I noticed there was a huge amount of discussion this morning about the recent scams to people auctioning off eggs. I just wanted to make some suggestions about how to completely squash this issue. (WARNING: I work in technical support, so I come up with off-the-wall ideas and think outside of the box. Oh.. and before I get started, I am 100% aware of the difference between "egg" and "horse egg") 1) Remove Auction chat. Lets face it, there are a LOT of people that don't know how to use it properly. Some people treat it as trade. Some don't know how to sell, and some don't know how to buy. 2) Regulate it more. Make it an ECC rule that the seller must specifically identify the product their selling to the masses, both by Item name and item database value before selling. If they are selling an egg that produces a chicken/duck/whatever, they need to clarify before auction begins. "Chicken Egg" would be regulation enough. (And again, I know that people sell the item as its proper name: "egg") Failure to do so would result in that auction being invalid until the issue is corrected. 3) Make it fun. Make auction non-binding. Most new players don't understand how auction works, and will jump in on a product without knowing 1) what they're buying and 2) they've legally entered a contract. Perhaps making it more "fun" to auction and less "serious" may appease to both buyers and sellers. New players aren't contractually bound to something they're forced to pay for (alleviating scams), and they can LEARN to auction properly (Oh god I hope) over the course of time. 4)Contact Mojang Someone needs to write to jeb and ask him to fix the name of the item so this issue is mutilated 100%, not only in ECC, but other worlds that may run into this issue as well! What do you think, ECC?
The thing with that is that naming it "Chicken Egg" would get confused with the spawn egg on other servers. Mojang wouldn't do this anyway, we are one server with one problem that most people won't have ..
Out of those, I say regulate it more, but that is even more stuff that mods have to look out for. and it adds another thing that new players have to learn about auction. don't remove auction chat though, it is very useful for a lot of people. I use it when I just want to be rid of something and I don't want to advertise for a long time in trade. If I start it at free, I am guaranteed to get something for my unwanted item.
No, nothing needs to change. People just need to be less ignorant, you should know exactly what you are buying before buying it.
Hey! If that is whats needed to stop a problem from occurring, perhaps it should be considered! Do you have any suggestions to prevent this from happening?
Yes the world will be such a better place when we just assume everyone else is a jerk and out to get you. *sarcasm*
Perhaps a wiki article on proper auction etiquette and procedures? Maybe a /help auction? Would you guys like those additions?
I think that either way, people wont read the /help auction. Even if we force them to read it, who says that they will actually read it? To your wiki idea, i do understand that it is written there, but not many people will actually read it. Ive read much of the wiki, and its a lot, so people might not even reach it. What i think needs to happen is to make this scam illegal. If someone is interested in buying a horse egg, let them be the ones who ensure that what they are buying is a horse egg. Let them ask to specify what kind of egg, let them ask to see it before they pay. If they provide enough evidence against scamming, which is illegal. I dont understand why this isnt already against the rules for scamming as it says here Clause II: Scamming It is very difficult for us to be positive that a scam has occurred. Moderators do not have access to server logs, and thus it is the responsibility of the user to gain evidence of a scam in the form of screenshots of transaction agreements and payments in order for scams to be investigated by posting a formal complaint. For help with knowing what the staff need in screenshot evidence, there is a forum thread with a good basic outline. It is solely the responsibility of the user to trust or distrust the other user(s) in a transaction situation, and also to solve any issues that may arise. Always remember: If an offer seems too good to be true, it probably is, and use caution when proceeding. EcoCityCraft staff are not responsible for and will not refund anything lost in a scam transaction, though some staff will be happy to attempt discussions to retrieve your lost possessions on your behalf. This policy applies to all forms of transactions, including loans and item rentals.
"Because an egg is an egg and a horse egg is a horse egg" they aren't technically misrepresenting an egg as something it is not. They are just implying it with the large price tag. I hate it when i play devils advocate... Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
If they say "selling horse egg starting at 10k" and it turns out to be a chicken egg then the mods would have a case (as I understand it) Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
I also want to point out this in the auction clause "There is to be no *Mystery Auctions* in the auction channel. Every item for auction must be described prior to beginning the auction, and it must be server-related." We should change this to say the specific item. This can also apply to melon swords, pumpkin axes,etc. Also, saying egg should be narrowed. Theres only 3 eggs in existence in ECC. They are the villager eggs, chicken eggs (not spawn chicken [item id -383:93 i believe]) and horse eggs. There needs to be a differential between the various eggs such as "Selling Villager eggs, starting at ___" "Selling Chicken eggs, starting at ___" "Selling Horse eggs, starting at ___" Its not like itll take an hour to add the extra word. Shouldnt be too hard.
My plus one doesn't mean anything. It might as well mean "+0.0001" Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
While I like the concept of this thread, I do see a few things that I want to give my opinion on. Directed at the OP: 1.) I would love to see auction chat replaced by something else, as I find the channel causes problems and spam. However, I have yet to see a suggestion where there is a net positive change for the server to either remove the channel/replace it. Maybe a "/help auction" as stated above in this thread would solve many issues, and I have no idea while it is not added already. 2.) While the Staff Team tries to regulate auction chat, it isn't an easy channel to moderate perfectly. While the issue where users use an item name that can be used for two different items is a very old issue; this issue has gotten much more attention now since the difference between a horse spawn egg and a chicken egg is very substantial. If I remember correctly, in Minecraft's coding, the chicken egg (not the chicken spawn egg) is refereed to as "egg" and the issue is that the buyer assumes it is the much more valuable horse spawn egg. Maybe stating the data value would help, however so could people being blunt and asking "Is that a horse spawn egg?" before bidding a large number. 3.) This is not something I can't really talk about as I don't use the auction channel myself. I prefer our current system of being more 'serious' though this part of the suggestion isn't something I'm going to focus on in this post. 4.) As already stated in this thread, our server is more of an "out-layer" when it comes to Minecraft servers. The game was never meant to have an economy attached to it, so Mojang doesn't develop with that in-mind. As to what Zedoker said, it would be great if they stated the item name when they did the auction, as they are meant to, however referring to a chicken egg as "egg" is technically correct, since "/itemdb egg" would bring up a chicken egg. I hate to say this, though many of the people that fall for these 'scams' are at no fault at their own. They should ask "Is that a horse spawn egg?" before they bid large numbers, and not assume the higher price tag, or some vague context clues is justifiable reason to assume it is. Edit: Tl;dr Most of these issues could be resolved if the buyer asked more questions and didn't assume when making a purchase of this size.
You could have referenced me by name, generaljoecool . Also, this shouldn't be thought of as an "What your suggesting is wrong!", It should be thought of as a collaboration of ideas to try to resolve this new issue that is occurring! To support my suggestions: 1) You wanted to know what system could be used if Auction Chat was removed. My answer: Trade. Trade is non binding, and buyers have the ability to negotiate price, and ask what the item is, and back out of they feel there is an issue. 2) Of course moderators, supermoderators and game admins do an exorbitant amount of work already by regulation of the spammers, people who discuss politics, et al., but whats so wrong with monitoring these egg scams until they either die out or its controlled? 3) Again, remove binding contract altogether so its not legal or illegal to say, "Hey, someone is playing foul, I want out!" Treating Auction like a real auction causes issues for newbs and younger players who don't understand the auctioning system." We can /help auction until faces turn blue, but do you feel that some would grow to understand the rules and regulations of Auction?? 4) I know contacting mojang was over the top, but hey.. its an idea! To Joe and Zedoker: I actually had an idea yesterday of a buyer asking a seller what the itemdb value was to confirm horse or (chicken) egg. If I knew from a player in auction the itemdb was 344:0 and they wanted 25k for it.. I would RUN For this hills!
I thoroughly enjoy and support this wonderful forthright exchange of ideas! Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
