Eradication of spam e-mails.


Ad Astra

 

Posted

There has been alot of talk about spam e-mails being the worse thing about CoH. I think setting a limitation on e-mails would clean that up. Make e-mails accessable to only friends, SG/VG and coalitions. If these were the only things you could e-mail, then the spam would be stopped dead in it's tracks. The only other way for the spammers to hit CoH if this was implimented, would be in broadcast but that could be petitioned.


 

Posted

/signed

It's obnoxious having to delete all of those e-mails every time I log in, and the only people I e-mail are my in-game friends anyway.


 

Posted

In game email is dead to me.

DEAD!

Like it talked trash on my Momma dead. If I could I would smack it around before ignoring it for life.


 

Posted

/signed

I agree that its silly how Email seems only to be useful to illegal service spammers. Before this became a problem, we all enjoyed the thrill of receiving email from friends and new acquaintances. Now, if this process were implemented, where only friends and SG/VG and Coalition members could receive emails from a sender, there would not be a real need to restrict even trial accounts or -Level 10 players from using the already ingenious email system (spammers tend to work their way around the current limitations anyway).

I'd really be happy to see this implemented, and hope that it's not too much trouble for developers to pull off.


 

Posted

Welcome to the forum. You have posted one of the oft repeated suggestions about RMT spam. So to assist you in your future postings here are a few tipS on searching.(Courtesy of Memphis Bill)

1. Click on "Search" up at the top of the forum.

2. On the left, under "Forum(s) to search," select "Suggestions and ideas."

3. On the right, Keyword Search Terms. This is probably where your problem was if you did search. Try the following, exactly as typed:

+email -"re: "

This will search for anything with the string "email" in the title.The -re: portion of it removes replies, so you'll see the root of every thread that comes up, letting you see just how many threads there are on this. (The last helps for other subjects, as well.)

4. Click the "In subject" radio button. You want to ignore the body.

5. Leave Username Search blank.

6. Date range, Newer Than, change the 1 to a 3, and the time to Months.

7. Result format doesn't matter. Click on "Submit."

As I try this we have:

Attacking my Email
Ways to reduce RMT email spam
SPAM Button in Email
Spam Emails
Email settings and options
Can we disable in-game emails yet?
Out of game email and chat
SPAM Email options
Change
Emails

that have been started since 4/03/09


If you had bothered to read any of those threads you would have found that you are not suggesting anything that hasn't been requested before.


And to quote Moderator 08:

[ QUOTE ]
Please use one of the many existing threads.

Thanks

[/ QUOTE ]


Good luck with your future suggestions.


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
There has been alot of talk about spam e-mails being the worse thing about CoH. I think setting a limitation on e-mails would clean that up. Make e-mails accessable to only friends, SG/VG and coalitions. If these were the only things you could e-mail, then the spam would be stopped dead in it's tracks. The only other way for the spammers to hit CoH if this was implimented, would be in broadcast but that could be petitioned.

[/ QUOTE ]How about this?


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The only other way for the spammers to hit CoH if this was implimented, would be in broadcast but that could be petitioned.

[/ QUOTE ]How about this?

[/ QUOTE ]

Did you notice the OP doesn't know that RMTers can't send spam via broadcast or any other chat channel because of the trial account restrictions that went into effect (affect?) when I12 went live a year ago?


 

Posted

Better solution: make sending emails cost inf. Not much (somewhere in the 1000 inf range), but it would cut down on the spam oh-so much because now, in order to advertise, they've got to use their "product".


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Better solution: make sending emails cost inf. Not much (somewhere in the 1000 inf range), but it would cut down on the spam oh-so much because now, in order to advertise, they've got to use their "product".

[/ QUOTE ]
That wouldn't even make a dent in their inventories. They sell influence in lots of 100 million and more.

User-configurable email filters are the only viable solution that I've seen proposed here so far.


 

Posted

Or they could simply prevent Trial accounts from sending emails.


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Better solution: make sending emails cost inf. Not much (somewhere in the 1000 inf range), but it would cut down on the spam oh-so much because now, in order to advertise, they've got to use their "product".

[/ QUOTE ]

1000 inf is nothing these days, but I suppose it would add up if a few thousand spam emails are sent out.

I see so many emails now when I log in that I just get rid of them all without checking them. If any were legitimate, they were deleted as spam also. I doubt I'm the only one doing this. I won't use email because I don't want my emails reflexively reported as spam.


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Posted

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Better solution: make sending emails cost inf. Not much (somewhere in the 1000 inf range), but it would cut down on the spam oh-so much because now, in order to advertise, they've got to use their "product".

[/ QUOTE ]
That wouldn't even make a dent in their inventories. They sell influence in lots of 100 million and more.

User-configurable email filters are the only viable solution that I've seen proposed here so far.

[/ QUOTE ]

You'd be amazed at how great an impact having a low cost on the emails can be, especially when it's combined with the incredibly high volumes they send out. And the point of making the cost relatively insignificant is that it is relatively insignificant. If a player wants to send another an in-game email, they should be able to without it costing an arm and a leg.

Keep in mind what their likely hit ratio is. If they send out 1000 emails (1 mill inf at my cost), are they going to get even 1 hit or does it require more? If anything, it's going to increase the price by decreasing their available stock.


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Keep in mind what their likely hit ratio is. If they send out 1000 emails (1 mill inf at my cost), are they going to get even 1 hit or does it require more? If anything, it's going to increase the price by decreasing their available stock.

[/ QUOTE ]
Let's be pessimistic and assume that every single RMT operation sends five emails to every single COH player every single day.

The player population tends to hover around 120k or so. But let's be generous in light of I14's release and mark that up to 150k.

150,000 players x 5 emails per player x 1,000 influence per email = 750 million influence per day as an operating cost.

Look at the price list on one or two of those sites. That's forty, maybe fifty bucks. One medium-sized order. Per day.

It's trivial to them. They'll eat that cost and not only will they not care, they might not even notice. It's a speed bump in front of an Abrams tank.


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Better solution: make sending emails cost inf. Not much (somewhere in the 1000 inf range), but it would cut down on the spam oh-so much because now, in order to advertise, they've got to use their "product".

[/ QUOTE ]Hee hee hee! Great joke!

Oh my, were you serious?


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Posted

Or better yet, lets say that the RMT's stop advertising their services due to not being able to email anyone that hasn't added them as a friend, or is not apart of their coalition, or is not in their supergroup.

Perhaps forcing folks to add people to their contact list will not get in the way if its the contact list is sincerely inteded to be just that, and not some advertising market.

Problem solved (from my angle at least)


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]


Seperate note: Its not so bad that someone reposts a topic already started on the forum. It could be that perhaps alot of people have been talking about it, and to get it the exposure it needs (to not have it passed over so easily under 100s of other posts) the issue is revisited in a new topic. Moderators will take note of things like this sooner, and can bring it to the attention of those who it may mean something to on the Developer team.

[/ QUOTE ]

Except, of course, they asked us not to do that:

[ QUOTE ]
Cross posting is not permitted. As a courtesy to others before beginning a new thread, please look to see if an active thread on that topic has already been established using the Search feature. If so, place your comments there instead. Multiple threads on the same subject clutter up the forum needlessly and many good ideas may be lost. Use the Search link to keep discussions about one topic to one thread only.


[/ QUOTE ]
(from LH's stickied post at the top of every forum).


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Originally Posted by SpyralPegacyon

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Posted

You are never going to get rid of it. EVER. These guys are like viruses, everytime the devs made a move to counter them, they evolved and continued.

o.o They gave us a spam button for a reason, I use it when an unfavorable RMT sends me spam :P Though a longer and seperate global ignore for spammers would be something I'd be all for.


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]

Or better yet, lets say that the RMT's stop advertising their services due to not being able to email anyone that hasn't added them as a friend, or is not apart of their coalition, or is not in their supergroup.

Perhaps forcing folks to add people to their contact list will not get in the way if its the contact list is sincerely inteded to be just that, and not some advertising market.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm fine with that, provided it's configurable. If I want just anyone in the game to be able to email me for whatever reason, I should be able to allow that to happen.


 

Posted

I think what we need is a better system to deal with them. I have so many that at this point as I am adding new ones to my ignore list older ones ae sliding off the back side.

It just isn't working so what we need is a quick and easy way to report the individual to NC SOFT. A button on the email that automatically sends a report to them with the senders account so they can be banned. Let's face it these people advertise via our email until they figure enough folks have banned them and then simply change theri global name and start all over again.

Now if the entire account gets banned after a few reports and they have to start PAYING over and over to create a new one it may actually have some effect. What we have now isn't stopping anything and is barely slowing it down. I swear I have placed certain names on ignore and a week or two later see the exact same name back posting emails to my account again????? They want to get truly serious then set something up so that after a certain number of reported cases the individual doing the advertsing can't even use the same credit card to establish a new account. Now they not only have to pay again to get a new account if they plan to continue but either need multiple Credit cards or need to file the paperwork to get new ones. THAT may actually help. MAY help LOL if they are hard core enough they will find a way regardless but limiting MY email rights doesn't punish them it punishes ME. I don't spam so why shouldn't I be able to email anyone at anytime? I know players that don't belong to an SG... so limiting emails to friends lists and SG members cuts their email rights as well. Let's try punishing the guilty NOT the innocent?


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Posted

[ QUOTE ]

It just isn't working so what we need is a quick and easy way to report the individual to NC SOFT. A button on the email that automatically sends a report to them with the senders account so they can be banned.

[/ QUOTE ]
Uh, that's exactly what the Spam button does.

[ QUOTE ]
Now if the entire account gets banned after a few reports and they have to start PAYING over and over to create a new one it may actually have some effect.
[snip]
They want to get truly serious then set something up so that after a certain number of reported cases the individual doing the advertsing can't even use the same credit card to establish a new account. Now they not only have to pay again to get a new account if they plan to continue but either need multiple Credit cards or need to file the paperwork to get new ones.

[/ QUOTE ]

You can't lock out their credit cards because they don't need them to set up accounts. Mostly because they usually use trial accounts, which don't need a credit card to set up. But even if you could somehow keep them from using trial accounts (short of eliminating trial accounts entirely), regular accounts don't need a credit card either; you can just buy account codes from third parties and use those. The cost of doing so is nothing to the RMT outfits.

Trying to keep RMT'ers out of the game is a fool's errand. All you can do is limit their ability to be obnoxious to everybody else.


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]


Seperate note: Its not so bad that someone reposts a topic already started on the forum. It could be that perhaps alot of people have been talking about it, and to get it the exposure it needs (to not have it passed over so easily under 100s of other posts) the issue is revisited in a new topic. Moderators will take note of things like this sooner, and can bring it to the attention of those who it may mean something to on the Developer team.

[/ QUOTE ]

Except, of course, they asked us not to do that:

[ QUOTE ]
Cross posting is not permitted. As a courtesy to others before beginning a new thread, please look to see if an active thread on that topic has already been established using the Search feature. If so, place your comments there instead. Multiple threads on the same subject clutter up the forum needlessly and many good ideas may be lost. Use the Search link to keep discussions about one topic to one thread only.


[/ QUOTE ]
(from LH's stickied post at the top of every forum).

[/ QUOTE ]

There's also this:

[ QUOTE ]
5. Non-Constructive posts are prohibited.





Below is a list of examples of non-constructive posts. As a rule, non-constructive posting is not permitted.



[*]Spam is considered to be repetitive posting of the same topic

[/ QUOTE ]

So not only is the OP cross posting, he's spamming.

Funny how he's guilty of the very thing he's complaining about.


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]

User-configurable email filters are the only viable solution that I've seen proposed here so far.

[/ QUOTE ] This. It is the only reasonable suggestion I've ever seen on the subject.

edit: Forbin your last several posts in this thread have been very non constructive, so why are you bothering somebody about breaking a rule you don't follow?


 

Posted

Hear Ye. Hear Ye.

Trial Accounts can no longer send E-mails. At All.

Any Spam you get will cost the company sending it a $15 subscription from now on as they're spam-clicked to death...

REJOICE!

-Rachel-


 

Posted

I like to thank everyone who is in support of this. There are several ways to stop spam e-mails. I, like everyone else, just want it to stop because of the ever rotating list of ignored spammers I've got. I have 23 alts and each one gets spam mail and each one adds to my global ignore list which releases old bans in favor of new bans. The system doesn't work now and I feel there is enough interest to see it fixed.

Now Forbin seems to want to attack this thread which I find odd. Maybe he's a spammer with 100s of alt accounts spamming the heck out of everyone. Regardless, it is still the pot calling the apple black because this is not spam, but a single post on a topic. There are no other topics created by me on this issue. Spamming is the repetitive postings by one person.

At this point, it seems that only 1 person is not being constructive while being repetitive at the same time and that is Forbin .

If he wants to attack something, he should go after the 1000s of "I made a new bunny toon!" threads that do more to clog the forums than new posts about old subjects.

And searching is a waste of time because when people search, there are 100s of returns on a regular basis to most inquiries. I don't have the time to sift through all that junk to find what I need. And when people add to the problem by using keywords to make sure their thread gets a hit, that's just making things worse. No, searching is not the uber solution to forums. People do not have to read every thread nor do they have to respond to them negatively.

If I can show respect by allowing others to use forums as they please, then the same courtesy should be given to me when I'm making a valid post. If I start talking about making roosters and bunnies, then by all means tell me to stop talking about nonsense. Other than that, stop trying to spread the hate.


 

Posted

Dursagon, while I agree with what you just said, I feel you're wasting your time. People come into threads and make multiple posts like that to derail the thread. And it often works. I strongly suggest paying no attention to posts like that, they are a complete waste of time.