Breaking CensusPlusClassic (making SendWho() protected)

[Duman-kilrogg (Duman)]

Well, the small patch last night turned SendWho() into a protected function (needs user input to be called). This essentially breaks CensusPlusClassic, or anything that would do automated “who” calls (some other addons that tracked users as they leveled, for example).

I’m sort of curious the reasoning here.

I’d like to assume it was NOT some “nefarious” reason, like trying to prevent people from seeing what the population on a server is like, or at least the A:H balance…

…and so I’d like to assume it’s because the /who (SendWho()) calls were actually causing enough server load (since there are so many users on a realm) to cause issues. (The addon does a substantial number of calls to SendWho, especially when there are more than 50 results in a given “subset” of queries – there is a chance this is just placing undue extra load on the servers)

Given that Blizzard has never previously had an issue w/ people tracking all of this data, I’d really like to assume we’re looking at the second reason – which should hopefully mean the functionality will get restored in the future.

Regardless of which is true (or if it’s even a little of both), it really is nice - as a player - to be able to see what the server population makeup is like. It helps answer questions along the lines of “what sorts of classes are popular” (or lacking), as well as it would help players understand why certain PvP queues might be short or long, as well as which guilds are active (or large, or small), etc…

I’m curious what other players think, and who enjoyed the ability to see your server population makeup/breakdown, etc…

[Jojenpaste-mankrik]

It was to break the ClassicLFG add-on and any other that might want to imitate it.

[Duman-kilrogg (Duman)]

It was to break the ClassicLFG add-on and any other that might want to imitate it.

Oh? Hmm… was there a blue post stating as such?

It seems like the “who” functionality would be a tiny portion of any sort of “LFG” addon, that this doesn’t make that much sense to me.

(I’d assume more of an addon that communicated via a global channel, etc)

[Ainslynne-wyrmrest-accord]

I don’t care about ClassicLFG. I used Census to gave what classes was most needed.

[Jojenpaste-mankrik]

@Duman-kilrogg

Oh? Hmm… was there a blue post stating as such?

ClassicLFG addon

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,…

[Arctis-rattlegore]

I think the question is more “how do we know this update was the update that would do that?”

[Graff-nathrezim]

I’d like to assume it’s because the /who ( SendWho() ) calls were actually causing enough server load (since there are so many users on a realm) to cause issues.

Then the answer would be for them to provide the data in a single request instead of having to send many of them. It’s nonsensical that they want to hide the numbers enough that this situation comes about.

Breaking addons is not a good way to go about these kind of limitations, especially since this is functionality that has existed for quite some time. People want to know more about their servers so give it to them.

[Dawndew-grobbulus]

Thank you for pointing this out.

[Duman-kilrogg (Duman)]

@Jojenpaste-mankrik

@Bornakk

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.

Hmm… I’d be surprised that calling /who is a big part of an LFG addon (since, people using the addon would all be running the addon, so there are much easier/better ways to communicate), but I haven’t looked at the addon, personally, to know.

(Maybe I’ll go do that now )

[Fracas-kirtonos]

ClassicLFG still works perfectly fine, and as far as I’ve seen it doesn’t rely on /who at all.

It still works perfectly fine for what it does, which is parse chat messages for easy viewing to see through the spam.

[Graff-nathrezim]

people using the addon would all be running the addon

Not true, the add-on scans and posts to the various chat channels too. It will find also people who aren’t using the addon but who are using the various chat channels. So the /who functionality would be a good thing to have, that way when someone wants to group you can see their name, class, and level.

Similarly there are addons like WIM (WoW Instant Messenger) which could tell you the class and level of someone sending you a tell. This will break that functionality too.

[Brother-deviate-delight]

I thought I saw a post from the author of the census addon earlier saying that this did not limit it, but I don’t use it, so I really don’t know if it still works.

[Hugesloot-area-52]

It is most likely broken to prevent people from using it to decide on moving servers. They are trying to get people to move so they can continue to reduce layers/remove it completely. This also includes them reducing pop sizes. People are using census data for the new servers to claim they are dead, etc and reluctantly preventing others from choosing to move there.

[Duman-kilrogg (Duman)]

I just looked thought the ClassicLFG code…

There is only one place they perform a call to SendWho() in ClassicLFG… it’s in their “WhoQuery” function, and that is only called by the “dungeon group manager” code in a function that checks a person’s who info when they whisper the dungeon leader for an invite.

There is nothing in the code that does a call to SendWho(), otherwise.

So… I’m not sure why there is a claim otherwise?

source (it’s defined in the util.lua, and used in the dungeon-group-manager.lua) :

ClassicLFG$ find . -name *.lua | xargs grep Who
./src/core/dungeon-group-manager/dungeon-group-manager.lua:        ClassicLFG:WhoQuery(playerName, function(result)
./src/util/util.lua:function ClassicLFG:WhoQuery(query, callback)
./src/util/util.lua:            callback(C_FriendList.GetWhoInfo(1))
./src/util/util.lua:    C_FriendList.SetWhoToUi(1)
./src/util/util.lua:    C_FriendList.SendWho(query)

[Nalij-faerlina]

the people who actually use the addon to decide if they want to move to another server, just arent going to move now.

[Nalij-faerlina]

yeah this doesnt do anything to the lfg addon. i also dont think its a coincidence that this comes right before a huge transfer event.

[Hugesloot-area-52]

The ones claiming it was an attempt to break ClassicLFG are not correct so i dont know why they keep spreading that. It was clearly to stop Census addons as they are preventing people from moving to new/low pop servers.

[Shaien-windseeker]

Out of curiosity, would it do anything to curtail the chat channel invite gold sellers? I ask because I’m not familiar with the scripting involved.

[Duman-kilrogg (Duman)]

Out of curiosity, would it do anything to curtail the chat channel invite gold sellers? I ask because I’m not familiar with the scripting involved.

THIS is a viable reason, IMHO… the spammers generally just do random /who’s on zones and then proceed to spam users in the results…

[Hugesloot-area-52]

True but all that means is they have to initiate the who, it wont be automatic anymore. Would barely prevent anything in my opinion.