Quote Originally Posted by Moonlite View Post
To the report thing, yes they might get to everything eventually. They might ban that bot from 2.1 some time in 4.3 because it showed up on the list finally.
Only reports are taken on a case by case basis.

It could take some time, sure. Or it could just be that SE did not find sufficient evidence to act on the report. Or they could have simply not deemed the report worthy of action.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to be overly optimistic about the way SE handles their business. I'm a skeptic, through and through ... which is why I try not to limit my view to only one side of the table. For one, we have seen, first hand right here in these forums, evidence of people getting hit with PvP bans within as little as a couple of days. If the infraction is severe enough or substantiated by enough people, they jump on it. That's not an opinion. It has actually happened. It just doesn't happen often. Now, I could assume that the it doesn't happen frequently because of a labor shortage or a lack of funds, but I could just as easily assume that there's other reasons, including that SE does actually get to each report in a timely fashion and just doesn't tell us.

Just because someone reported someone, doesn't mean that SE has to take that person's word for it, and they certainly don't have to respond to anyone about it after the fact. They could, very simply, not find sufficient evidence to act on the report. They could also not see the reported action / words as an infraction worthy of action. If that's the case, then it could be a simple matter of them making stricter guidelines. Who knows? Only SE. What we know, with certainty, is that they already have a reporting system, and reports can go through in as little as a couple of days to a couple of months. There is no additional development time for this system. There's no additional cost, unless they feel the need to hire several new workers to act as GMs ... which seems unnecessary. Regardless, relying on that system, broken or not, is still better than a mass gag order on an entire section of their paying customers in one of the currently fastest growing areas of the game.