How long does a report actually take?

[Jyle]

I assume they are viewed daily, but is it weekly? Monthly?

Its just that I'm on my 4th report in one week on a mining bot in E Shroud on Faerie. I wont say her name (won't take anyone long to spot her), she is always there, mining away endlessly. I've started sending reports a week ago and I assume other players have done so...
Just curious.

[Duuude007]

It is their policy to not make their actions so predictable that they will have a set schedule, nor will we be told when they confirmed illicit activity, on whom or for how long.

One report is sufficient. Set it and forget it.

[aerialrave]

I have never sent more than 2 reports for 1 character (or group! see a lot of bot farms nowadays).
I make my reports pretty detailed so I think one report is sufficient most of the time. I would also wait a really long time before sending a second report (like 1 week+).
Instead of sending more reports, if you want them to act faster on it, instead you should try to GET OTHER PEOPLE to report the same person. I believe this holds more weight.

Just a little anecdote, there was a pretty big group on Balmung who sat right outside of Fallgourd Float botting the elementals there. I swear they were there for a really long time, like 1 year+.
I sent in two reports about this group, and my second one was pretty angry and I demanded a response, yet there was no real response other than the cut and paste "we can't tell you what actions we take". Months later the same group would still be there at all hours of the day.

Well, I started telling other people to send in reports and one day they were finally gone. I have also seen other examples where there are a bunch of real players mobbing around a group of THM/BLM bots and everyone sends in a report simultaneously and they get dealt with pretty swiftly.

On less populated servers and in less populated areas like the one you're describing, they are very hard to catch. My only recommendations are that (1) you write an extremely detailed report (name/activity/time/server/duration/etc.etc.) and (2) get other people to send a report. There is not much else you can do. I remember there was also a pretty big group of BLMs that just sat in town by the Aetheryte, and people called them out both here on the forums and on Reddit, joking about how the Black Mage Guild was in town. Yet they remained there botting duties for several days (probably 2 weeks or so).

So yeah, getting angry with the GMs doesn't help. Complaining on the forums and Reddit doesn't seem to help either.

[reillyblair]

about as long as a piece of string lol

[KaedrianLiang]

STF only go after true RMT that are doing illicity activity on a huge scale.

By Huge.

Theres several FC's on my server where they are obviously doing automated activities 4-12 bot's they haven't been banned. There are also individual main characters doing obvious botting, they dont get touched. So Huge is probably 30+ accounts tracing back to one user.

Theres also the ethics behind the activity being conducted to harvest gil.

Are they 4 blackmages queing dungeons and teleporting under the world to clear the objectives, with the intention of harvesting raw gil from mob kills within said dungeons? highest priority

Are they a new character running through the main scenario quest line to harvest raw tier IV materia from quest rewards later in the quest line? medium priorty

Is it a bot thats spirit bonding items and selling materia on the MB? low priority

Is it a bot thats farming raw mats and selling it on the MB? low priority

[jamesrandal]

Oh...About as long as it takes to fill out that job application they call a report player system..

[aerialrave]

Are they a new character running through the main scenario quest line to harvest raw tier IV materia from quest rewards later in the quest line? medium priorty

Is it a bot thats spirit bonding items and selling materia on the MB? low priority

Are you serious? Who are you to say what the priority is? Crit/Det IV materias are extremely lucrative. Crafting/Gathering materia also fetches a very high amount.

I dare say Materia is the 3rd most profitable venture in the game, behind Crafting and Mercenary work in selling content clears. I would even go so far as to put Materia ahead of raw mat gathering.

[KaedrianLiang]

Are you serious? Who are you to say what the priority is? Crit/Det IV materias are extremely lucrative. Crafting/Gathering materia also fetches a very high amount.

I dare say Materia is the 3rd most profitable venture in the game, behind Crafting and Mercenary work in selling content clears. I would even go so far as to put Materia ahead of raw mat gathering.

It's the observation of my premise. The bots that spiritbond and sell on the MB are still around. The individual bots that harvest raw mats are still around. Those blackmage quartets come and go with every announced mass banning.

Under the circumstances of your premise, yes they are lucrative. They would be even more lucrative if those low priority bots were to suddenly disappear. I'm not endorsing bot activity, but this is the deduction of what kind of bot is most detrimental to how gil exchanges from hand to hand.

[Delsus]

They generally take the reports, and depending on how many have been reported they will be put in a queue (SE only has so many people to investigate reports) After that they have to look at all relevant information available to them, as we don't know what they have we can't say, but the more information they have available the longer it will take.

For what is seen as low priority bots, they also don't ban instantly, people like mining bots, who aren't really inconveniencing masses, they will just do a blanket ban every month or so, it's the really annoying ones they ban instantly (like /tell bots).