Simple solution to a crazy problem? (Staff, please read this)

[CoolProgrammer]

How many times have Staff said "Please use /ad"?

Whenever I join lobby, I see people advertising in the chat, "/join this", "/join that", and then there comes a poor staff member who politely has to repeat over and over, "Please use /ad ". Quite stressful... (Good thing that ranked players also contribute helping staff when things get crazier)

As you know how powerful Minehut's word blocker is, why can't devs/admins spend a day in making a system where a message will be blocked if it contains "join" or "/join" or even a check if the player is advertising a server name which actually exists, e.g. Suppose I own a server called "Bonknote" and I type in "everyone!!! join bonknote quick! now now now!", you can check if a server called "bonknote" actually exists on Minehut before you block the message (example idea, pretty sure you can come up with better ideas, because I'm dumb).

It would make things a lot easier, and don't you think it would be worth having such a thing?

On top of that, at 13k player count, the chat gets crazy with advertisements, and Helpers, Mods and (rarely) Admins have to keep repeating "Please use /ad" over and over again.

Think about it, it's just a simple solution to a crazy problem. It will make things easier for staff, and prevent from some people getting mad like "SOTP ADVERTISING" and creating drama.

Helpers and Mods, you gotta motivate the devs and admins it would be worth it.

Edited November 23, 2020 by CoolProgrammer
Spelling mistakes :) cuz bad english

[UntitledGoose]

One of the large issues with this idea is that if this was implemented, and somebody tried to tell somebody how to join their server (for example "you can join your server with /join <server>"), it'd be blocked.

 

However, this is an issue on Meta, and the details on how to work this out are being discussed. Feel free to contribute your thoughts on the matter.

[CoolProgrammer]

50 minutes ago, TheGoose said:

One of the large issues with this idea is that if this was implemented, and somebody tried to tell somebody how to join their server (for example "you can join your server with /join <server>"), it'd be blocked.

 

However, this is an issue on Meta, and the details on how to work this out are being discussed. Feel free to contribute your thoughts on the matter.

Hey Goose. Thanks for showing me the Meta issue link.

How about checking for keywords such as "your", "<server>" or even checking if the message contains name of a Minehut Server which actually exists in the database? And if not, then would be blocked? Sounds a bit complicated, but pretty sure it can be accomplished with multiple people finding a solution.

I'll ask this on the thread as well.

[SSC123]

It's not that simple because advertisers can carefully word out their message to get around it.

 

Examples:

(server) gives FREE OP JOIN NOW

/join <!> FREE OP (server) FREE OP <!> /join

 

Both of these would bypass the simple "check the word after /join" tactic bc in the first one, /join doesn't exist, and in the second one, it would see that '<!>' isn't a real server.

 

More complex messages could also be used to bypass simple systems like:

 

<!> FREE OP /join s e r v e r FREE OP <!>.

 

In this case, it sees that 's' is not a valid server name, and thus gets through the detector even though it's obviously an advertisement

 

I also think that if this was added, then the cooldown for /ad should be reduced bc 8 minutes is way too long. You won't get any players at all if you're a no rank and not using a clickbait message, meanwhile if your message contains 'FREE OP' you will literally fill up your entire server in like 2 advertisements and can quickly reach the front page if using unlimited player slots (can't imagine how crazy it would be to advertise free op on a ranked account)

 

I may do an actual study where I advertise the same server and say each message like 20 times to see what the average amount of players I got per message was

 

Edited November 25, 2020 by ServerCrasher

[CoolProgrammer]

29 minutes ago, ServerCrasher said:

It's not that simple because advertisers can carefully word out their message to get around it.

 

Examples:

(server) gives FREE OP JOIN NOW

/join <!> FREE OP (server) FREE OP <!> /join

 

Both of these would bypass the simple "check the word after /join" tactic bc in the first one, /join doesn't exist, and in the second one, it would see that '<!>' isn't a real server.

 

More complex messages could also be used to bypass simple systems like:

 

<!> FREE OP /join s e r v e r FREE OP <!>.

 

In this case, it sees that 's' is not a valid server name, and thus gets through the detector even though it's obviously an advertisement

 

I also think that if this was added, then the cooldown for /ad should be reduced bc 8 minutes is way too long. You won't get any players at all if you're a no rank and not using a clickbait message, meanwhile if your message contains 'FREE OP' you will literally fill up your entire server in like 2 advertisements and can quickly reach the front page if using unlimited player slots (can't imagine how crazy it would be to advertise free op on a ranked account)

 

I may do an actual study where I advertise the same server and say each message like 20 times to see what the average amount of players I got per message was

 

Hopefully shouldn't be a problem because Minehut already uses an expensive word filter system, CommunitySift. They can simply check if the message as /join or join with a server name checked from database. Exceptions such as "server" "<server>" could be added in.