Spam filter

[Lillu]

We are working on (already testing) a spam filter for the public channels (ooc, shout, general chat, etc). If you were online yesterday late night (US time), you know why. By spam, we simply mean lots of messages. The system is not about filtering bad words, etc.

This is how it's planned:
o Players will be able to send 1 message every 3 seconds to public channels. Exceeding this limit you'll get a notification about how long you have to wait before you'll be able to send a new message.
o There will be a second limit, 19 messages every 1 minute. Once you reach 8 or so messages (not decided yet), you'll get a warning about how much time you have to wait before you'll be able to send a new message.

With the above system, you would see a maximum of 2-3 spam message every 1 minute if someone would decide to ruin our lovely ooc by cursing at the evil GMs of THF (and before Micah boots him ).

The system is already live on test server if you want to see it in action. These restrictions are only for the public channels, not for tells, group say, etc. We would like to ask for your input to make the spam filter the "less annoying" possible by fine tuning it based on your feedback.

[Melkor]

I think 19 is too high. That is an average of an ooc/shout/auction/say message every 3.16 seconds. Nobody should be sending that many public messages in a minute. Also, I think you guys should consider implementing a punishment for going over the one minute limit. If they manage to reach 19 (or whatever it ends up being) messages, they should be locked out of public channels for 5 minutes or longer.

I think that punishment will only effect people who are trying to flood ooc like that guy was last night. Polite players will never have to worry about this effecting them.

[Lillu]

Good point. I forgot to mention that exceeding the limit will actually boot the player to char select. A five mins lockout also sounds good.

Any suggestion for the amount of messages we should allow per minute? When should the client be muted (and get the 1st message about the 1 min lockout), 8th message sounds ok? More or less?

[Melkor]

1 public message allowed every 3 seconds is fine. But, with the one-minute-limit in place, this may not be necessary.

Try a limit of 10 public messages per minute. Start low, and if people start having issues with it, you could always raise it. A warning message after 8 public messages sent.

Abuse of the one-minute-limit will result in being booted to char-select as well as a 5 minute ban from speaking in public channels.

Lets say that person comes back after 5 minutes and starts doing it again. A second abuse of the one-minute-limit within 24 hours of each other results in a boot to char select and an hour long ban from public messages.

a third offense within 24 hours of each other will result in a boot to char select and a ban from public channels for a full 24 hours.

of course, even with these limits in place, somebody could still abuse it. The guy last night created a macro to spam while he was afk. If somebody created a macro, they could /ooc every 6.1 seconds and still never be effected by any of these limits in place. This would be just as annoying as somebody spamming every 2 seconds.

So, here's another idea. Not sure if it's possible or even worth it.

Lets say that no GMs are online and Mr. A-Hole decides he has beef with somebody. He decides to create a macro that spams "/ooc I hate THF" every 6.1 seconds and then leaves to eat dinner.

If 25 separate IP addresses type "#report Mr. A-hole" within a matter of 10 minutes, then a log of the OOC is taken and Mr. A-hole is booted offline and banned from public messages until a GM reviews it and decides he is worthy to speak in public channels again. Of course, abusing this power would have consequences, as a guild could use it against people they don't like.

[Vaion]

Ugh where's my I hate melkor picture when I need it....

[Noren]

lol that does sound like a bit of work. The limits sound fine to me. 1 per 3 seconds, and 10 per minute.

As for someone abusing the limit with (limit + 0.1) and a macro, well I'm cool with using /ignore for that. If you use EQBC, you can tell all your toons to /ignore that person at once should that situation ever arise. And then we can all flood Lillu and Vaion's inboxes with PMs about who the perp was! /cheer!

[Micah]

So, here's another idea. Not sure if it's possible or even worth it.

Lets say that no GMs are online and Mr. A-Hole decides he has beef with somebody. He decides to create a macro that spams "/ooc I hate THF" every 6.1 seconds and then leaves to eat dinner.

If 25 separate IP addresses type "#report Mr. A-hole" within a matter of 10 minutes, then a log of the OOC is taken and Mr. A-hole is booted offline and banned from public messages until a GM reviews it and decides he is worthy to speak in public channels again. Of course, abusing this power would have consequences, as a guild could use it against people they don't like.

I frigging LOVE this

PS: Vaion will hate me too

[Micah]

And then we can all flood Lillu and Vaion's inboxes with PMs about who the perp was! /cheer!

I love this too /hide!

[Melkor]

I think it is necessary for the well being of the server if we have everyone online flood Vaion's inbox as much as possible. So if anyone is ever spamming ooc, please notify the server to send as many PMs to Vaion as they can so that he can be notified.

[Melkor]

yay! where's my I LOVE melkor picture when I need it!!!

fixed!!!!!