Report warning

[Lim_Dul]

This idea just came to me while I was attempting to report hordes of autoers. I always like to say something like "(name of autoer), I think you are autoing, please respond or I will report". Generally I'll give two warnings of this sort, then I report.

 

 

 

The obvious problems with this are, the potential for them to have chat off, and the fact that it takes quite a bit of time to type warnings and report for all the autoers I see. This is where my suggestion comes in.

 

 

 

There needs to be some sort of button, preferably under the report abuse feature, which allows me to send a warning to a supposed autoer. It would be essentially like a player mod being able to speak to someone who's public chat is turned off, but it would allow everyone to have definitive proof before reporting.

 

 

 

Here's an example of how I think it should work. You click "report warning" and it prompts you to enter the name of a suspected macroer. You enter the name and click on confirm. This sends the autoer a message of some sort with a countdown. If they don't respond to the message received, then they are automatically reported. It would be somewhat like a randon event.

 

 

 

This would also do away with the 60 second delay between reports. When you walk up to the rimmington or varrock yews, often times there are as many as 10 blatant autoers there. Generally I switch worlds at this point, because you can't get any logs with 10 people cutting the trees, and this means I don't stick around long enough to report all of these obvious cheaters. If I could fire off 10 reports using report warnings, it would really streamline the process.

 

 

 

With this reform, it would encourage legitimate players to help defeat cheaters. As it is now, I often feel I'm fighting a losing battle, trying to report macroers minute after minute, and watching more and more come. The current report system makes me feel so helpless to combat the scurge of runescape. We need a better way.

[harper128]

I agree that something needs to be done to make reporting suspected macroers easier, and some way to allow them to respond to show that they aren't macroing would be a nice touch.

 

 

 

However, as with any automated system, they can find ways to automatically respond to such prompts. So, the messages would have to change on a regular basis, and show up in such a manner that, while a human would have little difficulty responding, a program would find it hard to decipher.

[craz_is_evil]

As cool as that sounds, think of the possible abuse to this. Say you're mining, and beating a noob to all the ore. Then they'd start firing these warnings at you, to distract you, and get the ore you've worked so hard to mine. A good suggestion, but it needs substantial tweeking.

[bjbj1991]

They would just write a script for it. Also another flaw is that the chat moves too fast most of the time in citys and good training places so good luck at getting anyone to read it.

[tintmangbpack]

well the could make the message appear on the lower right hand side of the screen, where the multicombat symbol appears that way it would be easy to see.

 

 

 

I like the idea but it would have to be constantly updated because the auto programs would just keep adjusting their programs.

 

 

 

But I really am glad to see ideas on how to get rid of macroers, because I am sick of them ruining the game

[Biabf]

The problem is, people could spam someone with messages when they know well that they aren't autoing. Maybe a limit like 1 every few minutes.

 

Otherwise it could turn out like:

 

You catch a shark!

 

Bia bf - You may be reported for autoing if you don't show proof soon.

 

Bia bf - You may be reported for autoing if you don't show proof soon.

 

Bia bf - You may be reported for autoing if you don't show proof soon.

 

Bia bf - You may be reported for autoing if you don't show proof soon.

 

Bia bf - You may be reported for autoing if you don't show proof soon.

 

You catch a shark!

 

Bia bf - You may be reported for autoing if you don't show proof soon.

 

Bia bf - You may be reported for autoing if you don't show proof soon.

 

Bia bf - You may be reported for autoing if you don't show proof soon.

 

Bia bf - You may be reported for autoing if you don't show proof soon.

 

Bia bf - You may be reported for autoing if you don't show proof soon.

 

 

 

See what I mean?

[Lim_Dul]

There are easy solutions for your concerns. First off, you would only need to do it one time per person. That means they could limit you to one report warning, per player, per hour. You don't need to sit there and do it again and again on the same person. You could still report warn as many people as you want, as quickly as you want, just not repeatedly.

 

 

 

Secondly, if someone did try to abuse the feature by report warning you when you're clearly not autoing, this can already be dealt with. That's what the report misuse of customer support option is for. Abuse of this sort of thing should obviously carry a harsh penalty.

 

 

 

For the problem of macroers writing a script to overcome the warning they receive, this would also be pretty simple. Since this is a serious matter, which wouldn't come up regularly for a legitimate player, the warning could bring up a cut and dry text box with letters and numbers of different fonts that you have to type out. Just like when you start an email account or something of that sort, it would be the same thing.

 

 

 

The more I think about it, the more I like this idea.

[Albosky]

Ok since nobody else said it , I will

 

 

 

It's not your job to police the runescape servers , if it was you would have a silver crown. I play with my public chat off 98% of the time , if I ever got a "warning" from anyone but a crowned mod , I'd flip out. Maybe they just dont want to talk to you ?

[dwarfie76]

Ok since nobody else said it , I will

 

 

 

It's not your job to police the runescape servers , if it was you would have a silver crown. I play with my public chat off 98% of the time , if I ever got a "warning" from anyone but a crowned mod , I'd flip out. Maybe they just dont want to talk to you ?

 

 

 

Absolutely. I'm a grumpy old bugger and I don't feel the need to talk to many people let alone justify to them why I'm playing the game the way I want to.

[shade_bandyt]

Ok since nobody else said it , I will

 

 

 

It's not your job to police the runescape servers , if it was you would have a silver crown. I play with my public chat off 98% of the time , if I ever got a "warning" from anyone but a crowned mod , I'd flip out. Maybe they just dont want to talk to you ?

 

i disagree. first of all, the reason why the report abuse feature exists is because jagex depends on the community to do most of its policing for them. if a mod isnt around, at least a rule breaker can still be possibly brought to justice. second, while a random event usually does the trick of jandling autoers, randoms also harass innocent players, and sometimes at critical times

 

 

 

i for one have spoken a lot against reporting. lots of people get banned for nothing because malicious overzealous players report abuse to jagex against people that did nothing wrong, and jagex goes ahead and bans the person anyway

 

 

 

with this idea, its like a player triggered random event. you could send it to somebody who you think might be autoing, in a way where they have to respond within a time frame, like a dwarf-type random where 1 click will fix it. if the would-be autoer clicks the npc, then the report isnt sent. however, the report would be sent if the npc doesnt respond.

 

 

 

the good thing about it is that it could be taken care of in 1 click, so that it would be hard to abuse. it would take some effort on the sender to send the npc, and if the player is not afk or macroing, a quick click would fix the problem

[magician_xy]

the reason why the report abuse feature exists is because jagex depends on the community to do most of its policing for them.

 

 

 

This is case and point, right here. If only mods were allowed to report abuse, think of how many more poeple Jagex would have to make mods in order to police the many people who play. I personally don't see mods very often, and when I do, I add them to my friend list for future reference. As such, I only have 3 mods there now. Now, in a world with up to 2000 players and only one mod, there's no way all the abuse will be caught.

 

 

 

And besides... How do you think you get the silver crown in the first place? :| Jagex doesn't make a person who doesn't do anything a mod. He has to report abuse accurately and responsibly.

[Lim_Dul]

 

This is case and point, right here. If only mods were allowed to report abuse, think of how many more poeple Jagex would have to make mods in order to police the many people who play. I personally don't see mods very often, and when I do, I add them to my friend list for future reference. As such, I only have 3 mods there now. Now, in a world with up to 2000 players and only one mod, there's no way all the abuse will be caught.

 

 

 

And besides... How do you think you get the silver crown in the first place? :| Jagex doesn't make a person who doesn't do anything a mod. He has to report abuse accurately and responsibly.

 

 

 

Exactly my point. This is especially a problem in F2p worlds. I know of approximately 6 nonmember player mods, yet the vast majority of macroing goes on in F2p worlds. How are 6 people, some of whom no longer play runescape regularly, supposed to police all the free worlds? This in itself is a serious problem, but to try and stop autoers, it is everyones responsibility to report them.

 

 

 

Maybe they just dont want to talk to you ?

 

 

 

I am yet to meet a level 3, non autoer, that didn't shower me with questions like "how long did it take to get that combat level" and "how much money do you have". I find it hard to believe all the level 3s and 4s who have the default character appearance, just "don't want to talk" to me, because they're cutting yews with iron axes.

 

 

 

Obviously the number of autoers isn't apparent to you Albosky. You need to come down to the Rimmington yews, Varrock yews, Ess mines even the lumbridge willows in a F2p server. The number of players blatantly violating the rules is sickening. These people are an insult to rule abiding players, and it is everyones job to report them so that Jagex can take action.

 

 

 

The current reporting system is not sufficient to deal with the volume of people breaking rule #7. If the reports were easier to send out, and provided definitive proof, we could cut deep into the ranks of macroers and hopefully put an end to this form of cheating.

 

 

 

I think my idea of a report warning system would do just that. It will enpower every player to combat the problem head on, but prevent errant reports from being sent.

[leet_man69]

Stupid idea, they can set their macro so that if they see the text for the warning they just respond, and it would harm legit players taht get spammed with that crap. Also, it takes responsability off the reporter. People reporting should not report everything in sight like noobs, they should think about what they are sending or else risk a ban.

[Lim_Dul]

Stupid idea, they can set their macro so that if they see the text for the warning they just respond, and it would harm legit players taht get spammed with that crap. Also, it takes responsability off the reporter. People reporting should not report everything in sight like noobs, they should think about what they are sending or else risk a ban.

 

 

 

Did you read anything other than the initial post? I'm going to venture a guess that you didn't.

[swampjedi]

Lim, I'd have to say that this is too open for abuse. It's like teleother, but infinitely more problematic. With teleother abuse, I might die and lose my stuff. If this is abused I might get banned.

 

 

 

Say I'm not paying attention. This is not uncommon. I cut trees and mine wile reading something else. I only click back into the window every so often to check and see if I need to pick a new tree or rock. So, someone does this report thing, and I miss the message because I'm just doing a mouseover on the corner of the RS window that's showing. I'm instabanned by an idiot for legitimate playing.

 

 

 

I play with chat off all the time, and I'm sure I'd get positively flooded with these things.

 

 

 

As much as I hate autobots (makes me a Decepticon I suppose), I think this is throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

 

 

 

I think a step in the right direction is the following -

 

 

 

1 - More player mods. Thousands, tens of thousands more.

 

2 - More CS people to actually give some thought to reports of abuse

 

3 - Part-time people paid to be in-game moderators/administrators with actual authority past muting (as in other games)

 

 

 

Personally, I am sure the day is coming when I'll be banned for autoing, because I play with chat off and I can be somewhat single minded in my training... and the fact that I often miss clicks when I'm not paying attention (and thus walk around like a drunken penguin). Something is wrong when legitimate players fear the law. Ideas like yours, while good-intentioned, would just serve to create more fear.

[Lim_Dul]

Your concerns are well founded Swampy. I play in much the same manner you described, and I can understand your position.

 

 

 

Let's say that the timer on this warning would be something like 2 minutes. Certainly, this could assuage your fears, could it not? Or say there wasn't a timer, but it simply prevented you from continuing to cut yews or mine ess or whatever until you dealt with the warning. It could just be used to inform the person who suspects a macroer.

 

 

 

Also, what is to prevent players from reporting you for macroing now? Much of the reason I brought up this idea, is because sometimes it is difficult to discern skillers from macroers. Instead of simply being reported, you would have an chance to demonstrate you are not macroing with this concept. In this regard, it can help avoid sending out incorrect reports.

 

 

 

I 100% agree with you on p mods though. There are far too few currently, to do the job they are intended.

[swampjedi]

An interruption such as you describe is much better, but could still be hugely abused. All someone has to do is spam you with requests, and thus interrupt your gameplay constantly.

 

 

 

Players can and will report me now, but at least it's likely to be ignored because I'm not really autoing. The one step judge, jury, executioner system that you're describing cannot be ignored.

 

 

 

The report box isn't spammable, and has consequences for misuse. Your proposal, as it stands, is perfect made for spamming or harassing (since it's ignorable only with draconian consequences) and has no consequences for misuse.

 

 

 

I can see it now.

 

 

 

Scenario One

 

"You're taking my rock/tree/spawn/oxygen!"

 

-no response-

 

"Macroer!"

 

-commence warning spam-

 

-resource gathering halted till other player logs off or gets bored-

 

 

 

Scenario Two

 

-player is Dharoking-

 

-evil chicken appears-

 

-surrounding players start warning spam-

 

-player Dharoking dies-

 

 

 

Scenario Three

 

Any pking. Proof is obvious.

 

 

 

Players don't need quasi-moderator authority unless they've proved they can use it responsibly and justly.

 

 

 

Lim, step outside and imagine how others might use this system. You and I would use it responsibly to root out the evil autobots. But a hormone crazed, immature teen? What about whose sadistic tendencies have been allowed to emerge due to anynonymity? I'm not without enemies (though I've nothing compared to Raichase :D), and I quake in my digital boots to imagine my enemies with the power to unavoidably ruin my gameplay and possibly have me banned.

[Lim_Dul]

I do not believe there should be judge, jury and executioner power vested in any player, by any means. The consequences of misusing this would obviously be vere severe, and would require strict enforcement.

 

 

 

It could be made inoperable during combat. That would eliminate the possibility for misuse during pking or similar circumstances.

 

 

 

The fact of the matter is, we are in a macroing crisis, that threatens to do irreparable damage to runescape. Something has to be done, to protect the game that we all enjoy, from the threat of cheating.

 

 

 

I want the ability to inform players, who's chat may be turned off, that I suspect they are cheating. This way they can stop me from sending a report, or I can have greater certainty of whether someone is indeed autoing.

 

 

 

Currently it's just a guessing game, they kind of look like an autoer, so I'm going to send a report. I find myself concerned that I may wind up in trouble for mistakenly reporting an honest player, who just wasn't paying attention at the right time. This creates a disincentive to report people, and as a result, it protects the macroers.

[Ard_Choille]

How problematic would it be for such a feature to abort itself (perhaps for a period of time for the specific sender/recipient combo) when random mouse activity, or clicking the appropriate response button is detected. This way, it simply wouldn't work more than once in a given timeframe. Runesecape already detects mouse activity for the idle log. Why not detect it more specifically for this sort of thing?

 

 

 

Just a thought...

[sprites]

This would be detrimental to new players who wouldn't know how to respond. I've come across level 3's who, despite tutorial island, didn't know how to send PMs or add people to their friends list.

 

 

 

Anyone can be mistaken as autoers. I've even been accused of autoing in the miner's guild, simply because I wasn't paying attention and clicked on empty rocks.

[Lim_Dul]

That's a good point you raise Sprite. Low leveled players would be most commonly mistaken for autoers. Even if a new player couldn't respond to the warning, upon Jagex review their skills would easily exonerate them of macroing.

[RockyMaivia]

I think your principle is right: you want to be able to do something about autoers. I've felt that way myself a million times, you just wish you could get ahold of jagex themselves and have them come see for themselves.

 

 

 

Jagex needs to hire mods to be available 24/7. In a game i played in the past (America's Army), they had a way that while you were playing you could directly contact an admin/mod and tell them why you suspected someone of cheating, and then they would come to the server and check it out themeslves. It worked great.

 

 

 

This would work wonderfully for RS...You contact an admin/mod, they can use their super Jagex fancy technology to maybe take a screenie or observe the person, and if warranted, they can come check it out themselves. At that point the mod could use the rest of the super Jagex technology power that magically detects autoers 100% of the time (sarcasm) right there on the spot and then kick/ban the player if found to be breaking any rules, and ta da! The autoer/whatever is taken care of quickly and their negative impact is eliminated vs. the current Jagex lets autoers go crazy for a couple months and flood the market, THEN ban the autoers :roll: strategy.

 

 

 

I know someone is going to say "omg that'd be way too expensive to hire mods to be available 24/7"...But the fact of the matter is that if Jagex wants to play in the big time, then they have to invest big time to do things right and stop this half rear ended customer support/security/witch hunting.

[shade_bandyt]

Lim, I'd have to say that this is too open for abuse. It's like teleother, but infinitely more problematic. With teleother abuse, I might die and lose my stuff. If this is abused I might get banned.

 

 

 

Say I'm not paying attention. This is not uncommon. I cut trees and mine wile reading something else. I only click back into the window every so often to check and see if I need to pick a new tree or rock. So, someone does this report thing, and I miss the message because I'm just doing a mouseover on the corner of the RS window that's showing. I'm instabanned by an idiot for legitimate playing.

 

 

 

I play with chat off all the time, and I'm sure I'd get positively flooded with these things.

 

you of all people should see the sense in this idea then. lets say exactly what you are doing is taking place, youre cutting yews with chat off. somebody tries to talk to you and you dont respond, so they assume youre using a macro. they report you, you get banned, end of story. the way the system works, you'd be reported and youd never know why you were reported, when the report occured, or who sent the report and what you were doing at the time the report was sent. can you imagine how frustrating that is?

 

 

 

with this system, rather than they report you without any knowledge whatsoever, at least you see the report coming. even if your chat is off, you can see what the npc is saying, and at least you have a chance to respond BEFORE the abuse report is sent. not only that, suppose you were away from your computer when the npc mod warned you, by the time you came back, the report would be already sent, but at least you know you just got reported. you could take action right away and appeal the report BEFORE the ban took place, while still in the game. this would build up a better case for you in that you were there and couldnt click the npc in time, but at least you can defend yourself ahead of time

 

 

 

the way the report abuse system works now, most people get banned totally blind sided, sometimes appealing with absolutely no ammo to defend themselves, because they dont know when they were reported or by whom, and they cant properly justify themselves in the appeal

 

 

 

i think this idea is much better than the way the system is now

[Craven_Image]

As easy as it sounds to add this, it would be just as easy for an auto software developer to just add some code in to press the button when it detects a request.

[shade_bandyt]

An interruption such as you describe is much better, but could still be hugely abused. All someone has to do is spam you with requests, and thus interrupt your gameplay constantly.

 

 

 

Players can and will report me now, but at least it's likely to be ignored because I'm not really autoing. The one step judge, jury, executioner system that you're describing cannot be ignored.

 

 

 

The report box isn't spammable, and has consequences for misuse. Your proposal, as it stands, is perfect made for spamming or harassing (since it's ignorable only with draconian consequences) and has no consequences for misuse.

 

 

 

I can see it now.

 

 

 

Scenario One

 

"You're taking my rock/tree/spawn/oxygen!"

 

-no response-

 

"Macroer!"

 

-commence warning spam-

 

-resource gathering halted till other player logs off or gets bored-

 

 

 

Scenario Two

 

-player is Dharoking-

 

-evil chicken appears-

 

-surrounding players start warning spam-

 

-player Dharoking dies-

 

 

 

Scenario Three

 

Any pking. Proof is obvious.

 

 

 

Players don't need quasi-moderator authority unless they've proved they can use it responsibly and justly.

 

 

 

Lim, step outside and imagine how others might use this system. You and I would use it responsibly to root out the evil autobots. But a hormone crazed, immature teen? What about whose sadistic tendencies have been allowed to emerge due to anynonymity? I'm not without enemies (though I've nothing compared to Raichase :D), and I quake in my digital boots to imagine my enemies with the power to unavoidably ruin my gameplay and possibly have me banned.

 

the "warning mod" event, in my mind, would work like this:

 

next to, or in place of, the report abuse button, you have the send warning button. like the report abuse, you'd have to type the name of the offending player and select the offence. not only does this take a few seconds to do, it also limits one warning on the screen from a player, ot to a potential offender, at a time. that would protect against "spamming" a player with warnings. once the npc is sent with the warning to the suspected rule breaker, he'd say something like "Fred1426, I have to warn you that you might be breaking the rules." the chat would be seen as a regular text above the npc's head, as well as in the chat box. after 10 seconds the warning would say "Fred1426, if you do not answer me you will be reported!" and at 20 seconds "This is your final chance, Fred1426!". after 30 seconds "Report sent" and poof!, the npc disappears and the report is sent

 

 

 

the npc doesnt stop you from what you are doing, it simply talks to you and awaits your response. it doesnt attack you or obstruct you. if youre fighting/mining/chopping/fishing, whatever, it calls your name and warns you. like i said before, only 1 can be sent at a time. say both of us are in catherby watching a level 3 harpoon sharks, i might be the first to send a warning. you might also attempt to send a warning, typing in th name of the player, and youd get a message saying "That player is already being warned"

 

 

 

for the person who is being warned, if he doesnt respond, and doesnt try to send an appeal ahead of time, then its a very good grounds for being banned. if the player does respond within 30 seconds, then the npc goes away, and no report

 

 

 

coming to think of it, perhaps the npc could be brother brace from tutorial island, the one that tells you about prayer, friends lists, and rule breaking. in any event, i think this is a much better alternative to the way the report abuse system works now