Did you bother reading the thread?
“Also, the explanation in the mail says that this suspension action is probably related to ‘gold selling’.”
So which is it:
Make up your mind, then email hacks@blizzard.com to report anyone you suspect is botting. Tada!
Blizzard won’t change anything. High AH prices are to their advantage. It sells more WoW tokens.
I gave you an example of someone who was punished for abuse of economy. That example does not define the ruling and does not line up with what I’m trying to discuss. I’m sorry you’re having this much of a hard time separating technicalities.
You gave an example of someone punished two years ago for “abuse of economy” for RMT gold selling. That has nothing to do with what you’re accusing anyone here, unless you are in fact calling them RMT gold sellers now.
You said they bot, then you said they’re not breaking the rules, and we’ve said time and time and time again to email hacks@blizzard.com yet you want to continue this trainwreck of a thread.
Please go to sleep.
I’m not sure I buy that a single person has control over so many auction houses or that actual botting is involved.
I don’t think that someone coming up with a custom script / addon that only they have access to (unless of course someone codes their own) is a valid argument or problem.
It might not be a desirable outcome but I don’t necessarily see a problem with someone being able to accumulate the resources and corner the AH as long as it’s done within the confines of what is allowed.
I do think there is discussion to be had about how fast and how automated some of these tasks / tactics can be executed in the name of fairness. If people can leverage the existing API (whether that is from their own script or not) to index the entire auction house / do mass buying / selling in seconds I think that is absolutely cause for concern.
I can show you if you want. It’s no different from the Legion days when you could run Tsm sniper on multiple accounts.
Cancelscanning (when done with an addon and not an external botting program) isn’t automated. Sure, the scans are, but the actual canceling is done with keyboard or mouse input. The same for posting auctions.
TSM comes with an option to autocreate a cancel macro that requires you to press a key, use your mouse, or do a combination, but you have to be manually performing an action for each individual listing to cancel or post. It’s not automated.
So there is no relevant part of the ELUA, as “It’s a grey area that they can ban you for on their own discretion”, which means contacting Bliz directly is the only way for anyone that feels that something nefarious is occurring.
I also note that in the post you linked that “abuse of economy” was in relation to buying/selling gold, which is in no way associated with playing the AH.
I assume from your post that they require an action per every cancel or every individual purchase?
If that IS the case then I think that’s pretty fair. I mean if someone is actually willing to spend all that time and effort at the helm, pay for a bunch of accounts and have an auction house APM of 400+ hats off to them.
That is correct. The action can be a keypress, mouse wheel movement, combination of the two, whatever - but a player has to be doing something for each individual listing that is getting canceled or listed.
TSM will do scanning and give you a list of auctions you’ve been undercut on, or give you a list of auctions you can post that will undercut, but you have to perform an action for that cancel or post to occur. You can’t just click one button and have TSM post 400 auctions for you - your fingers have to be doing something the entire time.
Cancel scanning has nothing to do with this post.
I like how the response to this is to take your words out of context. Your post about how blizzard threw players together without regard for the potential effects it would have is being taken as you racist.
Ignoring the token portion of your post, anyone can list anything they want for any price. Even if it means undercutting hardcore (I dislike that myself but it’s part of playing the game).
I like the angry tells and mail when you undercut the hell out a AH Goblin who’s not paying attention. Got a nice screencap collection of them.
Yeah, some people think they should be able to freely control markets with zero effort and risk. 
Unfortunately, that is the nature of an unregulated free market. That’s the model Blizzard went with.
Taking it back to the original post and points.
This is all thanks to a single player who has had almost no competition because of the limited access the average player is provided when it comes to the complex nature of programming.
I can make an addon to leverage the API calls for you pretty quickly. I will actually read the API calls and investigate this soon out of pure curiosity alone. I’m now peaked and wondering what’s available / what’s not in terms of the API functionality.
all because this person’s able to automate the shopping process
Are they automating the shopping process or just scanning. There’s important distinction to be had. If the entire shopping process is automated - I take exception.
Is it fair for one person, with unlimited free time
If they have unlimited time and this is how they choose to spend it. As much as it might irritate me during my AH experience it is fair game. They are leveraging resources I’m not willing to part with (unlimited time) and turning a profit for it.
The amount of money you make outside of the game shouldn’t let you
Have better ping times than other players, faster+better hardware gives you an edge in most areas of gameplay. What would a possible solution look like? To throttle connections and APM to negate those advantages? Crazy talk I say
If this person or person(s) were buying exclusive access or lobbying Blizzard - say having rules made that apply to us but not to them - or being given inside information about upcoming changes in patches allowing them to stock up on important resources etc… That would be one thing.
In wrath my current roommate was banned for controling an AH on a dead realm and the ban was for economic manipulation, I saw him banned with my own eyes so I can confirm they did on fact used to ban people for trying to dominate the AH, no idea of they still do but they absolutely should.