Alright, we are done here until Blizzard comes back with an official answer to why is this happening. The question is simple, I will repost mine from above:
if all the players in the 2nd query are truly in Orgrimmar (as the UI shows), and Orgrimmar is a “Zone”, why isn’t the 1st query picking them up as well?
Could someone also do the same test, then join a group, and see that list change? Basically, find a player that is from the “Server list”, but not in the “Layer list”, and see if you can get in one of the other layers.
not really. i think we all know its an issue, i just think its being over exaggerated to the extreme in some instances, which doesnt help when blizzard can easily repudiate those instances and then it makes the whole issue look fake, not just the exagerations.
the blizzard post indicates its an exploit so you would expect some sort of ramification for players that do it but the problem is that they only indicate, which isnt enough to stop people from actually doing it, especially when you have high profile players/streamers showing the world and nothing happens.
Numbers 3 and 4 are legitimately hilarious, do you really think Blizzard is going to spend the manpower to go through hundred of thousands of accounts and determine what xp or items they gained were a result of layer switching? This is a crazy demand is never going to happen. Layers are here, hopefully they get taken out soon but nothing is going to be done for them retroactively.
You are exactly right.
The first response we need from Blizzard is to acknowledge that this is an exploit. As in, a very concise and clear statement that exploiting layer hopping for personal gain is against the rules of the game.
Everything else should move on from there, including fixing the exploit, rolling back gains (including level XP aka World’s First 60, including MC clearing including World’s First MC clear). Lastly, suspensions should be made, and this absolutely includes streamers, specifically the extremely large ones that provide Blizzard with a constant flow of free marketing.
Blizzard is in a tough spot. For them to truly acknowledge this exploit means they need to take action against the massive free marketing they are receiving via Twitch streamers. Make no mistake, these streamers provide Blizzard with massive marketing efforts for free. If Blizzard bans these streamers then they are going to take a lot of heat.
It is a tough spot: A) Hurt the community but get free marketing (allow exploit + streamers) or B) Repair trust with the community, fix the exploit, suspend abusers (streamers) and lose free marketing.
This is what I’m referring to:
I get really angry when I am blatantly lied to by someone / something that I pay money to 
Do they all have Z in their guild name to filter them that way?
It is an automated process, not manual.
For example, if you hopped 100 layers in 24 hours, this is likely an exploit. So you do a DB query of players who did 100 layer hops + gained ___ XP + gained ____ items, and with the query results you issue a ban.
Is 100 hops in 24 hours too much of a threshold to warrant exploitation of the game? Then do 50+ or 25+ or even 10+.
But in the end, it all boils down to database queries that return results and then acting upon the result set.
So no, it does not take massive manpower to individually go through the thousands upon thousands of exploiters. It is more of a database effort.
Will it take some time/energy/Blizzard-money to do this? Absolutely yes. Is it worth it? Absolutely yes.
No, the Z is for zone.
I would assume layers are in the server tech itself and not known by the database or that layer changes are tracked.
Did you even look at guilds? Is this an add-on you’re using?
I’m not sure what you mean, however, I encourage everybody to test things for yourself.
Do the two /who queries. See if the results are different. Based on what many people are seeing, including myself, you absolutely can tell what layer you are in and collaborate that with others, which is what people are doing right now to exploit layering for personal gain.
I wrote this post because Blizzard said it wasn’t possible, however, the data seems to disagree and show that it is possible.
Like if they were in a guild that started with Z, would show them. I actually didn’t know this was in the game forever? I’ll test this when I log on in an hour or so
So we solved the latency disparity.
I’m seeing different results now in wetlands. What I’m curious about is how do we know what you’re seeing is a layer disparity? We’d need more details on what exactly /who is searching through for keywords besides zone filtering.
I believe Blizzard more than these inconclusive tests.
Only Blizzard can answer this. And they should at this point… Especially after they negated this happening.
Despite being the OP and heralding this issue constantly, we still need to be thankful of Blizzard. See here: Despite layering exploits, we should be thankful of Blizzard
Both search terms pulled the same 50 people.
Now what?
I take it you’re Blix?
Thanks for this! Now I really hope we have enough evidence of something weird happening that Blizzard can get in here and give us some clarifications. It’s ok to tell us that you were not sure what you were talking about earlier
That’s a very small layer then.