Website Policies In Game

[Omnius]

What are the official policies about posting links in game?

In regards to search sites?

In regards to officially recognized fan sites?

In regards to unofficial fan sites?

In regards to guild sites?

I ask because I've seen A LOT of sites linked in game and wasn't really sure.

 

[Woodsman]

The search sites that break the TOS are dropping books with their website names as the titles and they've been doing it at least since I came back and are still doing it, so it's probably legal.

It's not legal the way they are spamming us with the books, but they aren't getting in trouble for the books.

 

[Fayled Dhreams]

The search sites that break the TOS are dropping books with their website names as the titles and they've been doing it at least since I came back and are still doing it, so it's probably legal.

It's not legal the way they are spamming us with the books, but they aren't getting in trouble for the books.

nope

8
With the exception of the sale of in-game items for in-game items or services, you may not market, promote or advertise anything, or make any other form of solicitation (including pyramid schemes and chain letters) through the Ultima Online service or Ultima Online web site.


Just too bothersome to TRY and get them to enforce THEIR ROC

*shrugs*
On the one hand ...
The Video HOC they are all "GMs are a different dept"
on the other
The recent Dev Vid ... we are introduced to a mythical GM ... and he said promised indicated committed ... errr ...

*shrugs*
not much

 

[Lord Raven]

...With the exception of the sale of in-game items for in-game items or services, you may not market, promote or advertise anything...

I sent a direct message to EA support trying to clarify the "anything" to see if sites that didn't sell items, etc. were acceptable. Specifically whether listing a URL in my paperdoll profile would be ok. (A rather passive promotion of my blog, I thought.)

They just quoted the exact section of the ROC to me again in the reply... I'm guessing they have written an all-inclusive policy so they don't have to evaluate and track individual sites.

I doubt they bother chasing down individual offenders, but if someone reported you... it's not worth the risk IMHO.

Which is probably why the folks that drop books everywhere do it in Stealth mode...

 

[Woodsman]

Which is probably why the folks that drop books everywhere do it in Stealth mode...

Dropping items in stealth mode doesn't matter to GMs. EA could do something about them if they wanted to, just like they could do something about the bots for the search websites.

It is funny that all of those illegal search or RTM websites get away with plugging their websites, but you could get in trouble for having a book at your house mentioning your guild website or even something like UO Guide. Maybe it's not so funny.

GM Akamai reads the forums. It'd be wonderful if he saw this thread and discussed the issue with Cal/Mesanna. People should be able to promote their guild websites, at least with say a book at their house or a mention on a bulletin board.

 

[Fayled Dhreams]

I sent a direct message to EA support trying to clarify the "anything" to see if sites that didn't sell items, etc. were acceptable. Specifically whether listing a URL in my paperdoll profile would be ok. (A rather passive promotion of my blog, I thought.)

They just quoted the exact section of the ROC to me again in the reply... I'm guessing they have written an all-inclusive policy so they don't have to evaluate and track individual sites.

I doubt they bother chasing down individual offenders, but if someone reported you... it's not worth the risk IMHO.

Which is probably why the folks that drop books everywhere do it in Stealth mode...

Really?
you don't know that anything IS "inclusive"?

me thinks you are trying to play dumb(not the silent dumb, the other one)
*shakes head*

In the >repeated< rule ... they "included" (as an example OF the inclusiveness of "anything")
>including< pyramid schemes and chain letters ... they even prefaced that example with:
or make any other form of solicitation ...

Is it the word "solicitation" that is boggeling your mind?
*shakes head* crinklycracklingdustcloud
o'well
solicit IN GAME
about
"things" NOT ingame ... but External TO the game ...

"The Problem" IS >>> enforcement
they ain't got it

The new improved Tool ?
could have been a try
but(again)

Player Abuse:
We are very aware of the escalating cases of abuse in the game over the last few months. We have had problems with our petitioning systems, and have been unable to receive or action some cases as quickly as we’d like to. As an answer our operations team working with CS has developed a new tool to allow our GMs and customer support reps not only to action faster, but to record activity better as well as a functionality to replace lost items. Expect to see the results of this new tool in the near future.

*shakes head, curses, thrashes, rolls eyes, spasms, shoots blood out of tear ducts*

Answer
*sighs*

NO EXCUSES no more excuses for them
THEY need to learn:
What game is being talked about(Ultima Online ... by the way)
Its history
Their place in it
what the players want (NO! >not all of them< <<that is impossible! ( to please ALL humans) )
(Hint: start with bugs ... that'll be job security for awhile)
what the word "decide" MEANS (and act accordingly)

and thereby avoid all of this rehashed adinfinitum crap

 

[Lady Storm]

The books are made on "14 day Trial accounts" and have no info on the owner usualy not run for more then the 1 day it took to drop the books. This is assuming the main account is a paid one who is supplying the gold and master book. Its very hard to prove that the company who's link is on the book actualy made and droped the books in court hence the legal team cant do squat. Anyone who has ever made up a account for a short term use knows the info on a opening account can be totally bogus info.

 

[Lord Raven]

The books are made on "14 day Trial accounts" and have no info on the owner usualy not run for more then the 1 day it took to drop the books. This is assuming the main account is a paid one who is supplying the gold and master book. Its very hard to prove that the company who's link is on the book actualy made and droped the books in court hence the legal team cant do squat. Anyone who has ever made up a account for a short term use knows the info on a opening account can be totally bogus info.

Although it's been a while since I opened a trial account, I thought EA collected a credit card # during the registration. They could ban those CC#'s.

(...as we drift slowly off-topic and turn this into a thread about those nasty book-droppers...)

 

[Cirno]

Although it's been a while since I opened a trial account, I thought EA collected a credit card # during the registration. They could ban those CC#'s.

I think even if you need one for registration, you can remove it immediately afterwards, and EA are legally required to destroy all records of that credit card information.

 

[Woodsman]

They could take a look at the IPs of the book droppers, who probably aren't going through the trouble of using proxies for every single account.

One GM hanging around Luna on a shard like Atlantic or GL or LS could ban the book droppers/search engine scripters within an hour or two anyways, it's not like they'd have to go searching all over the place.

 

[Fayled Dhreams]

They could take a look at the IPs of the book droppers, who probably aren't going through the trouble of using proxies for every single account.

One GM hanging around Luna on a shard like Atlantic or GL or LS could ban the book droppers/search engine scripters within an hour or two anyways, it's not like they'd have to go searching all over the place.

yeah ... but*wink*

too complicated ...just show up and SEE the character drop the book
Wham! BAN! ... next report ...(while the auto generated email is being sent)

auto generate a log of the actions ... last hour of the shift sort,filter and prep for follow on data mining.
or
turn up the decay rate on dropped books ( I guess NO ONE has thought of that ... pile of golden quatloo credited to Fayled )


You see what's missing though ... don'tcha?

A modicum of GM ATTENTION ...


yw

@ Cirno: I seriously doubt that.

 

[JC the Builder]

I got suspended (my only game suspension ever) for linking to UOGuide.com once. They said it was because game items were being sold for cash (which was being used to support the website). So UOGuide doesn't do that anymore.

But this rule apparently doesn't apply to guild websites or the Tradespot or eBay (when you could sell UO items there).

So it is really up to how the GM interprets the Rules of Conduct. It also depends heavily on whether someone is trying to get you in trouble. As in my case, they linked directly to the item selling page while I was linking to a completely different one.

 

[Lord Raven]

I got suspended (my only game suspension ever) for linking to UOGuide.com once. They said it was because game items were being sold for cash (which was being used to support the website). So UOGuide doesn't do that anymore.

But this rule apparently doesn't apply to guild websites or the Tradespot or eBay (when you could sell UO items there).

So it is really up to how the GM interprets the Rules of Conduct. It also depends heavily on whether someone is trying to get you in trouble. As in my case, they linked directly to the item selling page while I was linking to a completely different one.

When I approached EA about a site I wanted to promote, I figured the obvious reasons they would not allow it would be for commercial sites, or sites that promoted banned activities and exploits. Since I wanted to promote a volunteer grid networking project... which is non-profit, non-political, and basically nothing anyone could take offense at, I thought I would get an "ok" from them.

I included a cut-paste of the ROC to let them know I did put forth the effort to read the rules. I also included an a copy of the exact text (including URL) that I wanted to include in my paperdoll profile.

Since the wording in the ROC is so inclusive, it seems to prohibit everything...

...you may not market, promote or advertise anything, or make any other form of solicitation...

...so I asked for a clarification based on the exact information I provided.

I did get a reply, but it was just a link to the ROC... so I decided to err on the side of caution and take that as a no.

I just figured that like every corporation... they put things in such broad terms so that they can apply enforcement actions to basically anything that irks them. As JC says, it's basically up to how the GM interprets the rules.

I think this is just an example of how EA has to respond in a manner that punishes everyone, because of the few idiots that try and exploit every loophole in the rules. And of course, EA doesn't have the time or inclination to try and sort out each individual request they just ban everything. Even if they went to the effort to evaluate and approve sites, there is no way to guarantee that the site wouldn't change content later and end up violating the ROC.

 

[Cirno]

@ Cirno: I seriously doubt that.

I'm no expert, I'll admit.
But I'm pretty sure, from past experience, that credit card details cannot be stored without the cardholder's permission.
That is to say, if you put your card information in for a recurring payment, then they would have to retain the details in order to perform the agreed-upon future transaction. But without such agreement, the card details cannot be retained.
The exception would be that if a transaction were performed, in which case a record has to be kept, albeit with enough details to be a useful record, but not enough to allow the details to be used for fraud.
Since no transaction takes place with the creation of a trial account, to the best of my knowledge, they legally can't retain the credit card details if the user has removed them.

 

[Vlaude]

I got suspended (my only game suspension ever) for linking to UOGuide.com once. They said it was because game items were being sold for cash (which was being used to support the website). So UOGuide doesn't do that anymore.

But this rule apparently doesn't apply to guild websites or the Tradespot or eBay (when you could sell UO items there).

So it is really up to how the GM interprets the Rules of Conduct. It also depends heavily on whether someone is trying to get you in trouble. As in my case, they linked directly to the item selling page while I was linking to a completely different one.

There used to be a guy on Catskills named "ebaying noob" and as far as I know he never got in any trouble for it. I think another player wrote a report against you.