Addons can no longer use /who functionality

[Tln-herod]

ClassicLFG wasn’t banned. The problem functionality was removed from the addon

Using /who wasn’t the issue with ClassicLFG. This change is about something else… probably layers.

[Tln-herod]

Does this mean Classic is losing a lot of players?

I doubt that. Herod queues have been pretty darn consistent recently.

[Velena-kromcrush]

So… are you going to update the addon so that it works?

After 30 mins this morning ClassicCensusPlus found 0 players.

[Riolu-bloodsail-buccaneers]

/who has nothing to do with layers and Blizzard has actually stated that as fact.

Layer switching is the problem, not layering itself

We’ve been monitoring players’ use of layers, and we agree that we should add a delay between subsequent layer transfers. Under the hood we have all the controls I talked about in the Reddit AMA before launch, a few secret weapons we haven’t discussed publicly, and we’re working on deploying some additional controls to further restrain layering from being exploitable. However, we also want to assure you that the issue is a much smaller problem than some people are claiming. We’ve been closely…

Another popular theory is that you can determine your current layer by doing a /who in a capital city, and comparing the results against the /who your friend does. That doesn’t work because /who returns results from the entire realm, not just from your layer, and if the result set is too large it truncates the results before sorting them.

My bets are on Blizz trying to brick gold seller chat channel invites; they’re likely automated with a custom addon that relies on /who.

[Musawe-stormrage]

Why else would they break the census addons though? And Herod queues have gone from 20k down to 5k~6k during peak hours. There is no queue on Herod for most of the day.

[Jahgro-westfall]

@Bornakk

We’ve been closely following the community discussion around this add-on for WoW Classic, as well as analyzing it to make sure we understand how it works. After careful examination, we believe the nature of ClassicLFG is incompatible with our social design for Classic. Thus, in an upcoming patch (in the weeks following launch), we will be adding restrictions to the Classic add-on API that will significantly limit this add-on and others like it.

In line with what we shared at BlizzCon last year, we intend to be very careful about allowing add-on functionality that might undermine aspects of the social dynamics that are core to the Classic experience, even in cases like this where it’s clear that the addon author had no ill intent and was simply trying to provide a service to the Classic community. Ultimately, if a streamlined group-finding system was something we considered compatible with Classic, we would have kept the modern Premade Group Finder tool rather than choosing to remove it from the Classic client.

It’s difficult to articulate a clear-cut rule for exactly when an add-on crosses the line. However, when an add-on goes beyond presenting information or providing aesthetic customization, and attempts to create an interconnected social network that relies on other players also using that same add-on, we are likely to scrutinize it particularly closely.

It’s right here.

[Tln-herod]

/who has nothing to do with layers and Blizzard has actually stated that as fact.

I seriously think they’re not giving us the whole story there.

Why else would they break the census addons though?

I genuinely have no idea.

And Herod queues have gone from 20k down to 5k~6k during peak hours. There is no queue on Herod for most of the day.

It was only 20k for a few days. For the past couple weeks it’s been consistently around 5k during peak.

[Monald-deviate-delight]

If you don’t like the addons, don’t use them. Otherwise, you get what you get. Enjoy the collateral damage.

Colateral damage? To players who are against plug ins or game changes? The whole API could be shut down without damage to anything they care about (I am not one of them, but your ’ colateral damage’ in post after post seems an excessive assumption.)

[Tln-herod]

It’s right here

SendWho isn’t really part of the ClassicLFG core functionality.

This change isn’t targeted at ClassicLFG.

[Shortcuts-bigglesworth]

And where does that say “So we will be removing the ability for AddOns to use the SendWho() API call” It doesn’t, so again, provide me something concrete, vs all the nonsense being pulled out of thin air and quoted as concrete proof.

[Notagin-kul-tiras (Notagin)]

You must not be responding to my post. I know how to spell collateral.

[Burninator-smolderweb]

And where does that say “So we will be removing the ability for AddOns to use the SendWho() API call” It doesn’t, so again, provide me something concrete, vs all the nonsense being pulled out of thin air and quoted as concrete proof.

I’m not sure what you hope to accomplish by aggressively shouting “everyone is wrong!”

[Monald-deviate-delight]

You must not be responding to my post. I know how to spell collateral.

You must be avoiding the issue. The thread isn’t about spelling.

[Tubbly-terenas (Tubbly)]

I mean… thats the point dude. What makes vanilla special was the social aspect. You aren’t supposed to sit in LFG parsing chat all day long, you are supposed to make friends. You are supposed to join a guild, not just because you get perks and some random dude invited you, but because you can do things together.

Don’t presume you know how I’m playing the game, nor that you can dictate it. For all you know, I could be doing all of those things to find my groups. It’s logical to assume that, because Blizzard provided an LFG channel in the first place, it’s intended that you find groups with random people, outside your social circle. It’s also logical to assume that, even if you’re in a guild, you won’t exclusively find party members that way. If you do, great, but it’s not the only way to play.

I joined a guild. I made friends. You don’t see me on here whinging about how tiresome it is to parse chat channels because I don’t have to.

Good for you, fella! I’ve done those things too! However, I do see you whinging about how other people want to play the game in a way that absolutely, in no way, has any impact on how you play the game.

[Torquemada-grobbulus]

I think this FAR more to do with gold sellers doing mass channel invites for people they aren’t in zones with than with any other addon.

[Kilohurt-deviate-delight]

This is all very sad.

[Maledictus-kurinnaxx]

Majority of the addons we have now, were not in Vanilla.
We’re also using retails API, which is not vanillas API.

Something everyone should be grateful for.

What you could do with the original “macro system of yore” would make… eh… I’d say 90% of players $h*t their pants in rage induced seizures.

[Shortcuts-bigglesworth]

I’m actually using less AddOns in Classic than I did in Vanilla. The only AddOn I have installed now that I didn’t really have a counterpart for in Vanilla is WeakAuras. Otherwise, I think a lot of people don’t recall how many AddOns there were back in Vanilla (though they were a bit harder to track down, install, update, etc.)

[Burninator-smolderweb]

We’re also using retails API, which is not vanillas API.

We’re not using the Retail API. We’re using the Classic API. They have some similiarites but they have many more differences, which is why so many Retail addons do not work in Classic.

[Kilohurt-deviate-delight]

I’m actually using less AddOns in Classic than I did in Vanilla.

I thought addons were spooky in vanilla. I thought they would steal my account.