guild invite spam not against the rules?!

kumenit_taeynav · November 14

idk if i can give out names of accounts or guilds here without getting in trouble for harassment and i refuse to be the one who gets banned here

idk if any of the other platform/servers deal with this at all but on pc/na theres a particular band of guilds with incredibly aggressive recruiters. they dont bother posting ads in chat and waiting for people to respond and apply, they hound all nearby players with unprompted guild invites, multiple times in a few minutes sometimes in my experience

theres gotta be some form of automation, whether most of the accounts of this recruiter are entirely bots or theyre just using addons to fill in names. my username and characters names tend towards the more complex and long side, youre prolly not typing it out after a brief glance as i ride by and yet i still get invite spammed.

asking the recruiter to stop sending invites to strangers when they havent asked for them didnt do anything. other players making fun of how desperate the band of guilds must be in zone chat hasnt deterred them. ive tried reporting these accounts for spam but ive got an email back saying its somehow not against terms of service or code of conduct

there have been times where ive been unfortunate enough to pass by the recruiter multiple times in just a couple minutes and gotten an invite each time. one day i was doing crafting writs in daggerfall while this recruiter was camped by the wayshrine. i handed in my writs and got an invite, i realized i missed one thing so on my way back i got an invite, i returned back to the writ drop off and got another invite, finally i went back up the stairs to find a merchant and i got yet another invite. how is something like thay NOT spam????? how is hounding strangers to join your guild not a form of harrassment?????

im not the only one dealing with this. whenever that recruiter is on you can oftentimes see other players complaining about it zone chat. ive heard other players in my guilds complain about this particular guild and recruiter. its incredibly annoying for everyone unfortunate to get multiple invites and no one wants to be subjected to that.

its one thing to accidentally send an invite to a stranger bc you made a typo in a new recruits name or you clicked on the wrong autofill, its spam when you send multiple unprompted invites to the same stranger despite them refusing each time and asked you to stop

daim · November 14

This has been an issue for 10 years. Luckily on PC you can have an addon that blocks the requests.

Pelanora · November 14

Pc NA is a strange world

tsaescishoeshiner · November 14

I think repeated, unprompted guild invites count as spam that you can report.

There's someone by the Daggerfall wayshrine on PC NA who spam invites people using a macro or an addon or something. Counts as spam or botting to me.

MJallday · November 14

they cant do anything about people in zones spamming G O L D F O R S A L E - let alone guild spams

if their AI can pick up insults, you'd have thought it would have been intelligent enough to pick up spam... sigh...

Niliu · November 14

MJallday wrote: »

they cant do anything about people in zones spamming G O L D F O R S A L E - let alone guild spams

if their AI can pick up insults, you'd have thought it would have been intelligent enough to pick up spam... sigh...

To be fair, back in the day, things were worse. We got it in chat all day every day, now I see it every week or so. There were the infinite character creators that basically skipped the tutorial, sold everything on them, repeat times infinity. It's why there's a limit on character deletions. Delve boss bots who'd sit there until it spawned, kill and loot, send the items and gold to a centralized holding and selling account. Bots in various regions, like Rivenspire, where they'd run around, aggro everything and kill it, and repeat endlessly.

I'd say a spam message every week or so isn't so bad in comparison to where we started.

valenwood_vegan · November 14

@ZOS_Kevin - Sorry to bug you but I do wonder... is there anything that can be done about this / can this be looked into?

Obviously inviting players to a guild in and of itself is not a violation, but spamming invites ought to be viewed as a form of harassment. This guild is absolutely ridiculous about it, placing bots at wayshrines and other popular locations (such as the quest locations for the new companions) and spamming invites at every player in the area.

Some days, I've been invited multiple times within the span of a few minutes. Might it help to report with screenshot evidence that the player in question has been asked to stop sending invites and then continues to do so? I know we can just block the player in question, but multiple accounts from this guild engage in this behavior. Is there any way of reporting the guild itself?

Any insight would be appreciated, ty.

ZOS_Kevin · November 14

Thanks for the ping @valenwood_vegan.

@kumenit_taeynav If there is a specific guild name you have, please send it to me via DM. We can escalate this with our customer service team.

kringled_1 · November 14

Being at 5 guilds does prevent additional invites, if that helps.

Orbital78 · November 14

There was a guild in Vivec City that used to do that to me, before I had 5 guilds. Rather annoying and doesn't look good for the guild that they just recruit anyone. I would think that would make for a very loose knit group if common goals are not intended in the community, but whatever. I didn't bother reporting them, I might have ignored the player though.

Aggrovious · November 14

Oh I think I know who you are talking about because its one guild doing it

ZOS_JessicaFolsom · November 14

One other small piece of advice, in addition to what Kevin said. Please message the person and tell them to stop the behavior. If they continue and we can get a general time stamp of when you told them to stop via chat, that gives our Support team better grounds to treat it as harassment.

JanTanhide · November 14

I put them on my Ignore list.

Servadei · November 14

I knew this was going to be about that guild on PC NA before I even clicked the thread to read it. They are so annoying and aggressive with their auto invite spam.

I hope ZOS finally stops them. They've been doing it for years.

16BitForestCat · November 14

People have been banned for doing far less in regards to abusing automated gameplay and spamming folks, yet ZOS lets this guy on his multiple accounts get away with it for years. All that despite many, many, many reports made against him, including here on the forums.

He can't spam me because I'm in five guilds, but I still have all his account names blocked that I've seen, hanging around Daggerfall and Evermore especially.

On a few Discord servers I hang out in, there's a theory that having a constant stream of people joining guilds—even if they immediately leave or get kicked out—looks good for ZOS's player engagement stats that get presented to the higher-ups. So, ZOS lets this particular harassment continue where they'd normally be lifting the banhammer, or at least the suspensionhammer. I don't know if I'd subscribe to that level of speculation myself, but it honestly does look extremely strange that this has been allowed to go on for so long, when almost anyone else would've gotten in trouble long ago.

Still, everyone should keep reporting this guy, using unedited screenshots (which contain timestamps and datestamps in the filename, at least on PC), or video as needed. Use the report feature at https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/ and not the in-game reporting feature, which ZOS support have tended to ignore in the past. If enough people complain loudly enough, eventually ZOS people might just get tired of it and tell the guy to knock it off.

Though do be warned, he tends to harass and report people in retaliation for telling him to stop or if he knows you reported him, so be prepared for that and make sure you have all your evidence at hand when making your own reports. Don't be rude when taking the recommendation of @ZOS_JessicaFolsom to tell him to stop spamming you. Just be blunt and matter of fact: "(Please) Do not send me guild invites again." Then don't give him the chance to provoke you by engaging him again. Don't give him any actual evidence to use against you by behaving poorly yourself.

MagdaV · November 14

I already know exactly which guild(s) the OP is referring to. I even accepted the invite once to tell them in their own guild chat to stop. Yet, here they are, still spamming away. I truly hope you guys actually follow up on this and prevent it in the future. *fingers crossed*

Vonnegut2506 · November 14

MagdaV wrote: »

I already know exactly which guild(s) the OP is referring to. I even accepted the invite once to tell them in their own guild chat to stop. Yet, here they are, still spamming away. I truly hope you guys actually follow up on this and prevent it in the future. *fingers crossed*

I'll give you a hint: they won't.

SteveCampsOut · November 15

kumenit_taeynav wrote: »

idk if i can give out names of accounts or guilds here without getting in trouble for harassment and i refuse to be the one who gets banned here

idk if any of the other platform/servers deal with this at all but on pc/na theres a particular band of guilds with incredibly aggressive recruiters. they dont bother posting ads in chat and waiting for people to respond and apply, they hound all nearby players with unprompted guild invites, multiple times in a few minutes sometimes in my experience

theres gotta be some form of automation, whether most of the accounts of this recruiter are entirely bots or theyre just using addons to fill in names. my username and characters names tend towards the more complex and long side, youre prolly not typing it out after a brief glance as i ride by and yet i still get invite spammed.

asking the recruiter to stop sending invites to strangers when they havent asked for them didnt do anything. other players making fun of how desperate the band of guilds must be in zone chat hasnt deterred them. ive tried reporting these accounts for spam but ive got an email back saying its somehow not against terms of service or code of conduct

there have been times where ive been unfortunate enough to pass by the recruiter multiple times in just a couple minutes and gotten an invite each time. one day i was doing crafting writs in daggerfall while this recruiter was camped by the wayshrine. i handed in my writs and got an invite, i realized i missed one thing so on my way back i got an invite, i returned back to the writ drop off and got another invite, finally i went back up the stairs to find a merchant and i got yet another invite. how is something like thay NOT spam????? how is hounding strangers to join your guild not a form of harrassment?????

im not the only one dealing with this. whenever that recruiter is on you can oftentimes see other players complaining about it zone chat. ive heard other players in my guilds complain about this particular guild and recruiter. its incredibly annoying for everyone unfortunate to get multiple invites and no one wants to be subjected to that.

its one thing to accidentally send an invite to a stranger bc you made a typo in a new recruits name or you clicked on the wrong autofill, its spam when you send multiple unprompted invites to the same stranger despite them refusing each time and asked you to stop

Simple answer. Place that recruiter on Ignore and enjoy the peace and quiet!

JinKC98 · November 15

Must be that LIZARD next to Daggerfall way shrine again!

DocFrost72 · November 15

JanTanhide wrote: »

I put them on my Ignore list.

Sadly, there's multiple of them all advertising for the same guild at different wayshrines, AND ignoring them doesn't stop the invites.

I'll try "No, Thank You!" and report back on if that works to block it.

Morgaledh · November 16

MagdaV wrote: »

I already know exactly which guild(s) the OP is referring to. I even accepted the invite once to tell them in their own guild chat to stop. Yet, here they are, still spamming away. I truly hope you guys actually follow up on this and prevent it in the future. *fingers crossed*

Everyone knows what guild it is. "Naming and shaming" won't allow us to say... sad state of affairs. That guild - or cluster of guilds, since usually there is a I or II or IV or XII after the name, they multiply! - have been in game for years, and years. I, and nearly everyone in my friends list, and most of my guilds, have reported that mess. By name. For years. It hasn't stopped it. For what it's worth, it's usually a bot/macro that hits you the moment you wayshrine into a zone. Daggerfall has been ground zero for along time, but I've seen it in Alikiir (dolmen traffic, I assume) and even Auridon before.

TaSheen · November 17

Morgaledh wrote: »

MagdaV wrote: »

I already know exactly which guild(s) the OP is referring to. I even accepted the invite once to tell them in their own guild chat to stop. Yet, here they are, still spamming away. I truly hope you guys actually follow up on this and prevent it in the future. *fingers crossed*

Everyone knows what guild it is. "Naming and shaming" won't allow us to say... sad state of affairs. That guild - or cluster of guilds, since usually there is a I or II or IV or XII after the name, they multiply! - have been in game for years, and years. I, and nearly everyone in my friends list, and most of my guilds, have reported that mess. By name. For years. It hasn't stopped it. For what it's worth, it's usually a bot/macro that hits you the moment you wayshrine into a zone. Daggerfall has been ground zero for along time, but I've seen it in Alikiir (dolmen traffic, I assume) and even Auridon before.

Gotta love an addon for that.

SilverBride · November 17

I don't think there is a person on PCNA that hasn't been hit by them multiple times. Something really should be done about it.

Pelanora · November 17

I read the new agreement, and it is against the rules.

And there was nothing about needing to ask for it to stop first.

Servadei · November 17

They've made more guilds. I see their lastest training guild and trading guild spam all over the place.

kyle.wilson · November 17

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

One other small piece of advice, in addition to what Kevin said. Please message the person and tell them to stop the behavior. If they continue and we can get a general time stamp of when you told them to stop via chat, that gives our Support team better grounds to treat it as harassment.

Why is it that in game harassment is okay until you prove you've said stop?
I've seen many people that were permabanned for repetitive harassment get their accounts back over the last year.

Pelanora · November 17

kyle.wilson wrote: »

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

One other small piece of advice, in addition to what Kevin said. Please message the person and tell them to stop the behavior. If they continue and we can get a general time stamp of when you told them to stop via chat, that gives our Support team better grounds to treat it as harassment.

Why is it that in game harassment is okay until you prove you've said stop?
I've seen many people that were permabanned for repetitive harassment get their accounts back over the last year.

I agree. Why issue rules we all have to agree to, if they aren't going to follow them themselves.