ZoS vs Guild Mails

wenchmore420b14_ESO · August 20

Why ZoS? WHY??
Through 2023 I missed about 9 mo. of ESO due to health and hospitals.
I returned and sent a guild mail to announce my return, and got social banned. Found out while i was gone, ZoS changed the timing parameters of sending mail to tag it as spam. Ok, i wasn't here, so I updated my add on, checked stuff out, and got it fixed.
Today I get on, spend 1million AP for Scribing Alter, go and place it in guild hall, and mail guildies that we have it. I was so proud to send that mail! Then BOOM! I triggered the spam trigger!
Did ZoS change the parameters? Again??
It must have changed with todays update, as my addon worked just fine last week.
Why does ZoS hate Guild Mails and GM's? 14K+ hours and almost 11years playing, never a ban, and now two in less than a year. And now I can't interact with my guild for 72hrs+.
Good thing I did trader bids already. Guess I'll go back to BG3 for a few days till my ban is over.
Please ZoS! Start working WITH GM's, not against us!!

eternalshockcable · August 20

welcome to the club.. although mine was in game chat but.. Hey , I'm here for you.
I suggest opening a ticket , if they read those still.

Ps. Don't believe what they say I'm really a nice guy.

wenchmore420b14_ESO · August 20

eternalshockcable wrote: »

welcome to the club.. although mine was in game chat but.. Hey , I'm here for you.
I suggest opening a ticket , if they read those still.

Ps. Don't believe what they say I'm really a nice guy.

Thank you.
Opening a ticket will do no good and anyway the ban will expire by the time tickets are processed.

LikiLoki · August 20

I wanted to write a lot of things here, suggestions for ZoS to improve the life of guilds, but I won't. Now I understand that everything is meaningless. There are no favorable conditions for clans in this game and there will not be

wenchmore420b14_ESO · August 20

LikiLoki wrote: »

I wanted to write a lot of things here, suggestions for ZoS to improve the life of guilds, but I won't. Now I understand that everything is meaningless. There are no favorable conditions for clans in this game and there will not be

I know what you mean.
We have been asking for Tools and assets to help GM's and guilds for over 8 years now, and very little has been addressed.
I'm just so angry atm that I can't send a guild wide mail without risking a social ban. And to be able to one week, and not the next.
I'm slowly just losing motivation to even log in. And as on person said in another thread, "the salt in the wound of AwA" after all those new "achievements" scrolled by. But that is another story but doesnt help to make me want to play.

I know ZoS won't address this issue, esp as it concerns a social ban, but WHEN can we mail our Guild fear free?

wenchmore420b14_ESO · August 27

Ok, now I'm confused. How long do social bans last? I thought 72hrs. But I am still on one from 8/19, over a week ago.
I put in ticket. #[240827-000061]
SO tired of this just because I sent a guild mail.(see OP). How does ZoS expect us to communicate with our guild members?
So also as a result I missed trader bidding for today and have lost our trader for a guild est. 4/13 2014.

@ZOS_Kevin can you help me with any answers? Please?

Necrotech_Master · August 27

i dont think all social bans are 72 hours, i think they can be any set duration, or even permanent if zos deems it necessary

so its usually best to open a ticket about it

i would agree that there isnt a good way to mass inform a guild about something that doesnt need to go into the MOTD, i barely even look at MOTDs myself (i skim through it usually if theres important information but generally never look at it again)

changing the MOTD does notify all guild members, but a lot of people either dont check notifications, ignore them, or (if on pc) block these entirely with addons

this is probably why bigger guilds usually also have officers who can do backup actions, such as make trader bids, or some GMs i think use a 2nd account to send mass mails in the case they do get false flagged for social ban

wenchmore420b14_ESO · August 27

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

i dont think all social bans are 72 hours, i think they can be any set duration, or even permanent if zos deems it necessary

so its usually best to open a ticket about it

i would agree that there isnt a good way to mass inform a guild about something that doesnt need to go into the MOTD, i barely even look at MOTDs myself (i skim through it usually if theres important information but generally never look at it again)

changing the MOTD does notify all guild members, but a lot of people either dont check notifications, ignore them, or (if on pc) block these entirely with addons

this is probably why bigger guilds usually also have officers who can do backup actions, such as make trader bids, or some GMs i think use a 2nd account to send mass mails in the case they do get false flagged for social ban

Well, I did open a ticket after seeing how long this has been.
I do have several officers who can do bidding, (300+ members), but was unable to contact, due to ban, them to let them know what was up in time. I will make changes to that in future.
I also never look at MOTD. Very rarely. The thing is I had the new version Godsend that I have used twice before with no problems, then the day of UD43, it flags, as if there were new parameters with UD43.
Being a GM and the wonderful members in my guild and the others I am a member of is the main reason I still play ESO.
After 14+K hours and almost 11 years, it would be terrible if I was forced to leave. I just hope that we can get this rectified.

UPDATE: I received a mail from Customer Service that my account is corrected. Thank You!!
BUT, I still am curious as to how long social bans are and the nuances of them.

RexyCat · August 28

wenchmore420b14_ESO wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

i dont think all social bans are 72 hours, i think they can be any set duration, or even permanent if zos deems it necessary

so its usually best to open a ticket about it

i would agree that there isnt a good way to mass inform a guild about something that doesnt need to go into the MOTD, i barely even look at MOTDs myself (i skim through it usually if theres important information but generally never look at it again)

changing the MOTD does notify all guild members, but a lot of people either dont check notifications, ignore them, or (if on pc) block these entirely with addons

this is probably why bigger guilds usually also have officers who can do backup actions, such as make trader bids, or some GMs i think use a 2nd account to send mass mails in the case they do get false flagged for social ban

Well, I did open a ticket after seeing how long this has been.
I do have several officers who can do bidding, (300+ members), but was unable to contact, due to ban, them to let them know what was up in time. I will make changes to that in future.
I also never look at MOTD. Very rarely. The thing is I had the new version Godsend that I have used twice before with no problems, then the day of UD43, it flags, as if there were new parameters with UD43.
Being a GM and the wonderful members in my guild and the others I am a member of is the main reason I still play ESO.
After 14+K hours and almost 11 years, it would be terrible if I was forced to leave. I just hope that we can get this rectified.

UPDATE: I received a mail from Customer Service that my account is corrected. Thank You!!
BUT, I still am curious as to how long social bans are and the nuances of them.

I would suggest that you as GM also make use of Discord as a second channel in case you will be locked out from communicating with your guild again. It isn't perfect, but as long as ZoS doesn't improve on tools for managing Guilds that is the best option to let Guild Members know what is happening in Guild.

ZoS seem to have a strategy to reduce all in game mail as they did cut down how long time any item can be up in Guild Store (from 30 day to 14 day) and reduced how long time some mail can be in mail box before it will be deleted, which can fast become a large amount from just items that haven't been sold.

Notification in this game is not a very good system as every item you collect and bind (almost everything in Collection menu/window) will go there too which make Notification full of messages from that system and when you have errors from add on they will go there too. To many things in Notification make it rather useless for fast checking news from any Guild as all MOTD also go there as fast as you log in.

Necrotech_Master · August 28

wenchmore420b14_ESO wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

i dont think all social bans are 72 hours, i think they can be any set duration, or even permanent if zos deems it necessary

so its usually best to open a ticket about it

i would agree that there isnt a good way to mass inform a guild about something that doesnt need to go into the MOTD, i barely even look at MOTDs myself (i skim through it usually if theres important information but generally never look at it again)

changing the MOTD does notify all guild members, but a lot of people either dont check notifications, ignore them, or (if on pc) block these entirely with addons

this is probably why bigger guilds usually also have officers who can do backup actions, such as make trader bids, or some GMs i think use a 2nd account to send mass mails in the case they do get false flagged for social ban

Well, I did open a ticket after seeing how long this has been.
I do have several officers who can do bidding, (300+ members), but was unable to contact, due to ban, them to let them know what was up in time. I will make changes to that in future.
I also never look at MOTD. Very rarely. The thing is I had the new version Godsend that I have used twice before with no problems, then the day of UD43, it flags, as if there were new parameters with UD43.
Being a GM and the wonderful members in my guild and the others I am a member of is the main reason I still play ESO.
After 14+K hours and almost 11 years, it would be terrible if I was forced to leave. I just hope that we can get this rectified.

UPDATE: I received a mail from Customer Service that my account is corrected. Thank You!!
BUT, I still am curious as to how long social bans are and the nuances of them.

like the other poster suggested, i would recommend discord as a secondary avenue of contact, even if you dont have a full server for your guild, and just directly message a guild officer they can get the word out at least

im glad you were able to get the issue resolved for now

ghastley · August 28

I'm with ZOS on this one. If you change the MOTD, every member gets a otification to go look at the new one. You don't need to send 500 mails instead, and I hope they close all the rest of the loopholes that overload the server. Server cycles are need for gameplay, not spam.

TaSheen · August 28

ghastley wrote: »

I'm with ZOS on this one. If you change the MOTD, every member gets a otification to go look at the new one. You don't need to send 500 mails instead, and I hope they close all the rest of the loopholes that overload the server. Server cycles are need for gameplay, not spam.

I love "No Thank You" disabling the MOTD display (among other things for which it's extremely useful) because otherwise I get the "MOTD has changed" EVERY DAY even when it hasn't changed in months; but since there's a problem with the addon interfering with deleting opened mail (even the auto-deletes from system etc) I only have it enabled on alts - my mains are the only ones that open mails, so the only ones deleting them. Wish I knew anything about xml - I'd see if I could tweak it.... But really it would be very nice if the MOTD only said it was updated when it actually WAS!

DragonRacer · August 28

ghastley wrote: »

I'm with ZOS on this one. If you change the MOTD, every member gets a otification to go look at the new one. You don't need to send 500 mails instead, and I hope they close all the rest of the loopholes that overload the server. Server cycles are need for gameplay, not spam.

On console, there isn’t even an option to mass mail people so we have to use MOTD and/or Discord for overall guild communication.

However, I definitely empathize with a GM being social banned and unable to function due to it. Especially since this mass mail thing seems common on PC, I guess?

Pevey · August 28

Some people get very prickly about unwanted messages and notifications. I am one of them. It's not just me. After Apple provided per-app notification settings, Android was forced to follow suit after being reluctant for years (because app developers didn't want the restrictions). Android did it because they realized that some people care about it a LOT.

I know some guild leaders don't see the problem. But it should be enough to know that some people DO care. I've only ever seen one guild leader say they provide a way for members to opt out of mails, which is admirable. I've seen multiple talk about blacklisting accounts who complain about message spam or put guild leaders on ignore, so that seems to be the more common stance.

Guild accounts that mass mail their members are probably on a lot of ignore lists. I'm not sure if that factors into the algorithm for giving someone a social ban. If so, it could explain why the timings that seem safe for some people using Godsend addon do no work as well for others. So maybe try giving members a way to opt out and see if that helps. It doesn't mean they don't want to be in the guild and participate in events. It just means they don't want in-game messages all the time. I mean, the OP sent a message saying they got something that literally every other guild was getting on the same day. It was unnecessary and for some people unwanted. If some people got the message and put the sender on ignore, that could possibly have triggered the ban.

MJallday · August 28

eternalshockcable wrote: »

welcome to the club.. although mine was in game chat but.. Hey , I'm here for you.
I suggest opening a ticket , if they read those still.

Ps. Don't believe what they say I'm really a nice guy.

and this is why console guilds in particular use Discord. because we can chat away without restrictions, and also say what we want without fear of ZOS repercussions

Necrotech_Master · August 28

TaSheen wrote: »

ghastley wrote: »

I'm with ZOS on this one. If you change the MOTD, every member gets a otification to go look at the new one. You don't need to send 500 mails instead, and I hope they close all the rest of the loopholes that overload the server. Server cycles are need for gameplay, not spam.

I love "No Thank You" disabling the MOTD display (among other things for which it's extremely useful) because otherwise I get the "MOTD has changed" EVERY DAY even when it hasn't changed in months; but since there's a problem with the addon interfering with deleting opened mail (even the auto-deletes from system etc) I only have it enabled on alts - my mains are the only ones that open mails, so the only ones deleting them. Wish I knew anything about xml - I'd see if I could tweak it.... But really it would be very nice if the MOTD only said it was updated when it actually WAS!

i just turned off the option to bypass the delete mail prompt and it works fine

the only mails i get the prompts for anymore anyway are the "player mails" everything else has the checkbox to auto delete after retrieving items

wenchmore420b14_ESO · August 29

Thank you all for your responses.
I agree Discord would be ideal an idea on paper, but as I stated only a portion of members have it. I have a channel for the guild, but Im not going to force them to get it/use it when we should be able as GM's to mail our guild.
I group mail about once every month or two. That's not excessive i don't think. People have stated how they feel about MoD.
The majority of my guild have no problem with the mails and look forward to them at times as I pass on news from PTS, etc that you don't have space for on MoD.

I know Godsend has adjusted the timing to not flag as spam, and was working prior to UD43. I will just check and see if they updated the add on.
I will just have to watch it in future and get with my officers for back up bidding in case of situations like this.

Happy gaming all!! Huzzah!

TaSheen · August 29

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

TaSheen wrote: »

ghastley wrote: »

I'm with ZOS on this one. If you change the MOTD, every member gets a otification to go look at the new one. You don't need to send 500 mails instead, and I hope they close all the rest of the loopholes that overload the server. Server cycles are need for gameplay, not spam.

I love "No Thank You" disabling the MOTD display (among other things for which it's extremely useful) because otherwise I get the "MOTD has changed" EVERY DAY even when it hasn't changed in months; but since there's a problem with the addon interfering with deleting opened mail (even the auto-deletes from system etc) I only have it enabled on alts - my mains are the only ones that open mails, so the only ones deleting them. Wish I knew anything about xml - I'd see if I could tweak it.... But really it would be very nice if the MOTD only said it was updated when it actually WAS!

i just turned off the option to bypass the delete mail prompt and it works fine

the only mails i get the prompts for anymore anyway are the "player mails" everything else has the checkbox to auto delete after retrieving items

I didn't realize that was what that option did. Thanks! All sorted now.

FlopsyPrince · August 29

TaSheen wrote: »

ghastley wrote: »

I'm with ZOS on this one. If you change the MOTD, every member gets a otification to go look at the new one. You don't need to send 500 mails instead, and I hope they close all the rest of the loopholes that overload the server. Server cycles are need for gameplay, not spam.

I love "No Thank You" disabling the MOTD display (among other things for which it's extremely useful) because otherwise I get the "MOTD has changed" EVERY DAY even when it hasn't changed in months; but since there's a problem with the addon interfering with deleting opened mail (even the auto-deletes from system etc) I only have it enabled on alts - my mains are the only ones that open mails, so the only ones deleting them. Wish I knew anything about xml - I'd see if I could tweak it.... But really it would be very nice if the MOTD only said it was updated when it actually WAS!

I also get it each time I swap to another alt! Even if it has not changed!

Annoying!