Book Scammers B Gone!

[Cappy 1599]

G'day, ladies and gentlemen.

Today I come to address an issue that has arisen with the otherwise fantastic Auctioneer plugin, courtesy of Sporadic. Most of you are probably aware, in fact many of you have probably been a victim of of "scam" or "trolly" books that have been popping up for sale all over the place recently via the auction house plugin that are given a seemingly legitimate title to fool unwary buyers.

For example -

After a quick discussion amongst GMs and admins, we have come to the conclusion that this is an infraction of our rules! Specifically, the following rule:

"If attempting to falsify an identity and take up a mock 'position' of importance or value (such as a guard), your name cannot simply be changed in order to perfectly emulate the role (such as "Guard_Jeff"). Instead, it should be through deceptive roleplay and not simply a /setname change."

This rule applies to all kinds of deception, not just false identities. You are not allowed to decieve other players through out-of-characters means, such as a legitimate-sounding book title on a trolly book. Henceforth, selling "scam" books like these in the auction house will be treated as a violation of our rules. This is up to GM discretion so if you're unsure about your book, take the safe path.

For the near future, we'll be offering refunds on "scam" books such as these, but make sure to screenshot every step of your purchase, or we won't be able to do it! Your screenshots need to clearly demonstrate what you bought, for what price and who the seller is. This is so we can validate your purchase, refund you the correct amount and catch the seller. If you have bought a book such as these, and have the evidence, all you need do is submit a modreq and wait for a GM to assist you.

This is the amount of evidence we'd like you to take when you buy a book, just to be safe! If you're using 1.7.2 and can't use F2 to take screenshots, you can press Printscreen to grab your current screen and paste it into any image editor to get screenshots.

If you want to sell "scam" books like these, you have two options! You can either travel around and sell them in-character (instead of via the auction houses) so you can actually RP deception, or you can put some more work into them so they're no longer worthless. The choice is yours!

Keep reading everybody, it's good for you. Cappy out.

[VonAulus 2082]

You realize we do not see who sells the book right? 

[Dreek 1633]

first

dammit gruul

[Cappy 1599]

You realize we do not see who sells the book right?

If that's the case I'll have Sporadic rectify that ASAP.

[ThatCanadian 203]

I usually just put them back up for auction once I find out they are a scam, but I am glad this has finally been addressed. Spent over 2000 minas trying to get certain books!

[Alan 1815]

You realize we do not see who sells the book right?

As Cappy noted, we'll work to fix that if that is true, but to be honest we don't really need a name to the book to find out who wrote it. Through basic logblock of the book's content or even its name, we can find out who made it and deal with them accordingly. The other steps still need to be followed though, otherwise we won't be able tell whether someone was scammed and for how much they were scammed

[VonAulus 2082]

As Cappy noted, we'll work to fix that if that is true, but to be honest we don't really need a name to the book to find out who wrote it. Through basic logblock of the book's content or even its name, we can find out who made it and deal with them accordingly. The other steps still need to be followed though, otherwise we won't be able tell whether someone was scammed and for how much they were scammed

But seeing who auctions the item could protect us from scammers. 

[5678 260]

Uh, there goes any easy way to make money that wasn't even half bad :/

[Jistuma 1996]

As Cappy noted, we'll work to fix that if that is true, but to be honest we don't really need a name to the book to find out who wrote it. Through basic logblock of the book's content or even its name, we can find out who made it and deal with them accordingly. The other steps still need to be followed though, otherwise we won't be able tell whether someone was scammed and for how much they were scammed

Who created the book and who sold it can be completely different players.

[cruzazul 2815]

Honestly I don't really see what's so wrong with it. People are deceitful all the time in real life in order to make money. It's just like any scam artist in real life looking for a quick buck. If somebody's character is foolish enough to purchase a tome they know nothing about maybe they should lose that money.

[Cappy 1599]

Honestly I don't really see what's so wrong with it. People are deceitful all the time in real life in order to make money. It's just like any scam artist in real life looking for a quick buck. If somebody's character is foolish enough to purchase a tome they know nothing about maybe they should lose that money.

It's the OOC deception that's the issue. If a player wants to walk around and sell fake tomes by deceiving others in-character, that's up to them. But simply slapping a false name on a book and selling it through a plugin with impunity is not permitted any more.

[cruzazul 2815]

It's the OOC deception that's the issue. If a player wants to walk around and sell fake tomes, that's up to them. But simply slapping a false name on a book and selling it through a plugin with impunity is not permitted any more.

Fair enough. Maybe we could code the plugin to where you have the option to read through a small portion of the text inside books before you actually bid on them. Not sure if that would be possible or not.

[JCQuiinn 168]

Fair enough. Maybe we could code the plugin to where you have the option to read through a small portion of the text inside books before you actually bid on them. Not sure if that would be possible or not.

Aye. I've had issues where the book had all of its pages ripped out. Now, maybe I'm a bit senile, but I'm pretty sure you'd be able to see that.

[Elindor 666]

No one would buy a book without first seeing the contents of it. For minecraft this is somewhat an impossibility unless the seller goes to the great detail of screenshotting a few pages of the book, but that seems like a lot more work for what should be an easy sale. The assumption that the book you are buying is what it claims to be should definitely be defended by the Staff because the mechanics simply cannot provide an accurate service. Thanks for picking up on this.

[Sky 0]

No one would buy a book without first seeing the contents of it. For minecraft this is somewhat an impossibility unless the seller goes to the great detail of screenshotting a few pages of the book, but that seems like a lot more work for what should be an easy sale. The assumption that the book you are buying is what it claims to be should definitely be defended by the Staff because the mechanics simply cannot provide an accurate service. Thanks for picking up on this.

Sums it up.