[Suggestion] Limit party finder capabilities for cross-dc travelers

Here's my suggestion: force cross-dc travelers to select a category, thus barring them from posting anything in the "other" tab.

For example, if I travel from primal to aether, I would need to select "dungeon" or "trial" or "raid" or "high end duty" or "hunt" or "fate" or whatever else, but I would not be able to make a party finder in the "other" tab.

The reason: There are too many ads for clubs under the "other" tab. Imagine, it's a slow night, maybe you're looking for one of those omnicrafters to make you something, maybe you're looking to trade something, maybe you're looking for a gposer because you don't have the patience for it yourself, or maybe you're just looking for a place to kill some time at. You open party finder. There are 68 listings on the "other" tab. You start looking through them. There are 8 ads for the same place, you can't scroll without seeing them. Then you see at least 4 other places with at least 3 ads up themselves, and pretty soon you realize that things aren't as they first appear. You keep seeing the same things over and over again, so much so that it's difficult to find anything else except for that one club that's really overzealous with their advertising.

So how does limiting traveler pf capabilities help? I start sending in reports for places that have too many ads. This, of course, means that I need to collect names and worlds. In the course of doing this, I've discovered that very few people with these ads up actually reside on the data center they're advertising on. In fact, the majority of them come from aether, closely followed by dynamis.

Why not just blacklist them to not have to deal with them? The reason's pretty simple. As of this moment, even with the enhancements coming with the blacklist system in dawntrail, we're still going to be capped at 200 users. With how often these places pop up and how overzealous most of them get with their advertising, you'd be hitting that cap pretty fast if you just blacklisted each and every one of them.

This solution would not be a magical cure for this problem. It's incredibly easy to just create a character on the same data center you want to advertise for. Same issue, different names. However, it would, at the bare minimum, act as a deterrent.

They really need to. It really shouldn't be a thing to migrate to one data center to do content

A similar thread regarding shout ads touched on these topics as well. Many players suggested/requested the addition of a venue tab for all this garbage to go under, along with some other things. The blacklist update isn't going to help anything in the long run. Over the lifespan of an expansion there will be a large number of players advertising, more than a blacklist and mute list combined can accommodate. Looking further into the future, 2, or even 3 expansions down the road, that number would be increased exponentially. The only real solution to any of this is to keep making and supporting these types of threads, and mass report large amounts of people from the fc/venue/plot owners to the advertisers every time they get out of line. Overwhelm the ticket staff with complaints until they're forced to make the appropriate changes. The GM staff will tell you to report anything you don't like, all feedback is welcomed. Doesn't matter if it's a prohibited action or not, or if any account actions will be taken. Eventually the prohibited actions and in-game features will get updated to help resolve the issues if people speak up about it.

People could just ... you know, not be disruptive and annoying instead ... but that's just too easy and simple.

I don't think it needs limiting due to the Other category. That is fine as it is, or they could make an "RP" and a "Social" category to separate some of them from omnicrafters.

Multiple duplicate listings for the same thing could be made reportable as well.

I think what they should restrict cross-DC for is joining public High-End parties via Party Finder. That would prevent people feeling pressured to DC travel to farm an extreme or prog savage, but wouldn't prevent people switching to join a private party for their static.

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

I don't think it needs limiting due to the Other category. That is fine as it is, or they could make an "RP" and a "Social" category to separate some of them from omnicrafters.

Multiple duplicate listings for the same thing could be made reportable as well.

I think what they should restrict cross-DC for is joining public High-End parties via Party Finder. That would prevent people feeling pressured to DC travel to farm an extreme or prog savage, but wouldn't prevent people switching to join a private party for their static.

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I'm of the opinion that instead of limiting options, they should expand it. So I would suggest that a possible better alternative would be to make PF / DF cross DC. I have a feeling this would eliminate a lot of the travel, and allow the lower pop DC's to have a chance to grow.

I agree with OP; if they can limit retainer access "for the health of the game," they can do the same thing for PF.

Actually nvm, just add cross-data center Party finder and Duty finder.

Here's a simple solution. Allow us to filter the Others tab (so whenever you open PF, you can choose for Others to be hidden by default- eliminating most of the ads) and/or allow us to select multiple categories in PF

ie. Dungeons, trials, high end duty and raids. Anything else won't show.

A nuclear option is to disallow any kind of advertisement in the PF, nuking any kind of venue ad. Then you'll probably witness an increase in venue ad spam in shout chat...

I honestly can't think of anything that could be a fix for this without SE kinda endorsing/embracing venues and I feel like due to the nature and content of the venues SE might not want to touch it directly (no pun intended). This isn't content aimed at me, but I remember I went to a cafe type venue with my friend upon seeing the ad for it and honestly? It was really nice and cozy! I went there a few times while waiting for queue.

It'd be nice if there's some kind of ingame catalogue to advertise your house as a cafe of some kind that opens from XX ST - XX ST. Only the owner can put up an entry in the catalgoue, they can add a short description, a few tags and that's it. (I think it'd be cool if there's some kind of adventure plate equivilant to your house, like a house card...somehow but I feel like that's really complicated...)

I don't know how it's like in NA, but things aren't that bad in EU. It's annoying but not as bad as you describe it.

Perhaps a search function in the PF would be nice. For example specifically searching for terms like 'crafter'/'gposer'/'designer', etc? I'm sorry if those are bad ideas, I can't think of anything else. These venue people will always find people who'd happily advertise to them, but if given maybe something like a catalogue maybe it'd help....but if there's a catalogue then ban venue ads from PF imo

I guess a housing catalogue of sorts could also be to show off a cool house design...So maybe two birds one stone?

I'm not sure restricting is a good option, I feel like players should be given freedom....We already have restrictions on retainers/mail/fc buffs/fc chest and so on and so forth and it's pretty lame. I hope one day these restrictions get lifted. If people wish to travel to other DC, they shouldn't feel restricted. :o

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Originally Posted by Menriq

I would suggest that a possible better alternative would be to make PF / DF cross DC.

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I mean, sure, but the technical challenges with that, and difficult technical decisions to make for that, are obviously a lot greater than simply stricting. That will probably be a long-term feature to work on but for quick solutions a limited restriction is one.

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Originally Posted by Boblawblah

Your argument sounds like:

There is a problem in 'A' town where lots of people are speeding. There are also lots of people in 'B' town travelling to 'A' and in my opinion, some of them speed there. We need to make a law preventing people from 'B' going to 'A'.

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Your argument sounds like "I don't have an actual, logical rebuttal to this."

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Originally Posted by Rueby

I'm not sure restricting is a good option, I feel like players should be given freedom....We already have restrictions on retainers/mail/fc buffs/fc chest and so on and so forth and it's pretty lame. I hope one day these restrictions get lifted. If people wish to travel to other DC, they shouldn't feel restricted. :o

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See, you're absolutely right here. I agree with you 100%. If I'm traveling cross-dc, I don't see a reason why I shouldn't be able to access some of the features. There's an even easier solution to all of this, though. I'm not against venues, I'm not against ads, I'm against too many venue ads. So, instead, I think it should be treated as spam- in fact, unless I'm incredibly mistaken, it should be already. Therefore, it should be better enforced. Barring any actual enforcement of it being against tos though... this is the best idea I've got at the moment.