So People are getting silenced for using Rare Share Addons

Community General Discussion
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So there’s now been many reports of Blizzard silencing (not squelching) people who are using addons that announce rares being up in General Chat in Mechagon and Nazjatar.

You can read the reports in the comments sections of the addons on the various websites (curse, wowace, etc.), and even a few threads on reddit. I’m afraid to post the addon names as apparently they aren’t being allowed now, but it’s not hard to find them.

Now, first off, before anyone comments, I’m well aware talking about actions is a no no, however, as it’s not about a specific action, it’s technically skirting the rule, and this NEEDS to be addressed, period.

Blizzard created a new system of rare spawns using the old system - long respawn rares, with low chance of drops. We haven’t had that model for almost a decade now. There was zero reason to go back to it other than to deprive people of their time and make them spend more time in game.

As such, these addons popped back up like they existed on Isle of Thunder and Timeless Isle. The addons exist for one purpose - to make it so people using the addons can announce the rare spawns for others so they know it’s up and can get to it while it is still alive. The addons often include coordinates for people without handynotes/etc. so they know where to go.

Yes, people with different addons often auto-announce the rare and it will be announced 2-3 times. That is not something that can be avoided. It’s just a matter of the fact there’s 3ish different addons right now, because Blizzard created this system where the need was, and people created the addons at the same time.

I’ve also heard claims that the silences, according to the comments from their talks to the GMs, are because of the “X Rare has died.” messages - These comments are EQUALLY AS IMPORTANT AS ANNOUNCING THE RARE IS UP. I cannot tell you how many times I have ditched a world quest or something else important because someone else announced a rare, only to find out upon arriving that it died 30 seconds earlier.

Whereas since these addons added a “has died.” message, I’ve been able to save myself the trouble.

I would love to know why people are being silenced for these addons, when it’s Blizzard themselves that created a need for these addons.

If people have an issue with the people using the addons, they are welcome to close General Chat (it’s not like anything else is going on in there, in the almost 15 years I’ve played the game I think I’ve seen a conversation in General chat twice) or even put that person on ignore for the day. There is literally NO REASON to silence people for making the game better and helping people.

EDIT: AND BECAUSE I KNOW SOMEONE WILL SAY IT - Do not say "If people want a rare, they should camp for it."

There are MULTIPLE rares in Nazjatar that can spawn ALL OVER THE ZONE. One of which is the rarest in the zone - Rockweed Shambler. This rare requires an entire raid group to kill Algae Elementals for 8+ hours to get it to spawn. It can spawn literally the entire zone, as it can spawn in place of any Algae elemental.

If they make announcing rares in General Chat something you can get silenced for, then this rare will become next to impossible to kill, and as killing every rare is part of the Meta Achievement, good luck with completing that if you haven’t done so already.

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I’m assuming if enough people report someone they’re autoflagged to be silenced.

There’s still tons of people with the announcing add ons so I don’t think this is a consistent thing going on.

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That’s a bummer if true. I’d be willing to guess there’s some sort of umbrella policy where those messages count as spam, even though they’re useful. Or perhaps it’s possible the system is partially automated now and just tracks repeated characters or something?

I remember the tragic day I learned that it was dangerous to use triviabot in public channels.

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I agree that it’s unnecessary to silence people for using the addon (if such a thing is actually happening) but the op is a bit dramatic. You don’t need the addons.

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If enough people report it, they get squelched.

A GM has to manually apply the silence. Which means a GM had to go through the logs and see the reports were for “Rare Health% Coordinates is up” “Rare has died” and somehow thought that was actually spam, and silenced them.

I switched to the addon cause I got tired of typing the rare name 10 times a day and having to type coordinates because SOMEONE would ask because they wouldn’t have a handynotes addon telling them where it was.

And I’d rather not just kill the rare by myself.

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It’s also possible they saw a handful of rares in quick succession. General Chat will start blocking you after two messages, and it’s possible the addon trying to announce too many in a row would trigger an auto-silence.

That said, I don’t put naked spite past the playerbase right now either…

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General Chat limits you to two messages every 60 seconds.

You literally can’t post more than that.

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Yeah I meant if they flew past several rares after hitting two posts, it might flag as spam if the addon repeatedly attempts further posts.

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While I do not use that add on it does suck if this indeed is happening and Blizzard should know it is just an add on while players need to just ignore it which I do when in those areas.

NPC scan and Silverdragon alert to rares as well with arrows while staying quiet.

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Naw, I’ve literally Ctrl Up’d posts in General Chat like 30 times before to try to get it to post ASAP, and it never auto-squelched me.

I’ve seen people complain in General Chat about the addons, but literally everyone else told them to suck it up and leave General Chat if they had a problem with it, because it helped people.

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Only time I don’t like them is when you’re defending a flag node in a battle for naz and someone announces it and a bunch of people leave the flag and then you lose it.

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I have Mechagon Rare Share and it will not post to chat if another persons addon has already alerted that rare. I think it only works with other people who have that specific addon but don’t quote me on that. I just know its says “Someone else has announced this recently” or something to that effect to cut down on the autospam on each spawn.

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Yes, all 3 of the addons do that. If someone with the same addon has announced the rare, it will not announce it.

However, as all 3 addons do not communicate with each other, it is possible for 3 announcements to go out if 3 different people with each addon engage it.

It’s also possible, if 2 people with the same addon target the mob at the same exact time to announce it. (I’ve only seen it happen once in like 3 weeks though)

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So these are the issues of retail players.

How far we have fallen.

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That seems to be how it works now, just like the forum, once a certain number of flags happen then the automated moderation comes into play.

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Good, keep doing it Blizzard. Silence them!

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The addons have built in controls that prevent multiple people from posting the same rare. Also, you have to actually target the rare. Flying by wont do it.

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Honestly,op,never knew there were addon to announce a rare find.To me announce a rare is like ,“We already killed it” statement ,rather than "Come get it "it is annoying.

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Fair enough.

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There’s nothing wrong with the addons. It’s just some people being weird and reporting. You’re blowing it way out of proportion.

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