After reporting a bot

Darthwraith-blackhand · February 21, 2022, 7:10am

Heres how it works

player finds a suspected bot
players reports bot.
Blizzard finds out about suspected bot
Blizzard investigates if its a bot
Blizzard looks at teh bot program.
Blizzard breaks bot program.
Blizzard actions every account using said program at the same time usualy this isnt over nite this happens after lots of investigation ban waves come every few months.

Kyzera-bloodscalp · February 21, 2022, 7:27am

Blizzard post on how they deal with bot reports:

What do we have to do to get a bot banned?

It generally isn’t as simple as “See person who looks like bot, ban person who looks like bot”. Yes, we can and have suspended or closed accounts like that, it is part of our normal practices. However, overall doing that on an individual level has very little to no impact on the overall practice.

The goal is to have the most impact we can by finding as many of those who are found to be botting as possible, while also masking our methods so as not to let the creators of those programs figure out what we may have found. It is a constant battle, and one that we care a great deal about.

The report feature itself collects data and provides that data for our Hacks teams. They run multiple investigations based on that data to accomplish a number of things.

First, would be to work to identify potential botting and exploits.

Second, would be to use those investigations to find ways to break the programs or somehow automatically detect and/or block them.

Third, to penalize those accounts found to be violating our policies.

These investigations take time. Sometimes a few days, but often several weeks. That doesn’t mean we don’t care about them, or the impact that they have on the community. This is a battle we’ve been fighting since the game launched and it likely will be part of our game as well as many others for a long time to come. We have our victories, some minor and some more lasting, but that a bot exists doesn’t mean that we don’t want to do everything we can do eject them from our game as quickly as we can.

Please continue to use the reporting system if you come across someone you believe might be botting. It does help far more than you know and it certainly is appreciated.

Jetsum-echo-isles · February 21, 2022, 7:48am

Unless you were sitting there right behind the person you think was botting, watching them use a bot program, then you surmise they were a bot, but do not know for certain. You may think they are and convince yourself they are, but you don’t know since you were not at their computer watching them. Blizzard can tell by the logs. You can only guess.

As far as how long it takes, that depends on if they are a bot or not, then it depends on how long it takes for Blizzard to figure out a way to break the botting program so that nobody can use it in it’s current state without getting caught. It can take weeks or even months. Blizzard doesn’t just ban right away, they break the program and ban all users at the same time.

Leilleath-moon-guard · February 21, 2022, 1:39pm

I’m not going to argue with you, no matter the hill you’re willing to die on here. But to answer this question even though it’s been answered already above:

There isn’t a specific time frame. Blizzard will investigate it on their time. Not ours. It may take days. It may take weeks. Could be months. There isn’t a definitive time table. You are not the only one reporting things. They have to go through each and every report, and yours is no more or less important than other people’s. Which is why we keep saying you report and you move on with your life. Your part to play in this is finished. Blizzard needs nothing more from you and you’re not entitled to know what happens from here on, though Blizzard has begun this thing where they notify and thank players if reporting merits some action to the reported bots.

If you do not get that notification, well. They were not bots and nothing needs to be done.

Kalviery · February 21, 2022, 2:26pm

Going to go ahead and close this topic since I think all of the necessary information has been conveyed.

Reminder to everyone - it’s really not necessary to argue the finer points. If the OP of a topic believes they’ve encountered a bot, then trying to convince them that it might not be isn’t generally beneficial to the overall dicsussion. Pointing out the possibility is fine, but we can leave it at that. We should instead focus on educating about the reporting process and what they should expect timeline wise.

If it’s not a bot, then there is no harm - nothing will happen. However, if there is a bot in the future I would rather a player not feel unsure about reporting. If it seems suspicious, please report it.