Square Enix, what is your plan to stop RMT advertisers sending party invites?

[Chocolys]

All SE has to do is allow us to mark ourselves as not searchable. This way our names wouldn't show up in the Player Search facility which is what the RMT spammers parse to send their invites and in previous time /tell. A not searchable setting would also allow us to still have all of the social interaction functions available that you lose with /busy.

That would not solve the problem, it might only alleviate it slightly by initially slowing them down or preventing direct cross-region spam.

The reason is because the bot spammers do not necessarily need a search list, they can just stand idle at some place and get the name of any player passing by in their radius which is bigger than normal visibility or line of sight (the game client knows more than what the player sees on his screen and bot software usually have access to such informations). So this would just force them to teleport and eventually run around as well, instead of spamming everyone from the same place but they can automate that easily.

[Erim-Nelhah]

The best solution would be some settings (if they don't already exist - most don't, but not sure about the "block" items):

• Allow Tells From
  • Friends
  • Free Company Members
  • Linkshell Members
  • Others
• Allow Party Invitations From
  • Friends
  • Free Company Members
  • Linkshell Members
  • Others
• Block Friend Requests
• Block Guild Invites

The "allow" settings should be enabled by default, the "block" settings should be disabled by default.

Note: The "busy" setting, while interesting, is an "all or nothing" setting which, imho, isn't a real option for stopping RMT spam.

--Erim Nelhah

[Joe777]

Lots of ways Square Enix can improve the situation, with some good ideas in this thread as well. I just hope they do something! Not that they haven't already or that I'm ungrateful for what they have done but it's a neverending war against RMT and as much as possible must be done to disrupt them without disrupting us!

[caelumsixsmith]

I think their solution comes with the party finder changes, one of which allows players to start a private party that requires a password.

[Slirith]

They put a small differentiator on the end of each message so it isn't the same message. I watch the patterns.

Spam is still spam regardless.

[Mimilu]

I think their solution comes with the party finder changes, one of which allows players to start a private party that requires a password.

How is that going to stop RMT-bots from sending party invites though?

[Mocita]

Or do it Ragnarok Online style: Be at a certain level to be able to send invites of any sort, shout/yell, or do anything of the sort. This seems like the best solution I can think of.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

Or do it Ragnarok Online style: Be at a certain level to be able to send invites of any sort, shout/yell, or do anything of the sort. This seems like the best solution I can think of.

Bots level up like nothing, so that wouldn't stop them.

[Roth_Trailfinder]

It would not stop them, no. But it would slow them down a bit. While bots can level like crazy, that's only if that's what they are being bottled for. Spam bots, if you've noticed, are always level 1. Forcing them to level up to 10 or, better yet, complete the level 10 class quest, would at least serve to slow them down.

Unfortunately, stopping all tells, party invites, etc. hinders the sprout. And that is something that SE is looking to avoid doing.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

The other issue you would create is the "can't send invites/tells/etc" till level x" rule also affects new players and alt players.