Team Hay Day's Response to Concerns About the Recent Bot Bans

Hey everyone!

Here's an official response from the Hay Day team about the recent BOT bans and namely the concerns surrounding it (also a reply to this thread: http://forum.supercell.net/showthrea...upport-Staff):

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The game team has heard your concerns and takes them very seriously. It is our number one priority to keep the game fun and fair for every player. Therefore, part of that job is to fight all elements ruining the game experience, e.g. bots and the current confusion.

It is our firm belief that all players should be able to enjoy Hay Day just in the way they want without even the slightest fear of being unjustly punished. We understand that our latest operation has left many players concerned about what is allowed in game and what is not. While we cannot reveal the details of our detection methods, we want to share with you the following guidelines:

1) Play the game exactly as you wish, as long as you do it manually without using any form of automation (3rd party software tools, bots etc.) and do not try to benefit from others running such automation.

2) Never give your account details to anyone so that they can transfer items or coins for you.

That's all. :)

Now, we understand that you won't be happy with that alone. Therefore we want to address some specific concerns circulating in the forums:

3) You can harvest anything, produce anything, fulfill any tasks, etc. as slow/fast as you like, as few/many times as you like, as long as you don't use automation.

4) You can sell/buy any item you want, for whatever price you want, in the RSS, as long as you don't use automation.

5) You are free to sell anything/everything/nothing to Farm or Town visitors, as long as you don’t use automation.

6) You can use Daily Dirt to find offers and buy any item without a moment of hesitation, as long as you don't use automation. Specifically, you don't need to find in prior whether the farm is an automated farm or not, just buy if the offer seems good. If the RSS restocks fast/immediately it is generally better to leave the farm alone as it is likely running automation. And no, you don't need to remember which farms you have already visited; you are safe even if you end up to the very same farm through a new version of DD, even multiple times per day.

7) Generally, you can trade with your neighborhood, your friends, or with random players as much as you like, with any items you want, with any price you see fit, as long as you don't use automation. However, if your trading partner is using automation, you are in risk of benefiting from illegal software use, and might get flagged. All we can say here is to use your best judgment.

As we pointed out in the beginning of this post, our goal is to keep the game fun and fair for every player and a part of that is to fight all elements ruining the game experience.

In regards to the concerns about our player support, we have both in-house support teams, and outsourced support partners, who we work very closely with. This ensures that all our players get a proper response in a timely manner. We appreciate all the feedback we get and we work hard to improve in all areas so that players get the best support possible.

We regret that some innocent players got unduly punished in our ongoing attempts to improve the fairness and fun in Hay Day. Our support is looking into all such cases that are reported directly to them. Please note that cases reported on the forums will not reach our support. We advise you to use official channels, such as via in-game settings, any popup you may get in the game, or our support page (http://supr.cl/HayDaySupport) to reach our support.

We'd like to end by reassuring you of how seriously we take your concerns and requests; you help us make the game even better.

Warmest Regards,

Team Hay Day

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Let us know if you have further questions!

Cheers,

Nick

Thank you Nick, and team Hay Day.

Thank you so much Nick!

Thank you Nick, and also a big thank to MikeySpeed. After many days of silence from SC part and wild speculations from worried players, finally now we can put this matter to rest. Hopefully, the support team will do an equally good job and restore their farms to innocent players who got caught in this ban.
Until now, I have felt somewhat disappointed with the lack of communication from SC, but this has given me hope. Again, thank you.

Groovy! ;)

Thanks for the information.

Thank you Nick.
Thank you Mikey!

Thank you!
I must say I enjoy surfing the Daily Dirt once again, I can actually find items not not just wheat and tofu dogs. I am sorry some innocent players got caught in the net and can only hope they understand and have the patience to wait until their game is back on.

Thanks Nick. Its reassuring.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Spearhead

Thank you Nick, and also a big thank to MikeySpeed. After many days of silence from SC part and wild speculations from worried players, finally now we can put this matter to rest. Hopefully, the support team will do an equally good job and restore their farms to innocent players who got caught in this ban.
Until now, I have felt somewhat disappointed with the lack of communication from SC, but this has given me hope. Again, thank you.

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I echo this sentiment 1000%.

A huge Thank You to MikeySpeed for his excellent post & to Nick for bringing SC's response to the table so promptly.

As a player who has been openly & vocally critical regarding the lack of communication between SC & its clients, I too am heartened by this action. I truly hope that this is the beginning of a new precedent. I believe no one expects the revelation of trade secrets nor the minutiae of the inner workings of strategies designed to identify & discontinue illegal gaming activities, yet neither does a generic response which contains neither information nor guidance alleviate concerns or questions.

It is my opinion that many are not so concerned with the 'how' of action, but rather the 'why', & I think this carries across the spectrum of not only TOS violations, but into that of gameplay as well. Derby tweaks, visual graphics alterations, prize award randomness, global event tally totals, drop rates are all examples of issues which have generated such queries, & most, if not all, have been answered in a manner which has been less than illuminating. Again, that is my opinion, yet it is why this response by the SC team leads me to hope this is the first step toward a more comprehensive manner of addressing valid concerns.

Of course, I do not expect every tiny issue to necessitate a corporate conference to formulate a response, but as another player in a different thread observed, the forum is a microcosm of players, & when those players are voicing concerns & asking questions, they & the masses not represented by a forum presence, are deserving of more information than what has been received in the past.

Thanks again to MikeySpeed & to Nick for their efforts. Well done, gentlemen, well done.

If information about how I play HayDay would help insure that this doesn't happen in the future, I'm willing to offer any and everything about my HayDay playing. Because I use zero automation and still got busted, haven't to my knowledge traded with with anybody who was (but how would I know?) and would definitely turn in someone if I did suspect them of ♥♥♥♥♥ing.

lucy

I'm a bit concerned about 7). It sounds like confirmation of what some feared: if you are GB or FB friends someone who is using automation, you might get banned. But it's not like you can tell who is ¢heating and who isn't. It's not something people talk about, and if you asked them, they'd probably lie.

That's a big relief, thanks a lot!

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Originally Posted by Janilee

I'm a bit concerned about 7). It sounds like confirmation of what some feared: if you are GB or FB friends someone who is using automation, you might get banned. But it's not like you can tell who is ¢heating and who isn't. It's not something people talk about, and if you asked them, they'd probably lie.

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Use common sense and your best judgement in those cases. And the risk is not high. :) Don't be too worried.

Cheers,

Nick

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Originally Posted by Janilee

I'm a bit concerned about 7). It sounds like confirmation of what some feared: if you are GB or FB friends someone who is using automation, you might get banned. But it's not like you can tell who is ¢heating and who isn't. It's not something people talk about, and if you asked them, they'd probably lie.

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I hear you Janilee. I think the only thing we can go on is that if the trade seems too good to be true, there might be a problem. Most of the trades I see between friends are smallish and on the order of one for one. I give you my ten planks, you give me your ten bolts. If someone offers up 150 bolts for ten deeds or worse maps!, it is now probably a good time to stop thinking of that person as a dumb newbie, but possibly a sinister crook. We certainly don't have to call him one and tip him off but we can just walk away in search of more likely trades.

In other words we have to hone our spidy sences.

I don't know where the concerned about passing goods to your family members came from. Maybe as a down the line conclusion as to why we might trade for less than a profit to those kids we have who look at us with sad puppy dog eyes. They get us everytime

i have a question I'm one of the innocent people who got banned :(
i appreciate work.. but i got banned for following bot farm and purchase free tools expanding for barn and silo he sold all time i thinks this is the reason i got banned :( :(
so please can you tell me when i can have my farm back i already contact support a lot of time .. i know I'm guilty to buy from a bot farm :( but what should i do if i really needed these tools and he sold with ads all time
and i reported him to supercell support
so please one question when i can have my farm back ?

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Originally Posted by amaras2015

i have a question I'm one of the innocent people who got banned :(
i appreciate work.. but i got banned for following bot farm and purchase free tools expanding for barn and silo he sold all time i thinks this is the reason i got banned :( :(
so please can you tell me when i can have my farm back i already contact support a lot of time .. i know I'm guilty to buy from a bot farm :( but what should i do if i really needed these tools and he sold with ads all time
and i reported him to supercell support
so please one question when i can have my farm back ?

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I know I am not supercell but I can tell you the logical common knowledge answer not knowing exactly what you may have done to come to their attention. (I don't need to know). My information has been gathered based on reading the forums and TOS.

Since you are supposed to get banned from the forums if you get permanently banned from the game, then I'd be inclined to think that your ban was temporary. Also if ,when you saw your ban announcement ,you were able to contact supercell support from that message, your ban is probably temporary.

The standard answer temporary bans have been getting is a 14 day ban.
If your restriction is limited to not being able to buy and sell from your RSS, that is a different matter. You have to contact support and after they investigate, the farms are being released sooner than the 14 days, but may be delayed depending on the backlog which just gets longer when people send in multiple tickets.

If this information is wrong I am sure Nick will pop back on and set us straight.

And of course if they discover you are really the head of an illegal trafficking ring and know where Jimmy Hoffa is buried, you are on your own. JK. I know you aren't. I've been watching too many mob documentaries this week.

Hi everyone!

I am writing this as I am feeling a little lost and not sure where else to turn...

I am wondering about support. I have my roadside shop blocked. I have contacted support and got the message that I am using third party software and please see terms and conditions. I am not using third party software, wasn't even aware of any bots or auto stuff, mush less how to get or use it. I am not tech savvy. I replied back to support, explained how I play, what I do, how I run my group... basically what I do everyday in hay day. I also have explained that I play a lot and am on at different times to catch up with all in my group. Sadly, the response I got was I am using third party software and am no longer entitled to receive support. I have emailed back as I feel that I am human and have logged many hours on this game that I am entitled to support. They now will not respond to me about my farm. (they have answered about my mom's farm, so I know they are receiving my messages.)
If my farm is one of the ones that are under review, why couldn't they say so? I know I am a real human and have nothing to hide. They should be able to look at my farm and see that I play and chat constantly. Am I wrong in thinking this way?

Now on to my second problem..
My mom plays this game with me. She has been unable to load her farm since the update. I contacted support and explained her situation to them. They gave me an email so she could contact them. She did, and they told her to make sure she was connected to facebook, game center and is up to date on her ipod. She has done all of it. (I was on facetime with her this morning and all is updated and upgraded). She emailed them back and they told her to contact them through the game. She cannot load the game, so how can she contact them that way? and they also told her to upgrade and update everything again. She plays on an iPod, not sure which generation it is. (It was the one right before they changed the charging cord from the 30 pin to the little one). Is there anyone that maybe able to help on this?

"We regret that some innocent players got unduly punished in our ongoing attempts to improve the fairness and fun in Hay Day. Our support is looking into all such cases that are reported directly to them. Please note that cases reported on the forums will not reach our support. We advise you to use official channels, such as via in-game settings, any popup you may get in the game, or our support page (http://supr.cl/HayDaySupport) to reach our support."

Thank you for this small admission of responsibility for unintentionally and unjustly banning some players. It may be too little too late for some but at least there is an acknowledgement.

I hope the moderators will read this carefully and remember that some people truly ARE innocent and that SC's systems are not perfect. Not everyone in prison is guilty. Mistakes are made. Please don't judge us all next time, before the whole truth has been revealed.

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Originally Posted by Nick[Supercell]

Hey everyone!

7) Generally, you can trade with your neighborhood, your friends, or with random players as much as you like, with any items you want, with any price you see fit, as long as you don't use automation. However, if your trading partner is using automation, you are in risk of benefiting from illegal software use, and might get flagged. All we can say here is to use your best judgment.
Cheers,
Nick

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This means you don't have to BAN us just because we made trade, we have to feel comfortable while we are playing hayday, we don't have to feel like oh maybe this trader use 3rd Party Program? Maybe I will get banned because of him? etc.

This way, you are putting stress and pressure on us as players, so I think better to keep your focus on who is running 3rd Party Programs, not on the trader, because I'm sure we all need to trade at least to upgrade or Barn/Silo, so playing Hayday with stress, it will not work and sure we will not enjoy it and I'm sure 90% of us if we will get BAN for NO Reason, we will turn to the 3rd party program because already lost and we have nothing more to lose...

And there must be a Warning, like Hey You, we are watching you, you are using 3rd Party program, Stop or you will get BIG BAN... you must make us feel that we are important, you must make us feel like or want us to play this game, we like this Game, so we both need each others...
But to BAN us just because we trade with someone use 3rd Party program, this something is selfish or personal etc. anyway it is Unbelievable...

Again I will say, No One will blame you if you will BAN all the 3rd Party Program farms, and we will be in your side, but not to BAN the trader, especially that we can't know if the other trader is using 3rd Party Program or NOT... So Trader must be SAFE if they don't use such programs... Fair?

Thanks ...

Supercell needs to come up with a Idiot proof system to detect Bots etc. I play about 18 h a Day and I store all the Tools for my hole Neighbor Hood in my Barn... I am not using a Bot ... I am Level 156 and it takes me about 2 weeks to make 1.300.000 xp ... I am not using a Bot ... I am not buyingTools outside my Neighbor Hood since we have more Tools than we need. I have spent over $ 800 in the past 3 Years to buy Diamonds. I better not spent anymore real Money since next Time Supercell screws up banning a honest player I am going to be banned for ever. This is sooo unfair, that I consider to just stop playing my favourite Game.

Hi Nick, Thank you very much for responding to our concerns and ending the speculation that was causing so much consternation. I still have one question - there was a report of a Support response to a banned player saying it was not possible for a human player to play for more than 8 hours at a time. I am sure I am not the only one who has spent far too long on an active session, especially when the cubby is humming with interesting chat. Is playing for more than 8 hours at a time likely to attracted disapproving attention, or can we play as long as we wish without fearing repercussions?

Thank you also to MikeySpeed for his treatise. Much appreciated.

I also appreciate the admission that SC now knows that some innocent players were unfairly banned. News flash: Computer programs are NOT infallible.

But let's don't forget that these honest players also had their reputations unfairly tarred in this forum by comments from SC volunteers, support staff, and other players.

I hope that the next time this happens (and it WILL happen again), those individuals will react to the cries of innocents with more compassion and less judgement, leavened with healthy skepticism that computerized bot-ban scans programs can get it 100% right.

Sometimes the two sides of the story are, "I am innocent" and "Yup, you're innocent."

From Othello by William Shakespeare:
Iago:
Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls.
Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing;
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.

Othello Act 3, scene 3, 155–161

'Nuff said about that.

Quoting Nick: 7) Generally, you can trade with your neighborhood, your friends, or with random players as much as you like, with any items you want, with any price you see fit, as long as you don't use automation. However, if your trading partner is using automation, you are in risk of benefiting from illegal software use, and might get flagged. All we can say here is to use your best judgment.

That is concerning. I trade hundreds of EMs at a time for hundreds of EMs in return, and I am not a bot, nor do I use any 3rd party software. I'm just a hoarder with a big barn.

How can I as an honest player, use my best judgement about players that I don't know, and who offer reasonable trades on FB or on the trading threads here on this forum? 100 bolts for 100 planks is not suspicious to me -- I'll make that trade every day!

There are many super high-level farmers who are maxed out on their barns, and who pile up incredible amounts of EMs fairly. They trade them in eyepopping batches. How can I tell a fair farmer like this from a farmer using 3rd party software, when the trade offers and amounts are the same?

I just don't think it is fair for SC to say that MY farm is at risk of being banned because of the bad decisions of a STRANGER, especially when the bot detection software is not 100% infallible.

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Originally Posted by GladeMaid

Hi Nick, Thank you very much for responding to our concerns and ending the speculation that was causing so much consternation. I still have one question - there was a report of a Support response to a banned player saying it was not possible for a human player to play for more than 8 hours at a time. I am sure I am not the only one who has spent far too long on an active session, especially when the cubby is humming with interesting chat. Is playing for more than 8 hours at a time likely to attracted disapproving attention, or can we play as long as we wish without fearing repercussions?

Thank you also to MikeySpeed for his treatise. Much appreciated.

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The team answered that kinda in number three. We can make what we want as many times as we want as long as we don't use automated software. That sure sounds to me that I can carrot (tired of wheat) as much as I want for as long as I want as long as I don't use automated software.

I think that support answer was either just plain wrong, was answering a question that wasn't asked or wasn't understood or just the opinion of the guy typing it. I can sit here and honestly say that you are not going to get banned if you only play durning the commercials while watching a Big Bang theory marathon as long as Sheldon doesn't kiss Amy and that will be true. But it is placing too severe of a restriction on the player. And the converse is also not true.

I could also say you wouldn't get banned if you never buy wheat from the dirt again. And that would keep you away from a bot farm. But by saying it, the logical assumption people would jump to is that you WOULD get caught if you bought wheat from the dirt. And that's a logical fallacy. If not a then not b,does not mean if a then b.

So play away. And have a blast,but get up every now and then to walk around and keep that circulation going. :)

Tigg

Thanks for the authoritive response, Nick.

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Originally Posted by PerkyCox

I also appreciate the admission that SC now knows that some innocent players were unfairly banned. News flash: Computer programs are NOT infallible.

But let's don't forget that these honest players also had their reputations unfairly tarred in this forum by comments from SC volunteers, support staff, and other players.

I hope that the next time this happens (and it WILL happen again), those individuals will react to the cries of innocents with more compassion and less judgement, leavened with healthy skepticism that computerized bot-ban scans programs can get it 100% right.

Sometimes the two sides of the story are, "I am innocent" and "Yup, you're innocent."

From Othello by William Shakespeare:
Iago:
Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls.
Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing;
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.

Othello Act 3, scene 3, 155–161

'Nuff said .

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Beloved Perky,

Lovely, lovely, lovely post!!!

You could hear the anguish in the cries of the innocents caught in the nets, reminding me of beautiful, playful porpoises caught in tuna nets. Support replies posted here sounded so cold and uncaring.

Of course people innocently bought from bot farms! (I don't think I did, because I always look at farms first - I don't like buying from farms with unfed animals, and I sure don't like supporting criminals!) I think of our friend's elderly mother who was so excited to find a Wheat Seller ( obviously a bot), but how on Earth can you deny a little elderly lady her farm? Get rid of the Bots, not the playful lovers of HayDay by tweaking the parameters so few or none of the porpoises get caught in the nets and destroyed.

Those who criminally conspire, it would be good to eliminate very unethical players, but really looking at flagged farms, their history, etc. might give a human being who follows up on a computer flag a good idea of the farm caught, and they can make compassionate decisions, canceling flags, instead of leaving it to software to make such a widespread ban.

Of course people can play for longer than 8 hours... When I'm sick, or in pain, sometimes it gives me comfort to have HayDay on, even if I fall asleep, and it's still on the next morning.

I think it's unnerving to the majority of players to see such harsh responses from Support. Please train Support more, and have human oversight on human players farms that have been flagged, instead of banning obvious human-played farms automatically.

I love Hay Day, I love and am grateful to SC, and I love my fellow farmers (nearly all of them:cool:). I'm not too afraid for my farm, but the distress in Hay Day has been distressing to many, myself included.
Thank you, dear Nick, for your help, patience and coming here with helpful clarification. You're a very courageous man!

Lovely post, Perky,
:heart:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PerkyCox

I also appreciate the admission that SC now knows that some innocent players were unfairly banned. News flash: Computer programs are NOT infallible.

But let's don't forget that these honest players also had their reputations unfairly tarred in this forum by comments from SC volunteers, support staff, and other players.

I hope that the next time this happens (and it WILL happen again), those individuals will react to the cries of innocents with more compassion and less judgement, leavened with healthy skepticism that computerized bot-ban scans programs can get it 100% right.

Sometimes the two sides of the story are, "I am innocent" and "Yup, you're innocent."

From Othello by William Shakespeare:
Iago:
Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls.
Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing;
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.

Othello Act 3, scene 3, 155–161

'Nuff said about that.

Quoting Nick: 7) Generally, you can trade with your neighborhood, your friends, or with random players as much as you like, with any items you want, with any price you see fit, as long as you don't use automation. However, if your trading partner is using automation, you are in risk of benefiting from illegal software use, and might get flagged. All we can say here is to use your best judgment.

That is concerning. I trade hundreds of EMs at a time for hundreds of EMs in return, and I am not a bot, nor do I use any 3rd party software. I'm just a hoarder with a big barn.

How can I as an honest player, use my best judgement about players that I don't know, and who offer reasonable trades on FB or on the trading threads here on this forum? 100 bolts for 100 planks is not suspicious to me -- I'll make that trade every day!

There are many super high-level farmers who are maxed out on their barns, and who pile up incredible amounts of EMs fairly. They trade them in eyepopping batches. How can I tell a fair farmer like this from a farmer using 3rd party software, when the trade offers and amounts are the same?

I just don't think it is fair for SC to say that MY farm is at risk of being banned because of the bad decisions of a STRANGER, especially when the bot detection software is not 100% infallible.

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Perky sweetie, I think you are jumping to a few conclusion that might be worrying you unnecessarily. First I don't think they used just a computer program to find possible bots. I think they also used people and people are even less perfect than computers. And after seeing some of the odd responses from support, I think they know that people are not infallible and that a few might be looking at new training or unemployment.

Secondly Nick said if you buy from a bot once or even more than once you are ok. They also said that you don't need to remember everyone you bought from so no spreadsheets are needed :). They also didn't say that you were at risks of being banned if you bought from a bot. But if your trading partner (and that says to me a regular trading partner but that's me) is using automated software you might get FLAGGED. That's different than being banned. That means that they may watch your activity more closely and you probably wouldn't notice it. Then if you did other things or if your game files showed irregularities then there might be an issue. We need to forget all the screen shots from less than capable support staff and rely on this official post from the actual Hay Day Team. This is sometng that we can return to and say. Hey, this is what you said.

Did you see that guy who only posted twice who said SC was so stupid because they banned his main farm which wasn't a bot farm, but not his four other farms that were bots. Well they probably found his main farm because of all the activity that he carried on with his bot farm. Remember a long time ago seeing those folks who would post a screen shot of their barn contents and all they had were gobs and gobs of BEM , a level of 40 or 50 and the message for us to follow them. A lot of folks told us not to believe them because those numbers were probably altered by photo shop. And that they just want us to follow the so they could have access to our farms and steal our trades or raid our shops . Well we know now that they could very well have been bots. Why would anyone hang onto all those BEM when they could use them to expand that farm and make more good and level up for goodness sake. Those are the kinds of things that send up red flags. That and so many other things added together. When you buy a lot of materials, you sell it to your NH and they expand, or you expand yourself. You don't keep it, and then sell it for a bag full of Susan B Anthony Coins.

All Nick is saying is to use your good judgement. That means the normal scepticsm that comes with being a grown up. You have it. I know you do. If you got a strange PM out of the blue asking you to make a connection with a stranger to do massive trades so he can get your common BEM over and over again to sell to China, you'd report him in a heart beat. Heck, you'd want to arrest him yourself.

I know a lot of you all think that I was calling all the folks caught up in this guilty but that is not what I was doing. My mistake was trying to calm down the worried folks who were being fed a different story with each post. It's really easy for someone to try to deflect attention from himself with the ludicrous statements, insults and lies. You know that from your own background. I never said any particular person, (others than the guy with four bot farms) was guilty. But instead of letting the bad support statements stand for themselves, each time some folks posted, they twisted or changed the actual statement to make them sound worse. It was like a game of telephone with malice. In certainly never said or believed that shepherd girl was guilty but I took her blasting because I understood her emotions. I'll be glad when she gets back. But there were some posters with very low post counts who were saying things that they knew weren't true. And poor folks were taking these statements as facts. There was one guy who claimed that he didn't even know what a bot was. He talked about a third account and party software and sounded like a total novice, but if you looked at all his past posts he admitted that he had a friend make a bot for him, but then blaimed the other guy for not telling him he'd get banned for it. How he got introduced to this other guy can only be speculation but it probably is more than we will ever know. But these folks did what they set out to. Draw attention from themselves and lash out at SC for catching them. You all have to admit they scared us all. We dreamed of random bannings and a DD full of fast changing wheat crates. I'll admit I told Katie to stay out of the dirt for a while.

Well this is too long already and I know someone of you will skip right over it and stay mad at me. That's your choice. I'll leave it to others to try to be the calming force next time something changes.

Always
Tigg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PerkyCox

I also appreciate the admission that SC now knows that some innocent players were unfairly banned. News flash: Computer programs are NOT infallible.

But let's don't forget that these honest players also had their reputations unfairly tarred in this forum by comments from SC volunteers, support staff, and other players.

I hope that the next time this happens (and it WILL happen again), those individuals will react to the cries of innocents with more compassion and less judgement, leavened with healthy skepticism that computerized bot-ban scans programs can get it 100% right.

Sometimes the two sides of the story are, "I am innocent" and "Yup, you're innocent."

---

I sadly think I am one of the tarred ones.... (see earlier post in this thread)... I am upset at Supercell for accusing me of doing something I'm not with no explanation of what I have done, all they say is you are using third party software, see terms and conditions. I message them back explaining my innocence and they tell me I am using third party software and am no longer entitled to receive support.

The sad thing is that they did not tell me anything, I have read in other posts that people got letters. I did not, just figured it out when shop stopped working. I personally had no idea what bot farms were until they accused me of being one, didn't even know they existed. (I still need to google it, as I still don't completely understand.)

All I hope is that someone out there is willing to help me...I am level 111 and 34 in town, run my own group. I have played since before there was neighbourhoods and chat. (Actually when I started playing I think the last machine to buy was the candy machine.)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tiggerr129

Secondly Nick said if you buy from a bot once or even more than once you are ok. They also said that you don't need to remember everyone you bought from so no spreadsheets are needed :). They also didn't say that you were at risks of being banned if you bought from a bot. But if your trading partner (and that says to me a regular trading partner but that's me) is using automated software you might get FLAGGED.
Tigg

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NO my friend, Nick says:
You will get a temp ban even if you have interacted with a Bot (bought stuff from them or like).

So i think it is clear...

And i got Banned coz of trade, and i didnt trade that much, i used to trade like 50 to 100 tools, to help my
neighbourhood ... So this is the issure, you will get BAN "EVEN" if u will buy stuff from them or like!!! and i think
coz of this rule, you will find a AMRY OF BOTS sooner, because who got BAN for NO Reason, he/she will not trust SC anymore, so he/she will prefer to use the BOT coz they already BANNED them without any Reason... well still waiting for SC Staff to see what they will do about the this kind BAN, hope they will Solve this asap...

Thanks ...

Well that's promising my farm is still banned though and support has not been responding to any of my messages for days now. I would like to know if anyone has received their farm back...

Hi Beautiful Tiggs,

I got that you were trying to calm everyone down, and I hope you don't give up on trying! Please!

We need calm, we desperately all need reminders for gentleness, compassion, graciousness and good manners to prevail on this forum, even when people are very upset and worried.

You did a direct call asking for the heat to be turned down - the aggression and outright abuse in some threads was too painful for me, I can't imagine, with your finely-tuned nervous system how unbearably painful it all has been, for you.
I hope people will forgive you as you tried to ask for calm.

I would ask, no beg, SC to try to develop a very helpful stickie that can remind people to be courteous, and display good manners, even in disagreements. I know Tim's sticky is in the main forum rules about posting
http://forum.supercell.net/showthrea...-t-Be-Toxic%21


and I really appreciate Tink's posts when everything got super-heated. Nick was trying to put out fires on many threads. I would ask for a greater emphasis on this, in many sticker areas, as we get some very aggressive posters, often posting for the first time, in a rage.

May love, peace and The Golden Rule take root among us all:heart::caticon::heart:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ItsTimeToOver

NO my friend, Nick says:
You will get a temp ban even if you have interacted with a Bot (bought stuff from them or like).

So i think it is clear...

And i got Banned coz of trade, and i didnt trade that much, i used to trade like 50 to 100 tools, to help my
neighbourhood ... So this is the issure, you will get BAN "EVEN" if u will buy stuff from them or like!!! and i think
coz of this rule, you will find a AMRY OF BOTS sooner, because who got BAN for NO Reason, he/she will not trust SC anymore, so he/she will prefer to use the BOT coz they already BANNED them without any Reason... well still waiting for SC Staff to see what they will do about the this kind BAN, hope they will Solve this asap...

Thanks ...

---

This is where I got my info and it is the most current authoritarian response I've seen so far. Sorry it wasn't Nick,but the "HayDay team who said it.


"6) You can use Daily Dirt to find offers and buy any item without a moment of hesitation, as long as you don't use automation. Specifically, you don't need to find in prior whether the farm is an automated farm or not, just buy if the offer seems good. If the RSS restocks fast/immediately it is generally better to leave the farm alone as it is likely running automation. And no, you don't need to remember which farms you have already visited; you are safe even if you end up to the very same farm through a new version of DD, even multiple times per day."


Plus unless they aren't following the TOS, and unless you are on a second account, if you had been permanently banned, you would also be banned from the forum. So it seems you have a temporary one. Everyone keeps saying they got banned for no reason, but it would be more accurate to say that you don't know the reason. You are making an assumption. It might be an error it might be a suspicion that will prove to be incorrect. It might have been a mistake. The bans weren't random or malicious but even SC admits they may have been a mistake. I have never said otherwise.

Everyone really needs to read the teams responce and use it as a reference and not the comments or posts of any member, not even mine.

The more I read about the bot farm controversy and the farms that were banned .... The more I see disaster looming on the horizon.

As obvious by the amount of innocent farms that got banned and caught up in the process of banning those that truly did violate the rules, Supercell once again jumped the gun before they had a well thought out PROCESS to do it right!

You know the story, it happens almost every time Supercell make a 'fix', 'improvement', 'update', or 'tweaks' the game. It rarely goes in without problems. Nicks response in another thread, was that Hay Day was a complex game with both server and client software, so mistakes and oversights are bound to happen. REALLY?

News flash Nick, a lot of complex business software solutions have both server and client based components to them. This is not something unique to Supercell.

Thankfully the medical, military, aerospace, and global financial software solutions that that also utilize both server and client based software ..... takes the job of planning, management, TESTING, and rolling out the release a little more serious than Supercell.

To those who may buy diamonds with a credit card, I suggest you contact your cc company to find out their policy. If Supercell wrongfully shuts down your account, making your purchase of remaining diamonds worthless and not accessible ... I would dispute it immediately. Supercell or the iTunes/playstore can be hit with a chargeback. Enough of those and it might get their attention. If you pay like I do with an iTunes card, you may be out of luck.

Direct Quote from Hay Day

In regards to the concerns about our player support, we have both in-house support teams, and outsourced support partners, who we work very closely with. This ensures that all our players get a proper response in a timely manner. We appreciate all the feedback we get and we work hard to improve in all areas so that players get the best support possible.

We regret that some innocent players got unduly punished in our ongoing attempts to improve the fairness and fun in Hay Day. Our support is looking into all such cases that are reported directly to them. Please note that cases reported on the forums will not reach our support. We advise you to use official channels, such as via in-game settings, any popup you may get in the game, or our support page (http://supr.cl/HayDaySupport) to reach our support.


Above is a quote directly from Supercell. I am wondering how I know if I have reached supercell or the outsourced support? I have reached out to them and feel that I have gotten nowhere. I hate to have to post in the forum, I feel like I am talking behind their back. (I do not do this in real life, if I got something to say, I will tell you!) I write in here now as I am feeling a little lost and hurt. I am hoping that someone from Supercell or Hay Day will read this and reply to me.

Quote:

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3) You can harvest anything, produce anything, fulfill any tasks, etc. as slow/fast as you like, as few/many times as you like, as long as you don't use automation.
7) Generally, you can trade with your neighborhood, your friends, or with random players as much as you like, with any items you want, with any price you see fit, as long as you don't use automation. However, if your trading partner is using automation, you are in risk of benefiting from illegal software use, and might get flagged. All we can say here is to use your best judgment.

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Really?

I know a rich man, and I said that he is maniac for HayDay.
He paid 30 persons to work with him and provide 10 gadgets just for wheating so his barn and silo can be max.
Every 10 persons work for 8 hours in a day, and can be said 10 farms running 24 hours every day just to earn BEM and SEM.

After the mass banned from Supercell, all of his farms has been banned permanent. And he try to reach Help and Support but the reply are You are detected for using 3rd party software/applications.

We can said that he is not violate the TOS from SUPERCELL but he got banned all of his farms.
The incident above it could be said that Supercell had not yet be able to distinguish bettween BOT or Human.

Before Supercell can't prevent the script BOT break through the servers/systems that a lof of innocent Player will get banned.

Did Supercell ever think that someone can paid the others to play manual only wheating and be judged by Supercell that farms is Bot?

I don't think so.
If Supercell ever think about that, Supercell will not make this decision that impact a lot of innocent people to got banned.

Just for sharing.

Thanks

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tiggerr129

So it seems you have a temporary one. Everyone keeps saying they got banned for no reason, but it would be more accurate to say that you don't know the reason. You are making an assumption. It might be an error it might be a suspicion that will prove to be incorrect. It might have been a mistake.

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I said i got BANNED coz of trade, and if there is NO problem with trading, than why i got BANNED? error? mistake? whatever it is, this mean i got BANNED for NO reason at least from my side ... So it is clear, and it will be more worse if we got BANNED by mistake or by error, SC is a BIG company with more than 3 or 4 games, so they are not allowed to do mistakes or errors ...

Thanks ...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tiggerr129

Perky sweetie, I think you are jumping to a few conclusion that might be worrying you in necessarily.

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Tigg, Sweetie -- I'm not jumping to conclusions. I am seeing evidence validated by an admission.

And those conclusions that you worry that are troubling me unnecessarily: I think it is very necessary to be troubled when players, SC support, and SC volunteers in this forum reject the pleas for help by innocent players (who had been punished unfairly) by smearing them as liars and cheetahs -- which is still going on in this thread, by the way.

Many people connected to SC refused to consider that ANY innocents could be or were banned unfairly, and now -- what do you know: Nick has admitted they were.

Not everyone who screeched about being banned is innocent -- but some are. And it was the arrogant refusal by SC staff and volunteers to initially accept that ANY of the banned were innocent is what concerned me. Those pleas were glibly dismissed with "there are two sides to every story," while threads discussing the bans calmly and within the forum rules were slammed shut for a variety of reasons.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tiggerr129

I'll leave it to others to try to be the calming force next time something changes.
Tigg

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Everybody gets to pick a side and express their viewpoint. But I missed the "calming force" aspect of your posts in all the concern and support for SC folks, I guess.

It appears to me over the last few days that you are really going out of your way to make long posts trying to be super player-focused and helpful. Glad to see that happening again. It's what earned you your forum title.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PerkyCox

I also appreciate the admission that SC now knows that some innocent players were unfairly banned. News flash: Computer programs are NOT infallible.

But let's don't forget that these honest players also had their reputations unfairly tarred in this forum by comments from SC volunteers, support staff, and other players.

I hope that the next time this happens (and it WILL happen again), those individuals will react to the cries of innocents with more compassion and less judgement, leavened with healthy skepticism that computerized bot-ban scans programs can get it 100% right.

Sometimes the two sides of the story are, "I am innocent" and "Yup, you're innocent."

From Othello by William Shakespeare:
Iago:
Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls.
Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing;
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.

Othello Act 3, scene 3, 155–161

'Nuff said about that.

Quoting Nick: 7) Generally, you can trade with your neighborhood, your friends, or with random players as much as you like, with any items you want, with any price you see fit, as long as you don't use automation. However, if your trading partner is using automation, you are in risk of benefiting from illegal software use, and might get flagged. All we can say here is to use your best judgment.

That is concerning. I trade hundreds of EMs at a time for hundreds of EMs in return, and I am not a bot, nor do I use any 3rd party software. I'm just a hoarder with a big barn.

How can I as an honest player, use my best judgement about players that I don't know, and who offer reasonable trades on FB or on the trading threads here on this forum? 100 bolts for 100 planks is not suspicious to me -- I'll make that trade every day!

There are many super high-level farmers who are maxed out on their barns, and who pile up incredible amounts of EMs fairly. They trade them in eyepopping batches. How can I tell a fair farmer like this from a farmer using 3rd party software, when the trade offers and amounts are the same?

I just don't think it is fair for SC to say that MY farm is at risk of being banned because of the bad decisions of a STRANGER, especially when the bot detection software is not 100% infallible.

---

I am still very careful. I needed wheat today. I don't keep it as a rule so I had to shop the dd. I only looked for full price wheat. How crazy is that, that I have to be concerned with buying from a bot farm. No matter what the powers that be say, it is concerning.

I have 4 friends (that I know of) currently banned. 2 long term, 2 fairly new within the last 3-4 months. Since I have about 150 freinds atm, it is also worrisome that I have that many. So I delete them? Do I wait it out? There is now mention of this in the response from Nick.

I am afraid to trade. I am afraid to shop. Please give me a reason why I am still playing a game that I am afraid to play fairly in. I have put many $$$ in this game. Many many many hours. Almost three years of playing. Maybe thats why I stick around. I do think that the long term players that have played fairly need more reassurance from the powers that be that this will be worked out. Thank you very much.

Edit: i changed my profile pic and avatar to reflect my perplexed reaction to this mess.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PerkyCox

Tigg, Sweetie -- I'm not jumping to conclusions. I am seeing evidence validated by an admission.

And those conclusions that you worry that are troubling me unnecessarily: I think it is very necessary to be troubled when players, SC support, and SC volunteers in this forum reject the pleas for help by innocent players (who had been punished unfairly) by smearing them as liars and cheetahs -- which is still going on in this thread, by the way.

Many people connected to SC refused to consider that ANY innocents could be or were banned unfairly, and now -- what do you know: Nick has admitted they were.

Not everyone who screeched about being banned is innocent -- but some are. And it was the arrogant refusal by SC staff and volunteers to initially accept that ANY of the banned were innocent is what concerned me. Those pleas were glibly dismissed with "there are two sides to every story," while threads discussing the bans calmly and within the forum rules were slammed shut for a variety of reasons.



Everybody gets to pick a side and express their viewpoint. But I missed the "calming force" aspect of your posts in all the concern and support for SC folks, I guess.

It appears to me over the last few days that you are really going out of your way to make long posts trying to be super player-focused and helpful. Glad to see that happening again. It's what earned you your forum title.

---

Ok Perky. I won't worry any more. It seems you have it all figured out. I guess I was wrong. Won't be the first time. I'm sorry. I guess I read you wrong too. Won't happen again.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tiggerr129

Ok Perky. I won't worry any more. It seems you have it all figured out. I guess I was wrong. Won't be the first time. I'm sorry. I guess I read you wrong too. Won't happen again.

---

I am seriously SMH.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bestajunior

I am still very careful. I needed wheat today. I don't keep it as a rule so I had to shop the dd. I only looked for full price wheat. How crazy is that, that I have to be concerned with buying from a bot farm. No matter what the powers that be say, it is concerning.

I have 4 friends (that I know of) currently banned. 2 long term, 2 fairly new within the last 3-4 months. Since I have about 150 freinds atm, it is also worrisome that I have that many. So I delete them? Do I wait it out? There is now mention of this in the response from Nick.

I am afraid to trade. I am afraid to shop. Please give me a reason why I am still playing a game that I am afraid to play fairly in. I have put many $$$ in this game. Many many many hours. Almost three years of playing. Maybe thats why I stick around. I do think that the long term players that have played fairly need more reassurance from the powers that be that this will be worked out. Thank you very much.

Edit: i changed my profile pic and avatar to reflect my perplexed reaction to this mess.

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Besta -- it has been a right awful mess. Props to Nick for finally admitting SC treated some players horribly unfairly by banning them permanently or temporarily.

The entire record on communications on this has been pretty woefully lacking until this last one, but I still have concerns that players will be held responsible for the game play and decisions of others, things that honest players can't know anything about.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bestajunior

I am still very careful. I needed wheat today. I don't keep it as a rule so I had to shop the dd. I only looked for full price wheat. How crazy is that, that I have to be concerned with buying from a bot farm. No matter what the powers that be say, it is concerning.

I have 4 friends (that I know of) currently banned. 2 long term, 2 fairly new within the last 3-4 months. Since I have about 150 freinds atm, it is also worrisome that I have that many. So I delete them? Do I wait it out? There is now mention of this in the response from Nick.

I am afraid to trade. I am afraid to shop. Please give me a reason why I am still playing a game that I am afraid to play fairly in. I have put many $$$ in this game. Many many many hours. Almost three years of playing. Maybe thats why I stick around. I do think that the long term players that have played fairly need more reassurance from the powers that be that this will be worked out. Thank you very much.

Edit: i changed my profile pic and avatar to reflect my perplexed reaction to this mess.

---

Big hugs Besta! I think you summed up how a lot are feeling. There is too much letdown and disappointment in too short a time from a game that has been so loved by so many. HayDay is not just a game to some players. For many, it becomes much more. It's where we can go to see "friends", it provides a sense of accomplishment and a comforting routine. I recently was the primary care taker of a family member as they battled cancer. I would sit for hours every day farming while she was in chemo treatments and support therapy. I could just zone out in my little farm world and not have to fully focus on my surroundings for the many hours we were there. In the last days of her life my farm was my escape from things. I could open it and take comfort in things there never changing. My chickens were gonna sit every 20 minutes, the cows would every hour.. I could count on that being a constant when my real life was full of looming changes. Then after she passed, I found great comfort in my farm. The routine of it was soothing. Who knew filling machines could help you through the grieving process?
I might sound like a loon and y'all might be saying geez she really needs to get a life, but dang it I love this game. I don't want to see it destroyed. I'm sorry but that Team Supercell reply is a thinly veiled attempt to avoid lawsuits and nothing more, imo. It doesn't answer squat. I want a reason why I should spend another penny on this game if I don't know how to avoid "interacting with third party software" and might have it taken away at any moment without warning. I don't get why someone from SuperCell can't inform EVERY player, not just those who read the forums, what a bot is. What are they so afraid of exposing by doing that? People who run bot farms know what the heck they are, they wouldn't be giving anything away! I do not see how they can just up and ban people if they never even told us what the heck third party software is and that we might be unknowingly interacting with it! And while I'm at it, why can't they fix all the dang bugs in this game?! Get it together SuperCell, you have 3 games and that's it! You kept it running smooth in the past, you should know what you have to do to make your product work as you advertise it will.

I'll get off my rant now.. feel free to stop by my place anytime you need wheat my friend. I have been selling a variety of pretty much all crops for 1 coin for a very long time now and will continue to do so as long as I can access my farm and it at least mostly work as it should.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PerkyCox

...but I still have concerns that players will be held responsible for the game play and decisions of others, things that honest players can't know anything about.

---

Yes, it seems as if in the zeal to get rid of bots, and unethical players, the parameters are set just a bit too high.

I'm reminded of a place where we lived for a brief time, when I was a kid. My father had his car battery stolen one night. Many of our neighbors also had batteries and other equipment stolen. They recommended a mechanic that installed used equipment for a much lower price than those who installed only new. Turns out he was buying the stolen batteries, and installing them into the next victims' cars.

Once everyone discovered that, nearly everyone went to the legit/honest mechanics. How awful, if the people innocently buying his batteries had been arrested with him!!! How unfair - sure, they bought from him and prospered him, briefly, but they didn't know! They thought he was helping them!

If you take out the thieves, neither the mechanic, nor innocents would be involved, as the opportunity to deal in stolen goods wouldn't be possible. Of course, it would be nice to shut down the mechanic because of his bent to also be unethical, but detectives can take their time on this one until they are absolutely certain of his intent. For goodness sake, don't jail the innocent customers who naively don't have a clue!

Just my 2-coins:cool:

TexasLea, I just read your post - you are one beautiful and wonderful gal! :thumbsup::heart::heart:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bestajunior

I am still very careful. I needed wheat today. I don't keep it as a rule so I had to shop the dd. I only looked for full price wheat. How crazy is that, that I have to be concerned with buying from a bot farm. No matter what the powers that be say, it is concerning.

I have 4 friends (that I know of) currently banned. 2 long term, 2 fairly new within the last 3-4 months. Since I have about 150 freinds atm, it is also worrisome that I have that many. So I delete them? Do I wait it out? There is now mention of this in the response from Nick.

I am afraid to trade. I am afraid to shop. Please give me a reason why I am still playing a game that I am afraid to play fairly in. I have put many $$$ in this game. Many many many hours. Almost three years of playing. Maybe thats why I stick around. I do think that the long term players that have played fairly need more reassurance from the powers that be that this will be worked out. Thank you very much.

Edit: i changed my profile pic and avatar to reflect my perplexed reaction to this mess.

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I too am being very careful about where and who I buy from. I have at least one friend who has been banned and am just adopting a 'wait and see' policy for now.
Great to see Nick responding to the concerns though SC's Support is unsatisfactory.

Hello
After reading this thread.
hay Day great game and contains a large number of players of different nationalities ,
And you have to work in order to fill the gaps in the game before a ban on the farmers , and this was a bad thing because it is because of this prohibition make a lot of players to leave the game because he has been wronged
It is not fair that my farm has been blocked because of my work with the individual.
You must protect farmers , and repair these gaps and not to impose a ban on the innocent farmers
Thank you

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TexasLea

Big hugs Besta! I think you summed up how a lot are feeling. There is too much letdown and disappointment in too short a time from a game that has been so loved by so many. HayDay is not just a game to some players. For many, it becomes much more. It's where we can go to see "friends", it provides a sense of accomplishment and a comforting routine. I recently was the primary care taker of a family member as they battled cancer. I would sit for hours every day farming while she was in chemo treatments and support therapy. I could just zone out in my little farm world and not have to fully focus on my surroundings for the many hours we were there. In the last days of her life my farm was my escape from things. I could open it and take comfort in things there never changing. My chickens were gonna sit every 20 minutes, the cows would every hour.. I could count on that being a constant when my real life was full of looming changes. Then after she passed, I found great comfort in my farm. The routine of it was soothing. Who knew filling machines could help you through the grieving process?
I might sound like a loon and y'all might be saying geez she really needs to get a life, but dang it I love this game. I don't want to see it destroyed. I'm sorry but that Team Supercell reply is a thinly veiled attempt to avoid lawsuits and nothing more, imo. It doesn't answer squat. I want a reason why I should spend another penny on this game if I don't know how to avoid "interacting with third party software" and might have it taken away at any moment without warning. I don't get why someone from SuperCell can't inform EVERY player, not just those who read the forums, what a bot is. What are they so afraid of exposing by doing that? People who run bot farms know what the heck they are, they wouldn't be giving anything away! I do not see how they can just up and ban people if they never even told us what the heck third party software is and that we might be unknowingly interacting with it! And while I'm at it, why can't they fix all the dang bugs in this game?! Get it together SuperCell, you have 3 games and that's it! You kept it running smooth in the past, you should know what you have to do to make your product work as you advertise it will.

I'll get off my rant now.. feel free to stop by my place anytime you need wheat my friend. I have been selling a variety of pretty much all crops for 1 coin for a very long time now and will continue to do so as long as I can access my farm and it at least mostly work as it should.

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Very well said TexasLea! I also play to escape from my problems in my real life and to connect with others. My group has my mom in it, who I now talk to everyday because of HayDay. I talk to everyone in my group and have made some awesome friends and have gotten closer to the family members I play with.

I am one of those that didn't know about bots or bot farms until I was accused of being one. I learned about them in the forums after the fact.

Just one more week... This has been the absolute LONGEST week of my life. I want my farm back! Lol, why did you guys make such an addictive game!?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tiggerr129

The team answered that kinda in number three. We can make what we want as many times as we want as long as we don't use automated software. That sure sounds to me that I can carrot (tired of wheat) as much as I want for as long as I want as long as I don't use automated software.

I think that support answer was either just plain wrong, was answering a question that wasn't asked or wasn't understood or just the opinion of the guy typing it. I can sit here and honestly say that you are not going to get banned if you only play durning the commercials while watching a Big Bang theory marathon as long as Sheldon doesn't kiss Amy and that will be true. But it is placing too severe of a restriction on the player. And the converse is also not true.

I could also say you wouldn't get banned if you never buy wheat from the dirt again. And that would keep you away from a bot farm. But by saying it, the logical assumption people would jump to is that you WOULD get caught if you bought wheat from the dirt. And that's a logical fallacy. If not a then not b,does not mean if a then b.

So play away. And have a blast,but get up every now and then to walk around and keep that circulation going. :)

Tigg

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I can say from personal experience that I play every single day and I play at least 12 hrs a day and on some days I have played way more. I am disabled and bedridden and Hay Day has become my daily life. I have never been banned. So I would have to say that spending extended time on the game isn't one of the factors of being banned.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rbcrewser

And while we have this going on, the game is broken at both ends of the Apple device spectrum. Older device players have for 3 months only been able to play sporadically. Owners of new devices who upgraded are now caught in the iOS 9 fiasco of it freezing. And in both instances Supercell has the magic iPads that don't suffer these issues...it is just ours.

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Any ideas on how to help anyone with issues?? My mom is playing on an iPod and hasn't been able to load since the update. Not sure which gen it is. (it is the last one with the 30 pin charging cord, not sure if that helps).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rbcrewser

The sad thing is, I think I have seen more bots in the last 30 minutes in the DD than I had in a week before.

Yes I sent screenshots to support for whatever good that will do. More disappointing was they were all in neighborhoods, all in the derby...

It seems that the only ones really caught with this whole fiasco were those who innocently followed other farms without knowing that farm had an involvement with bots.

And while we have this going on, the game is broken at both ends of the Apple device spectrum. Older device players have for 3 months only been able to play sporadically. Owners of new devices who upgraded are now caught in the iOS 9 fiasco of it freezing. And in both instances Supercell has the magic iPads that don't suffer these issues...it is just ours.

But one thing that always seems to work... Hey do we have a deal for you... 4000 diamonds for $69.99

Which really is what it boils down to money. And as Texaslea pointed out, the official response from Supercell is probably an attempt to avoid a massive refund of money to players innocently caught up who bought those packages right before the update.

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I've seen 7 in the DD tonight. That was just in the last half hour. It's exhausting.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lynswei

I've seen 7 in the DD tonight. That was just in the last half hour. It's exhausting.

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I have seen and reported 3 in the last 3 days -- about my average, since I don't go bot hunting. The bots I saw are adapting -- as expected.

I still say the way to combat the bots is to destroy the secondary market for farms and EMs. I put forward an idea a long time ago that in the same way as you get 50 barn spaces per barn upgrade after 1000, perhaps there should be spot increases at other levels too: 75 per upgrade at 2500, 100 at 5000 etc. it would take fewer upgrades to get to max, and so that motivator to buy EMs would be gone.

I am sure there are other negative pressures and distortions that the bots and automators put on HayDay -- but the way to fight them is with an array of tightly targeted precision tools -- not a broom that sweeps up the good with the very very bad.

Acknowledgement by SC that the net was too wide is a good start -- now let's see what's next to help wrongfully banned players. Hopefully there are lessons that SC can learn here about where the net was too imprecise to catch only bots and 3rd party software users, and the next sweep is more tailored and effective, not disruptive and damaging to the game.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KittyValley

Any ideas on how to help anyone with issues?? My mom is playing on an iPod and hasn't been able to load since the update. Not sure which gen it is. (it is the last one with the 30 pin charging cord, not sure if that helps).

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Kitty, while I was researching the iOS 9 update last night, I saw that some folks not related to hay day had troubles with it. They were able to revert to iOS 8.x Maybe mom could do that if her issues are related to the apple update as opposed to the hay day one. I just googled iOS 9

Hope that helps. We are delaying that update for the iPad's here. Although Katie updated her new iPod touch with no issues. It's only a few weeks old though.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nick[Supercell]

Hey everyone!

Here's an official response from the Hay Day team about the recent BOT bans and namely the concerns surrounding it (also a reply to this thread: http://forum.supercell.net/showthrea...upport-Staff):

The game team has heard your concerns and takes them very seriously. It is our number one priority to keep the game fun and fair for every player. Therefore, part of that job is to fight all elements ruining the game experience, e.g. bots and the current confusion.

It is our firm belief that all players should be able to enjoy Hay Day just in the way they want without even the slightest fear of being unjustly punished. We understand that our latest operation has left many players concerned about what is allowed in game and what is not. While we cannot reveal the details of our detection methods, we want to share with you the following guidelines:

1) Play the game exactly as you wish, as long as you do it manually without using any form of automation (3rd party software tools, bots etc.) and do not try to benefit from others running such automation.

2) Never give your account details to anyone so that they can transfer items or coins for you.

That's all. :)

Now, we understand that you won't be happy with that alone. Therefore we want to address some specific concerns circulating in the forums:

3) You can harvest anything, produce anything, fulfill any tasks, etc. as slow/fast as you like, as few/many times as you like, as long as you don't use automation.

4) You can sell/buy any item you want, for whatever price you want, in the RSS, as long as you don't use automation.

5) You are free to sell anything/everything/nothing to Farm or Town visitors, as long as you don’t use automation.

6) You can use Daily Dirt to find offers and buy any item without a moment of hesitation, as long as you don't use automation. Specifically, you don't need to find in prior whether the farm is an automated farm or not, just buy if the offer seems good. If the RSS restocks fast/immediately it is generally better to leave the farm alone as it is likely running automation. And no, you don't need to remember which farms you have already visited; you are safe even if you end up to the very same farm through a new version of DD, even multiple times per day.

7) Generally, you can trade with your neighborhood, your friends, or with random players as much as you like, with any items you want, with any price you see fit, as long as you don't use automation. However, if your trading partner is using automation, you are in risk of benefiting from illegal software use, and might get flagged. All we can say here is to use your best judgment.

As we pointed out in the beginning of this post, our goal is to keep the game fun and fair for every player and a part of that is to fight all elements ruining the game experience.

In regards to the concerns about our player support, we have both in-house support teams, and outsourced support partners, who we work very closely with. This ensures that all our players get a proper response in a timely manner. We appreciate all the feedback we get and we work hard to improve in all areas so that players get the best support possible.

We regret that some innocent players got unduly punished in our ongoing attempts to improve the fairness and fun in Hay Day. Our support is looking into all such cases that are reported directly to them. Please note that cases reported on the forums will not reach our support. We advise you to use official channels, such as via in-game settings, any popup you may get in the game, or our support page (http://supr.cl/HayDaySupport) to reach our support.

We'd like to end by reassuring you of how seriously we take your concerns and requests; you help us make the game even better.

Warmest Regards,

Team Hay Day

Let us know if you have further questions!

Cheers,

Nick

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Nick, Thank you first and foremost for being the point person in getting clarification for all players. Its not an easy job being the focal point for a corporation as you are the visible and vocal person to the playing public. Back when we were deployed we called that the walking, talking bulls eye target.

To address your points that you responded to from the thread I created lets begin.

Point #1

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nick[Supercell]

1) Play the game exactly as you wish, as long as you do it manually without using any form of automation (3rd party software tools, bots etc.) and do not try to benefit from others running such automation.

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It is the responsibility of Supercell\Hay Day to Police the players running such automation. Players can not determine accurately if they are benefiting from other running such automation as we play and trade trusting that all play honestly like us. If a players trade with another player there is no way to know for either player to know how the other obtained their items they are trading to the other.

Point #2

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nick[Supercell]

2) Never give your account details to anyone so that they can transfer items or coins for you.

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Could not agree more, that is just asking for problems not only with the app, but whatever your account is connected with, Google Wallet, Bank Accounts, Facebook, Itunes Account, etc... Be smart never give your account details to anyone for any reason.

Point #3

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nick[Supercell]

6) You can use Daily Dirt to find offers and buy any item without a moment of hesitation, as long as you don't use automation. Specifically, you don't need to find in prior whether the farm is an automated farm or not, just buy if the offer seems good. If the RSS restocks fast/immediately it is generally better to leave the farm alone as it is likely running automation. And no, you don't need to remember which farms you have already visited; you are safe even if you end up to the very same farm through a new version of DD, even multiple times per day.

7) Generally, you can trade with your neighborhood, your friends, or with random players as much as you like, with any items you want, with any price you see fit, as long as you don't use automation. However, if your trading partner is using automation, you are in risk of benefiting from illegal software use, and might get flagged. All we can say here is to use your best judgment.

---

Nick I suggest you and Hay Day team observe lags between Player #1 and Player #2 ensuring that each is on a different network i.e. different cell network, different wifi that is not on the same Network (Wifi that comes from same ISP in same physical location.) Have one of your support personnel who is in another region demonstrate as a Seller and the one closet to Game Server is Buyer, you will notice the lag all of a sudden if Player one is posting multiple items in store at default, Player #2 may see them pop up all at once. This is not fixable as this is a normal lag between Player #1 and Player #2 as it is not a direct link and connection goes through multiple hops from user device, to gateway\router to ISP, to multiple servers (unsure how many), possibly through Apple\Google Servers then to Hay Day game servers then back to Apple\Google Servers, multiple servers, Player #2 ISP, Player #2 Gateway\Router, Player #2 Device.

Further tests: Ask Player #1 to do something on their farm (harvest random fields, then harvest full once Player #2 is at Player #1 farm, flag trees or boat for help requests), Tell Player #2 to visit Player #1 farm and say what do they see on Player #1 farm from their perspective while never refreshing Player #1 farm on Player #2 screen. Tell them to refresh farm they will see a new picture, so it is not safe to assume unless you watch a farm for a couple of refreshes, hours or days to notice a discernible pattern.

Not being difficult but enlightening all parties to not assume or go on witch hunts as you may get innocents hurt un-rightfully so. However good intention a player may feel they did their due diligence before shopping it is alot of responsibility to put on a player who wants to just play. Unfortunately I will have to echo the sentiments of others that have voiced their concerns on this thread, as well as many of the players who have enlisted me to be their voice of reason and logic.

This response to Point #6 and Point #7 are Flawed and thus a Policy that will constantly cause problems until the responsibility is removed from players and put squarely on the shoulders of Supercell\Hay Day.

I am by no means trying to be difficult, argumentative or hostile in this response, but trying to bring logic to where others feels ambiguity and dangers.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nick[Supercell]

As we pointed out in the beginning of this post, our goal is to keep the game fun and fair for every player and a part of that is to fight all elements ruining the game experience.

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On Behalf of all Players we appreciate the efforts of Supercell\Hay Day Team to keep the game fun and fair for every player and your efforts to fight any and all elements trying to ruin the game experience. Please don't punish the innocents and innocent bystanders.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nick[Supercell]

In regards to the concerns about our player support, we have both in-house support teams, and outsourced support partners, who we work very closely with. This ensures that all our players get a proper response in a timely manner. We appreciate all the feedback we get and we work hard to improve in all areas so that players get the best support possible.

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Nick, I recommend that Corporate talk with their Support Teams and advise them of corporate policy. Help & Support is the front line interaction for players. Help & Support represents Supercell\Hay Day and therefore should be all in sync. Interactions such as these found on this link https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8...jdQVnhSS1EyUnc does Supercell\Hay Day a great disservice as it gives different answers to Players thus creating chaos, hostility, confusion, and damage to Corporate Image.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nick[Supercell]

We regret that some innocent players got unduly punished in our ongoing attempts to improve the fairness and fun in Hay Day. Our support is looking into all such cases that are reported directly to them. Please note that cases reported on the forums will not reach our support. We advise you to use official channels, such as via in-game settings, any popup you may get in the game, or our support page (http://supr.cl/HayDaySupport) to reach our support.

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Nick I very respectfully request that you have corporate have a conference on this and evaluate the current state of game play and this flawed policy that was rolled out with out proper notification to players has caused to Hay Day as awhole. I am sure Supercell\Hay Day can see a sudden spike in Charge Backs and Reversal of Purchases. Based on the Response you have posted for us:

Your Posted Response from Hay Day Team is Contradictory to what Help & Support are communicating when they choose to do so with players. Your Support Team is not on the same page as Corporate is. As support is giving conflicting information and opposite responses to what is being told to us now in this thread which is causing animosity, hysteria and chaos which was evident by players posting threads that were getting shut down by mods right away. I think a Supercell record of closure since September 11, 2015.

My recommendations which may not appease everyone but should put Supercell\Hay Day on the right foot to go forward is, Reverse all Bans\Suspensions on Accounts and Reverse all Kiosk Bans on Accounts in recent sweeps. Hay Day has already aknowledged by above quote that innocents players got unduly punished. History will remember this action on the part of Supercell\Hay Day as the app developers who did the right thing to right a wrong that has occurred. Don't let your competitors take a share of your market due to players's perceived blunder of Supercell\Hay Day. I would also say to your corporate team ensure all are in sync, from shareholders, legal, management, admin, Help and Support. Develop a Penalty system with flags and punishments.

Level #1 Challenge:
A flag to players saying we are noticing strange activity on your account in your game play please solve this picture captcha (Facebook has one emplaced for when you suddenly start liking a lot of movies, music, books etc... and its very effective) to continue to prove you are not using an illegal 3rd Party Software.

Level #2 Kiosk Ban
If Player is bypassing captcha miraculous somehow

Level #3 Suspension

Level #4 Permanent Ban

The Penalty system is just a suggestion.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nick[Supercell]

We'd like to end by reassuring you of how seriously we take your concerns and requests; you help us make the game even better.

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This is a great first step in doing so, lets finish this effort and get everyone playing Hay Day again, and lets end all the confusion, hysteria, animosity, and distrust. Players want to see resolution to their concerns sooner than later.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nick[Supercell]

Use common sense and your best judgement in those cases. And the risk is not high. :) Don't be too worried.

Cheers,

Nick

---

Nick, please review my response to this above.

I wish to Thank Everyone for their Support and Encouragement to me for creating this the thread requesting clarification. I hope I have addressed everyone's concern that fellow players have entrusted me with to the best of my ability. I am a Hay Day Addict like you all, and have recruited many to play and helped many to learn as some of the greats on here such as Ranger, Tigger, PerkyCox, etc... have taught me here by their forum's posts.

Nick and rest of Supercell Team thank you for beginning to address our concerns, lets keep working together for the success of Hay Day and full participation of its players.

I will leave you all with this Motto of mine:

In Life We Will Have Many Experiences And Make Many Mistakes In Career, Life & Love! Key To Being Successful, Is To Learn From Our's & Others Past and Current Experiences, Move Forward Being Wiser!

Another excellent post...on point, addressing issues at hand & providing resolutions, respectfully, yet firmly. Thank you again, Mikey, for what your efforts have accomplished thus far.

Your observations regarding the need for viligance toward illegal gaming activity to be that of Supercell's rather than the player has my endorsement. The basis of that endorsement originates in the simple fact that I, & I believe many like myself, have neither the technical skills, resources, or wherewithal ("common sense" aside) to ascertain or identify which, if any, all, or none, of the multiple transactions engaged in daily are suspect due to potential illegal activities on one or both sides.

The list of potential identifiers of unscrupulous or illegal farms has been compiled by forum users. While helpful, these identifiers are neither officially sanctioned nor infallible. Your call for lag time testing is an excellent suggestion as it seems to be the primary red flag, however you address the instances lag occurs between individual networks. From personal experience & observation, lag also occurs between two devices using the same home network & ISP provider. Should I have not watched my husband load his stand individually & then see those wares appear instanteousnessly on my screen, it would have looked precisely as if a bot was on the other end. Unless a player is present with another when a transaction occurs (a physical impossibility given the global playing base), how indeed can a player be responsible for, & by extension, be punished when there is no means to accurately insure the legality of an opposing player's set-up?

Until the recent sweep, there has been a forum name & shame restriction, yet in a different thread, http://forum.supercell.net/showthrea...-Find-Bot-Farm Nick posted the following...

Quote:

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Thanks for reporting! http://forum.supercell.net/showthrea...lies/smile.png I am sure we weren't able to catch all of them, and new ones will always come back in.

If you find any such, please report them here (name and level) and if possible also let us know the neighborhood name. That way it is much easier for us to catch them! http://forum.supercell.net/showthrea...lies/smile.png Thanks!

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Is this now an official policy change? And if so, who will be responsible for any subsequent investigation, & what recourse will be open to those wrongly identified or what penalty may apply to someone who may choose to abuse this type of "police thyself" system?

Using my own personal example above, someone looking to be helpful could erroneously report a completely innocent party based solely on criteria formulated by players rather the developers. My husband, & many others, could conceivably lose their farms & have no recourse except for that of going through inconsistent support channels. This hypothetical would be as unacceptable as the actual cases that are at issue currently. I would respectfully suggest that in addition to the resolutions you have already outlined, & without calling for an exposé of detection strategies or methods, that SC formulate & publish a sanctioned list of specific identifiers to aid the player base whom they are relying upon in the necessity to spot & report illegal gamers. While unethical players will undoubtably evolve & adapt to avoid detection, I believe it is also necessary to avoid groundless paranoia & specious witch hunts.

I strongly support the continued call for the meaningful & positive interaction that has begun during the past few days. Players are engaged in this conversation because we care. It would be a supreme disappointment for SC to view the issue as resolved & not deserving of additional discussion or refinement. Silence on their behalf would speak volumes.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LadyJEM5

Another excellent post...on point, addressing issues at hand & providing resolutions, respectfully, yet firmly. Thank you again, Mikey, for what your efforts have accomplished thus far.

Your observations regarding the need for viligance toward illegal gaming activity to be that of Supercell's rather than the player has my endorsement. The basis of that endorsement originates in the simple fact that I, & I believe many like myself, have neither the technical skills, resources, or wherewithal ("common sense" aside) to ascertain or identify which, if any, all, or none, of the multiple transactions engaged in daily are suspect due to potential illegal activities on one or both sides.

The list of potential identifiers of unscrupulous or illegal farms has been compiled by forum users. While helpful, these identifiers are neither officially sanctioned nor infallible. Your call for lag time testing is an excellent suggestion as it seems to be the primary red flag, however you address the instances lag occurs between individual networks. From personal experience & observation, lag also occurs between two devices using the same home network & ISP provider. Should I have not watched my husband load his stand individually & then see those wares appear instanteousnessly on my screen, it would have looked precisely as if a bot was on the other end. Unless a player is present with another when a transaction occurs (a physical impossibility given the global playing base), how indeed can a player be responsible for, & by extension, be punished when there is no means to accurately insure the legality of an opposing player's set-up?

Until the recent sweep, there has been a forum name & shame restriction, yet in a different thread, http://forum.supercell.net/showthrea...-Find-Bot-Farm Nick posted the following... Is this now an official policy change? And if so, who will be responsible for any subsequent investigation, & what recourse will be open to those wrongly identified or what penalty may apply to someone who may choose to abuse this type of "police thyself" system?

Using my own personal example above, someone looking to be helpful could erroneously report a completely innocent party based solely on criteria formulated by players rather the developers. My husband, & many others, could conceivably lose their farms & have no recourse except for that of going through inconsistent support channels. This hypothetical would be as unacceptable as the actual cases that are at issue currently. I would respectfully suggest that in addition to the resolutions you have already outlined, & without calling for an exposé of detection strategies or methods, that SC formulate & publish a sanctioned list of specific identifiers to aid the player base whom they are relying upon in the necessity to spot & report illegal gamers. While unethical players will undoubtably evolve & adapt to avoid detection, I believe it is also necessary to avoid groundless paranoia & specious witch hunts.

I strongly support the continued call for the meaningful & positive interaction that has begun during the past few days. Players are engaged in this conversation because we care. It would be a supreme disappointment for SC to view the issue as resolved & not deserving of additional discussion or refinement. Silence on their behalf would speak volumes.

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I was typing a response to Mikey when your post came up LadyJems. Pretty much what I wanted to say but not in my usual choppy style. Thanks

Oh and I got a diamond offer this morning. 4000 diamonds for the low low discounted by 20% price of.......$79.99. So even that little dandy offer has increased by $10 since the last offer came up. Now I am smh.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bestajunior

Oh and I got a diamond offer this morning. 4000 diamonds for the low low discounted by 20% price of.......$79.99. So even that little dandy offer has increased by $10 since the last offer came up. Now I am smh.

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I, too, have seen the $79.99 offer, but I think they are random percentage discounts. I had one just a couple of days ago for $69.99, so they are still out there.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nick[Supercell]

The game team has heard your concerns and takes them very seriously. It is our number one priority to keep the game fun and fair for every player. Therefore, part of that job is to fight all elements ruining the game experience, e.g. bots and the current confusion.

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The bots never bothered me or ruined my game experience. All this time the bots were there, I could just play my game as I wanted to. Until you messed up with your "bot sweep". If anything ruined the game experience, it's your overzealous bot sweep, not the bots.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nick[Supercell]

1) Play the game exactly as you wish, as long as you do it manually without using any form of automation (3rd party software tools, bots etc.) and do not try to benefit from others running such automation.
[...]
4) You can sell/buy any item you want, for whatever price you want, in the RSS, as long as you don't use automation.
[...]
7) Generally, you can trade with your neighborhood, your friends, or with random players as much as you like, with any items you want, with any price you see fit, as long as you don't use automation. However, if your trading partner is using automation, you are in risk of benefiting from illegal software use, and might get flagged. All we can say here is to use your best judgment.

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I know 100% sure plenty of people got banned while they weren't using any automation. Just trading a large amount of items was enough to get a ban. You still fail to address this issue.

I can't help but notice, that the rules above are a change in policy, an extension of the ToS. As long as the buyer doesn't use third party software, buying from any shop is not against your terms of service.

So first you changed your policy, told nobody and handed out bans. And now people publicly state that they're afraid to spend money on the game, your trying to do some damage control.

If people use such automation, you deal with them. It's impossible for other players to determine if they use it or not, and it's not the players job. It is your interest and your job.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nick[Supercell]

As we pointed out in the beginning of this post, our goal is to keep the game fun and fair for every player and a part of that is to fight all elements ruining the game experience.

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I call ♥♥ twice on this;

The bots weren't ruining my game experience in the first place. Your fight is.

As a company that sold 51% interest to other companies for over 2 billion, your obligation is to keep your shareholders happy. I don't blame you for that in particular, that's just how it works in the corporate world. No need to ♥♥ about game experience while you just want people to spend more money on saws and axes or whatever.


Nice to get the opportunity to reply to another post of yours and not be a hypocrite by actually staying on topic:
http://forum.supercell.net/showthrea...=1#post5412533

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nick[Supercell]

Please stay on topic :) The BOT sweep went actually pretty well,

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Please stay on topic, Nick :) If you think banning a whole bunch of people who just traded their stuff with other players through fb is good, then yeah, the BOT sweep went actually pretty well. I don't think these people will agree with you though. Nor will their friends and neighbors.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nick[Supercell]

but we had a hunch that we may have both missed some bots, and some innocent players got caught. We are dealing with them case by case, and by that learn how to improve it for the next "sweep" (which will happen).

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Yeah. You do understand that that will just develop into an arms race, right? The casualties of war won't be the bots. Sure there'll be less bots for a while. They'll just randomize and humanize instead of optimize to stay under the radar. And create double the amount of farms to make up for the efficiency loss :facepalm: The real casualties of war will be the "some innocent players" you're talking about. Again and again. Which already are quite a lot of players actually.

It's already showing in the paper, faster than I imagined. Plenty of bots to be found again. While there's still plenty of innocent people banned and your "support" is still dealing with the mess you made. Good job, really!

Seen Hay Day's rating at Google Play lately? It hasn't improved, to say the least. I wish you good luck sweeping them 1 star ratings XD

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nick[Supercell]

Use common sense and your best judgement in those cases. And the risk is not high. :)

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Yeah nice smile. Tell it to the people who temporary or permanently got the farms banned with that smile on your face. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nick[Supercell]

Don't be too worried.

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Of course not. Don't be too worried, please keep spending your cash. :saywhat:


Mmmm... Whatcha say?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PerkyCox

I still say the way to combat the bots is to destroy the secondary market for farms and EMs. I put forward an idea a long time ago that in the same way as you get 50 barn spaces per barn upgrade after 1000, perhaps there should be spot increases at other levels too: 75 per upgrade at 2500, 100 at 5000 etc. it would take fewer upgrades to get to max, and so that motivator to buy EMs would be gone.

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I have also suggested that SC change how EMs are received. As in boat, truck orders. Town orders already work this way.
So as to make it too hard for bots to do all the steps required to grow, produce and fill orders.

Wheating is is just so easy. So simple that a bot can do it. It's like a weak spot that keeps being taken advantage of over and over. Maybe that needs to change.

Im sorry that innocents have been caught in the crossfire. It happens in every war and I do believe that SC is in a war here.

Would that the same animosity was displayed here against the bots. Rather than SC.
SC provides the game that we all play and love.
Bots provide nothing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tiggerr129

I hear you Janilee. I think the only thing we can go on is that if the trade seems too good to be true, there might be a problem. Most of the trades I see between friends are smallish and on the order of one for one. I give you my ten planks, you give me your ten bolts. If someone offers up 150 bolts for ten deeds or worse maps!, it is now probably a good time to stop thinking of that person as a dumb newbie, but possibly a sinister crook. We certainly don't have to call him one and tip him off but we can just walk away in search of more likely trades.

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IMVHO...that is not reasonable. WHY would anyone, ¢heater or not, make an offer like that? What's in it for them? The industrial bot farms want real cash for their BEMs, not deeds or maps. And the players who are real players but ¢heating have zero incentive to make that offer, either. They'll make the same offer as anyone else, because that's what they can get. If they care enough to ¢heat, they sure aren't going to give away their ill-gotten gains for nothing.

From some of what we've heard from support, SC seems concerned about players who buy and sell large numbers of expansion items. But higher level players need a lot of items to expand. It takes over 200 of each item by the time you've maxxed out barn and silo.

I routinely have hundreds of items I can trade or give away. I'm a high level player with a big barn, and a thousand items is no big deal for me.

I often give my LEMs to my friends or neighbors who still need them. (I don't, and have have no need for coins any more, either.) I have given hundreds of LEMs to friends and neighbors at for 1 coin for 10. Are they going to suspect me of ¢heating now? :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sparkly888

I have also suggested that SC change how EMs are received. As in boat, truck orders. Town orders already work this way.
So as to make it too hard for bots to do all the steps required to grow, produce and fill orders.

Wheating is is just so easy. So simple that a bot can do it. It's like a weak spot that keeps being taken advantage of over and over. Maybe that needs to change.

Im sorry that innocents have been caught in the crossfire. It happens in every war and I do believe that SC is in a war here.

Would that the same animosity was displayed here against the bots. Rather than SC.
SC provides the game that we all play and love.
Bots provide nothing.

---

Sparkly & Perky, I've always respected your forum posts for their advice, humor, & insights, one of the reasons I supported your reasoned proposals on reworking the expansion system. Perhaps by giving consideration to such, SC could eliminate, if not all, then at least achieve a telling reduction in farms engaged in bot activity.

Even if they're not willing to do so due to complexity, cost effectiveness, etc., the way I see it is that the need for trading arose from the deliberately designed inequality of EM drops. When one item becomes so rare that a non-designed method (trading, which is tacitly, if not directly sanctioned by the developers) becomes necessary to correct that inequality, then would it not be worthwhile for SC to look at making an alteration to that particular facet of the game? Not to say that such an action would eliminate trading altogether, but by correcting the gap of needfulness, would not that assist in closing the door on illegal gamers who engage in activities designed to take advantage of that gap?

I, for one, would find the need to trade less imperative if I knew that I could rely upon a fairly even distribution of needed materials rather than having an disportionate ratio of 160 nails, 90 panels, & 35 screws toward the next upgrade. While I understand the inherent inequality provides a game challenge & promotes diamond spending (the bottom line goal of any for profit business), yet it has opened the door for the types of illicit activity which has sprung forth. This is a demon of SC's making, & everyone seems to be a paying a price whether it be SC's loss of income from bots, player's innocently caught up in the sweep, or players' loss of security & trust in a favored game.

Thank you Tiggs for your response to my mom's iPod. Her iOS says 6.2.1 I think (I know the 6 is right)." Support is actually responding to me now about her problem. Still no fix but at least have them trying to help.

Thank you MikeySpeed for your clear head in all of this. I know that I am angry and would not have said things so nicely.

I wish I would have taken screenshots of the responses I have gotten from support about my shop being blocked. In my eyes they were rude and seemed like support was using a "cut and paste" response. They have stopped responding to me (I tried to contact them about 5 times) about my farm. All I want to know from them is why, what did I do wrong? (Do I have a bot follower? Did I unknowingly follow a bot or someone linked to one? Is one of my friends using a bot? Did someone report me as being a bot? Do I wheat too much? Do I sell too many EMs?) How can I avoid this in the future if I don't know what I did wrong? (Not asking for trade secrets...just what conclusion they came to. How can I defend myself if I don't know what I did?)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KittyValley

Thank you Tiggs for your response to my mom's iPod. Her iOS says 6.2.1 I think (I know the 6 is right)." Support is actually responding to me now about her problem. Still no fix but at least have them trying to help.

Thank you MikeySpeed for your clear head in all of this. I know that I am angry and would not have said things so nicely.

I wish I would have taken screenshots of the responses I have gotten from support about my shop being blocked. In my eyes they were rude and seemed like support was using a "cut and paste" response. They have stopped responding to me (I tried to contact them about 5 times) about my farm. All I want to know from them is why, what did I do wrong? (Do I have a bot follower? Did I unknowingly follow a bot or someone linked to one? Is one of my friends using a bot? Did someone report me as being a bot? Do I wheat too much? Do I sell too many EMs?) How can I avoid this in the future if I don't know what I did wrong? (Not asking for trade secrets...just what conclusion they came to. How can I defend myself if I don't know what I did?)

---

Oh dear! I am sorry I don't have suggestions or help for you, but I did want to say I hope you get your answers and more importantly your farm back. Support is probably buried in requests. Funny thing tho, I don't think the bots are writing in for help. Possibly sc can recognize that fact. And recognize it soon. Fingers crossed for u to get your farm back soon. I would be having an absolute FIT.....

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LadyJEM5

Even if they're not willing to do so due to complexity, cost effectiveness, etc., the way I see it is that the need for trading arose from the deliberately designed inequality of EM drops. When one item becomes so rare that a non-designed method (trading, which is tacitly, if not directly sanctioned by the developers) becomes necessary to correct that inequality, then would it not be worthwhile for SC to look at making an alteration to that particular facet of the game? Not to say that such an action would eliminate trading altogether, but by correcting the gap of needfulness, would not that assist in closing the door on illegal gamers who engage in activities designed to take advantage of that gap?

I, for one, would find the need to trade less imperative if I knew that I could rely upon a fairly even distribution of needed materials rather than having an disportionate ratio of 160 nails, 90 panels, & 35 screws toward the next upgrade. While I understand the inherent inequality provides a game challenge & promotes diamond spending (the bottom line goal of any for profit business), yet it has opened the door for the types of illicit activity which has sprung forth. This is a demon of SC's making, & everyone seems to be a paying a price whether it be SC's loss of income from bots, player's innocently caught up in the sweep, or players' loss of security & trust in a favored game.

---

Interesting idea. I wonder how much their income depends on people buying diamonds so they can buy expansion items.

Personally, that's not something I would do. I did it when I was a newb, just like I opened every locked toolbox I found until the diamonds ran out. I quickly realized it was not a good use of diamonds.

In any case, your idea might be a better strategy than what they're doing now. It would also eliminate a lot of the problem with trade scammers out there, who have proliferated since neighborhoods started. And it would easier than this constant w♥♥♥♥-a-mole.

For the good of the game, I hope they consider it.

My shop still blocked as well, its been a week now.... They even don't bother to answer me anymore, no reason why or how long its will be that way. Its really drive me crazy, especially that I know i did not do anything wrong.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KittyValley

Thank you Tiggs for your response to my mom's iPod. Her iOS says 6.2.1 I think (I know the 6 is right)." Support is actually responding to me now about her problem. Still no fix but at least have them trying to help.

Thank you MikeySpeed for your clear head in all of this. I know that I am angry and would not have said things so nicely.

I wish I would have taken screenshots of the responses I have gotten from support about my shop being blocked. In my eyes they were rude and seemed like support was using a "cut and paste" response. They have stopped responding to me (I tried to contact them about 5 times) about my farm. All I want to know from them is why, what did I do wrong? (Do I have a bot follower? Did I unknowingly follow a bot or someone linked to one? Is one of my friends using a bot? Did someone report me as being a bot? Do I wheat too much? Do I sell too many EMs?) How can I avoid this in the future if I don't know what I did wrong? (Not asking for trade secrets...just what conclusion they came to. How can I defend myself if I don't know what I did?)

---

Apparently, I'm banned and I haven't a clue what I've done... it just happened.

I don't use any automation, and if I purchased something from a bot farm, I really was not aware of it. Seriously. I've been playing for nearly 3 years and now can't get to my farm.

I tried the support link posted by Nick, but there is no way that I can see to send a message to customer support.

I have a small neighborhood and have no way of getting in touch with these people.

Can someone help? Send me the link for support email?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MaryT

Apparently, I'm banned and I haven't a clue what I've done... it just happened.

I don't use any automation, and if I purchased something from a bot farm, and if I did, I really was not aware of it. Seriously. I've been playing for nearly 3 years and now can't get to my farm.

I tried the support link posted by Nick, but there is no way that I can see to send a message to customer support.

I have a small neighborhood and have no way of getting in touch with these people.

Can someone help? Send me the link for support email?

---

I'll repeat what I put on the other thread in case you come back here first

This is the email given on the support web page

hayday.feedback@supercell.com

Thank you again Tigger129.

I responded in the other thread..

http://forum.supercell.net/showthrea...=1#post5446356

For others, I'm hoping it was a glitch because apparently I'm now unbanned.

How in the world would I know if I'm buying from a bot farm? If I see something I need or want, I just buy it from the DD.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MaryT

How in the world would I know if I'm buying from a bot farm? If I see something I need or want, I just buy it from the DD.

---

This is a persistent question, and will continue to be so as long as players are responsible for not interacting with those who are bots or who use illegal 3rd party software

In the first post of this thread, it is spelled out that buying through the DD is fine. So as far as that goes, play without fear.

6) You can use Daily Dirt to find offers and buy any item without a moment of hesitation, as long as you don't use automation. Specifically, you don't need to find in prior whether the farm is an automated farm or not, just buy if the offer seems good. If the RSS restocks fast/immediately it is generally better to leave the farm alone as it is likely running automation. And no, you don't need to remember which farms you have already visited; you are safe even if you end up to the very same farm through a new version of DD, even multiple times per day.

Nick, Supercell Team & Hay Day Team

We are still waiting on follow-up response, further clarifications, and resolutions to our concerns.

Today is officially Day 10, from a public image stand point, Supercell should have had this fully resolved by now, Day 14 would be a slap to all players and basically a Resounding Loud and Clear Message by Supercell that they don't care and punished many for 14 days before the could play again and have many others punished.

The Cool Level Headed Players trying to keep the calm can only do so, for so long. This issue right now is contained on forum and some external sites. Please don't let this issue hit mainstream internet, social media sites and news media outlet. This Issue would no longer manageable if it goes viral, which would cause intense scrutiny and have huge implications that I do not need to spell out or do I!?!?!?!

Let me Re-Iterate Once Again to All Players!

Lets all work together, keep cool, calm and collected. Trust in Supercell to do the right thing without any further delay. Trust that Supercell will undo all Punishment administered to players from September 11, 2015 onwards. Trust Supercell to issue a non-ambiguous fully detailed answer on Correct Acceptable Game Play. That they would have had all departments and every team from Clash of Clans, Boom Beach and any other Teams to sit down together and come up with a unified response.

Too many varying answers on different sections of Supercell Forums, Help & Support and In-Game Support that is causing this mess because of the great disconnect. The Right Hand Not Telling The Left Hand what its going to do.

Perfect example, a recent thread about authorized devices to play Supercell games on was started, and a question was made by someone who wanted to use a new released amazon kindle to play Supercell game. They stated they will do a fresh install of android un-rooted on device and ask if that was acceptable. Fellow forum players responded if it has google play sore or apple store then its acceptable. They further stated that this was supported by a moderator, they said not 100% sure but think mod even said emulators on computers was fine as they had the app store. We need to have clear definitive answer on many issues. Supercell Corporate, which comprises of its' Supercell Itself, Subsidiaries, Parent Company, Staff, Sister Companies, 3rd Party Associated Affiliates Contractors & Sub-Contractor are all on same page.

For One of The Leaders in Freemium App Market & One of the Top Grossing App Developers very bad to not have In-House Training, Quality Assurance & Quality Control, Public Relations, Legal department to have avoided all these current issues and the ones around the corner.

Mikey.

Thank you for being persistent in getting the answers we ALL need.

Thank you Mikey for trying to keep us calm. It is reassuring to me to see you stand up for us. I know my patience is wearing very thin....I sent new message to support today, as all mine were before this thread and message from "Team HayDay" was posted. I thought that they would answer but they have closed my "conversation" with no reply. (I am using an educated guess here. I have been in conversations with support and when they are still talking to u, u can see what u have sent them and the reply until the session is over. When the conversation is closed u see a joke.). I do have screenshots of the message I sent.

I do have a lot to say about Supercell and the "support team", but I will not as it is not pretty. I will let you do what you can Mikey. You have my full support. Thank you again for your continued efforts in helping us "innocents" out.

Nice that they have admitted that innocent players were caught in the sweep but if they don't get their accounts back soon, it is slap in their faces and Hay Day's statement is meaningless! The way it looks they won't get their accounts back before the 14 day ban so they were punished without doing anything wrong. I hope that all innocent players will be back before the start of the next derby. Our neighborhood still has innocent players that are banned.

Karen

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kareng1960

Nice that they have admitted that innocent players were caught in the sweep but if they don't get their accounts back soon, it is slap in their faces and Hay Day's statement is meaningless! The way it looks they won't get their accounts back before the 14 day ban so they were punished without doing anything wrong. I hope that all innocent players will be back before the start of the next derby. Our neighborhood still has innocent players that are banned.

Karen

---

Im glad that i wasnt the only one thinking this... 2 weeks for not doing anything wrong... Nice appology i guess, but still punished.

But, wouldn't that mean that theyd have to go into the banned list and either un-ban everyone (including bots) or they'd have to go through each individual person and relieve the ban that way? I'm just thinking mine out of hundreds, if not thousands of players, wont be off the ban list... Fingers crossed!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by EricScott

Im glad that i wasnt the only one thinking this... 2 weeks for not doing anything wrong... Nice appology i guess, but still punished.

But, wouldn't that mean that theyd have to go into the banned list and either un-ban everyone (including bots) or they'd have to go through each individual person and relieve the ban that way? I'm just thinking mine out of hundreds, if not thousands of players, wont be off the ban list... Fingers crossed!

---

I don't suppose you have been unbanned yet :(

...it really shouldn't be that hard to work out that at least 10 regular posters here are not bots and unban them...good place to start.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SmallChange

I don't suppose you have been unbanned yet :(

...it really shouldn't be that hard to work out that at least 10 regular posters here are not bots and unban them...good place to start.

---

lol, yeah youd think... Guess this Friday will be the day.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SmallChange

I don't suppose you have been unbanned yet :(

...it really shouldn't be that hard to work out that at least 10 regular posters here are not bots and unban them...good place to start.

---

They seem not to look here. I reported our nh missing trophies problem 90 mins after derby ended and support replied they hadn't heard of the issue before... But at least 4 people had already described it here by then (and I told them that).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tomville

They seem not to look here. I reported our nh missing trophies problem 90 mins after derby ended and support replied they hadn't heard of the issue before... But at least 4 people had already described it here by then (and I told them that).

---

...they've *never* heard of the issue before you tell them about it. It is comical. Even, at times, when nick has said something is being looked into, 'help' will say they haven't heard about it before, then proceed to tell you it's your own fault for doing something totally and utterly unrelated. It would be funny, if it wasn't so frustrating :/

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by EricScott

Im glad that i wasnt the only one thinking this... 2 weeks for not doing anything wrong... Nice appology i guess, but still punished.

But, wouldn't that mean that theyd have to go into the banned list and either un-ban everyone (including bots) or they'd have to go through each individual person and relieve the ban that way? I'm just thinking mine out of hundreds, if not thousands of players, wont be off the ban list... Fingers crossed!

---

I would think that they could start with the ones that have sent in the request for support....Not to sound rude, but is that not what was said in the first post of this thread that was started by Nick and I thought was from Team Hay Day???

I feel with every passing day angrier and more frustrated....Now I am wondering why am I playing a game that will ban/block me at any moment with no reason??? Why should I support them?? Why would I ever give them my money??

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KittyValley

I would think that they could start with the ones that have sent in the request for support....Not to sound rude, but is that not what was said in the first post of this thread that was started by Nick and I thought was from Team Hay Day???

---

Ive sent at least 5 emails with no reply. You dont sound rude, but theres not much support out there for us banned players. Anytime ive tried the Contact Us in the game, its always and i mean always an automated response while the email support has had absolutely no replay.

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for all your comments, valuable feedback and suggestions in this thread, highly appreciated!

The current status is that our support team is going through a bunch of banned accounts and reviewing them. We have also been talking with various teams about our communications to our players, which we are devoted to improve on.

If you still feel confused or concerned please refer to my original post in this thread. It should cover all the concerns we have seen/heard. It is the latest and most relevant information on this topic. If the original post does not cover your specific concern, please ask me directly and I will try to give you an answer. You can either do it here in this thread, or if it is something personal, send it to me as a PM. Please keep in mind that I cannot unban players.

Someone also asked if they are dealing with our internal support or outsourced, and the short answer is outsourced. I'd also like to take a moment to correct one misunderstanding - HelpShift is not an outsourced company taking care of our support tickets. We are using HelpShift's software to enable the FAQ and support from within the game (and online).

I just want to reiterate – my first post in this thread is the official response to concerns and possible confusions.

Cheers,

Nick

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KittyValley

I would think that they could start with the ones that have sent in the request for support....Not to sound rude, but is that not what was said in the first post of this thread that was started by Nick and I thought was from Team Hay Day???

I feel with every passing day angrier and more frustrated....Now I am wondering why am I playing a game that will ban/block me at any moment with no reason??? Why should I support them?? Why would I ever give them my money??

---

I totally understand you. I wasnt giving Hay Day a bunch of money, but my wife and I had bought diamonds so that makes me a paying customer. I cant trust opening the game up at anytime anymore. I absolutely love playing this game. Are there some things that need to be addressed and worked on, absolutely!

It angers me when its being said that communications are being looked into for "improvement", when the improvement is simply stop sending me automated email responses and do something right. Punishing players for no reason is absurd. I can only speak for myself, but i dont use any other software besides the trusty hay day app and the occasional updates we receive. Ban us for buying wheat from someone we can not tell is or not a bot... Not good business.

It seems to me people are being punished for what exactly SC says we can do. 2 nights ago I was banned I rarely wheat don't buy cheap wheat or use automation I don't even know what that is. I played everyday most days all day. I am disabled and hayday was my saving grace.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dawn2dark

It seems to me people are being punished for what exactly SC says we can do. 2 nights ago I was banned I rarely wheat don't buy cheap wheat or use automation I don't even know what that is. I played everyday most days all day. I am disabled and hayday was my saving grace.

---

Just curious, what was your stats? I was level 68, barn and silo 3000, with 11.4 million coins. Im trying to find the common ground with everyone.

It just seems to me simply this: if you wheat youre a threat to geing banned. Youre getting too many expansion tools and everyone here knows you can never have too much space. Having a very large storage allows you to hold that much more for orders. That would cause you to gain in the profits of boat, truck, neighborhood, and neighbor visits. Not to mention, helping your fellow friend orany random person in the newspaper with their orders too.

I might be so far off base, but when you have a week and a half to think about things you get all kinds of thoughts.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nick[Supercell]

The current status is that our support team is going through a bunch of banned accounts and reviewing them. We have also been talking with various teams about our communications to our players, which we are devoted to improve on.

If you still feel confused or concerned please refer to my original post in this thread. It should cover all the concerns we have seen/heard. It is the latest and most relevant information on this topic. If the original post does not cover your specific concern, please ask me directly and I will try to give you an answer. You can either do it here in this thread, or if it is something personal, send it to me as a PM. Please keep in mind that I cannot unban players.

Someone also asked if they are dealing with our internal support or outsourced, and the short answer is outsourced. I'd also like to take a moment to correct one misunderstanding - HelpShift is not an outsourced company taking care of our support tickets. We are using HelpShift's software to enable the FAQ and support from within the game (and online).

---

My direct question is why are we not receiving an answer when we contact support?

I have been blocked from using my shop and support says I no longer am able to receive support? Why?

I find it very upsetting to send in a request to support and have them not respond. In my eyes they are telling me that I'm not important enough to waste my time on answering you.

I hope that you, Nick will reply to some of the posts directly in this thread, especially those from MikeySpeed. Many concerns and questions have been asked. I would like to see them directly quoted and answered.

Hopefully something will be done soon and restore those that have been innocently blocked. Right now I do not have any trust in Supercell and hope that something is done to try and restore the trust.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dawn2dark

It seems to me people are being punished for what exactly SC says we can do. 2 nights ago I was banned I rarely wheat don't buy cheap wheat or use automation I don't even know what that is. I played everyday most days all day. I am disabled and hayday was my saving grace.

---

So the ban is still going on, despite all the unresolved cases?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by EricScott

Just curious, what was your stats? I was level 68, barn and silo 3000, with 11.4 million coins. Im trying to find the common ground with everyone.

---

My stats are level 111. town 34. Barn - 2400. Silo - 2100. Been a player since October 2013. Have 1.8 million coins. 124/126 achievement. Farm score - 31514351

I'd just like to say thank you to Nick, and the Supercell team for trying to address player issues.

It's important to remember that the whole point of these corrections is to create a better player experience for everyone involved.

Ultimately, some players who did nothing wrong may have been temporarily inconvenienced, and that is important. But let's try to keep it in perspective. These players weren't banned "for no reason", or "at random". They were banned because they fit a certain profile that the SC team was using to identify other legitimately problematic players. That just means that Supercell needs to work on their targeting algorithm, and hopefully they will. It doesn't mean they ban players willy-nilly.

I can't imagine how frustrating that is for players who got banned and did nothing wrong, but I do believe they are doing the best they can with the resources they have.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CheddarLimbo

I'd just like to say thank you to Nick, and the Supercell team for trying to address player issues.

It's important to remember that the whole point of these corrections is to create a better player experience for everyone involved.

Ultimately, some players who did nothing wrong may have been temporarily inconvenienced, and that is important. But let's try to keep it in perspective. These players weren't banned "for no reason", or "at random". They were banned because they fit a certain profile that the SC team was using to identify other legitimately problematic players. That just means that Supercell needs to work on their targeting algorithm, and hopefully they will. It doesn't mean they ban players willy-nilly.

I can't imagine how frustrating that is for players who got banned and did nothing wrong, but I do believe they are doing the best they can with the resources they have.

---

I think I am keeping it in perspective...yes it maybe temporarily an inconvenience, it is the response from support that has angered me the most. They basically said that I used third party software, so in my mind they called me a ♥♥♥♥♥er. I do not ♥♥♥♥♥ and do not like being called something I am not. I emailed them after they said I was using third party software and explained exactly how I run my group, how I farm and what I do and what I play on. The response I got was "you are no longer eligible to receive support". So in my mind they said tough luck, don't care. They now will not respond to me. They close the "support conversations" with NO REPLY. What does this say about Supercell and the support? I think I was banned/blocked for no reason because they will not tell me what I did to deserve being blocked. I thought that by contacting them that they would actually look at my account and farm, but they seem to be using a cut and paste response to everyone who has been blocked. I have been reading in the forum and no player has said that they have been given back their shop. Please let me know if I am wrong here, I would love to hear that support is actually giving innocent players back their blocked shops.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nick[Supercell]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for all your comments, valuable feedback and suggestions in this thread, highly appreciated!

The current status is that our support team is going through a bunch of banned accounts and reviewing them. We have also been talking with various teams about our communications to our players, which we are devoted to improve on.

If you still feel confused or concerned please refer to my original post in this thread. It should cover all the concerns we have seen/heard. It is the latest and most relevant information on this topic. If the original post does not cover your specific concern, please ask me directly and I will try to give you an answer. You can either do it here in this thread, or if it is something personal, send it to me as a PM. Please keep in mind that I cannot unban players.

Someone also asked if they are dealing with our internal support or outsourced, and the short answer is outsourced. I'd also like to take a moment to correct one misunderstanding - HelpShift is not an outsourced company taking care of our support tickets. We are using HelpShift's software to enable the FAQ and support from within the game (and online).

I just want to reiterate – my first post in this thread is the official response to concerns and possible confusions.

Cheers,

Nick

---

Nick your response has enraged many unfortunately and they are wanting to take the next step in their resolution, i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Global News Media Outlets, Apple, Google, Amazon, etc... You Reap What You Sow! It is taking Supercell over 11 days to Right a Wrong!?!?! What is wrong with this picture!?!?! Follow my recommendations in my direct quotes to yours, reverse all punishments handed down since September 11, 2015. Supercell failed to adequately notify players of the change in Terms of Service, failed to adequately differentiate from Honest Players and Dis-Honest, Supercell in its actions assumed incorrectly that players knew they may or may not have been interacting with a farm using 3rd party software. Supercell has now changed it stance and said that Help & Support was outsourced, a way to deflect and shift blame for conflicting information received. Supercell and it's Help & Support in their actions have contributed to the current state of affairs of 11 days of Non-Resolution. Supercell needs to without any delays restore all accounts and come up with a tiered multi-prong approach as I have described above. Test, Test, Test and Re-Test before implementing an alogorithm. Supercell is responsible for all actions of any parties affiliated with them. Players tempers have flared up and I will not repeat or post what they have said and requested to me to relay.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KittyValley

My direct question is why are we not receiving an answer when we contact support?

I have been blocked from using my shop and support says I no longer am able to receive support? Why?

I find it very upsetting to send in a request to support and have them not respond. In my eyes they are telling me that I'm not important enough to waste my time on answering you.

I hope that you, Nick will reply to some of the posts directly in this thread, especially those from MikeySpeed. Many concerns and questions have been asked. I would like to see them directly quoted and answered.

Hopefully something will be done soon and restore those that have been innocently blocked. Right now I do not have any trust in Supercell and hope that something is done to try and restore the trust.

---

I Agree and Support This Comment 100%

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CheddarLimbo

I'd just like to say thank you to Nick, and the Supercell team for trying to address player issues.

It's important to remember that the whole point of these corrections is to create a better player experience for everyone involved.

Ultimately, some players who did nothing wrong may have been temporarily inconvenienced, and that is important. But let's try to keep it in perspective. These players weren't banned "for no reason", or "at random". They were banned because they fit a certain profile that the SC team was using to identify other legitimately problematic players. That just means that Supercell needs to work on their targeting algorithm, and hopefully they will. It doesn't mean they ban players willy-nilly.

I can't imagine how frustrating that is for players who got banned and did nothing wrong, but I do believe they are doing the best they can with the resources they have.

---

Until they right a wrong, it does not make the system right. Don't punish the many for the action of a few!


Edit: Nick Smart closing other thread guess don't like the polls to keep showing an increasingly negative opinion. Brushing under a rug does not hide the dirt.

Dear Nick, I wouldn't recognize a bot farm when i saw one. The obvious, yes. But there are others.

I certainly (and i have read this goes for the most people) wouldn't know if one of my neighbours uses or has used 3rd party software. And i trade with them.

We definitively need good answers and solutions from you - as spokesman - and your team.

2 good solutions would be at least:

1: skip the part of trading/be friends with someone who uses 3rd party software. I don't use it and i wouldn't recognize it with a neighbour. It makes it more difficult that we don't get instructions on how to know someone uses 3rd praty software. Is he talking rubbish then? Does his farm glow? How on earth will i know if you don't tell. So if you don't tell don't take action to punish us.

If you're playing a game, it would certainly be handy if we knew what the rules are and how to understand them.


2. Restoring all farms of those who have complained with helpdesk. That would me minimum that you could do.

Good post Mikey:)

I am level 93, my barn is only 900 my silo is 825. I have 5.6 million coins.

I was in the neighborhood in which the two of them boasted how they play the game on the computer. I warned they that it was against the rules, and they can be banned, but they did not listen and continued to play on the computer when they were at home. I left them and reported but they play a day-to-day and are not banned. Their farms are not a bot farms but used an emulator means softwer third party and supercell had never prevented this. This means that impunity can play on the computer and you will not be coutgh if you do not use the automatism

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MikeySpeed

Nick your response has enraged many unfortunately and they are wanting to take the next step in their resolution, i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Global News Media Outlets, Apple, Google, Amazon, etc... You Reap What You Sow!

It is taking Supercell over 11 days to Right a Wrong!?!?! What is wrong with this picture!?!?! Follow my recommendations in my direct quotes to yours, reverse all punishments handed down since September 11, 2015. Supercell failed to adequately notify players of the change in Terms of Service, failed to adequately differentiate from Honest Players and Dis-Honest, Supercell in its actions assumed incorrectly that players knew they may or may not have been interacting with a farm using 3rd party software.

Supercell has now changed it stance and said that Help & Support was outsourced, a way to deflect and shift blame for conflicting information received. Supercell and it's Help & Support in their actions have contributed to the current state of affairs of 11 days of Non-Resolution...

---

IIRC, the Mod Squad went to SC HQ in Finland a few months ago. One of the Mods mentioned they had a productive morning because they got to visit the group of people in Support. The mod observed that Support was bolstered compared to a year ago.

We got the impression that Support is in-house so there was quality control and the message from SC will be consistent. Apparently, we now find out Support is also outsourced so many players are confused by the "robotic" and "cut-and-paste" responses from Support. I'm stunned.

Thank you very much for everything Nick and Mike, thank goodness there is no more message from the foolish person who had been posting on your game app for free coins/diamonds, it was very irritating, the message is now gone. Phew! (no more harassment) from commenting on Facebook. Edit: I am connected towards Facebook but also google play.

Interesting what you find by running a google search such as this "hay day bot ban complaints". Gonna say hi to the clashers reading this thread, and wondering if their little bot world will be next. Several different COC bot forums out there that pop up in the 1st or 2nd page of a search.

Found a maker of a bot who has the lovely letter SC's legal department sent to them about cease and desist, yet they have not, they are selling a bot program for COC, no one is getting banned over there though.

I did get a bit of an idea of things they try not to do so they don't put up red flags.

Not sure why SC decided to unleash their great bot finder on Hay Day first, from what I found COC bot use is much higher, the game itself is a bigger money maker then Hay Day, way more bot makers out there and whole little bot communities for COC, didn't run across any for forums or communities for Hay Day bot users.

Seems to me they should have gone after COC first, then again they can't even figure out how to detect actual bot users versus actual players yet, so they might as well start first on the game that makes them less money. ♥♥♥♥ off the honest players, paying their hard earned money, ban them, yet the botters keep on going.

I know this whole thing has got me very concerned about my game play. I do so many of these things that seem to be a possibility to put flags up as possible bot connection. Claiming we can still play the same old way we have, yet when you read later in SC's response you take a chance trading, wheating, selling low, playing for long periods, buying out of the DD, any of it is a flag and at any time you can buy, sell or trade to a bot or someone using a bot or someone who got there stuff they are selling or trading with you from a bot player.

I don't like ♥♥♥♥♥ers, but in this game there is no way for regular players to know if they are dealing with a ♥♥♥♥♥er or not and it's unfair that we can be banned for that.

P.S. seriously c h e a t e r is censored?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CheddarLimbo

Ultimately, some players who did nothing wrong may have been temporarily inconvenienced, and that is important. But let's try to keep it in perspective. These players weren't banned "for no reason", or "at random". They were banned because they fit a certain profile that the SC team was using to identify other legitimately problematic players. That just means that Supercell needs to work on their targeting algorithm, and hopefully they will. It doesn't mean they ban players willy-nilly.

I can't imagine how frustrating that is for players who got banned and did nothing wrong, but I do believe they are doing the best they can with the resources they have.

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Cheddar, I don't think they actually ARE trying to right the wrong. They are trying to do damage control, IMO, but that's about it. Otherwise they would have unbanned many farms faster -- as MikeySpeed says above-- through regular support channels, plus refunded the lost diamonds of incorrectly banned players. They've done neither.

Support does three things in response to emails, in this order: (1) says you got banned because you were banned, (2) says they can't help anymore because you are banned and tells you to stop using illegal third party software(s) and/or interact(ion) with it because next ban is permanent, then (3) ignores any additional emails that you send. You plead with them to have a human look at your account logs, but it falls on deaf ears.

That doesn't sound like they are trying to right any wrongs to me. They simply cut and paste their grammatically incorrect scripts to get your tickets off their queue, and condescendingly accuse you of being an ♥♥♥♥♥er and a thief.

If SC had a 2 week outage due to a programming or server malfunction, we wouldn't argue that they are doing the best they can and to keep in perspective that they were just trying to add new features so cut them some slack for trying. This is a multi-billion dollar enterprise, not a few programmers in a small town garage working on freeware. The community deserves better.

I was lucky enough to get unbanned thanks to the VERY kind intervention of a forumer last week. I am very grateful to her for that. But I still don't know why my farm was flagged in the first place. I *suspect* it has a lot to do with power playing. No matter how much SC talks about "patterns and more", I suspect the main pattern is hardcore extended wheating or corning. Now I need axes but I'm afraid to wheat a lot for them. My zeal for the game is waning.

If we knew that there was a fastpath resolution to have support look at farm bans when needed, then I would be completely understanding of the bothammer debacle and any in the future. I totally get that no algorithm will be perfect. But it's unacceptable that there isn't a fastpath to resolution through normal support channels.

My farm is still banned I'm still getting ignored I have asked what I have done? Nothing. I have asked are they fixing whatever it was they found on my farm for it to be flagged so I have no more problems in the future? Nothing I have asked them to look into my farm and they would see there was no benifits from whatever it was they found... Nothing. It is beyond frustrating to know I did nothing wrong my eyes and continue to be ignored by so called support that is supposed to help me. I wouldn't think anyone that is guilty would try so hard to get a response or be question why what and how? I was hoping the announcement would see better treatment in support and the hope they would apologize to me and release my farm back. No such luck. No sense wasting hope on a company that shows no respect to its players. Supercell failed here...

SHEPHERDGIRL. Yay ;)


It has definitely taken the shine off of the game for many of us. A lot of us are feeling 'What's the point in playing if they can just ban us willy nilly when we've done nothing wrong. Wheating, 'playing too long', trading ems... All normal, yet result in a ban for some :rolleyes:

Contacted multiple times still same old response from support, sorry its banned temporarily view our TOA etc.,

I had already shifted to another game, instead of waiting for their response, may be after 1 or 2 years I'll check whether the ban has lifted or not XDXD