Is spam from bannable in GW2?

[GreedyTommy.1783]

So theres this guild thats spamming rcruitment messages in LA and its getting pretty annoying, so my question here is - can any accounts get banned if theres 20 different people spamming the same message? I think its [Dark] guild or whatever and i reported couple of them, but then i thought that it doesnt count as a spam if they do it from couple different accounts.

[Naflie.3491]

I found this!

> ArenaNet uses a sliding scale to determine the duration of this punishment: lesser offenses will result in smaller blocks and repeat offenses will result in stiffer penalties, up to and including account termination.

> Accounts are only terminated for serious conduct breaches, including use of disallowed third-party programs, use of bots, exploiting game bugs, scamming, real money trading, and **repeated patterns of behavior that might otherwise result in blocks**.

 

So I think that means he will get suspended first and if he will continue his behaviour he could get eventually banned.

source:https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ban

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

> @"GreedyTommy.1783" said:

> So theres this guild thats spamming rcruitment messages in LA and its getting pretty annoying, so my question here is - can any accounts get banned if theres 20 different people spamming the same message? I think its [Dark] guild or whatever and i reported couple of them, but then i thought that it doesnt count as a spam if they do it from couple different accounts.

 

The report function is somewhat limited. If you feel it's really spamming, you have these other options:

* /block one or more of the particular people repeating the recruiting message -- least effort for you

* Use a support ticket to report the _guild's_ behavior. You'll need to document (with screenshots) the occurrences, so time stamps are recommended. (Make it easy for ANet to see what they notice).

 

I don't recommend the second option because even if ANet decides to act, they aren't going to do so immediately. There's a tricky line between necessary amounts of recruitment and spam and none of us draw it the same way. At best, whoever gets the ticket is going to have to review the situation, consult with colleagues, and likely decide to wait to see if others are equally bothered. So unless you think this a serious problem _for the community_, I'd stick with just blocking.

 

FYI I don't recommend saying anything to the recruiters. If they recognized it was an issue, they wouldn't do it. If called on it, even politely, you're likely to be met with defensiveness or worse. Some people really can't think of any other way to recruit.

[Naflie.3491]

Is actually sending recruitment message in LA every 2-3 minutes considered spamming? That's the real question here. Haha. :)

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

> @"Naflie.3491" said:

> Is actually sending recruitment message in LA every 2-3 minutes considered spamming? That's the real question here. Haha. :)

 

I'd consider it counter-productive at best. The number of additional people that will find out about the guild by posting once per 3 minutes instead of once per 30 is tiny, especially considering that those who receive multiple messages aren't likely to be impressed by the repetition or lack of creativity.

 

Even if it's not "spam" in some people's view, it is spam according to more people than is good for recruitment.

[lagrangewei.8516]

u can just block them if they annoy u too much :D

 

i suspect report doesn't trigger unless alot of people trigger it. these system should be automated since staff can't be on 24/7, so they should have some kind of a throttle to allow the script to determine if it could trigger an action..

[Vayne.8563]

> @"Naflie.3491" said:

> Is actually sending recruitment message in LA every 2-3 minutes considered spamming? That's the real question here. Haha. :)

 

Every 2 minutes? The very definition of spam in my opinion. Anyone who posts the same thing every 2 minutes should be banned, because why should your guild recruitment be more important than anything else going on in chat? Every five minutes, I can sort of see, but yeah, it's disruptive and self-serving. It's not for the benefit of the game, it's for the personal benefit of one guild.

 

To put it another way, there are thousands of guilds in this game. If every guild posted a message every 2 minutes there'd be no room for anyone else to have a conversation. Map chat is not your personal domain and taking it over with the same spammed messages over and over again? Definitely spam and should be bannable...not permanent ban for the first offense, but bannable nonetheless.

[Naflie.3491]

> @"Vayne.8563" said:

> > @"Naflie.3491" said:

> > Is actually sending recruitment message in LA every 2-3 minutes considered spamming? That's the real question here. Haha. :)

>

> Every 2 minutes? The very definition of spam in my opinion. Anyone who posts the same thing every 2 minutes should be banned, because why should your guild recruitment be more important than anything else going on in chat? Every five minutes, I can sort of see, but yeah, it's disruptive and self-serving. It's not for the benefit of the game, it's for the personal benefit of one guild.

>

> To put it another way, there are thousands of guilds in this game. If every guild posted a message every 2 minutes there'd be no room for anyone else to have a conversation. Map chat is not your personal domain and taking it over with the same spammed messages over and over again? Definitely spam and should be bannable...not permanent ban for the first offense, but bannable nonetheless.

 

I totally agree. Also when we told him that spamming is bannable, he told us he doesn't care and told all of his recruiters to come to LA and spam it too. I find it horrible.

I, myself, recruit in every map once a day. I do a big circle from LA to POF areas etc. Making sure I wont spam it twice in one map.

Also Im surprised that he thinks that guilds are ONLY about guild leaders. Don't think it's okay to have mentality like that. If I acted like him, our guild members would leave and tell everyone that I'm or other people from the guild arrogant.

I personally feel sorry for people that have to sit in LA and they see the recruitments message pop up every few mins. And even if they block someone, someone else comes and spam it again. :( Got on my block list 6 new people because of it yesterday.

Thank you for replying to this post, really kind of you!

[mercury ranique.2170]

There are two questions here.

1: Is this a breach of the rules of conduct?

2: What would the penalty be?

 

For both questions, we can not really give answers, but only specualte, as it is up to support. The most important thing to do would be to report. As the ingame report function is limited, you could create a support ticket, to bring it to the GM's attention..

 

To speculate (and only speculate!!)

I do believe it is a breach of the rules of conduct. The rules do not state this is a personal offense. So creating spam as a group, in an organised way, would also mean that all accounts participate in spamming AND bypassing any spam-detection filters and anti-flood meassures.

 

As for the penalty, I do think it will be a warning at first. If this would not help, the possible penalty could be the deletion of the guild. The reason would be is that individuals who participated might have done so (and likely) due to social pressure from the group. Only if this fails, and result in them creating a new guild to continue the behaviour, personal suspensions would be given.

[Danikat.8537]

Since reports in GW2 aren't automated and are only acted on after a person has reviewed it and decided what to do my thinking is to report anything I consider inappropriate and then let the moderators sort it out. Only reason I might not use the report function in this case is if it's a different person each time it won't be clear it's spamming unless 1 moderator reviews every ticket. So I'd probably take screenshots (with time stamps enabled in chat) and submit a support ticket to fully explain the situation.

 

Also make sure you get the guild name and not just the tag. There's at least 5 or 6 [Dark] guilds on EU and probably just as many on NA so without more information Anet won't be able to act on it.