Recently @Giddy_McFee posted about some Russian spamming that was going on in Jita local chat. This is not an attempt to reopen the debate ( @ISD_Dorrim_Barstorlode has explained that they’re currently investigating it so we should leave it be).
The reason I posted this thread is to request as to whether something could be done about spam in local chat generally, whether this is in Jita or elsewhere.
Spam is anti-social.
It creates a situation where voices cannot be heard, especially those of newer pilots, it puts people off of trying to read the channel (at all) it’s not really fun, and not least of all it’s really, really boring!
I totally get that some people in the game want to plug their latest wacky scheme to double, triple or quadruple your Isk, or to try to flog you some of their stuff, but could it be moderated slightly, please?
At the moment (not today, but generally) Jita, in particular, is so spammy as to make local chat completely and utterly unusable by anyone, other than the pilots who regularly clog it full of spam.
Here’s a suggestion:
If a player is posting more than once every 5 seconds or so, there ought to probably be a warning flag given or something. This could be context and content-driven, insofar as it’d only appear if the text is very similar or identical to text that the pilot has posted in the last 20 minutes.
If the pilot repeats this twice a second warning flag should appear.
If they do it a third time (within an hour) then the pilot ought to get a temporary local block meaning that they can read but not post in local for 30 minutes. This should apply to all local chat, to stop them warping to the next system and spamming there. (the time period should also be based on the actual logged on time rather than the physical time to stop people just logging on and off repeatedly).
If a pilot goes on to get three of these blocks in a 24 hour period then they ought to get the same block for 24 hours.
If a pilot goes on to get two 24 hour blocks in a week, then they ought to get the same block for a week.
If a pilot gets two weekly blocks in a month, then they ought to get the same block for a month.
If they go beyond this point and they’re still spamming, on a regular basis, then they’re just being a pain in the proverbial and maybe a ban (temporary or permanent) ought to be considered.
I don’t think this would stop spam, or for that matter people trying to flog stuff and double your Isk, because people could post the same message every 21 minutes, but it would definitely decrease it to a point where local chat in some systems, Jita being a prime example of this, would becaome a bit more functional, possibly even useable and maybe even useful.
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I agree there needs to be an option to mute local chat. My blocked list is becoming rather large.
Maybe just have a timer that stops people from spamming more than once a min of they are docked. At least if they spam outside something could be done.
I’m sure most of the spam in jita is from accounts that are not even attended. bot spam
When I first started playing the game I went to Jita after about six weeks. I loved Jita local. It was like going to a carnival for the first time and the barkers were yelling after you. It was exciting, thrilling, and slightly unnerving all at the same time.
But, more than anything, after all the quiet systems I traveled through to get there, Jita local gave the game “life”. Sure, it wasn’t a tidy, neat, Sunday worship service life, more like a bad Saturday night-hungover on Sunday morning life, but it was alive.
I don’t live in Jita; but I sure appreciate Jita’s local when I go there.
I wouldn’t want to change it to much just sort out the spam. Sometimes I pick some nice bargains from the local chat. Just annoying I have to block people everyday because the spam fest. And it also happens in perimeter sometimes although not nearly as much
Throttling doesn’t matter, if you can just mute it all. Which is why I say, improving personal muting abilities is a better alternative. Like for example, the ability to just mute or close local all together.
Throttling might be needed (or even in place?) because of technical aspects. As in, the servers not being able to handle incoming spam. That is however a different issue from the one discussed in this thread.
Just waiting for a certain subset of ‘forum warriors’ to come along and claim “Chat is PvP”.
For the OP, a couple thoughts:
The places where unending spam is the norm (Jita and sometimes Amarr) are not really significant enough to bother making game changes for. Especially since the devs seem to have trouble getting chat to work at all, much less ‘properly’.
The number of spammers who see spam as part of their ‘game play’ in those areas probably exceeds the number of new players who can’t see past the spam. So which group should be catered to?
Very few new players are going to benefit from ‘less spam’ in Jita or Amarr, since even with spam limits, it’s not the place they’ll receive much in the way of newbro help regardless.
Limits like “1 minute between posts” or “Max 5 posts in 3 minutes” tend to annoy far more legitimate players than they do muzzle spamtards.
That said, I personally don’t care what limits they apply to spam limits, since it won’t affect me anyway.
Streamlining the block process (which is already pretty easy) to the fastest/least click method possible would probably give the best overall results.
No problem with Jita being a cesspit, no human is going to be able to read the spam anyway, just give us the tools and we can use them to empower ourselves, I have nothing against a reintroduction of a slight small throttle either
I agree on improving the mute abilities (not throttle).
I was just addressing your “preventing others being heard” comment. Basically my point is, nothing of value is said in Jita local that needs to be heard by everyone there. Make a channel with relevant individuals if you want to say something that needs to be heard.