Quote Originally Posted by Angelhearth View Post
Well, if you aren't a hard core seller, what's your problem with bots? And what is a hard core seller anyway? I follow up my retainers 6-12 times a day, so I guess I'm hard core. I would say that if you have a problem with bots then you are updating them at least that much, otherwise bots aren't your problem, but hard core sellers.
I'm not sure why you think bots are a problem for hardcore sellers. They mostly suppress prices in lower end markets that you should be buying from because those items aren't worth the time it takes to produce them. It just makes selling more efficient.

Despite what the forums would like us to believe, I still see little evidence of the market board being directly botted. I was easily able to sell aesthete's gear in the wake of 5.31 when it temporarily became worth selling, for instance. What I saw ruining the market wasn't bots, but the same nonsense that always plagues gear markets: they're an "obvious" choice to make gil, so clueless crafters flock to them, overstock the market, and make stupid pricing decisions because apparently nobody knows or cares what opportunity cost is.