Guild Wars 2

I shouldn’t have to add any more text to it but why are you not blacklisting certain URLs?

kokiman.2364:

I shouldn’t have to add any more text to it but why are you not blacklisting certain URLs?

Because they’d have to blacklist every single combination of letters and symbols that can represent the url.

Basandra Skye.4031:

kokiman.2364:

I shouldn’t have to add any more text to it but why are you not blacklisting certain URLs?

Because they’d have to blacklist every single combination of letters and symbols that can represent the url.

Why letters and symbols? The last ingame ads I saw had plain urls, no special characters, no spaces.

kokiman.2364:

Basandra Skye.4031:

kokiman.2364:

I shouldn’t have to add any more text to it but why are you not blacklisting certain URLs?

Because they’d have to blacklist every single combination of letters and symbols that can represent the url.

Why letters and symbols? The last ingame ads I saw had plain urls, no special characters, no spaces.

Think it through. Simply blocking “www.this.url.com” wont be the end of it. For starters , they’ll begin using vvvvvv, wwvv, wvvvv, etc. Then you gotta filter that. And so on and so on and so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so onand so on until you might as well ban people for chatting period.

edit: and if you’re dumb enough to type in said URL into your ‘net browser, all the while knowing full well you’re breaking the ToS… well… you deserve it.

Did you even read what I wrote? They just use plain urls nothing special and that happend for months now.

kokiman.2364:

Did you even read what I wrote? They just use plain urls nothing special and that happend for months now.

I did, and you’re not thinking it through at all. I really cant explain it any simpler than what I have, and that’s coming from playing several games where they tried the exact same miserable failure of a system.

kokiman.2364:

Did you even read what I wrote? They just use plain urls nothing special and that happend for months now.

As Basandra Skye.4031 said what blocks them from typing
wvw.this.url.com, this.url.com and even wvw.this .url. com and so on.

They would have to block every combination… And also as Basandra Skye.4031 said, you are pretty unwise if you happen to write the whole URL in your webbrowser since you can’t Ctrl+C in GW2 chat (Not what I know of atleast). … But I have seen examples of people being fooled by the in-game mails so actually there are people who are that dumb. Sorry if I offended anyone but it is not very clever.

Maybe a rephrasing is in order..
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See, right now they type it in as www.some.url.com because it isn’t blacklisted, it isn’t banned, and it will display. Its the easiest and most recognized way to display it. They don’t have to worry about someone misunderstanding a vv as two literal v’s instead of a w and so on. In short, there is no NEED to type it any other way.

However, if they were to blacklist www.some.url.com, suddenly the NEED to type it some other way arose. After all, if they don’t change, then they can’t advertise! Oh no! (Well, not for me. I’d be perfectly fine if they just gave up at this point.) Okay, so what to they do? Simple! Let’s just type it in as vvwww.some.url.com. Same message gets across, and it avoids the black list. Oh? Anet blacklisted that one? Let’s change it to wvvw.some.url.come.

This whole process continues indefinitely because most (if not all) domain services allow you to make subdomains for free with your domain. That means that if I ran out of the many different combinations I could type www.some.url.com in, I could make a subdomain at no additional charge that said “pixels.some.url.com”, and suddenly I have a whole new slew of domains I could use!

Heck, depending on how pathetic the black list was designed, you might even be able to just create a redirecting new directory on your server.. or if you wanted to make it really simple, just use a URL shortened service. (I programmed one, you could even just make your own for unlimited, random URLs to the same page.)

I hope this excessive explanation helps you realize that black listing is not the answer, but banning and developing an algorithm that can recognize undesired URLs is better.

A.Net used to blacklist URLs and at this time it was pretty effective. The goldspammers continued to spam but there was no URL in their message.

And even though you try to make me look like I am mentally challenged I do know that these bots would obviously try to circumvent blacklists. But right now they don’t have to put in any effort. And if you continue to update that blacklist they will sooner or later run out of alternatives, I mean at some point people will just stop trying to decipher that gobbledegoo.

Used to. If it were the most effective method, they would still be doing it.

And no, my whole post was to explain that they could, in theory, never run out of alternatives while also maintaining a url that was easily deciphered, without any additional cost on top of buying the URL.

There are better and more effective methods available than a black list. Even if you automate the system to where if 10 players report the same URL, it is automatically black listed (bad idea, this would lead to so many problems unless you up that number considerably), and each report took 5 seconds (guesstimating here), it would take 2 or 3 seconds to change the URL. ~50 seconds of work undone by ~2-3 seconds of work.

That is the problem. Alternatives such as making an Anet employee handle the blacklist manually, or raising or lowering the number of reports before an automatic black list would just enhance different problems. It is so much better to just develop some algorithm that can detect, decipher, and flag (or, if accurate enough, ban) these spammers while also removing the URL from their message. (Then you have a near instant result to their message versus their 2 to 3 second investment. Those numbers are in our favor.)

I’m not trying to make you seem mentally challenged, I am trying to explain why this idea is a waste of time in practice. It sounds great on paper and in planning, but once implemented, its a resource drag.

Not to mention, if you really gonna effectively try to blacklist certain combinations, for it to truly be effective, and thus just a minor inconvenience for the gold spammers, it is more than likely gonna be a MAJOR pain in the kitten for normal users