Party Finder Spam / Advertisements

I wasn't quite sure if this was the correct category to post this in but couldn't figure where all to post it.

So when I opened up the Party Finder interface today to search for any pony farming groups, I was greeted by a multitude of [ShivaServerSells] and other similar Primal/Coil boosting 'service' ads.

Of course I'd seen those before but today there were quite a few and it was really intrusive, as I had to try and filter out the actual groups from the pure ads, and quite frankly they were just obnoxious.

So I contacted the FC leader of the FC of one of the people who had posted such a PF listing in order to ask if this is standard FC behaviour for them, and he basically told me to piss right off since the GMs don't care.

I made a ticket to find out if that's really true, and I was very displeased to find out that it's true - in specific they said that they "generally do not take action against advertisements unless they are RMT or offensive".

I was really, really disappointed by this. Most of these ads had an item level requirement of 200 so they weren't using the PF interface, not by a long stretch. They were simply there to advertise the service and nothing else.

Now, I don't care about boosting - I frown upon it, but if people want to do it, whatever. However, to me this is clearly abuse of the party finder interface, the intent of which as I understand is for individuals to find a group, or groups to find people they need to complete a dungeon.

Furthermore, imagine if every single person who wanted to advertise something on the party finder, did so. It'd be a horribly cluttered up mess of "[PrideSellOre] (check MB)" and the like.

It's bad enough that these people spam the public chat of Revenant's Toll and other big cities 24/7 and we're forced to blacklist them to avoid the spam... Why do we have to deal with it on a system designed for something completely different as well?

I'm really disappointed by SE's stance on this and I hope they reconsider. Between the gil seller spam/friend invites and the boosting service chat spam, I think there's enough malevolent spam enough as it is.

Sorry for triple post but the 1000 character limitation is absurd.

You can edit your original post to bypass to 1000 character limit.

I don't see the problem. They're looking for groups to clear dungeons, just not the way you want to clear them. You're post, no offense, has some contradictions in it. You don't mind people playing that way, but it's obviously abusing the system? What? You seem to have your own idea for what the "intended" use of pf is for that is really off the mark. It's just to find groups. Pf doesn't care if it's a sale or not.

I can understand being annoyed, but this is just one of those live and let live situations. It's an online game and people are gonna play it their own way. It's not that hard to scroll through pf reading the descriptions

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Originally Posted by Malevicton

I don't see the problem. They're looking for groups to clear dungeons, just not the way you want to clear them.

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Sure, I'm aware of the technicality that they're looking for people to clear dungeons, but they're not looking through the party finder. They're merely advertising. They specifically have set the ilvl requirement to 200 so that noone can join their group - that's not a group that will ever be fullfilled.

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You're post, no offense, has some contradictions in it. You don't mind people playing that way, but it's obviously abusing the system? What?

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I don't care that people do boosting, but I DO mind the spam in chat and the party finder listings. There's no contradictions there, perhaps try reading my post better.

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You seem to have your own idea for what the "intended" use of pf is for that is really off the mark. It's just to find groups. Pf doesn't care if it's a sale or not.

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As I precisely said in my post, I don't care that people boost, and yes, the intended (there's no quotation marks about it) use of the party is to find parties, as the title suggests.

However, these listings will NEVER result in a group being found. They are just there to ADVERTISE for a potential group of 7 already established players. Try as I may, I cannot click the "Join" button as my item level is obviously below 200, and if I were to whisper to ask for an invitation, I'd obviously be rejected on the grounds of not offering gil.

The LISTING on PF is moot and only clutters up the interface. It's spam.

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I can understand being annoyed, but this is just one of those live and let live situations. It's an online game and people are gonna play it their own way. It's not that hard to scroll through pf reading the descriptions

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There's nothing live and let live about it. If I were to make a PF listing saying "Want some friends to party with :( maybe do a dungeon some day", sure, I'd be technically using the the party finder, and though my listing is harmless, it would (or should) be removed because it's A) Not used to actively pursue a party and B) Impedes people who actually want to find a party from doing son.

Sure, it's not hard to scroll, but there's no reason why anyone should have to either. That's like saying, "It's not hard to scroll through spam messages in chat so they're OK", a fallacy at best.

Then again I sense that you have a stake in this.

I'd rather the advertisements be confined to PF instead of chat.

Personally I view the Party Finder as a kind of bulletin board for the server any way.

It's really no different than personal adds in a newspaper. "<Player(s)> seeking/providing <Service/Item/Group>" is how the party finder actually works. So the fact that it's evolved from a generic search box into a bulletin board for jobs, services, and recruitment is actually very natural when you consider we're suppose to be adventurers in this world.

Heck in other RPGs you have a similar system even in single player RPGs with anything from "Please Help", to "Requesting <Blank>, to "Stay out of <Blank> or Else".

Even the unfriendly ones as much as I personally detest them still seem natural to be on there. I mean even jerks want to sell their merch and find other jerks to run content with.

You're taking it far too seriously and personally. It's an in-game party finder. If it's got some clutter, move on. If it were something more extreme, maybe, but they're still looking for parties (just because you can't hit join doesn't mean it will never lead to a party). They are causing absolutely no problems for you except that you don't like seeing it there. The inconvenience for them trying to find other ways to do this would be far more than the inconvenience for you at having to look at their pf.

That's the only possible problem I see here. Besides you having to see that they have a pf up (oh the horror) what harm are they doing? Just let it go.

I don't have a personal stake in this, but feel free to make baseless assumptions about me personally lol. Even if I was one of the people making those pf, why would I not be allowed to have an opinion about it? Play however you want; let them play how they want. As long as it's not adversely affecting you I don't see a problem.

so you wanted to buy a primal run, pmed them, didn't like their price, then went to GMs to whine about it.
And when they weren't interested you've come here in the hope someone will validate your whiny attitude

I don't see what the big deal is it's like advertisements anywhere if you are not interested in what it is offering you ignore it and move on. there are plenty of others ads that will probably interest you. You could even set up your own farming groups instead of whining that you can't find one. Mercenary services are part of all MMO's pretty much. People who have cleared and farmed content are bored and want to make gold to acquire other things because they don't want to grind crafting for items or they want to invest in a gold sink so they offer themselves out as a clear service to carry people through content.

Those who buy it have their own reasons from lacking the ability to being heavily into crafting or just people who can't find a competent group and want a clear with the loot they want after banging their head against the wall. People who are sitting on a large pile of gold can afford to spend some to get through troublesome things and get the loot they want and bored players have a job that keeps them interested in playing the game. Being a mercenary is no different than offering crafting services for rare items for a high price. Not everyone has the time or skill so they instead pay for items.

Scroll past them. It isn't hurting you or breaking the rules.

Most likely op is resentful for no reason toward those who can clear the content and views the party finder advertisements as some sort of personal rub.