New bot farms?

[LynnK2015]

Honestly, I don't find these bots to be that big a deal. Yea, they're in the DD selling wheat but in no way are they affecting my gameplay. I probably bought a bunch of wheat from a lot of them since all I'm looking for are cheaply priced wheat. Nick reassured us that buying from a bot farm will not get us banned so I keep buying away. Even before the last bot sweep, I was a frequent shopper at these farms. The hysteria is coming from players not knowing whether certain interactions with these bot farms will get them in trouble. As long as u play game the right way and know u have done nothing wrong, these bots, as annoying as they are, shouldn't be a concern for players...

Haystacker, may I ask when Nick reassured us that buying from a bot farm won't get us banned?

OTOH, Nick wrote the following in September 2015, responding to a forumer who was banned temporarily:

"...You may not have been running a bot yourself but you have been in a network of bots (buying cheap items or like). Guys, do not use bots. Do not buy from them, do not friend with them. Report them. That's how we can keep Hay Day fun for everyone."

http://forum.supercell.net/showthrea...=1#post5386820

I'm not sure if SC won't ban farmers if they unknowingly bought from bot farms once or twice.

I'm certain farmers will be banned if they friend bot farms and visited them frequently to buy cheap items.

[DerpingtonVanDerpen]

Hey im pretty new and just stumbled over this thread.

I usally farm alot of wheat and sell it 10 for 1 coin because I wouldn't get rid of it.
Now after reading all this I'm a little bit nervous about the way I usally play.

I have all my shop slots full of wheat for 10 coins and they dont sell at all... So I probably will sell them for 1 again incase I can get rid of the expensive ones.

Is it possible to get banned for that ?

[Haystacker]

Haystacker, may I ask when Nick reassured us that buying from a bot farm won't get us banned?

OTOH, Nick wrote the following in September 2015, responding to a forumer who was banned temporarily:

"...You may not have been running a bot yourself but you have been in a network of bots (buying cheap items or like). Guys, do not use bots. Do not buy from them, do not friend with them. Report them. That's how we can keep Hay Day fun for everyone."

http://forum.supercell.net/showthrea...=1#post5386820

I'm not sure if SC won't ban farmers if they unknowingly bought from bot farms once or twice.

I'm certain farmers will be banned if they friend bot farms and visited them frequently to buy cheap items.

Nick replied to TomTim on page 9 of the link u provided and in this thread

http://forum.supercell.net/showthrea...Bot-Farm/page6

Bottom line, if ur buying wheat in the DD from a bot, chances are it's a one time occurrence with that particular bot. And it's wheat, not cheaply priced expansion materials. My advice is to use common sense...if it's too good to be true, avoid it.

[KristaSmith]

Hey im pretty new and just stumbled over this thread.

I usally farm alot of wheat and sell it 10 for 1 coin because I wouldn't get rid of it.
Now after reading all this I'm a little bit nervous about the way I usally play.

I have all my shop slots full of wheat for 10 coins and they dont sell at all... So I probably will sell them for 1 again incase I can get rid of the expensive ones.

Is it possible to get banned for that ?

I have quite a few neighbours who sell wheat in bundles of 10 for 1 coin, and I've seen myriads of honest players in the DD doing the same. Unless your farm is set up like a bot farm, you have nothing to be concerned about.

The more this topic has been covered, he more bots I see in the paper, and I don't always recognize them as such until I've bought something from their shop. My fingers are faster than my brain in this competive DD shopping tournament that seems to be going on, but that's a different topic for a different day.

if they are going to send me diamonds or put me on their payroll, I'll take time out of my playing to report these farms, but until then, I'll wait for that brilliant insta-report button a few of you have mentioned.

[KristaSmith]

I had been sending screenshots of suspicious farms almost every time I used the daily dirt until I got this strange reply from supercell

"Hello Farmer,
Thank you for writing to us with the screen shot of suspicious farms.

I certainly understand you must be concerned to know if your farm will be in trouble if you trade with bot accounts or the farm which looks suspicious. I would be glad to help you with that. I would suggest you not to trade with the accounts which look suspicious and sell more upgrade or expansion items to play your farm safe. We appreciate players who play a fair game.

If you continue to trade with the accounts which looks suspicious, please not that you will put your farm in a fix and will be unable to access it permanently. I suggest you to play a fair game to avoid such instance in the future. I hope this helps.

Please let me know if you need help with anything else in the game. As always, we're just a message away.
Have a Hay-ppy Day!"

To me it sounded like they didn't really want help and even a little threatening, so I quit sending screenshots and reporting bot farms. I never traded with these farms nor did I follow them.

I wouldn't bother reporting any more farms or trying to send them another message explaining yourself after that biting response. Someone at Supercell owes you an explanation, not the other way around. I'm sure they get overwhelmed with complaints and nonsense and whatnot, but if they aren't going to take the time to read the emails, they need to be removed from that position and give it to someone more capable.

[LetTheMusicPlay]

SC should invest in hiring a few people whose sole responsibility is to spot and eliminate these bots. Lock them up in a room like jurors and don't let them out until a "verdict" is reached. I've never played a game where bots are so prevelant and players are constantly on guard and fearful of being banned. At the end of the day, it's SC's responsibility to detect and eliminate these bots, not the players. They have the resources to clean up the mess, mind as well make good use of it.

I wonder if they even have a designated hire like fraud or security specialist. Or is the bot-weeding process something they do randomly on an ad hoc basis? ...where they spread the task out among whoever's got some extra time, and they chip away at it when they're done with their regular work responsibilities?

If there were even one capable person charged formally in their job duties with eliminating bots/fraud, I think we would see the benefits of that. There would probably be consistently fewer bots in the game - over several months - not just one big wipe once or twice a year when the bot situation reaches crazy critical mass.

There would probably be a more coherent message to players about what to do about bots...more precise language about what kinds of interactions with bots might cause problems for a player. Yes, I've read the SC forum posts on the matter already. But there's still some vagueness and ambiguity in their communications about this stuff, and that probably reflects SC's own uncertainty about how to cope with bots interacting with players and where to draw the line.

There'd be better direction given to Support on how to respond to players, because the reply sent to EweHungry points to a management failure. Support isn't being given good instructions on how to reply to bot reports and/or they're not being sufficiently monitored and corrected.

Honestly, I don't find these bots to be that big a deal. Yea, they're in the DD selling wheat but in no way are they affecting my gameplay.

I'm just a casual user of the DD. But when the bots start to grow in number - like they're doing now - it really degrades the quality of the DD. When 6 to 10 of the ads I click are on wheat-selling bots, that's 6 to 10 farms that I just wasted my time clicking on. That's 6 to 10 legit farms that I could have visited, but were pushed out of my version of the DD by bots. It sucks.

[Haystacker]

I wonder if they even have a designated hire like fraud or security specialist. Or is the bot-weeding process something they do randomly on an ad hoc basis? ...where they spread the task out among whoever's got some extra time, and they chip away at it when they're done with their regular work responsibilities?

If there were even one capable person charged formally in their job duties with eliminating bots/fraud, I think we would see the benefits of that. There would probably be consistently fewer bots in the game - over several months - not just one big wipe once or twice a year when the bot situation reaches crazy critical mass.

There would probably be a more coherent message to players about what to do about bots...more precise language about what kinds of interactions with bots might cause problems for a player. Yes, I've read the SC forum posts on the matter already. But there's still some vagueness and ambiguity in their communications about this stuff, and that probably reflects SC's own uncertainty about how to cope with bots interacting with players and where to draw the line.

There'd be better direction given to Support on how to respond to players, because the reply sent to EweHungry points to a management failure. Support isn't being given good instructions on how to reply to bot reports and/or they're not being sufficiently monitored and corrected.




I'm just a casual user of the DD. But when the bots start to grow in number - like they're doing now - it really degrades the quality of the DD. When 6 to 10 of the ads I click are on wheat-selling bots, that's 6 to 10 farms that I just wasted my time clicking on. That's 6 to 10 legit farms that I could have visited, but were pushed out of my version of the DD by bots. It sucks.

That's the thing, we don't know whether it's a delta force of bot hunters working frivolously within SC to track down these culprits or whether it's a lone intern assigned to do the mundane task of identifying these farms. Whatever the case may be, SC seems to be shorthanded and needs the help of its players. Frankly, I downloaded this game to farm, to have a good time playing a game, not to take screen shots of what's going wrong within their system and reporting various things to headquarters. I commend all those vigilant players who had been taking their time reporting to SC, but sorry, it's not something I signed up for.

I consider myself a very quick shopper. I tend to blaze through the DD, leaving no stones unturned...rarely ever do I stop and glance at a farm to check if it's a bot. It's in and out and onto the next shop for me. With regards to wheat, I buy the cheapest available...I may have purchased many from different bot farms I'm not aware of. The thought of being banned from buying wheat from those bots has never crossed my mind. That being said, there are so many wheat ads in the paper on any given day and shopping the way i do, I hardly noticed some are bots. I just chalk it up as yet another farmer advertising wheat

[haydayforum]

That's the thing, we don't know whether it's a delta force of bot hunters working frivolously within SC to track down these culprits or whether it's a lone intern assigned to do the mundane task of identifying these farms. Whatever the case may be, SC seems to be shorthanded and needs the help of its players. Frankly, I downloaded this game to farm, to have a good time playing a game, not to take screen shots of what's going wrong within their system and reporting various things to headquarters. I commend all those vigilant players who had been taking their time reporting to SC, but sorry, it's not something I signed up for.
9
I consider myself a very quick shopper. I tend to blaze through the DD, leaving no stones unturned...rarely ever do I stop and glance at a farm to check if it's a bot. It's in and out and onto the next shop for me. With regards to wheat, I buy the cheapest available...I may have purchased many from different bot farms I'm not aware of. The thought of being banned from buying wheat from those bots has never crossed my mind. That being said, there are so many wheat ads in the paper on any given day and shopping the way i do, I hardly noticed some are bots. I just chalk it up as yet another farmer advertising wheat

Agree. Same way i shop. I do not even pay attention if they have flagged for help. When i go shoppong, i shop. When i go to help, i go to help. I never go bot hunting. That is SC job

[LetTheMusicPlay]

I do agree with you, Haystacker, about them being short-handed. I was mostly elaborating on your suggestion, wondering if they even have one employee designated to handle these bots.

And, I don't want anyone to get the wrong impression... I'm not advocating that players report bot farms to Support. That's up to each individual player.

But I am saying that artificially flooding the market with bot-grown wheat hurts the game. It doesn't matter if lots of people buy cheap wheat. If the bots disappear, there will still be lots of cheap wheat in the Daily Dirt for the wheat buyer. But the hyper-production of automated wheat dilutes the frequency of all other items from appearing in the newspaper. And it's unfair competition for legitimate players selling wheat.

It's kinda similar to when the DD was flooded with paint cans and bricks. But, this is even worse, because the wheat is harvested from bad acts and allowed to proliferate because of inadequate controls.

[LynnK2015]

That's the thing, we don't know whether it's a delta force of bot hunters working frivolously within SC to track down these culprits or whether it's a lone intern assigned to do the mundane task of identifying these farms. Whatever the case may be, SC seems to be shorthanded and needs the help of its players. Frankly, I downloaded this game to farm, to have a good time playing a game, not to take screen shots of what's going wrong within their system and reporting various things to headquarters. I commend all those vigilant players who had been taking their time reporting to SC, but sorry, it's not something I signed up for....

Indeed, when I flipped through the DD to find what I need, I don't then zoom out after arriving on the farms to see if they have the tell tale characteristics of a bot farm. During those few minutes of daily escape from reality, I'm a farmer not a bot hunter.

If Supercell is serious about eradicating bot farms, then it should make reporting bots an easier process than the current system in place, IMO. Given the bizarre, recent response from Support to a forumer who sent screen shots of suspicious farms, I won't be reporting any bot farms anytime soon.

http://forum.supercell.net/showthrea...=1#post6459777

Too bad so sad.