Rule change: announcements in public chat

[Xavian]

Rule change: announcements in public chat.

The rule now also states that the player must be at the keyboard when posting an announcement.

Added clarification/exception about announcements that are relevant to all players, e.g. champ spawn & boss spawns: there can be 5 announcements, spaced at least 5 minutes apart.
(This was already an internal rule - we didn't consider such announcements to go by the same rules as buying/selling/guild-recruiting, but now it's written on the codex for all to see).

These rules will start to be enfoced with Monday (May 10th).

I'm curious how this will be enforced.
- You must be at the keyboard when posting an announcement, what if you walk away immediately after pressing enter?
- Do you have to be in-game as well as at the keyboard?
- How will the verification be made that a player is at the keyboard if they use the portal to send the message?

I'm not trying to ruffle any feathers here, but see a lot of potential excuses or loopholes that players may use. This seems like a difficult rule to enforce.

[dreamstalker]

of course ur not here to ruffle feathers........that is +C's job lol...i too can see lots of probs with this....first time someone gets jailed for post n runnin they prolly goin to be lil upset....i never use my easyuo macro because the dang thing crashes me every time...so i am always at the keyboard, always" when u see my advert but with my med probs lot of times ill be up and "runnin" lol if u know what i mean a very few secs after i post...perhaps they have come up with a way to afk check us "b4" we post??? wouldnt that be nifty...im not postin my advert but i am runnin its way past my bedtime...should i hang at keyboard for few mins after i click submit on this??? i know it starts the 10th.

[Wil]

I'm curious how this will be enforced.
- You must be at the keyboard when posting an announcement, what if you walk away immediately after pressing enter?

The gathering AFK check pops up a fraction of a second after the action. If you're already turned away, you're AFK.

- Do you have to be in-game as well as at the keyboard?

It seems obvious enough that if you're not even logged in to the game, you're AFK from the perspective of playing the game.

- How will the verification be made that a player is at the keyboard if they use the portal to send the message?

The only challenge there is that the character you're chatting from may be different than the character you're logged in as, so the AFK check would have to route to the account. Don't know if +C has thought about it but it's not a great technical challenge once he does.


These are all direct things that can be done. Plenty of indirect indicators are available. Logs show the [pm response popups sat unacknowledged in the middle of your screen for 4 hours after the ad before you read them? You're AFK bud. Technical enforcement should be much easier than the combat AFKs.

[Alamiester]

i think you guys are overthinking it. i believe it was geared more towards the people that hit play on their announcement and let in run for days while not at their pc. even if your not logged in game and you make a post to sell some thing, its pretty easy to tell if your talking back to someone.

[Xavian]

- Do you have to be in-game as well as at the keyboard?

It seems obvious enough that if you're not even logged in to the game, you're AFK from the perspective of playing the game.

This assumption is not logical. The portal exists so you can interact with the game from a browser. You are still at the keyboard when interacting, so thus not AFK.

[Wil]

This assumption is not logical. The portal exists so you can interact with the game from a browser. You are still at the keyboard when interacting, so thus not AFK.

Good luck with that interpretation.

[+Colibri]

It's mostly a "legal groundwork" for being able to do something about it from now on. We try not to jail people for doing things that aren't written in the codex.

I'm sure there will be some AFK announcements, that we won't be able to prove. But if someone's announcements start to get annyoing because they're going on all the time, we can just come to the player at the time when their next announcement is likely to go off, and try to get their attention. If they post the announcement during that time and didn't notice the staffer, that means they were AFK.

If this starts taking up a lot of time, I can script a "trigger afk", an AFK check that goes off at the next post to the public chat... and if they don't enter the captcha at the time, that means they were AFK.

It's a valid problem with the portal...though... I'd guess that all annoying repetitive spam so far was done with an in-game macro.

[Wil]

Someone didn't get the message:

11.5. 20:59 Matrix: Selling HighStrStat Imps Squirrel-Dog-Ferret&RidableDrake T.C.South.West.Corner Vendor[Trinity].
11.5. 21:09 ZeeeQi: WTS Cheap NPS Bone Crusher & Ethereal Reptalon Mount! PM Me! =D
11.5. 21:23 Glenda: hi all
11.5. 21:23 Daickoue: salutations.
11.5. 21:44 Praise: good night everyone
11.5. 21:59 Matrix: Selling Leveled Many Good Quality Weapons... In My Vendor T.C.South.West.Corner Vendor[Trinity].
11.5. 22:42 Kairoz: FLASH SALE of looted and lvl 100 weapons happening NOW at FLOKI TC! 58% and more!
11.5. 22:59 Matrix: Selling Leveled N.P.S. (No.Point.Spent-495Sp.Ready) Weapons T.C.South.West.Corner Vendor[Trinity]


https://www.uoex.net/codex/penalties#afk

Spam rules - detailed
Announcements are considered messages that raise attention of all players, for the benefit of the announcer or their guild: buying, selling, guild recruiting.

- A player is permitted to make at maximum 12 such announcements in a shard day (from 0:00 to 23:59 shard time),
- there must be at least 60 minutes between two announcements (from 0:00 to 23:59 shard time),
- there must be at least 12 lines of other player's text in between (you can use the Portal chat logs to see recent chat activity),
- the player must be at the keyboard when posting an announcement.
- If two or more coordinated players (such as members of the same guild) are announcing the same thing, it's considered to be announcement by the same player (e.g. that a guild is recruiting new members).


I will say, though, that the shard rules are incoherently organized, spread over multiple pages with titles that imply they're listing something other than shard rules. Like why are the spam rules buried in a page that's supposed to be about penalties...

[Matrix]

it is very clear this message is pointing to me...

Someone didn't get the message:

11.5. 20:59 Matrix: Selling HighStrStat Imps Squirrel-Dog-Ferret&RidableDrake T.C.South.West.Corner Vendor[Trinity].
11.5. 21:09 ZeeeQi: WTS Cheap NPS Bone Crusher & Ethereal Reptalon Mount! PM Me! =D
11.5. 21:23 Glenda: hi all
11.5. 21:23 Daickoue: salutations.
11.5. 21:44 Praise: good night everyone
11.5. 21:59 Matrix: Selling Leveled Many Good Quality Weapons... In My Vendor T.C.South.West.Corner Vendor[Trinity].
11.5. 22:42 Kairoz: FLASH SALE of looted and lvl 100 weapons happening NOW at FLOKI TC! 58% and more!
11.5. 22:59 Matrix: Selling Leveled N.P.S. (No.Point.Spent-495Sp.Ready) Weapons T.C.South.West.Corner Vendor[Trinity]

well, i am not afk and i am actually trying to be careful not to offend/haras others, for example: before you posted this message to forum, i already stopped posting ads in the game... but sorry man mostly i forget to return portal and check "12-lines..."

11.5. 22:59 Matrix: Selling Leveled N.P.S. (No.Point.Spent-495Sp.Ready) Weapons T.C.South.West.Corner Vendor[Trinity]
11.5. 23:47 Gump: howdy howdy
12.5. 00:24 vipar: whats the fast way to go from 112 limberkacking to 120 pls
12.5. 00:24 Gump: use an axe on a trainer overnight
12.5. 00:24 Xavian: What he said...
12.5. 00:24 vipar: in the training room??
12.5. 00:24 Gump: that might cap you at 75
12.5. 00:25 Gump: that's a good question lol
12.5. 00:25 Xavian: Won't get to 120 in training room
12.5. 00:25 vipar: hire npc you mean ??
12.5. 00:25 Xavian: No, a private/personal trainer
12.5. 00:26 vipar: where you get thet
12.5. 00:26 vipar: that
12.5. 00:26 Gump: i think you need to get friended to one that's placed by a player
12.5. 00:26 Xavian: ED room. Sme players will add you to theirs
12.5. 00:26 vipar: everthing is ed
12.5. 00:27 vipar: i just came back to game no friends lol
12.5. 00:27 Glenda: i thought bees were on a 24 hour cycle
12.5. 00:27 Gump: yes, 24 hours around the world save you set them up on
12.5. 00:28 Glenda: i looked after them this morning and now it looks like they need it again
12.5. 00:28 Glenda: can i let them go until morning?
12.5. 00:28 vipar: do trees change here or do they stay same when chopping for collar
12.5. 00:29 Gump: same
12.5. 00:31 vipar: is there a rune libery here
12.5. 00:46 Onna: vipar - what is choping for collar ???
12.5. 00:47 Gump: colors/types
12.5. 00:47 Onna: ah, yes they stay the same
12.5. 00:47 Onna: you can mark runes for specific wood trees
12.5. 00:48 Onna: do not be surprised with oak tree giving pine wood
12.5. 00:48 Onna: what I do for Fel ... I am marking locations of rare wood on AutoMap
12.5. 01:01 Gump: where'd viper go?

[Wil]

well, i am not afk and i am actually trying to be careful not to offend/haras others, for example: before you posted this message to forum, i already stopped posting ads in the game... but sorry man mostly i forget to return portal and check "12-lines..."

Yeah, I'd love to see the storied announcements channel so that announcements can stay out of regular world chat altogether.

A similar thing that bugs me is Trivia where if you don't join the game it's like the loud cell phone talker sitting next to me where I endure one side of a conversation that goes on and on. I mean c'mon, if I have to listen then at least put it on speaker so I can hear the whole thing.

I try not to let it bug me but the topic was timely and there were your ads right at the bottom.

Your friendly neighborhood curmudgeon,
Wil

[Xavian]

I'm sure there will be some AFK announcements, that we won't be able to prove. But if someone's announcements start to get annyoing because they're going on all the time, we can just come to the player at the time when their next announcement is likely to go off, and try to get their attention. If they post the announcement during that time and didn't notice the staffer, that means they were AFK.

This would absolutely work. Especially when you see the timing of say 67 minutes between each ad.

It's a valid problem with the portal...though... I'd guess that all annoying repetitive spam so far was done with an in-game macro.

I'd agree 100%. I just figured bringing it up would give you something to plan for, I guess. I mean, if someone was going to get AFK checked in game for it they would think of a way to get around it probably. Even if it's not through the portal, they could script a quick log in, post, log out.

People will always try to get around the rules, just figured it would be helpful to keep ahead of them a bit. The "legal groundwork" is definitely a good start.