Please limit tells

[Halagad]

/tells are a big part of a game but gil spammers are out of control. Right now I have done like most people do and put all tells to a tab I NEVER look at which is a horrible way to handle the spammers. I would suggest either

1) separate tells out from people who you allow (using the friends list) and ones who are not. This would allow for us to continue to ignore the spammers but still get tells from friends

2) Make using /tell a level limit, just like trial accounts can't. Level 20 should suffice, it would at least discourage it a bit more because now they have to put forth effort to level only to be banned and do it all over again.

3) Do like most MMO's and create a filter where a person is auto banned for specific information which are in the tells, there are only so many ways they can put their w-e-b-s-i-t-e in.

Suggestions, but ultimately something has got to be done eventually.

[ChameleonMS]

Nope, just blacklist the RMTs.
Now fixing the Blacklist is something that does need to be looked at.
Auto-removal from blacklist when accounts are deleted.
Increasing the number entries allowed on Blacklist.
A faster bulk operation for blacklist management (i.e. delete N accounts in operation, usually check boxes or similar interface operation)

[FunkyBunch]

Nope, just blacklist the RMTs.
Now fixing the Blacklist is something that does need to be looked at.
Auto-removal from blacklist when accounts are deleted.
Increasing the number entries allowed on Blacklist.
A faster bulk operation for blacklist management (i.e. delete N accounts in operation, usually check boxes or similar interface operation)

I had to blacklist 25 times in 5 minutes yesterday. How about we do something else instead? Blacklisting is not a solution. It's a bandaid.

[Cromi_Jobly]

I had to blacklist 25 times in 5 minutes yesterday. How about we do something else instead? Blacklisting is not a solution. It's a bandaid.

That happens every time SE does their account bans. For the next week we have to clean up our black lists for the wave of new spam accounts. It's basically having a solution that is part of the problem.

[FunkyBunch]

That happens every time SE does their account bans. For the next week we have to clean up our black lists for the wave of new spam accounts. It's basically having a solution that is part of the problem.

If you didn't use a friend code, you don't get to use tells on new accounts until you're level 20.
You are limited to tells to 5 different players per minute.
Sending the same message as a tell 5 times results in lockout. 10 times results in auto suspension.
Second offense, auto-ban.

[MaeIsMean]

Sending the same message as a tell 5 times results in lockout. 10 times results in auto suspension.

They already get around this by adding the spam letters at the end of the message.... which honestly is a failure of the filter to not recognize that 197 of 200 characters are exactly the same, but I'm hopeful that they will be able to adjust it to recognise a message that is more than 75% identical, but we'll see.

If we're gonna limit tells to level 20 for brand new characters, then there needs to be an explanation when they first log in so they don't find out the hard way.... also, they should not be able to RECEIVE tells in that time either, save them from spammers

[Jeannes]

I figure that Gil sellers are buying the game and paying for sub ffxiv doesn't really care.

And to have been spamming since the beginning of time someone must be buying Gil >.>

[ChameleonMS]

1) separate tells out from people who you allow (using the friends list) and ones who are not. This would allow for us to continue to ignore the spammers but still get tells from friends

I presume you want this, so you can have feature similar to /busy but only apply it to the people not on your friends list.
If enabled, this would prevent random players using tells to communicate with a crafter such as myself requesting stuff. This happens just as regularly for me as RMT messages do. It becomes feature that does nothing for me.

2) Make using /tell a level limit, just like trial accounts can't. Level 20 should suffice, it would at least discourage it a bit more because now they have to put forth effort to level only to be banned and do it all over again.

This would limit legitimate new players from asking for help and alts from communicating with FC/friends. They would be forced into using shouts/yells to get advice on something. Usually now it is 1 or 2 shouts to start a conversation, then tells to continue it from that point onward.

Both 1 and 2 counter issues can be worked around by forming a party and using party chat.

3) Do like most MMO's and create a filter where a person is auto banned for specific information which are in the tells....

Applying an automatic ban based on text filter without an investigation is a dangerous practice that Administrators stuggle with all the time.
Getting the filter right so as not incorrectly punish a legitimate player which happens to trip the filter. i.e. FC recruitment, a website is common thing for an FC to have and the recruiter would definitely want to advise a prospect of its existence. Each false positive has the effect of the legitimate player being aggrieved and needs to be compensated for the unjust ban period. If compensation, usually playtime extension equal to ban period, is not provided then the player will more than likely un-sub.

How about we do something else instead?

The following is hopefully what SE is already doing.
1. Using filters not ban but to identity potential RMT spammers, and automatically trigger an investigation.
2. Limiting the number of tells within a time frame can be good, but it would only slow down the RMTs

RMTs are paying customers too, so the incentive from SE to kick-em out ASAP is actually rather low.
And, yes, people are buying Gil, I know a few. They used it up on Glamour for the most part.

[FunkyBunch]

One way to make SE happy as well as us:
Filters+Bans after short investigation. Bans for RMT no longer allow you in to MogStation to cancel your subscription :P
Take that RMT'ers.

[Sida]

This has been said before but.. easier way to report spam, for example, in a right click menu to the name in chat message. That report would automatically include the said message in question as well as reporter. If same person gets a number of reports in limited time, they get auto-communication suspension before a mod investigates. There is a change for false positives but it's fairly low and if someone is false positively reported by people with some connection, say same FC or same link shell, it leaves tracks which can lead to repercussions.