Thank you, Kevin (or Iaerah , nice name by the way) for letting us know the mods are really trying to solve problems, or rather help with a problem A-net is not solving, e.g. botting. I agree that it is very hard to police on a forum with accounts that can be freely created. I've tried to ponder: if I were a moderator, what can be done to make the situation better, and not worse or more complicated. Here are some thoughts:
1) Start with the obvious. For example, data from thousands of chest runs collected with the precision that no man can do, is probably botted data. The poster also did not confirm it is not botted, and most people probably believe it is. So even if the data is quite interesting and informative, it should be taken down from the site. Legacy should not be encouraging (or even tolerating) botting activity in any way, and having botted data posted right in our face is against this spirit.
2) Tag the suspicious. Many users are seasoned players and know each other pretty well, especially the collectors. Many of us can see obviously whether items in a WTS thread is more likely botted or not. I admit some are not so obvious. As Yoji pointed out, the actions of a hard-working player may look like a bot to others. Therefore, I suggest that for threads that are suspected to be associated with bots (by mods, or reported by other users), place a tag on the first page, stating that the post has been suspected to be related to botting activity, and buyers should beware. The tag might make the poster angry, but will not affect the thread's visibility or prohibit any bidding activities. People who are fine with buying botted items, or people who think the items are not actually botted can still bid and buy. The actual trade happens in-game so there's nothing to police there. So why put a tag? To remind people that it is not acceptable to bot, and Legacy strongly discourages it.
3) Educate the masses. A huge thanks to Crayon and his thread, now more people know that unides (especially shields) can be checked, and buying unide packages for more than a few plat can (potentially) be a waste of money. People need to know this kind of information before they dive into the selling threads. Just like the Tyrian Serpent Axe issue. So put a sticky on unides too, and maybe also put a tag on threads that sell unide items/packages. Again, the sticky and the tags cannot enforce anything, but can serve as a warning. Also, educate the masses about bots! This is not encouraging people to bot (they can find botting information elsewhere pretty easily), but simply let people know where bots are currently running in masses in the game. HA is heavily botted for zkeys as we all know. Dragon Mosses are botted for gothic/echovald/ornate/amber shields. WoC-(A chance encounter) is botted for all sorts of factions core items. Many chest runs are botted (at least the two we got data on). And before the data thread even I thought that Magmas where not botted. Nowadays, probably any item that still drops can somehow be botted, just more or less, but people need to know. If some items are known to be farmed by bots, and suddenly a lot of them show up, people will be aware that bots may be involved. The education doesn't need to be all about botting though. We can start a new section like "drop locations information". We can discuss in detail what items drop where (including chests), how they are usually farmed, and whether the location was heavily botted. People will probably be interested in finding out more about the most sought-after OS items. Some information can already be found in the chest-running section. I'm sure many veterans can provide us with genuine, non-botted, high quality information.
4) Act. I understand that as moderators, it is impossible to please everyone. Some actions will infuriate certain people. It's inevitable. I trust that as moderators, you all have the courage to do something for the greater good of this community. Legacy is a great website, it is free, we can all speak freely and trade without boundaries. I cherish this deeply, and I thank the moderators for providing this opportunity. However, at times Legacy also became the nesting place of botters. I would not burn down Legacy just to stop them. They can't be stopped in-game anyways. As moderators, actions can be taken to hamper the botters, or at least make their threads look shameful and obvious. I urge you not to take away the freedom which Legacy has, but to provide the innocent with knowledge, which may enable them to make the right decisions.
Just some of my ideas, and I mean no harm to anyone.
Thank you for reading, dear moderators. You have my full support.
Sincerely,
Bluey
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