Good afternoon, all.
I am the owner of the community in question.
Customer Support has already confirmed that our recruitment practices do not violate the Terms of Service or Code of Conduct. That said, I recognize that repeated invites can be annoying, and I apologize if the guilds have upset you with invites in the past. It is true that something within the addon broke, and yes, the staff have been directed to cease the use of it for the time being.
Yes, I developed an addon that blocks the invites. I recognize the pain point that new players, players that don’t use addons, and players that just haven’t heard about it will not be reached.
The notification the addon generates is intended as a brief apology and dismisses after a few seconds. Apologizing was the goal, not annoying people. I will remove the notification completely when I return from work.
It is true that the invites are our primary recruitment method. I am away from the game for about a year and a half on military orders, and when I return this spring/summer, I plan to pretty much raze the guilds to the ground and rebuild them. One of the things I want to do is to use other recruitment methods that prioritize natural engagements versus cold invites. I would much rather recruit members out of dungeons and trials than off the street.
The benefit of recruiting them off of the street is that we can teach them the game, bring them into content, and help them make friends. We have thousands of guild members we recruited off of the street that would not even be playing ESO anymore had we not found them. Some stay in ESO for friends within the guilds, and others stay because we helped them discover content they enjoy and would not have done prior. Our lives pretty much revolve around bringing people together and teaching the game. In addition to my absence, there are two more reasons that the staff are using invites as the primary recruitment method.
The first is reason is that we've been getting banned for zone-chat advertisements. No, not for the invites. For the zone chat advertisements. I've not heard of other guilds with their officers getting banned over zone chat advertisements, but our staff get suspensions whenever we get serious about replacing the invites with zone chat ads as an alternate method.
Secondly, we have many players pull us aside and thank us for the invites, and these members turn out to amazing guildmates. In fact, after an exchange with someone in this thread above, members online that joined from the invites rallied and chimed in about how grateful they were and encouraged us to continue them, confessing that they would not even be Elder Scrolls Online players anymore if not for the invite. The people that join from a cold invite end up with a nearly unanimous gratitude that they did. We offer everything that a guild can possibly offer in this game, plus more. Many of the players that we find this way wouldn’t have the chance at understanding the complexity of ESO without a mentor to guide them or stayed playing the game long-term without a friend group, and thanks to the invite, they have found their people. We are able to help and support them in learning the game, subsequently making not only our community healthier, but the game’s community as well.
If anyone here is annoyed by the invites, I do sincerely apologize for them getting in your way.
In closing, I do agree that a “decline all guild invites” option native to the game’s UI would be a good idea.
Imo, if you know the GM: then report the GM of the guild(s) doing this, in addition to the people sending the invites, since the invite strategy is coming from them.
It seems guilds with this strategy are using an add-on to send the invites, and that add-on is broken and sending too many invites. They immediately stopped using it right? Of course not, instead they make an add-on that pops up an annoying 'apology' that the user has to dismiss.
Edit: apparently, the add-on description has been edited to remove mention of a broken auto invite add-on, after they were called out on it in the add-on comments, and they deleted the call out comment.
Arguably, the guild invite API is being abused by this group of guilds. It could be set as private by ZOS, which would prevent add-ons from inviting users to guilds. It wouldn't stop them from manually sending invites, but it would stop the add-on abuse.
Customer Support has already confirmed that our recruitment practices do not violate the Terms of Service or Code of Conduct. That said, I recognize that repeated invites can be annoying, and I apologize if the guilds have upset you with invites in the past. It is true that something within the addon broke, and yes, the staff have been directed to cease the use of it for the time being.
Yes, I developed an addon that blocks the invites. I recognize the pain point that new players, players that don’t use addons, and players that just haven’t heard about it will not be reached.
The notification the addon generates is intended as a brief apology and dismisses after a few seconds. Apologizing was the goal, not annoying people. I will remove the notification completely when I return from work.
It is true that the invites are our primary recruitment method. I am away from the game for about a year and a half on military orders, and when I return this spring/summer, I plan to pretty much raze the guilds to the ground and rebuild them. One of the things I want to do is to use other recruitment methods that prioritize natural engagements versus cold invites. I would much rather recruit members out of dungeons and trials than off the street.
The benefit of recruiting them off of the street is that we can teach them the game, bring them into content, and help them make friends. We have thousands of guild members we recruited off of the street that would not even be playing ESO anymore had we not found them. Some stay in ESO for friends within the guilds, and others stay because we helped them discover content they enjoy and would not have done prior. Our lives pretty much revolve around bringing people together and teaching the game. In addition to my absence, there are two more reasons that the staff are using invites as the primary recruitment method.
The first is reason is that we've been getting banned for zone-chat advertisements. No, not for the invites. For the zone chat advertisements. I've not heard of other guilds with their officers getting banned over zone chat advertisements, but our staff get suspensions whenever we get serious about replacing the invites with zone chat ads as an alternate method.
Secondly, we have many players pull us aside and thank us for the invites, and these members turn out to amazing guildmates. In fact, after an exchange with someone in this thread above, members online that joined from the invites rallied and chimed in about how grateful they were and encouraged us to continue them, confessing that they would not even be Elder Scrolls Online players anymore if not for the invite. The people that join from a cold invite end up with a nearly unanimous gratitude that they did. We offer everything that a guild can possibly offer in this game, plus more. Many of the players that we find this way wouldn’t have the chance at understanding the complexity of ESO without a mentor to guide them or stayed playing the game long-term without a friend group, and thanks to the invite, they have found their people. We are able to help and support them in learning the game, subsequently making not only our community healthier, but the game’s community as well.
If anyone here is annoyed by the invites, I do sincerely apologize for them getting in your way.
In closing, I do agree that a “decline all guild invites” option native to the game’s UI would be a good idea.
Another thing, I checked post history and there was a post you made back in Feb 2022, where you use the exact same terminology about "people have thanked us" and "member rallied and chimed in after someone said something mean". The fact that the same verbiage was used in a post over three years ago makes it feel like there's a template post that just gets edited or something.Good afternoon, all.
I am the owner of the community in question.
Customer Support has already confirmed that our recruitment practices do not violate the Terms of Service or Code of Conduct. That said, I recognize that repeated invites can be annoying, and I apologize if the guilds have upset you with invites in the past. It is true that something within the addon broke, and yes, the staff have been directed to cease the use of it for the time being.
Yes, I developed an addon that blocks the invites. I recognize the pain point that new players, players that don’t use addons, and players that just haven’t heard about it will not be reached.
The notification the addon generates is intended as a brief apology and dismisses after a few seconds. Apologizing was the goal, not annoying people. I will remove the notification completely when I return from work.
It is true that the invites are our primary recruitment method. I am away from the game for about a year and a half on military orders, and when I return this spring/summer, I plan to pretty much raze the guilds to the ground and rebuild them. One of the things I want to do is to use other recruitment methods that prioritize natural engagements versus cold invites. I would much rather recruit members out of dungeons and trials than off the street.
The benefit of recruiting them off of the street is that we can teach them the game, bring them into content, and help them make friends. We have thousands of guild members we recruited off of the street that would not even be playing ESO anymore had we not found them. Some stay in ESO for friends within the guilds, and others stay because we helped them discover content they enjoy and would not have done prior. Our lives pretty much revolve around bringing people together and teaching the game. In addition to my absence, there are two more reasons that the staff are using invites as the primary recruitment method.
The first is reason is that we've been getting banned for zone-chat advertisements. No, not for the invites. For the zone chat advertisements. I've not heard of other guilds with their officers getting banned over zone chat advertisements, but our staff get suspensions whenever we get serious about replacing the invites with zone chat ads as an alternate method.
Secondly, we have many players pull us aside and thank us for the invites, and these members turn out to amazing guildmates. In fact, after an exchange with someone in this thread above, members online that joined from the invites rallied and chimed in about how grateful they were and encouraged us to continue them, confessing that they would not even be Elder Scrolls Online players anymore if not for the invite. The people that join from a cold invite end up with a nearly unanimous gratitude that they did. We offer everything that a guild can possibly offer in this game, plus more. Many of the players that we find this way wouldn’t have the chance at understanding the complexity of ESO without a mentor to guide them or stayed playing the game long-term without a friend group, and thanks to the invite, they have found their people. We are able to help and support them in learning the game, subsequently making not only our community healthier, but the game’s community as well.
If anyone here is annoyed by the invites, I do sincerely apologize for them getting in your way.
In closing, I do agree that a “decline all guild invites” option native to the game’s UI would be a good idea.
Yes, I developed an addon that blocks the invites. I recognize the pain point that new players, players that don’t use addons, and players that just haven’t heard about it will not be reached.
The notification the addon generates is intended as a brief apology and dismisses after a few seconds. Annoying people was not the goal. I will remove the notification completely when I return from work.
Good afternoon, all.
I am the owner of the community in question.
Customer Support has already confirmed that our recruitment practices do not violate the Terms of Service or Code of Conduct. That said, I recognize that repeated invites can be annoying, and I apologize if the guilds have upset you with invites in the past. It is true that something within the addon broke, and yes, the staff have been directed to cease the use of it for the time being.
Yes, I developed an addon that blocks the invites. I recognize the pain point that new players, players that don’t use addons, and players that just haven’t heard about it will not be reached.
The notification the addon generates is intended as a brief apology and dismisses after a few seconds. Apologizing was the goal, not annoying people. I will remove the notification completely when I return from work.
It is true that the invites are our primary recruitment method. I am away from the game for about a year and a half on military orders, and when I return this spring/summer, I plan to pretty much raze the guilds to the ground and rebuild them. One of the things I want to do is to use other recruitment methods that prioritize natural engagements versus cold invites. I would much rather recruit members out of dungeons and trials than off the street.
The benefit of recruiting them off of the street is that we can teach them the game, bring them into content, and help them make friends. We have thousands of guild members we recruited off of the street that would not even be playing ESO anymore had we not found them. Some stay in ESO for friends within the guilds, and others stay because we helped them discover content they enjoy and would not have done prior. Our lives pretty much revolve around bringing people together and teaching the game. In addition to my absence, there are two more reasons that the staff are using invites as the primary recruitment method.
The first is reason is that we've been getting banned for zone-chat advertisements. No, not for the invites. For the zone chat advertisements. I've not heard of other guilds with their officers getting banned over zone chat advertisements, but our staff get suspensions whenever we get serious about replacing the invites with zone chat ads as an alternate method.
Secondly, we have many players pull us aside and thank us for the invites, and these members turn out to amazing guildmates. In fact, after an exchange with someone in this thread above, members online that joined from the invites rallied and chimed in about how grateful they were and encouraged us to continue them, confessing that they would not even be Elder Scrolls Online players anymore if not for the invite. The people that join from a cold invite end up with a nearly unanimous gratitude that they did. We offer everything that a guild can possibly offer in this game, plus more. Many of the players that we find this way wouldn’t have the chance at understanding the complexity of ESO without a mentor to guide them or stayed playing the game long-term without a friend group, and thanks to the invite, they have found their people. We are able to help and support them in learning the game, subsequently making not only our community healthier, but the game’s community as well.
If anyone here is annoyed by the invites, I do sincerely apologize for them getting in your way.
In closing, I do agree that a “decline all guild invites” option native to the game’s UI would be a good idea.
AlienatedGoat wrote: »Yes, I developed an addon that blocks the invites. I recognize the pain point that new players, players that don’t use addons, and players that just haven’t heard about it will not be reached.
The notification the addon generates is intended as a brief apology and dismisses after a few seconds. Annoying people was not the goal. I will remove the notification completely when I return from work.
My kid gets harassed by your guild invites daily while she's running through Vulkhel Guard. Every day she expresses frustration to me at the invite spam she gets sent by your bots. Let that sink in for a minute. A kid is being harassed, and your guild is the cause. Is this what you want your guild to be associated with?
I'm not installing your addon. It's enough that you created this problem and then have the audacity to peddle your addon as the solution. But I also simply don't trust you or your guild. No other guild behaves the way your guild does, so there is no excuse for it.
The kicker here is that after all of this pushback your takeaway is that since you're technically not abusing TOS, that a couple of half-hearted apologies will somehow make this behavior acceptable. I unequivocally disagree.
I was one of them, I got recruited by one of your bots, completely unaware of the automatized system, made friends while there, and still play with former members to this day.The benefit of recruiting them off of the street is that we can teach them the game, bring them into content, and help them make friends. We have thousands of guild members we recruited off of the street that would not even be playing ESO anymore had we not found them. Some stay in ESO for friends within the guilds, and others stay because we helped them discover content they enjoy and would not have done prior. Our lives pretty much revolve around bringing people together and teaching the game. In addition to my absence, there are two more reasons that the staff are using invites as the primary recruitment method.
Hi all. When you see instances of this, could you take a screenshot and place a ticket. And then share the ticket number here as well. That way, if some of these are bots, we can take care of them. If these are other players, then we can also have a chat with them to see what is going on. We want to reduce harassment where possible and being able to properly identify issues is the first step for our customer service team to assist.
Good afternoon, all.
I am the owner of the community in question.
Customer Support has already confirmed that our recruitment practices do not violate the Terms of Service or Code of Conduct. That said, I recognize that repeated invites can be annoying, and I apologize if the guilds have upset you with invites in the past. It is true that something within the addon broke, and yes, the staff have been directed to cease the use of it for the time being.
<snip>
The first is reason is that we've been getting banned for zone-chat advertisements. No, not for the invites. For the zone chat advertisements. I've not heard of other guilds with their officers getting banned over zone chat advertisements, but our staff get suspensions whenever we get serious about replacing the invites with zone chat ads as an alternate method.
Secondly, we have many players pull us aside and thank us for the invites, and these members turn out to amazing guildmates. In fact, after an exchange with someone in this thread above, members online that joined from the invites rallied and chimed in about how grateful they were and encouraged us to continue them, confessing that they would not even be Elder Scrolls Online players anymore if not for the invite. The people that join from a cold invite end up with a nearly unanimous gratitude that they did. We offer everything that a guild can possibly offer in this game, plus more. Many of the players that we find this way wouldn’t have the chance at understanding the complexity of ESO without a mentor to guide them or stayed playing the game long-term without a friend group, and thanks to the invite, they have found their people. We are able to help and support them in learning the game, subsequently making not only our community healthier, but the game’s community as well.
If anyone here is annoyed by the invites, I do sincerely apologize for them getting in your way.
In closing, I do agree that a “decline all guild invites” option native to the game’s UI would be a good idea.