Enough is enough, give us proper tools to deal with spammers

[Niwashi]

SE does work to implement server-side filters to detect keywords from known RMT tells and automatically block them but the turnaround time on this process seems to be quite lengthy.

Well, I do recall seeing a dev post from quite a while ago claiming they did, but if so, their turnaround time is measured in years, which is effectively the same as not doing it at all. My guess is that they have the software to allow them to block known RMT strings in messages but have never actually used it. Either that, or they set it up once when the game was released and have never updated it since.

I do know for a fact that a great deal of the RMT messages I'm still seeing have the exact same text that has been being used for over a year now. Some of the RMT companies change their messages every so often, but others don't, so clearly it's not actually necessary in order for the messages to get through. (For instance, why isn't "♥BANK" blocked by now? They've been using that same heart to represent the first three characters of their web address for ages now. Their web address may not be written in its standard form, but it's written the exact same way they've been using ever since they started spamming this game with it.) So, for all practical purposes, no SE doesn't have server side text filters in use.

I would really like to see a feature extended to clients where I can enter my own filter keywords. For instance if I could filter the keyword "U'sd" which I see in the above poster's image it would block all of those tells from my client. My chat log has actually had that same RMT tell it for the past week now so such a feature would have given me a whole week of quiet :P

That would help a lot. Client side filtering places the hassle of updating those filters on the users, but does at least have the advantage that it's a lot harder for the RMT companies to modify their messages to evade the filters, because they can't ever be sure what filters you're using.

(Unfortunately, this means the more proficient players who update their filters aren't bothered by spam and think it goes away, while new players trying the game out who are still on default settings are still getting the full brunt of it. Leaves a rather bad impression on those new players that way.)

... remove the Player Search function, that's it, i haven't found any player using it ...

That's a very drastic thing to do. I use it all the time to locate friends when they first subscribe to the game, or to locate players whose /tells I missed for one reason or another if they've gone into a duty.

Removing it completely would be too drastic, but an /anonymous flag that lets us opt out of being found through it could be a worthwhile improvement.

[MaeIsMean]

Removing it completely would be too drastic, but an /anonymous flag that lets us opt out of being found through it could be a worthwhile improvement.

oh my gosh, yes yes yes yes yes to this! I have gotten in the habit of using /busy, but it always bugs me that I can't get tells or party invites with it on. Also, I've been using the same name in games since 1999, so I do get random tells sometimes from someone who remembers me from whatever game in the past. I'd love to be able to NOT use busy, but have a way to hide myself from whatever searches the bots use to pull names of players. I would think you'd have to also have anon apply to the lodestone as well, as you can never underestimate the ingenuity of spam bots, and perhaps they are spamming using feeds from there.

[GordonLiu]

/bump

The RMT are completely out of control in this game. We're paying enough in subs per player to expect that there should be a staff available to quickly usher reported RMT out the door, as well as a system to quickly and easily report RMT while simultaneously making the RMT invisible to the person who reported them. This is basic. This game has been out for years. I don't understand the holdup...

[Laraul]

For the PC, people download and use the Guildworks plugin, which includes a way to block tells if they match specific regular expressions. But there is no way to use to do this on the PS4 and PS3 versions.

Unless they truly are incompetent, SE must know about this issue. But it's obviously easier for them to ignore then actually address. They simply don't care enough to face the problem and resolve it. They know if you ignore the problem long enough, the problem goes away on it's own. By that I mean people just stop complaining and accept it.