Auto-decline setting for guild invites to mitigate guild invite spam

argyro · August 4

As a guild leader, a topic that I see come up fairly often is how certain guilds will park characters at wayshrines in busy cities and spam guild invites to anyone nearby with an empty slot. Ignoring them only goes so far as they turn up on another new account later, and it seems to be multiple iterations of the same main guild. This is an ongoing problem, and previously the only advice given was to ask them to stop and then report if they continue, otherwise they are technically not breaking any rules.

We already have auto-decline settings for things like duels and ToT matches. Adding a setting which allows players to toggle receiving guild invites on and off wouldn’t be a perfect fix, but it would definitely help alleviate some of this issue.

WolfStar07 · August 4

And honestly, the guild you're alluding to isn't the only one spamming cold invites, they're just the most prolific. This would probably be desirable for anyone who doesn't want to fill all of their guild slots (or even any). Why should a player who wants a truly solo experience have to deal with randos sending unsolicited invites to their guild? If they decide they want to join someone's guild, we can just provide a link to the application.

randconfig · August 5

argyro wrote: »

As a guild leader, a topic that I see come up fairly often is how certain guilds will park characters at wayshrines in busy cities and spam guild invites to anyone nearby with an empty slot. Ignoring them only goes so far as they turn up on another new account later, and it seems to be multiple iterations of the same main guild. This is an ongoing problem, and previously the only advice given was to ask them to stop and then report if they continue, otherwise they are technically not breaking any rules.

We already have auto-decline settings for things like duels and ToT matches. Adding a setting which allows players to toggle receiving guild invites on and off wouldn’t be a perfect fix, but it would definitely help alleviate some of this issue.

I think I know which guild you're talking about. If you whisper them to add you to their ignore list, they will.

They use bots/scripts to automate the invite process, which I think is a violation of ToS.

Not only is it annoying to see their guild recruitment spam in every zone chat, and to get unwarranted guild invite spam that happens anytime you're within proximity to them, but they also have made more than 5 guilds with the same name but with a different number at the end...

I know because I was in the guild, saw their discord, and saw their Github page where the bot scripts were...

I don't know why they feel the need to get thousands of ESO players in their guild versus the maximum population for a single guild, but I do know it's unfair to all the other smaller guilds that don't do use guild recruitment bots, that actually manually take the time to go around and search for new members.

If I had to guess, it's because more guilds = more donations = more guild traders = more gold accumulation, and if they're able to pay people to develop scripts for them, there's probably something shady going on involving gold selling or buying crowns.

Either way, I've told them they should stop and I left the guild as I did not want to be a part of that. I hope ZOS has ways of detecting things like that from happening and affecting the game's economy, and hopefully they do something to prevent players from automating spamming guild invites. Maybe add a several minute cooldown on manually sending guild invites, or remove the option entirely, since anyone can still join a guild by clicking a recruitment link.

Frayton · August 5

Why is this guild still allowed to do this? They've been a nuisance to players for years. Surely by now it counts as some lowkey harassment.

WolfStar07 · August 5

randconfig wrote: »

I think I know which guild you're talking about. If you whisper them to add you to their ignore list, they will.

I've heard from others that they have to do it on an individual basis. That is, maybe 1 account will stop inviting them, but they still get spammed from others.

randconfig wrote: »

They use bots/scripts to automate the invite process, which I think is a violation of ToS.

I would agree that sounds like a ToS violation to me, but I've also heard from more than 1 person (including possibly the person who started this thread) that after reporting these invites, ZOS says no ToS violations occurred. I would hope they're doing a thorough investigation when a spam report comes in. I'm not sure you can technically report someone for exploits without proof, so I don't know if there's any other way we could go about it. ZOS just tells the people making reports to block the account, but again with so many accounts doing it...

randconfig wrote: »

I don't know why they feel the need to get thousands of ESO players in their guild versus the maximum population for a single guild, but I do know it's unfair to all the other smaller guilds that don't do use guild recruitment bots, that actually manually take the time to go around and search for new members.

I agree that it's definitely ego driven.

randconfig wrote: »

Maybe add a several minute cooldown on manually sending guild invites, or remove the option entirely, since anyone can still join a guild by clicking a recruitment link.

Hmm, I can see a throttle, perhaps. But a full on cool down could also impact people legitimately inviting a group of people they just played with to their guild. I don't think we need to remove tools that guild leaders have (like giving others permission to invite).

scrappy1342 · August 5

randconfig wrote: »

I think I know which guild you're talking about. If you whisper them to add you to their ignore list, they will.

this guild is the reason i have kept myself in multiple dead guilds over the years just to have my guild slots all filled so they can't recruit me

Kaelthorn_Nightbloom · August 5

How many guild invites do you get? Just click Decline. Don't even think about it. You're not hurting their feelings.

DenverRalphy · August 5

SkaraMinoc wrote: »

How many guild invites do you get? Just click Decline. Don't even think about it. You're not hurting their feelings.

Enough that it becomes a nuissance. Their feelings notwithstanding.

valenwood_vegan · August 6

Here's a recent time this same issue (with the same guild) was brought up, and got a zos response.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/668877/guild-invite-spam-not-against-the-rules/p1

Seems nothing has really changed though.

JeroenB · August 6

Interesting, I don't recall ever receiving an unsolicited Guild invite (thankfully). Is this a PC NA thing that is less prevalent on PC EU for some strange reason?

DenverRalphy · August 6

On PSNA there are a couple of guilds that will whisper their guild links to you in chat. Drives me crazy.

LootAllTheStuff · August 6

JeroenB wrote: »

Interesting, I don't recall ever receiving an unsolicited Guild invite (thankfully). Is this a PC NA thing that is less prevalent on PC EU for some strange reason?

I'm on XB-NA. Depending on where I am, I'll see the zone chat messages regularly (some guilds seem to post them in certain towns every 5 minutes). I get the actual Guild invite (with the Accept/Refuse/Later wheel options) maybe once a month or so. I don't think I've ever received a direct invite (email or whisper).

Vonnegut2506 · August 6

JeroenB wrote: »

Interesting, I don't recall ever receiving an unsolicited Guild invite (thankfully). Is this a PC NA thing that is less prevalent on PC EU for some strange reason?

There is one particular guild that will auto-invite anyone that zones into Vulkhel Guard, Daggerfall, or any newbie zone pretty much. I have gotten several invites in one gaming session even after asking them to quit inviting me. I reported them after they kept doing it and got the no violation message from ZOS. I stay in five guilds now to avoid them.

scrappy1342 · August 6

SkaraMinoc wrote: »

How many guild invites do you get? Just click Decline. Don't even think about it. You're not hurting their feelings.

it's not about hurting their feelings. they are using some sort of addon/script/whatever to automate it and they stand in the middle of the crafting area. if you are doing dailies on your toons and have a guild spot available, you will get it 1-5 times per character depending on how many times you run past them... on every toon you are doing dailies on.

LuC1ll3atTh3Wh33L · August 6

argyro wrote: »

We already have auto-decline settings for things like duels and ToT matches. Adding a setting which allows players to toggle receiving guild invites on and off wouldn’t be a perfect fix, but it would definitely help alleviate some of this issue.

i disagree. i think this is a perfect fix. i've 2 empty slots with no intention of filling them. i don't notice so often the text that pops up on my screen. it's annoying to have to decline everytime i zone into certain areas.

Azphira · August 6

Report the people sending the invites for spam?

Malkosha · August 6

I had the same issue. It's really prevalent on the NA server in places like Daggerfall. I use an addon called "Guild- AdBlock. and while it's not perfect it really works.I also add them my "Block" list. Between the two, getting guild invite spam is practically non-existent.

Vulkunne · August 6

argyro wrote: »

As a guild leader, a topic that I see come up fairly often is how certain guilds will park characters at wayshrines in busy cities and spam guild invites to anyone nearby with an empty slot. Ignoring them only goes so far as they turn up on another new account later, and it seems to be multiple iterations of the same main guild. This is an ongoing problem, and previously the only advice given was to ask them to stop and then report if they continue, otherwise they are technically not breaking any rules.

We already have auto-decline settings for things like duels and ToT matches. Adding a setting which allows players to toggle receiving guild invites on and off wouldn’t be a perfect fix, but it would definitely help alleviate some of this issue.

When the game was still young, I guess it really made sense to be a little more assertive in promoting your Guild, however by this time, we have all the major Guilds that 'made it' and smaller guilds that are little more than personal assets for their creator.

That said, I'm entirely familiar with the Guild we are most likely referring to and so, they already have like 2 or 3 other chapters with good population (as far as I know). It's time to be able to opt-out of these messages however I wonder, isn't it also time for some other changes as well? Like how expensive the weekly Kiosk rentals can be and availability?

Frayton · August 6

Azphira wrote: »

Report the people sending the invites for spam?

That doesn't seem to work bc they're still at it. It's a massive guild network.

argyro · August 8

valenwood_vegan wrote: »

Here's a recent time this same issue (with the same guild) was brought up, and got a zos response.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/668877/guild-invite-spam-not-against-the-rules/p1

Seems nothing has really changed though.

Yes, this is the post I was referring to.

Azphira wrote: »

Report the people sending the invites for spam?

Like I said, it’s technically not against the rules.

Vulkunne wrote: »

That said, I'm entirely familiar with the Guild we are most likely referring to and so, they already have like 2 or 3 other chapters with good population (as far as I know). It's time to be able to opt-out of these messages however I wonder, isn't it also time for some other changes as well? Like how expensive the weekly Kiosk rentals can be and availability?

I don’t think they have much if any say in the cost of trader bidding- the bids are done entirely by the guilds. Hardcore trading guilds will always overshoot regardless.

Mathius_Mordred · August 9

randconfig wrote: »

If I had to guess, it's because more guilds = more donations = more guild traders = more gold accumulation, and if they're able to pay people to develop scripts for them, there's probably something shady going on involving gold selling or buying crowns.
[/b]

I doubt that. We have a guild trader every week, it's bought at a massive loss and is supported by me, the GM, spending real money to buy and sell crowns for gold. And that's in a 500-member guild full of active people, we barely get back one quarter of what it costs to rent the trader. Only pure trading guilds with people filling their slots AND requiring either a minimum sales or pay subs guild can make any money. A guild full of randomly invited anonymous people will not be a trading guild. This is on PCEU, perhaps it's different on other servers, the OP didn't specify which server they are on.

Mathius_Mordred · August 9

This is against our guild rules, it's annoying, unwanted, intrusive and very unprofessional. There should definitely be a button to click, preventing spammed invites, hard to believe that after 10 years this still isn't a feature.

Pevey · August 9

There have been multiple forum threads and very popular Reddit threads on this over the years, with the specific guild named. ZOS is well aware. When someone reports it, the guild leadership claims they are sending the invites manually, not using a bot. As the third post in this thread points out, this is blatantly false. They also rationalize their behavior by saying some players are "too shy" to join a guild on their own but will accept an invite. Someone at ZOS decided that guild membership == good, as it helps retain players, thus anything that gets players in guilds is good. It was an extremely bad judgment call.

Tyralbin · August 9

As a guildleader myself I find that if a addon is being used to spam people with free spots dispicable.

Their are avenues where they can find guilds if they want to fill those spots.

Think this should be stopped.

kotisovich · August 11

As i remember the idea is to collect dead souls who will stop playing and u will have personal guild bank

argyro · August 18

@Mathius_Mordred sorry, I’m PCNA but I’m sure this issue in general can and has transcended megaservers.

valenwood_vegan · August 18

The real irony is, they get toxic real fast if one accepts the invite and starts spamming their guild chat with invites to one's own guild. Not that I would ever suggest doing such a thing.

gwdodd · August 18

The problem I have with this is they spam guild invitations and once accepted, state their demands for being in their guild.
Don't invite me to your guild and then DEMAND I join and participate in your discord channel. Seems wrong to me.

nadrokal · August 18

Pretty sure I know which guild is being referenced. I will say though, unless there's a specific reason for keeping guild slots open, that it costs nothing (as far as I have seen) to make your own guild to fill a slot and prevent unwanted invites. No need to do anything with it, and can disband as needed. Did this myself at one point because I couldn't find a guild I felt I fit with and was weary of those invites. Not like anyone else is going to see what is in your guild list.

argyro · August 18

nadrokal wrote: »

Pretty sure I know which guild is being referenced. I will say though, unless there's a specific reason for keeping guild slots open, that it costs nothing (as far as I have seen) to make your own guild to fill a slot and prevent unwanted invites. No need to do anything with it, and can disband as needed. Did this myself at one point because I couldn't find a guild I felt I fit with and was weary of those invites. Not like anyone else is going to see what is in your guild list.

The problem here is, for players who are already guildmasters (you can only be GM of one guild) and for players who do not otherwise have four other guilds they are a part of, which I’d wager is likely the majority, filling one slot out of five does nothing.

allochthons · August 18

I'm seeing a newly popular guild family called "Empty Guild Slot 1 | 2 | 3" appearing, to fill in those extra slots...

I only partially kid. I'm on PS/NA, and haven't had to deal with this much.