Chat spam hotfix on Live?

Ninjerk · 10/26/07, 11:29 PM

It seems there has been some sort of thottle placed on /say, all general chat channels, and guild chat. Anyone know how exactly it works? All I know about it is that every now and then my client won't post what I type to gchat and tells me "only so many things can be said blah blah blah."

Jeffrey · 10/27/07, 12:03 AM

Simple version seems to be "1 message per 0.1 second". It's pretty lenient unless you're using macros or damage meter style addons - too bad that these are very valid uses... pretty much every raid leader has a multiline macro/addon of some set up. Blue says:

3 days ago: This was an anti-spam measure, and will shortly be allowed in guild chat and private channels with 25 people or less.

Today: This throttling is now currently active only in chat channels with more than 25 users, and not in party, raid, or guild chat

And again, seems like they haven't restarted servers so we'll probably have to wait a few days before this actually gets fixed on most realms. I couldn't have Recount spam /o successfully a few hours ago.

Funnily enough, the spammers will probably find out that you can just time messages a little bit apart... and you have /in (from various addons) for this. The most famous /s spammers already have, the most famous trade spammer hasn't but has shortened the spam to 1 line.

This "fix" is also breaking addons like GEM and various RP addons. The custom channels used by those addons often have much more than 25 people. I can't imagine how they approved this for a stealth hotfix (where did those hotfix info topics go anyway?).

Ninjerk · 10/27/07, 12:06 AM

It broke my raid leader's Netherspite macro for beam assignments. It has to be longer than .1 seconds. I type fast, but not that fast.

Lodekim · 10/27/07, 12:16 AM

Yeah it stopped a macro spam I was going to drop in BT General when we were all tooling around, overall pretty cool, but my macro is less valuable now =[

Zindel · 10/27/07, 12:24 AM

It's live already, it broke my usual healer assignment macro. We have a healer channel and just use a macro to give assignments to our healers.

[6][Asik]: -----
[6][Asik]: Najentus
[6][Asik]: Asik: Healer, Healer, Healer
[6][Asik]: Raid: Healer, Healer, Healer, Healer, Healer
[6][Asik]: -----

Instead, I'm getting anti spam messages. I managed to work around it by sending the same messages to raid chat instead of healer chat though.

Kalman · 10/27/07, 12:35 AM

It isn't a set limit - the limit scales with the number of messages you've recently sent. The more you send, the higher the intermessage threshold becomes.

Ace2 incorporates a /in function you can use temporarily, til they fix this, and raid/party chat aren't throttled. Guild, sadly, is.

Ninjerk · 10/27/07, 1:29 AM

Originally Posted by Kalman

It isn't a set limit - the limit scales with the number of messages you've recently sent. The more you send, the higher the intermessage threshold becomes.

Ace2 incorporates a /in function you can use temporarily, til they fix this, and raid/party chat aren't throttled. Guild, sadly, is.

My game is RUINED! Just kidding. I hate typing in chunks, though.

Pigz · 10/27/07, 1:36 AM

This is happening to me in officer chat. Some messages I send when running certain mods (beta WWS) do not get sent and i have to resend them. seems officer chat isn't considered 'guild'.

edit: didn't' read right guild is throttled. seems kind of pointless to throttle guild but alas.

Ninjerk · 10/27/07, 3:10 AM

Originally Posted by Pigz

This is happening to me in officer chat. Some messages I send when running certain mods (beta WWS) do not get sent and i have to resend them. seems officer chat isn't considered 'guild'.

edit: didn't' read right guild is throttled. seems kind of pointless to throttle guild but alas.

Yeah, it seems pretty pointless to implement for guild chat. I'm not really worried about my guildies gold spamming me.

Whitemane · 10/27/07, 10:14 AM

Originally Posted by Zindel

It's live already, it broke my usual healer assignment macro. We have a healer channel and just use a macro to give assignments to our healers.

[6][Asik]: -----
[6][Asik]: Najentus
[6][Asik]: Asik: Healer, Healer, Healer
[6][Asik]: Raid: Healer, Healer, Healer, Healer, Healer
[6][Asik]: -----

Instead, I'm getting anti spam messages. I managed to work around it by sending the same messages to raid chat instead of healer chat though.

What the ... you use 3 healers on your MT at Naj'entus? :O

Soul · 10/27/07, 12:32 PM

I don't see the need for this on created chat channels. I mean, that's what channel moderator privileges are there for, no? And if your moderator is an asshole spammer or something more malicious, then you have a bigger problem than worrying about whether the spam goes out in giant chunks or fixed intervals.

Lookit · 10/27/07, 1:32 PM

With the improved spam reporting feature, I don't see much need for this at all. If I see someone spam something, I right click them and the problem is solved for me.

This is starting to feel like taking my shoes off at the airport.

Jeffrey · 10/27/07, 1:49 PM

Originally Posted by Soul

I don't see the need for this on created chat channels. I mean, that's what channel moderator privileges are there for, no? And if your moderator is an asshole spammer or something more malicious, then you have a bigger problem than worrying about whether the spam goes out in giant chunks or fixed intervals.

Theoretically, goldspammers could make a new channel and invite random people and then spam unrestricted. This was done before with inviting people to raids with constant /ra spam going on. Solution: no /cinvite command for trials.

With the improved spam reporting feature, I don't see much need for this at all. If I see someone spam something, I right click them and the problem is solved for me.

On my servers you get spammed roughly every 20 seconds during peak hours. That's right, 20 seconds. 3 a minute. 180 a hour. Well over 300 a day. You might as well turn /say off if you're anywhere near a AH (except Exodar which is in the middle of nowhere).

I don't get why they don't simply require lv7 or higher to talk in capital cities on a trial acount. If you really are a first time player you shouldn't even be there under lv10. I haven't gotten any whisper spam in forever, only /say and the trade channel.

songster · 10/27/07, 2:00 PM

Originally Posted by Jeffrey

Theoretically, goldspammers could make a new channel and invite random people and then spam unrestricted. This was done before with inviting people to raids with constant /ra spam going on. Solution: no /cinvite command for trials.

No, solution = don't accept random invites from people you don't know. Take some responsibility!

Jeffrey · 10/27/07, 2:15 PM

Originally Posted by songster

No, solution = don't accept random invites from people you don't know. Take some responsibility!

Then instead of looking at gold spam we're looking at invites every 20 seconds. Which is just as bad if not worse, much harder to filter out random invites than chat patterns.