Quote Originally Posted by Jijifli View Post
Better idea. Keep both going.

Because if Square is going to continue to completely ignore the issue, why should we not make it public knowledge? Clearly, it's not a problem, since they hadn't been doing anything about it, so there's no harm, yes?

I'd be more trusting on just the report thing if they actually did anything, but they rarely ever ban bots outside of rtneorbge rjhbtr under the ground teleporting around and chargebacking himself (You know, the lowest of fruits).
Certainly discussing the problem in the forums is something that should continue, and I never said anything to indicate I think otherwise.

But reporting specific bots here doesn't accomplish anything if the intent is to get the bot banned. It's not like we as players can take direct actions against a known bot without potentially landing in hot water ourselves because of ToS violations. As Archlord Pie said, you absolutely could get reported for Monster Player Kill if you intentionally dragged other creatures into the bunny FATEs that really shouldn't be there.

We do know that SE does take action against at least some bots other than the disposable RMT bots. There have been a few that disappeared. Sometimes I wonder if SE deletes bot characters when their accounts are banned instead of leaving them in limbo on the banned account. Deleting them would free up the name, allowing the bot operator to reuse it on a new account and creating the appearance that nothing is being done because the same name is still active. That could explain the occasions when those who track bots notice a specific bot will disappear for a few weeks then reappear.

I'd be curious to hear from players on Aether whether all their usual suspects remained active while Aether was Congested or if many of them slowly disappeared. If some had disappeared, will they suddenly start reappearing next week now that there's been a few days to make new characters again.