How do you tell why you story was banned
By
AddamsFamily,
Posted on: 2009-04-19 21:02 in Mission Architect
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Just out of curiosity, how do you tell if your arc has had a complaint against it? Well, aside from it being banned. I've flagged a few arcs for blatant copyright infringement, and they weren't immediately yanked, so I'm guessing someone actually reviews the complaint to see if it's legitimate, before banning it.
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From what I understand the owner gets a teh Complaint Button on his arc. So he/she gets to see the complaint, but not who sent it. I assume support also gets a flag. After a few flags on the arc, they investigate.
In the case of my arc/mission. I was constantly monitoring and editing it to avoid copyright infringement. It may be walking the line at them moment... It did get banned, and was reviewed. It was cleared and aloud to stay.
My biggest complaint about the complaint button is many people don't fill out the text. So all I see is a message that basically says "A complait was filed(optional)".
Most of this is an assumption, I am not positive how it works on the support side.
@Blood Beret(2)Twitter
I am a bad speeler, use poorer grammar, and am a frequent typoist.
MA ArcID: 1197
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. Winston Churchill
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How much do you wanna bet your arc was reported by some vindictive jerks who were upset that their actual farm missions kept getting pulled? With all the childishness going on with the ratings, it wouldn't surprise me at all.
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An SG mate of mine sat and watched last night as in rapid succession one after the other, in the default board order 5-star missions dropped to 4-stars. I suggested he send in a petition (which he did).
Dec out.
Speaking of complaint flags, I had a boss spawn break after I published it..and ran it a couple times. Changed the spawn from triggered to a non-triggered, ran it again and re-published. How does one clear the complaint flag, so I can see if it breaks again on me?
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For those wondering how the MA complaint system works, there was a blog post a few days back from Hero 1 that goes into details on how the system works. It made slashdot, which is how I found out about it. Let me go dig through slashdot to find the link....
Ok. Here we go.
As a short synopses, arcs are pulled automatically after they receive X complaints, with X increasing as the arc gets more and more non-complaint ratings. They can be republished once when pulled, but if pulled a second time they must be appealed to CS, and evaluated by a live person. And it's only at this third stage that CoH CS gets involved. The first two pullings are done totally automatically done by the system.
MA Arc - Gnomish Madness - #30204 - A short, silly little story.
Ms. Tempest - Lvl 50 Storm/Elec Def (577 badges)
Maiden Dark - Lvl 50 Dark/Dark Corr
Moonlight Maiden - Lvl 50 Warshade
Sister Leortha - Lvl 50 Emp/Rad Def
Puffball - Lvl 50 Inv/SS Tank
Triumph Server
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Long before I started complaining about farm missions.
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Yet you proudly mention in another topic you reported a farm exploit in a previous closed beta.
I'd say more, but most likely it'd get everyone to shout "Oooh ! G's Law !", because God (oops, religion) forbid we talk about serious things. Let's just say, much like some people not so long ago, you seem to be much too eager to report other people to the authorities simply because they break the rules.
Despite living in a country where we have cultural bias on this kind of thing (as kids, we're taught that reporting is bad), I can understand the good may outweight the bad in some situations ; but again, your tone on these posts makes it seem like you're enjoying reporting people. Forgive me if I have a little contempt at your behavior. 
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Speaking of complaint flags, I had a boss spawn break after I published it..and ran it a couple times. Changed the spawn from triggered to a non-triggered, ran it again and re-published. How does one clear the complaint flag, so I can see if it breaks again on me?
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You cannot get rid of old complaints. Even after a ban, the complaints are still there.
@Blood Beret(2)Twitter
I am a bad speeler, use poorer grammar, and am a frequent typoist.
MA ArcID: 1197
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. Winston Churchill
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Read the EULA and you will probably figure it out.
no obscenities (this is one has a VERY wide net, poopy probably qualifies)
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Note You cannot publish a mission with an enemy named say "Dick (short for Richard) Tate," nor say crap...but you can have damn in there all you want, because they use it for some zone or another. That is pretty funny. 
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For those wondering how the MA complaint system works, there was a blog post a few days back from Hero 1 that goes into details on how the system works. It made slashdot, which is how I found out about it. Let me go dig through slashdot to find the link....
Ok. Here we go.
As a short synopses, arcs are pulled automatically after they receive X complaints, with X increasing as the arc gets more and more non-complaint ratings. They can be republished once when pulled, but if pulled a second time they must be appealed to CS, and evaluated by a live person. And it's only at this third stage that CoH CS gets involved. The first two pullings are done totally automatically done by the system.
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I attempted to re-publish a banned arc and it was just deleted. Completely gone. Which sucks because i didn't have a local copy of it.
Technoid - Lvl 50 Ice/Device Blaster
Mind-Render Lvl 47 Illusion/Forcefield
Hot-Pants - Lvl 37 Fire/Fire Tanker
Mr Pointy - Lvl 33 Spines/Regen
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I attempted to re-publish a banned arc and it was just deleted. Completely gone. Which sucks because i didn't have a local copy of it.
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Yikes! Save early, save often I guess... 
@Mindshadow
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[QR]
For those wondering how the MA complaint system works, there was a blog post a few days back from Hero 1 that goes into details on how the system works. It made slashdot, which is how I found out about it. Let me go dig through slashdot to find the link....
Ok. Here we go.
As a short synopses, arcs are pulled automatically after they receive X complaints, with X increasing as the arc gets more and more non-complaint ratings. They can be republished once when pulled, but if pulled a second time they must be appealed to CS, and evaluated by a live person. And it's only at this third stage that CoH CS gets involved. The first two pullings are done totally automatically done by the system.
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I attempted to re-publish a banned arc and it was just deleted. Completely gone. Which sucks because i didn't have a local copy of it.
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Happened to me too--I modified the description to make it clear it wasn't a farming mission. And while I have a local copy, it's not completely up to date.
My arcs are constantly shifting, just search for GadgetDon for the latest.
The world beware! I've started a blog
GadgetMania Under Attack: The Digg Lockout
The problem is a lot of farmers have taken to "hiding" their farms behind legitimate-sounding descriptions ("Alien invasions" seem to be popular) and sticking "This is not a farm mission" or some such in there. So if you've got something the GMs might find suspicious, for any reason, altering the description isn't really going to help.
Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper
Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
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Happened to me too--I modified the description to make it clear it wasn't a farming mission. And while I have a local copy, it's not completely up to date.
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How does this happen? Doesn't the system update your local copy every time you make changes and hit 'Republish'? Where are the changes coming from to go to the server? Are they only stored in RAM?
Story Arcs I created:
Every Rose: (#17702) Villainous vs Legacy Chain. Forget Arachnos, join the CoT!
Cosplay Madness!: (#3643) Neutral vs Custom Foes. Heroes at a pop culture convention!
Kiss Hello Goodbye: (#156389) Heroic vs Custom Foes. Film Noir/Hardboiled detective adventure!
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Read the EULA and you will probably figure it out.
No Drug references
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Does Superadine count?
How about Council Super Soldier Serum?
How about Shift?
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Yep, exactly my point. But he was obviously paraphrasing from memory because there is no such prohibition that I can find.
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This is the main one I want to know because it's preventing me from making an arc I want to do. I have a feeling that whether or not it's going to get pulled is whether or not I use a real drug or one of the CoH genericed drugs like Superadine....
Peace,
Amrat
Grey Ghost Music
So what it sounds like is that there are some valiant crusaders going around reporting everything that says "farm," causing it to be banned based on the number of complaints rather than the content of said complaints. So it's not the farmers, but the anti-farmers that are more than likely causing the problems for these legitimate arcs.
I'm sure the GM crew is swamped right now, so it's probably taking them a while to clear the ones that shouldn't have been banned in the first place.
For me, the real way to "fix" these farming missions is to just not get your panties in a bunch and forget about them. Let people play the game the way they want to (within reason) and just don't play anything that looks like you won't enjoy it.
Then the devs won't feel the need to overreact to a mostly made up problem and you won't get an ulcer.
Besides, what you call a "farming mission" I might describe as a "fun challenge." I like being swarmed by tons of bad guys and seeing if I can survive them.
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Well, there was a complaint on my arc that it said it was banned because Farming Missions give an artificial advantage.
Except "A Farming Tale" doesn't give any artificial advantage. The name was chosen to make fun of the panic about "I14 will be used for farming" during test, but it's just a silly arc that takes place on a farm. It even got hit with Dev Choice.
Well, it got blocked on Friday, I sent a petition asking for it to be looked at again and editing the description to make it clear it wasn't a farm mission. After maintenance I logged in, and it was gone.
Very annoying. Apparently the word "farm" was enough to get it killed.
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This, a hundred times this. I think the GMs have gotten lazy and are just banning anything with farm in the description or title.
My mission pinball wizard said in the description that it wasn't a farm and that it generated absolutely zero experience or tickets. It got banned and the description of the banning said that it was for being a farm. I pulled it down and republished it and jut like GadgetDons mission it had been completely deleted.
I seriously believe that some of the GMs are just doing a search for the word farm and banning everything that comes up without bothering to look at it.
Don't count your weasels before they pop dink!
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I seriously believe that some of the GMs are just doing a search for the word farm and banning everything that comes up without bothering to look at it.
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Was it just banned, or were there complaints attached? It could be there's an arc-narcing squad going around blanket reporting stuff.
@Mindshadow
I didn't even see a complaint button but the form said. "This mission has been banned by a GM for being a farm" etc...
Don't count your weasels before they pop dink!
Maybe people are searching for and reporting arcs that have 'ticket' in the description as well and reporting them, without bothering to read the part that says "Mission three generates zero tickets. It is used only to progress the story."
And no, republishing does not save a local copy of the arc. I wish it would. Or, I wish there was a way to save a local copy while continuing to edit the published version of the mission.
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I didn't even see a complaint button but the form said. "This mission has been banned by a GM for being a farm" etc...
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Sounds like a grep on the word "farm" then.
The sad thing is, that's probably pulling up 99% actual farms (or "lawl lookit, I made a farm mish" nubbie missions anyway), which would put anyone into George Jetson mode even if they were trying hard to genuinely review each instance at first.
@Mindshadow
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[QR]
For those wondering how the MA complaint system works, there was a blog post a few days back from Hero 1 that goes into details on how the system works. It made slashdot, which is how I found out about it. Let me go dig through slashdot to find the link....
Ok. Here we go.
As a short synopses, arcs are pulled automatically after they receive X complaints, with X increasing as the arc gets more and more non-complaint ratings. They can be republished once when pulled, but if pulled a second time they must be appealed to CS, and evaluated by a live person. And it's only at this third stage that CoH CS gets involved. The first two pullings are done totally automatically done by the system.
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I attempted to re-publish a banned arc and it was just deleted. Completely gone. Which sucks because i didn't have a local copy of it.
[/ QUOTE ]
Happened to me too--I modified the description to make it clear it wasn't a farming mission. And while I have a local copy, it's not completely up to date.
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Okay, there is a problem here, besides any unwarranted bannings. Mission are not supposed to be getting deleted. Read the article again. The description there is exactly how it worked during testing in Closed and Open Beta. The mission was unpublished, not deleted, including when it was escalated to CS. If your missions are being deleted completely, then either someone in CS is not doing things correctly, or there is a bug in the system.
Either way, you need to be escalating this through the CS system to find out what is going on.
Justice Blues, Tech/Tank, Inv/SS
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Fighting The Future Trilogy
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So what it sounds like is that there are some valiant crusaders going around reporting everything that says "farm," causing it to be banned based on the number of complaints rather than the content of said complaints. So it's not the farmers, but the anti-farmers that are more than likely causing the problems for these legitimate arcs.
I'm sure the GM crew is swamped right now, so it's probably taking them a while to clear the ones that shouldn't have been banned in the first place.
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No, it is the farmers' fault. If there weren't so many actual farms around, the GM crew wouldn't be so swamped, and would be able to actually look at individual arcs to determine whether or not they are farms, instead of just blanket banning anything with "Farm" in the description. Especially since any farmer with half a brain will NOT advertise their mission as a farm.
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Besides, what you call a "farming mission" I might describe as a "fun challenge." I like being swarmed by tons of bad guys and seeing if I can survive them.
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You don't need a whole Dreck map full of swarms of bad guys to see if you can survive it. Sorry. Legitimate "challenge" arcs look very different from farm missions.
Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper
Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
>Legitimate "challenge" arcs look very different from farm missions.
They often do, but there's a large gray area in between. I created a mission with fairly low level minions for some of my level 5-10 characters. It was fun, and still a challenge.
Then I tried it with my Peacebringer. Whoops! My minions had no ranged attacks and just ran around helplessly as I rained death from above in Nova form.
If you tried this mission with a hover-blasting character, it probably looked like a farm. But that's wasn't my intention, and I only discovered this by trying a few different ATs.
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Happened to me too--I modified the description to make it clear it wasn't a farming mission. And while I have a local copy, it's not completely up to date.
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How does this happen? Doesn't the system update your local copy every time you make changes and hit 'Republish'? Where are the changes coming from to go to the server? Are they only stored in RAM?
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If you have autosave turned on, and edit a published arc, the arc is regularly saved in the "autosave" file. But since you only have a single "autosave" file, if you edit anything else that would save to that file, it will overwrite the local copy of the published mission. Back it up from "autosave" before doing such.
If you do not have autosave on, then I'm not exactly sure what happens. I suspect that it is only kept in RAM in that case.
MA Arc - Gnomish Madness - #30204 - A short, silly little story.
Ms. Tempest - Lvl 50 Storm/Elec Def (577 badges)
Maiden Dark - Lvl 50 Dark/Dark Corr
Moonlight Maiden - Lvl 50 Warshade
Sister Leortha - Lvl 50 Emp/Rad Def
Puffball - Lvl 50 Inv/SS Tank
Triumph Server
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So what it sounds like is that there are some valiant crusaders going around reporting everything that says "farm," causing it to be banned based on the number of complaints rather than the content of said complaints. So it's not the farmers, but the anti-farmers that are more than likely causing the problems for these legitimate arcs.
I'm sure the GM crew is swamped right now, so it's probably taking them a while to clear the ones that shouldn't have been banned in the first place.
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No, it is the farmers' fault. If there weren't so many actual farms around, the GM crew wouldn't be so swamped, and would be able to actually look at individual arcs to determine whether or not they are farms, instead of just blanket banning anything with "Farm" in the description. Especially since any farmer with half a brain will NOT advertise their mission as a farm.
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If people didn't care oh so much about how other people are playing the game, it would be no big deal and the GM's would have other things to look at. So no, I'm still leaving it in the anti-farmers' court because they've created a feeling that the community really cares about this sort of thing when most people really don't.
But the barometer they have is the forums, so when people whine and complain about them enough, there's a false sense of urgency created.
Now, I'm also partially just hoping that the GM staff is not so stupid as to just unpublish everything that says "farm," but maybe that shouldn't be discounted. It would be monumentally moronic and show a good probability that someone in charge of the GM's is effectively braindead for them to approach it that way.
Since I like to think that isn't possible, I'm still leaning towards mass-reporting by a small but vocal minority who also post constantly about this non-problem.
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Besides, what you call a "farming mission" I might describe as a "fun challenge." I like being swarmed by tons of bad guys and seeing if I can survive them.
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You don't need a whole Dreck map full of swarms of bad guys to see if you can survive it. Sorry. Legitimate "challenge" arcs look very different from farm missions.
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I don't "need" anything. It's a freaking video game, so "need" doesn't even enter into the equation. If I think that's fun, why do you care? If I spend two hours in a single mission killing every little spawn I can find because I'm having a good time, what does it matter? In that time you've probably done 4 arcs and gotten as many or more tickets than I have anyway.
For the record, I have no patience for farming and don't have a single character who has ever seen more than one purple recipe at a time. Most of my 50's have single digit millions of cash because I've funded alts with the rest of their money. I'm the furthest thing from a "farmer" in this game, but I seriously just don't care if it's what you want to do. Me? I'll go outside for a little while instead.
There's a button that shows up on your view of your published arc when it's been reported, "Complaints".
My arcs are constantly shifting, just search for GadgetDon for the latest.
The world beware! I've started a blog
GadgetMania Under Attack: The Digg Lockout