Stealing Neutral Auctions via Botting

[Ourk]

Tests done yesterday as a character who already sniped some of my stuff was logged on.

Putted some green stuff at neutral AH (buyout price 1 cp) even some "valuable" items (weapon chain recipe, mighty rage recipe, etc.): no probs.

Then, putted some (small value) blue stuff (buyout price 1 cp) (small brillant shard, brillant chromatic scale, Plans : Mithril Shield Spike, etc.): instant bought!

Idk if i can write the name of this character here but he was lvl 2 and "invisible" (not even targetable with /target nameofthisguy near the different Booty Bay auctionneers. (The /who function said that he was in Stranglethorn Vale).

Thoughts?

[dootdootdoot]

The one should always know that stuff can be stolen this way, so I put items for a reasonable price if I need them on opposite faction.
Better to lose 10g as an AH cut, than the item itself.

One would think OP would have learned his mistake after the first snipe. Too bad he clearly lacks critical thinking.

[varth]

AH cut seems like a small price to pay for transferring items between horde and alliance. If it was intended to be easier Blizz would have made it so.

[Tinkertown]

It's really a matter of the punishments not fitting the crimes (or perceived crimes). In some cases when a judgement is questionable and there was no harm done it seems that a limited ban would be more fitting.

I couldn't agree more.

I did take an interest in your case. But, as I'm sure you understand, while I actually do believe your story, it is for me as an outsider unverifiable and thus I will always refer to your case as an alleged false positive. Sorry.

I do think that it is important for a private server to have rules, and to be harsh at times. But that in my opinion makes it even more important to have clear lines drawn in the sand and if a situation occurs where the line suddenly gets a lot less clear, then damage control should be applied rather than wild punitive measures. My opinion is that people should not be able to stumble into a permanent ban unless they are either extraordinarily stupid or if they haven't bothered to read and understand the rules. That is why I'm so bothered by the massive amount of herb/mining bans where the right to appeal is arbitrary. And that is why I'm so adamant about the issue that any macro or addon that doesn't do something expressly forbidden in the ToS should be fair game. If someone downloads an addon or themselves write a script to do something, they shouldn't get banned for it unless they in the process break another rule that they should know about.

Back to the case in point. AH addons. I honestly think that the best solution would be to allow cross faction mailing. I know it isn't Blizzlike, but it would end this debate once and for all and the GMs wouldn't have to police a situation where it is notoriously hard to distinguish between a cheater and someone playing within the rules. I think that would be a very small concession and it should leave everyone except a few principal purists and those benefiting from the current situation (the addon users, many of whom probably are botting and/or multiboxing too) happy. The very worst approach, in my opinion, would be to police addons. That would be unavoidably arbitrary since automation is what addons do and all the functions used by these "ah bots" are functions that auctioneer, AUX and all other similar addons use too. Further it would be remarkably unblizzlike and, for a lack of a better term, legally insecure since the GMs cannot access the code of the addons used to make a fair ruling and have a fair appeal process.

[nenski]

The "solution" is to stop transferring items, and only transfer gold and take the 15% loss. Not every person who snipes an auction is a bot whether you like it or not. This entire thread is pretty much people saying, "why can't I abuse a mechanic of the game and get away with it?". Many of you are going to whiteknight and say it's perfectly legal, yes, however the neutral AH was never intended to transfer items. It was intended for selling the opposite faction-- faction specific recipes, etc. None of you truly care that they're bots. You're just upset that your items got sniped.

[Vanillerific]

It's really a matter of the punishments not fitting the crimes (or perceived crimes). In some cases when a judgement is questionable and there was no harm done it seems that a limited ban would be more fitting.

I couldn't agree more.

I did take an interest in your case. But, as I'm sure you understand, while I actually do believe your story, it is for me as an outsider unverifiable and thus I will always refer to your case as an alleged false positive. Sorry.

I do think that it is important for a private server to have rules, and to be harsh at times. But that in my opinion makes it even more important to have clear lines drawn in the sand and if a situation occurs where the line suddenly gets a lot less clear, then damage control should be applied rather than wild punitive measures. My opinion is that people should not be able to stumble into a permanent ban unless they are either extraordinarily stupid or if they haven't bothered to read and understand the rules. That is why I'm so bothered by the massive amount of herb/mining bans where the right to appeal is arbitrary. And that is why I'm so adamant about the issue that any macro or addon that doesn't do something expressly forbidden in the ToS should be fair game. If someone downloads an addon or themselves write a script to do something, they shouldn't get banned for it unless they in the process break another rule that they should know about.

Back to the case in point. AH addons. I honestly think that the best solution would be to allow cross faction mailing. I know it isn't Blizzlike, but it would end this debate once and for all and the GMs wouldn't have to police a situation where it is notoriously hard to distinguish between a cheater and someone playing within the rules. I think that would be a very small concession and it should leave everyone except a few principal purists and those benefiting from the current situation (the addon users, many of whom probably are botting and/or multiboxing too) happy. The very worst approach, in my opinion, would be to police addons. That would be unavoidably arbitrary since automation is what addons do and all the functions used by these "ah bots" are functions that auctioneer, AUX and all other similar addons use too. Further it would be remarkably unblizzlike and, for a lack of a better term, legally insecure since the GMs cannot access the code of the addons used to make a fair ruling and have a fair appeal process.

I understand completely.

As far as the AH sniping goes your cross faction mail idea would definitely eliminate it (and probably help to normalize the economy a little more) but I doubt it would ever be implemented since it's not "Blizzlike". I really do believe that the 15% AH cut is the correct solution for purists. Unfortunately it means there will always be AH snipers and threads complaining about them. Personally, as someone who really enjoyed the Blizzlike aspect of this server I think cross faction mail is a concession I'd have been willing to make to eliminate this problem.

And a side note...if my posts appear and blatantly ignore things that were said in posts that came before them it's because I'm still under gag order apparently. Everything I say is carefully reviewed by The Man before it can be posted. You would think that 4 months after my account ban it'd be ok for me to speak freely again. The tradedispenser riots ceased long ago.