Simple way to reduce spams

3car3car ✭✭✭

I believe that my fellow agents receives spams every few days.

I want to suggest a simple means of reducing it-restrict COMM until lvl 2 or 3.

It will not ban all spams for sure, but I guess it will reduce it a lot.

Reason for this suggestion is that completing the tutorial makes an agent lvl 2. another few full capture of a portal makes lvl 3. Agents already in the system will need not to care for this restrictions.


I just want to know how the community sees this option. Constructive opinions always welcome.

Comments

  • Novoca1neNovoca1ne ✭✭✭
    edited June 2020

    Bring back agent verification. Restrict COMMS until agent verified (by at least 2 L16/Recursed agents).

    While we're on it, also limit certain actions within the game unless agent is verified.

    Implement a 3 strike policy to back the verification process. If agents X & Y verify Z and Z turns out to be a spammer, spoofer, bad actor, etc, X & Y get a strike. 3 strikes and you get your account suspended for 14 days. Additional strikes results in longer suspension ultimately resulting in a ban.

  • HydracyanHydracyan ✭✭✭✭✭

    Is it possible to do the tutorial without having any portals?

  • 3car3car ✭✭✭

    Nowadays, no. As far as I remember the game says 'Go to the nearest portal'. I never tried where there is none-or in areas less than 3.

  • GoblinGranateGoblinGranate ✭✭✭✭✭

    Redacted tutorial did not require any portal since it created them for you, ofuscating the rest of the map. It was implemented as a sandbox and I don't quite understand why did they choose not to replicate that.

  • WikiBlueWikiBlue ✭✭✭

    Agreed. In some places it will be very difficult to find that specific agents... and for sure almost impossible if you can't play/use comm because you're not verified.

    I do agree that it would help to reduce spamm bots and backpack accounts, but the other side of the medal is not worth it... even less players will join in.

  • GoblinGranateGoblinGranate ✭✭✭✭✭

    Why not externalyzing that comms? There is a feature within the scanner to access communities, if someone REALLY wanted to reach out would be one post away.

    This would also effectively prevent other from contacting you when you have no real desire on such matter.

    I've always stated that COMM chat should just be completely removed and a there would be a lot less of trouble. But leaving faction chat would not solve spam problem, although would require spammers to duplicate their work. And it would definetely be easier and cleaner to build up communities using this forum as a bridge.

    I say get rid of COMM chat!

  • Simple: capture/hack a portal you get access to COMM.


    It is interesting to read what the weather is like in different countries :D

  • RostwoldRostwold ✭✭✭✭✭

    It's always struck me as odd that COMMs is the one thing that never overheats. A lot of the current spam would be filtered out if unreasonably large numbers of mentions resulted in a cooldown.

  • Agent verification did literally nothing to stop spam and bots, since new telephone numbers for SMS are globally available short term at an astonishing rate for next to nothing.

  • The easiest way to reduce spam is to disable sending comm messages from Intel...

    Or enable it on Intel only from a certain level..


    The vast majority (if not all) spam from sellers is from Intel as that is very easy to automate.

  • There is one recursed agent in my entire city, I've never met him/her because (s)he's no longer all that active. So, none of us should ever use COMMS? We shouldn't use it to chat with out-of-town agents passing through? This suggestion is completely absurd in less urban parts of the world.

  • HosetteHosette ✭✭✭✭✭

    In a past life I worked in fraud detection for (mumble mumble). I've also worked professionally in an email-related role, part of which required my staying on top of email spam detection and evasion techniques. (I'm just presenting my bona fides so you understand where **** from.)

    One way to think about these things is to pretend you're on the other side. Imagine you are a spammer and Niantic institutes those restrictions. What would you do? If it were me I'd just add a level-up function to my bot code to work around it. That would probably take me a couple of hours once I figured out what was going on.

    One of the things that I'm very sure of is that there is no "simple way to reduce spam". Spam is a never-ending cat and mouse game. The cat sometimes figures out how to stop current spam techniques, and the mice figure out how to get around that. Then the cycle repeats. This is true for any kind of fraud-- fraudsters figure out a trick, then smart people figure out how to prevent that fraud and fraudsters figure out a different trick. The war is never won.

  • Novoca1neNovoca1ne ✭✭✭

    I said L16/Recursed ie L16 or recursed. Pretty sure you'd have access to L16 players.

    The only real argument I've seen against this suggestion is that new agents wouldn't be able to connect with their faction as they wouldn't be authorised to use comms.

  • Novoca1neNovoca1ne ✭✭✭

    This is true. Cheaters/spammers always find a way

  • HydracyanHydracyan ✭✭✭✭✭

    Just delete the spam as soon as players report it. It's one guy job.

    Might be highly recommend a better and faster report system for this, like just long pressing over a comm statement.

  • HosetteHosette ✭✭✭✭✭

    You shouldn't have to report it-- Niantic should be able to stop this stuff before it gets to you. They did so for a long time, and I have confidence that they will catch up to the current wave pretty quickly. While a few things will always get through, smart algorithms should be able to automatically recognize and suppress spam without much human intervention.

  • 3car3car ✭✭✭

    Not when the phone rings every 2~3 hours, no.

    I don't want to disable COMM alerts, I want to react fast when mentioned.

  • 3car3car ✭✭✭

    I agree that spammers will mostly be on the winning side, as it is with spoofers. I also understand spam detection might take time to implement. Still I would like mentions that they are aware of this issue.

  • 24601LM24601LM ✭✭
    edited June 2020

    The second highest level player in my city hit level 14 recently. So, no, my entire city would be locked out from COMMS under your suggestion.

    Post edited by 24601LM on
  • HosetteHosette ✭✭✭✭✭

    @24601LM Requiring other players to vouch for you before you can use comms also creates some potentially unpleasant community politics.

  • cheatchcheatch ✭✭✭

    Ya, I decided to turn off Android notifications for now.

    If they ever do a subscription service, think only 'subscribers' should be able to '@' people

  • HosetteHosette ✭✭✭✭✭

    So, $5-10 month for the right to spam?

  • HydracyanHydracyan ✭✭✭✭✭

    Just disable urls at comm or make them go under review before posting.

  • I agree! This is just a chat feature. No need urls. Use more strict rules! The only important function here is the written communication. Banning individual spammer accounts is not enough.I agree! This is just a chat feature. No need urls. Use more strict rules! The only important function here is the written communication. Banning individual spammer accounts is a very weak action.

  • This is never how it worked anyway. Agent Verification was sending a code that was SMS'd to you. Ingress has never relied on players to verify anything.

  • 3car3car ✭✭✭

    I personally wish urls remain, I use these urls to redirect new enlightened agents in Korea, and believe it helps a lot.

    enl.kr/a

    enl.kr/b

    enl.kr/c

    Still, worth mentioning urls can be reviewed.

  • 3car3car ✭✭✭

    Whatever's done, either Niantic worked some way or the sellers gave up, I think I am not seeing spams these days.

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