Blizzard is now banning those who report bots...

[Vutar]

on the official forums. Numerous video's of botting have been removed as have a couple threads involving botter quotes. What is going on at Blizzard? I got banned over there for posting a video showing what was happening. The game is overrun with bots at this point as the deleted threads were clearly showing. There were a couple threads showing quotes from botters. I found one myself this morning.

"Pretty much all .... users leveling their characters 85-90 are doing it through battlegrounds due to the bot's inability to complete vehicle quests and the like (honestly, this should have been implemented years ago).

The hilarious amount of bots in battlegrounds now reveals a few weaknesses with the profiles. I could name many but the main issue now is there needs to be a larger number of (or completely random) startup routines. As of now the bots kind of form a large glob in the beginning and run around together in a large hoard of bots until dying off.

It makes ..... painfully obvious to everyone else and the bot much more easily reportable. Luckily right now Blizzard seems content to let a lot of stuff get by. As such the devs seem to have been resting on their laurels for quite a while..."

Why is Blizzard allowing botting and banning those who report them?

[Zom]

You're not supposed to report bots on the forums. Nor are you really supposed to post videos accusing specific players of botting, naming and shaming. They do their own investigations, they don't really need your "proof".

[Choice]

Removing a thread of that nature is not banning a player for reporting a bot? The official forums are moderated like hawks under the blanket of it discussing player accounts. Be it true or not, they seem quite convinced that most bots are compromised accounts. They have numbers that we obviously don't, be it true or not their logic is sound within their own terms of use.

[Vutar]

You're not supposed to report bots on the forums. Nor are you really supposed to post videos accusing specific players of botting, naming and shaming. They do their own investigations, they don't really need your "proof".

There was no naming and shaming. The video provided did not have names distinguishable. That was not the issue.

---------- Post added 2013-01-31 at 11:55 AM ----------

Removing a thread of that nature is not banning a player for reporting a bot? The official forums are moderated like hawks under the blanket of it discussing player accounts. Be it true or not, they seem quite convinced that most bots are compromised accounts. They have numbers that we obviously don't, be it true or not their logic is sound within their own terms of use.

With bots destroying BG's and Blizzard doing nothing about it there is nothing "sound" about their reasoning. especially when the botters themselves are convinced Blizzard will do nothing. They should be encouraging reporting not banning those who report.

---------- Post added 2013-01-31 at 12:01 PM ----------

Oh well last straw for me. When a company starts banning those who report cheating it is time to move on.

[Archdruid Dehydrate]

There is no reason to post videos on the forums, like the Zom & Choice have stated they do there own investagations. Most of the bots preform on comprised accounts

I hope you are aware the bannings are from people win-trading & account sharing in BGs.

You don't get banned for posting a video, you must have broken rule or called someone out to get the ban. It just doesn't make sense.

I do BGs all day and I have run into minimal bots the majority are in AV or IoC But those also are very minimal & I also run some BGs during the night at times and I find more but still not as many as people claim their is.

I see more bots out in the world than in BGs.

[Deleth]

There is no reason to post videos on the forums, like the Zom & Choice have stated they do there own investagations. Most of the bots preform on comprised accounts

Sure, all those accounts are compromised. Do you really, really believe that? Most of these accounts aren't compromised at all, they're not hardcore farming mats all the time, it's normal people bypassing the leveling and gear grind. Telling people they're compromised and thus the owner isn't to blame is an easy excuse to not ban said players once and for all and lose the subscription.
It's for the very same reason they go after the bot developers instead of the users unless your offense is to severe to be ignored. Because they try to get rid of the bots while keeping the players. This however is pretty much open knowledge within the bot community so they feel completly safe (and are) untill they eventually hit the three day ban.
Even then just staying away from the bots for a time will lower the "ban" time so you eventually start on a clean slate once more and can happily bot away till you hit the three day ban mark once more.

Hell even a permanent ban isn't necessarily permanent, just try a few good sob stories and you'll eventually get unbanned. There's some guy I myself met with several characters in the 85-89 battleground range who's happily botting away for years. He has a whole damn tutorial about his botting habbits, giving out tips to prospective botters and documentating his bans/unbans of some of his accounts.

[Redlokyldoreifanggore]

You don't report bots on forums. That's what in-game options are for. ALSO, they've clearly said over and over and over and over and over and over again to not post videos, pics, etc. of such things for the same reason they don't make an enormous forum post listing everyone that got banned. It doesn't need to be public. If after all this time you STILL haven't gotten that through your head then you don't deserve any pity.

And before you say anything, NO, they don't need video or picture proof of the event. You wanna know why? Because they have a whole team of people that quietly go back and see each and every little action that each reported person did. No video or pics needed. EVER. As they've repeatedly explained and acted upon.

If you got banned, there's a reason. You obviously broke the rules. Next time, do it right.

[Gontier]

on the official forums. Numerous video's of botting have been removed as have a couple threads involving botter quotes. What is going on at Blizzard? I got banned over there for posting a video showing what was happening.

Why is Blizzard allowing botting and banning those who report them?

Botting is not allowed, nor has it ever been. You were suspended due to Name and Shaming which is against the forum code of conduct, thus your thread, posts, and links were removed. Videos and screenshots is not acceptable evidence as investigations have to be based on internal logs, and videos and/or screenshots can easily be altered with.

I'm not sure if you're from the EU or US, however, if you would like to appeal the forum suspension then you can email the Community Team at:-

Forums-EN@blizzard.com (EU)
wowreportedpost@blizzard.com (US)

With that said, if you would like to report a player for botting, then you should report them for cheating by right-clicking on their name or avatar in-game and select "Report for: Cheating". If you're unable to use that feature, then you can open a ticket to report the player, and do explain that you were unable to use the Report Cheating function.

[Mulgore Sweet Potato]

It's good that Blizzard don't allow naming and shaming and baseless accusations on their forums. You people who want act like judge, jury and executioner would have felt right at home in the middle ages burning witches! 92% of people reported for botting are completely innocent and victims to either overzealous do-gooders or malicious rumor mongers.

[Ossiris]

There is no reason to post videos on the forums, like the Zom & Choice have stated they do there own investagations. Most of the bots preform on comprised accounts

I hope you are aware the bannings are from people win-trading & account sharing in BGs.

You don't get banned for posting a video, you must have broken rule or called someone out to get the ban. It just doesn't make sense.

I do BGs all day and I have run into minimal bots the majority are in AV or IoC But those also are very minimal & I also run some BGs during the night at times and I find more but still not as many as people claim their is.

I see more bots out in the world than in BGs.

I quess you are lucky then , when i was lvling my mage on ally i did isle of conquest, 20 people went exact the same way on the right side to the hangar, then did nothing, and after some time moved up the hill. So ye 50% of the team were bots.

Edit: I also seen on forum that there is some addon which makes you avoid bots in queuing, think it was called Qqueue or something like that.

[otro]

hahahaha hilarious

OP you are not the police dude, use the means they give you.
I find it hilarious those who whisper you asking if ur a bot out there in the world, they even call themself 'bot-police'.

Once a dude went out of his way just because he was convinced I was a bot (because, you know, I tend to ignore retards who whisper me for no reason).

Bottom line, he wasted 20minutes of his life chasing, reporting and whispering me 'enjoy the ban scumbag'.

Funny thing that if you think about it the bots were doing more killing and helping the team more than this so called bot-police.

I despise you and all you police-wanna-bees out there.

Just play your fucking game and let Blizz enforce their own rules.

Glad u got banned.

[Sporky0]

Blizzard don't care whether their game world is inhabited by people or bots.

They get the same money from each.

[thevoicefromwithin]

Blizzard don't care whether their game world is inhabited by people or bots.

They get the same money from each.

This. It should be pretty obvious by now that they consider any bans of longer than three hours for botting to be bad for business.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

This. It should be pretty obvious by now that they consider any bans of longer than three hours for botting to be bad for business.

That isn't true at all.

[Interpreter]

This. It should be pretty obvious by now that they consider any bans of longer than three hours for botting to be bad for business.

It can actually be good for business, People who bot and get banned, normally buy new accounts which means more money for blizzard.

[Gurbz]

It can actually be good for business, People who bot and get banned, normally steal new accounts which means more work for blizzard.

Fixed that for you. Botting is bad for business no matter how you want to spin it.

Oh well last straw for me. When a company starts banning those who report cheating it is time to move on.

You are making yourself sound ignorant. Please stop. They did not ban people for reporting botters/exploiters. I assure you that anyone who has done so using the proper methods was not banned, from the forums or otherwise.

Blizzard is banning people who are violating the forum rules, specifically the "naming and shaming" policy that states you cannot call out specific characters/players publicly on the forums. The fact that names were not easily identifiable does not matter.

It sounds more like you were either looking for a reason to bash Blizzard or were looking for an excuse to justify quitting to yourself. Possibly both. Either way its kinda pathetic.

[namelessone]

Blizzard don't care whether their game world is inhabited by people or bots.

They get the same money from each.

Bots cost them a lot actually. Just think for a minute.
- Overloads on the CS system. Even if they ignored the botting reports, they still have to filter them somehow, which takes resources. If multiple people report each bot - that's a lot of reports to filter and discard.
- Accounts lost through grief. If one botter makes two people quit in frustration - that's a net loss for blizzard. Considering how vocal the issue is - I can bet they are losing more subs due to botters than they gain from not banning them.

[velde046]

Why is Blizzard allowing botting and banning those who report them?

Posting video of botters <> Reporting botters, you can report them through the Report button or submit a ticket. Besides Blizzard does not have a reputation of naming and shaming or anything.

[Interpreter]

Fixed that for you. Botting is bad for business no matter how you want to spin it.

When does Botting = stolen accounts? I bot on MY accounts for MY profit

[Nerraw]

I'm pretty sure there's an email you're supposed to report people at.

Besides, naming and shaming isn't allowed, so if anyone's name was discernable from any of the material you provided, it's a legit reason for giving you a forum vacation.