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Blizzard fights ingame spam (and the addon meant to stop it)
If you've been using an addon like Spam Sentry to quickly and easily report ingame gold whisperers, it turns out Blizzard might not be completely happy with you.You'd think Blue might be happy players were helping them get gold spammers out of their game, but apparently Spam Sentry isn't actually helping... at least in the way Blizzard wants it to. Blue poster Kaone says, in a thread repeatedly linked to by Coreiel, that reports need to be submitted as soon as possible (Spam Sentry collects gold spammers, and then either lets you report them when you click to do so, or all in one go at the end of the day-- apparently more players have been going for the easier option). Addons, Blizzard says, aren't cutting it, because they aren't hearing about the spam quickly enough to catch the accounts while they're logged on.Which is kind of understandable. But what's not understandable is that Blizzard is going to remove the ability of addons to create a GM ticket as of the next patch. So as of 2.1, we can pretty much say goodbye to Spam Sentry in its current form.The good news is that Slouken (the addon CM, if there is one) promises that Blizzard is working on a "much easier-to-use method" of reporting gold spammers in 2.1. However, as we all learned from the LFG system, what Blizzard thinks is easier doesn't always match with what the players want to use. And my guess is that if Blizzard is getting "spammed" with Spam Sentry warnings now, their system will be a lot more full when everyone has access to a quick-reporting ability. It seems like a better plan to help Spam Sentry fix itself by building functionality into the addon system, rather than remove that functionality for a tool that players aren't familiar with.
No more LFG channel... at least officially
Just a follow up to David's LFG post yesterday. My suggestion for the disappointing LFG system in place after the patch was for Blizzard to leave the system in place and also reinstate the LFG channel-- players who want to use the LFG system can then do so, and players who want to LFG the old fashioned (and messier, and more annoying, and yet more effective) way can do so as well.Blizzard, however, disagrees. Neth says clearly that the devs are standing behind the new system, and that no matter how much players ask for it, the old LFG channel ain't coming back. In fact, she even asks that players who don't want to use the LFG system use it anyway and give feedback on how to make it better. I'm not sure that's going to happen-- it's Blizzard's responsibility to get creative about solutions, not the players'. But in the meantime, lots of players have gotten creative anyway, and if you "/join lookingforgroup" on almost any server, you'll find a close enough approximation of what the LFG channel used to be. Until Blizzard fixes their interface and actually gets something in place that finds me the group I want doing exactly what I want, you can meet me there.
