New Newspaper - unwanted customers

[Schmoo]

....
One last suggestion is that you could all incorporate something in your shop name which denotes 'friends only' and then at least strangers who have manners could avoid buying from you.

Hey Woozle, as has been explained already it's not that we want people we don't know being actively blocked from visiting our stalls, it's just that since the newspaper update there has been a huge increase in mystery visitors who by rights shouldn't have been able to swoop upon unadvertised goods so quickly.

But what I really wanted to say is that a stranger with manners is the kind of visitor I'd like to become a regular visitor, not a stranger. My GC id is in my signature if you'd like to become a friend/neighbour rather than a nameless gingerbread man

[Lindystarr]

Really? I have always had everything sold very quickly in my shop. Everything's almost always gone within a couple of minutes. Nothing new there.

I have very few friends and followers, about half of which are low level players so things that require higher levels used to linger, especially when i was playing when Americans were tucked up in bed! I never, ever, had everything sold at once before last update unless I was advertising.

[Koala]

Closed my shop, only help those on my list and only accept maybe one boat a day if it has easy crates for nbrs and still I get new followers. What kind of "speshul" player would follow a farm with so little activity? Game gets more peculiar with each passing day.

[Tinkerbell]

Because I cannot play the game as I used to, instead of quitting the game altogether I started a new farm under another ID. Just for fun and to see how it would work out if you do not take away trees and rocks. And to check if it would be found by potathead if there was no trace AT ALL. ( no facebook connection, no friends, no leaderboard, nothing)
As soon as I started putting things in the shop, cowfeed, ofcourse WITHOUT advertising, it was bought by the potatohead.

the farm is level 8, has one friend (me), no boat, I started this farm two hours ago and already the ninja virus has got it.
Triggered by cowfeed. Sigh. How depressing.

I repost Aristo's observations here also as an example.

Again, people who are high level (think she's 51... Or around there) shouldn't see THAT much lower level people on LB unless she has been doing one boat per level since level 25. Unless that level 25 player opened dock but helped a thousand crates before... Just not plausible.

Gaining followers only possible through DD, LB, and if you help stranger farms.

Those examples eliminate all the three theories. Unless all are highly exceptional cases.


but the amount of feedback since the new DD maintenance ensures that the problem is pervasive

Actually aristo's and marysc stories do not eliminate all possibilities. Aristo has helped people in the past and could still be on the last helper list, no matter how much time has past.
You are right, however, about rizzyisbizzy.
A brand new farm, no boat, no friends, never helped anyone.
i am going to try to recreate this myself and let you all know how I get on.

[Swisspie81]

Actually aristo's and marysc stories do not eliminate all possibilities. Aristo has helped people in the past and could still be on the last helper list, no matter how much time has past.
You are right, however, about rizzyisbizzy.
A brand new farm, no boat, no friends, never helped anyone.
i am going to try to recreate this myself and let you all know how I get on.

Thanks Tink! Hope the experiment will show some consistency.

Even if the examples don't eliminate completely the theories, as Mary's LB point 1 and maybe ok Aristo 'could' be mistaken about the fact that the people she helped were not level 25, as is her new mystery follower (she did say her follower was level 25 and the people she helped was higher levels than that), why would all this begin after the new DD? It surely can't be a coincidence everyone start to look through the LB to find and follow farms, this LB has been around much longer than the new DD

[oni1st]

Actually aristo's and marysc stories do not eliminate all possibilities. Aristo has helped people in the past and could still be on the last helper list, no matter how much time has past.
You are right, however, about rizzyisbizzy.
A brand new farm, no boat, no friends, never helped anyone.
i am going to try to recreate this myself and let you all know how I get on.

I did make a small farm. One friend - my husband! No boat! No ads No helping! Still unknown/gingerbread/stranger/ shows up and takes stuff! Supercell will not believe it. They've been told over and over. Now their answer is to direct people to this thread which is filling up with people who haven't read the whole thing and want to prove we're not having problems. This thread now has no consistency!


They keep responding that they know we're unhappy about the bacon and eggs. We're NOT talking about what's in the darn paper but what they are *advertising* without our knowledge in the darn paper!

Please please people! We're higher level players not children. If you're not having trouble please don't muddie this thread with ideas of what may be happening. Please consider that people have discussed and tried various and obvious solutions to these problems before coming here. I'm not saying people can't post but if you can't give meaningful insight then it's not helpful in trying to give the developers things to work on. For example: Should we all drive around in defective cars because a few people have had no problem with their vehicles. Does that mean we're not entitled to safety because your car hasn't exploded yet?

[Tinkerbell]

supercell have never said they don't believe it.

[Kaptain Kat]

I did make a small farm. One friend - my husband! No boat! No ads No helping! Still unknown/gingerbread/stranger/ shows up and takes stuff! Supercell will not believe it. They've been told over and over. Now their answer is to direct people to this thread which is filling up with people who haven't read the whole thing and want to prove we're not having problems. This thread now has no consistency!


They keep responding that they know we're unhappy about the bacon and eggs. We're NOT talking about what's in the darn paper but what they are *advertising* without our knowledge in the darn paper!

Please please people! We're higher level players not children. If you're not having trouble please don't muddie this thread with ideas of what may be happening. Please consider that people have discussed and tried various and obvious solutions to these problems before coming here. I'm not saying people can't post but if you can't give meaningful insight then it's not helpful in trying to give the developers things to work on. For example: Should we all drive around in defective cars because a few people have had no problem with their vehicles. Does that mean we're not entitled to safety because your car hasn't exploded yet?

We and Supercell never said we don't believe the reports listed in this thread. We mods are just regular players like any other forum members with decent levels so we are active and avid players who know a thing or two about the game.

The thing is we haven't noticed a significant change in our games other then game center acting up and not loading all the pictures and names and yes we've tried selling everything at different prices and such so please consider that also.

As for the thread we are monitoring it closely and please don't assume we haven't read everything just because we don't post for a while or don't respond to every post in here. We do read it and pass things on to the team however this is a tricky and difficult issue. Sometimes the discussion is needed to find out more information or would you rather have us all ignore the thread and the issue all together ?

[Stevie]

Closed my shop, only help those on my list and only accept maybe one boat a day if it has easy crates for nbrs and still I get new followers. What kind of "speshul" player would follow a farm with so little activity? Game gets more peculiar with each passing day.

Too funny! I like to think I'm speshul.

I certainly think a step in the direction would be to see supercell opening several farms - without advertising, without friends, without helping anyone.

Then put some items in the stalls without advertising ..... And then the problem may be clear.

Not only will they have sales, they will get followers also.

Continuing to test for the problem on advanced level farms is only causing confusion to a very clear problem.

[Trigunet]

The thing is we haven't noticed a significant change in our games other then game center acting up and not loading all the pictures and names and yes we've tried selling everything at different prices and such so please consider that also.

So none of the mods have come across the issue of not-advertizing and someone still buying your stuff?