I have nothing but high regard for the mod author and site)
That got me thinking that while mods like C+ can be used for good things, the same concept could open up a can of worms. How hard would it be to code a mod to do the same thing as C+, except instead of storing names to a database, spamming those online with unsolicited advertisements? It's obvious that this wasn't the work of someone manually typing in names, so they must have written a tool to do it.
This may drive Blizzard to remove the ability to do 'open' polling of the user list in future, as I suspect that this behaviour will only increase. I know that people will NOT be happy to be spammed on a service they are paying for.
I can't help but wonder if C+ has unintentionally started us down a road that we really don't want to travel?
Regards,
Savant
Will Census+ (and similar mods) be banned in future?
Sav -
It would be easy to gather names even without using the /who feature to do something like you suggest. It would take several API changes on the part of Blizzard's UI to remove any way for that to occur.
I hope you /petitioned the individual who sent you the tell. I know I would be very irritated if I was getting bombarded in game.
It would be easy to gather names even without using the /who feature to do something like you suggest. It would take several API changes on the part of Blizzard's UI to remove any way for that to occur.
I hope you /petitioned the individual who sent you the tell. I know I would be very irritated if I was getting bombarded in game.
phpbb:phpinfo()
Well, the short answer is simply "No"
The slightly longer one is that such a tool would be against the ToS as it is essentially a mailbot, basically an easy extension of the existing bots used for money farming and similar activities. Blizzard can rather easily spot such a tool being used, there is no reason for them to ban census+ for that reason at all, though they might take the opportunity to ban mods they simply don't like using such activities as an excuse.
There are plenty of ui mods that can and are used for shady activities, the AH mods are used to cause inflation on servers in order to sell more gold, mob mapping mods are used as a cheap radar, decursive and similar tools effectively removes debuff abilities from the game... I could go on but the bottom line is that Blizzard chose to allow these mods in order to steal the good ideas, as long as they consider the price worth it mods will be allowed, when they don't they will finally publish the list of approved mods and that will be that.
The slightly longer one is that such a tool would be against the ToS as it is essentially a mailbot, basically an easy extension of the existing bots used for money farming and similar activities. Blizzard can rather easily spot such a tool being used, there is no reason for them to ban census+ for that reason at all, though they might take the opportunity to ban mods they simply don't like using such activities as an excuse.
There are plenty of ui mods that can and are used for shady activities, the AH mods are used to cause inflation on servers in order to sell more gold, mob mapping mods are used as a cheap radar, decursive and similar tools effectively removes debuff abilities from the game... I could go on but the bottom line is that Blizzard chose to allow these mods in order to steal the good ideas, as long as they consider the price worth it mods will be allowed, when they don't they will finally publish the list of approved mods and that will be that.
One night we had a guild raid going on on strath and everyone who was in strath got a tell from the same person inviting them to go check out a new site where we could purchase power levelling and gold. no one in our guild who wasnt in that zone at that moment received the tells. There were toons present ranging from lvl 52 to lvl 60, so it was not level based at all. We deduced from that information that they simply sent out a set of tells to everyone who showed up on a /who -z strath list.
Later that night I received an in-game mail from someone else, advertising a different website's services. Same services, same idea, different person, different site. I did petition this complaining that I consider that unsolicited and classified as harassment. I had left EQ due to similar issues where despite the logged, screenshotted and saved in-game mails proving the harassment nothing was done by the GM's. I pointed out that I pay for my account and that behavior such as this is against the ToS. The GM asked what it was specifically I wanted done in this case and I said simply I expect that the acct attached to the toon who mailed me the advert and the one who sent tells to our guild to be banned. There is no way possible that it could be an accident and if the GM's refuse to ban the accts that are used for this, then they are allowing the behavior and will start losing business due to it.
I don't see how Blizzard can blame sites such as this, or allaz, or any of the other sites. When talking to an RL friend who is a GM about this kind of stuff he tells me that he doesnt know what they are going to do, simply that they ARE doing something and that they have a plan. *shrugs* At least I haven't gotten any spam mail or tells in game since this incident.
*edit*
there are 2 mods out there that are easily obtainable, both of which are raw to say the least. anyone could take these 2 raw mods, do some very small simple editing to them both, et voila, you'd have a mass mailer.
Later that night I received an in-game mail from someone else, advertising a different website's services. Same services, same idea, different person, different site. I did petition this complaining that I consider that unsolicited and classified as harassment. I had left EQ due to similar issues where despite the logged, screenshotted and saved in-game mails proving the harassment nothing was done by the GM's. I pointed out that I pay for my account and that behavior such as this is against the ToS. The GM asked what it was specifically I wanted done in this case and I said simply I expect that the acct attached to the toon who mailed me the advert and the one who sent tells to our guild to be banned. There is no way possible that it could be an accident and if the GM's refuse to ban the accts that are used for this, then they are allowing the behavior and will start losing business due to it.
I don't see how Blizzard can blame sites such as this, or allaz, or any of the other sites. When talking to an RL friend who is a GM about this kind of stuff he tells me that he doesnt know what they are going to do, simply that they ARE doing something and that they have a plan. *shrugs* At least I haven't gotten any spam mail or tells in game since this incident.
*edit*
there are 2 mods out there that are easily obtainable, both of which are raw to say the least. anyone could take these 2 raw mods, do some very small simple editing to them both, et voila, you'd have a mass mailer.
-
Hybuir
- Gear Dependent Squirrel
- Posts: 1471
- Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2005 6:22 am
- Location: Austin, TX
- Contact:
Jeez, making the simple modification to be a spam bot is a scary thought because it is so tangible. I've got to admit, I'm a fairly new and moderate player, but to be hearing that at any point in time to be subject to these kinds of things makes me kind of sick to my stomach.
The game takes to somewhere where I am totally submerged in Warcraft-dem; life takes a back seat to my play time (for the time being). To be suddenly taken back with not only an innapropriate, unsolicited and unsportsmanlike message would make me want to quote Jason Mewes in "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back":
"All you mother_____ are going to pay..."
The game takes to somewhere where I am totally submerged in Warcraft-dem; life takes a back seat to my play time (for the time being). To be suddenly taken back with not only an innapropriate, unsolicited and unsportsmanlike message would make me want to quote Jason Mewes in "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back":
"All you mother_____ are going to pay..."
-
Hybuir
- Gear Dependent Squirrel
- Posts: 1471
- Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2005 6:22 am
- Location: Austin, TX
- Contact:
I have been thinking about the nausea it provoked in me. It's exactly the same feeling I got when I realized that the 9/11 hijackers took over the planes by using box cutters.
Maybe can be a demand for Blizzard to set up some sort of certification process for mods, but at the same time, Joe Schmo'es MOD would not work because it would not have the correct access to the game. if a certification method were to be allowed then there would be give and take on the way we would play the game and what we would expect from our experience.
Maybe can be a demand for Blizzard to set up some sort of certification process for mods, but at the same time, Joe Schmo'es MOD would not work because it would not have the correct access to the game. if a certification method were to be allowed then there would be give and take on the way we would play the game and what we would expect from our experience.