Tell & RMT spammers

[Maxipep]

Does anyone know if the Tell command can be filtered for friends only and if not could this be introduced sometime soon.

[Amnesia]

Not currently possible and I don't see them adding this. In any case, it would just cause gilspammers to use /yell or /shout

[Maxipep]

Indeed, but it's not considered anti social to already have Yell and Shout turned off.

[Amnesia]

Yes, but SE wants players to interact with each other. They are using other methods to combat gilspammers.

[Laraul]

Yes, but SE wants players to interact with each other.

They block tells when a player is in an instance, yet they don't block them from spammers? I think they're should be an option users can enable to disable tells from players level 5 and below. I think this would be good for everyone. Right if RMT gain access to a legitimate account and then create additional characters to spam tell w/. And once caught, the account owner may likely be sanctioned with a referral. Three referrals of any kind results in a ban (according to the Terms of Service).

No one wants to prevent people from chatting with each other in private. But people are sick of the RMT spam tells! There must be a middle ground!

[Niwashi]

I think they're should be an option users can enable to disable tells from players level 5 and below. I think this would be good for everyone.

Wouldn't accomplish anything. If tells could be blocked until level 6, then the RMT spammers would simply level to 6 before they start the spamming. It wouldn't decrease the amount of spamming they do, just add an extra step to their setup script for making new spam bot characters. Meanwhile it would cause some annoyance to legitimate new players who want to meet up with their friends when they start playing. So the result is annoying legitimate players while doing nothing to RMT bots.

[Lucke]

Wouldn't accomplish anything. If tells could be blocked until level 6, then the RMT spammers would simply level to 6 before they start the spamming. It wouldn't decrease the amount of spamming they do, just add an extra step to their setup script for making new spam bot characters. Meanwhile it would cause some annoyance to legitimate new players who want to meet up with their friends when they start playing. So the result is annoying legitimate players while doing nothing to RMT bots.

You underestimate how lazy RMTs are. They create a character, run to the moogle or hide under a building and start spamming. The only RMTs that level up are the ones that spam dungeons. Make it as inconvenient as possible for the RMT. For a legit player, they can get to 20 in a day. Locking them out of /tells until level 6 or even 10 is nothing.

[Niwashi]

You underestimate how lazy RMTs are. They create a character, run to the moogle or hide under a building and start spamming.

That's what they do currently because that's what it takes to spam messages currently. Whenever the rules change, they update their scripts to accommodate those new rules. So yeah, it would be a one-time-only inconvenience to the RMT spammers to copy a bit of their gil-gathering bots' script onto their spam bots' script, but after that, it's no harder for them to level to 6 (or whatever other level you pick) and then start spamming as it is to just go to their chosen region and start spamming. Either way, all they're doing is kicking off a pre-written bot script.

For a legit player, they can get to 20 in a day. Locking them out of /tells until level 6 or even 10 is nothing.

SOME players may get to 20 in a day if that's the way they like playing. (Though they'd have totally ruined the whole story in the process.) Most players, however, won't do that. Most will take a week or two, and some a few months to get to 20. Now, it's still true that most will get past that first 5 levels in a day. But if they joined in order to play with their friend(s), then that first day as soon as they get into the game is when they're most going to want to connect to those friends. It's the absolute worst of all possible times to exclude access to /tell.

[ValarMarghulis]

Doesn't seem to be working very well. My blacklist is full, number of tells I'm getting are climbing...even getting random friend requests !

I'd like to have a feature that, instead of clicking their name and Add to Blacklist make a Report Player as Spammer.