Removing autofollow

You misunderstand OP's proposal. The purpose behind eliminating /follow for the general population is so that you see groups of characters following as if they're on /follow, you have reasonable suspicion of the use of banned software thereby justifying further investigation.

I wouldn't rely on the playerbase either which is why I state if this were to have a chance working as intended (per OP's design), you'd need to have a lot of employee-based enforcement. That in itself makes it too difficult operationally.

how would bards raid without /follow?

In the not-too-distant future we will get a new launcher with FaceID(TM) or similar login verification, which will make the automated bots go away once and for all.

Boxers simply CoH. This solves nothing.

Having the attitude that boxers are all evil cheaters pursuing wealth and power at the expense of others is the actual problem. They end up targeting and harassing good people for no reason and causing problems for them. Sometimes the non-boxers are the toxic ones.

I was 3-boxing because I played at odd hours and had limited time to LFG. I loved when people were in zone looking for something to do because I loved the company. It was great to be able to get something done in a short play session and help someone at the same time.

I don't even box regularly but I'm of the opposite opinion - improve autofollow to work like whatever those guys running around with a full raid autofollowing them perfectly in sync use.

So, is this thread about Boxing or Botting....people complaining about it often don't seem to understand the difference. If people are Boxing they are doing nothing wrong, so why does the OP want to make it more difficult for them? What's the actual motive here?

The OP's motive is; toxic people are going to be toxic and not to mention cause some drama for their own entertainment.

The motive most solo players that hate boxers seems to be jealousy that they cant just go do whatever they want and don't have to try and look for a group, or when PUG groups die off and neither crowd has made any social relationships the boxer can keep progressing but the solo player can't.

Therefore if we could eliminate boxing, the (ex)boxers now playing solo would be forced to play with the always solo players.

The automated software in use now does not follow the in game auto follow anyway lol. Its way better so not really going to do anything to boxers. Any software idea put into the game will just end up having a hack to overcome it. The best option I see to eliminate cheating is to bring back volunteer guides in game. They could respond to reports and witness/record the cheating someone on the payroll could review it and decide what to do about it. They should have no real power other than the ability to observer undetected and record stuff, imo. They could fix some of the issues in the baz by putting a timer on resale of items bought. I know there has been an issue with players auto buying stuff put up for sale then reposting it 30 sec later for an inflated price. Put some timer on the resale of like 24/48 hours on the items. Not sure it would help but its an idea.

Volunteer guides are still part of the game but they have been removed from the CS side for a reason. There is no real difference in value between what a player and guide think and report as cheating as all of it needs to be observed and confirmed by Daybreak employees.

Tell me about it... quiet strange to request a stupid rule like this.

How can I afk on raids and still look like i'm there if they cancel Autofollow?

I have a different perspective. Senior Guides and Guides were involved in many player misconduct violation investigations in the first 4 years of EverQuest from 1999-2003. Guides had very strict rules and policies and procedures.

Back then, guides were a trusted and valued part of the entire customer service team. Volunteering for 6-8 hours a week for 4 years was no small thing. A volunteer who demonstrates that kind of selfless commitment for no pay shows they can be trusted and should be valued much higher than the opinion of a player. Guides were not assigned to the play servers which also removed the temptation to favoritism. I assume it was the same for paid GMs too.

I don't know exactly why CS duties were removed from Guide responsibilities. I think it has more do to with them scrapping the in-game petition system and adopting a web based ticket system. I think SOE started outsourcing GMs to local temp agencies and even offshore countries back in the day.

Because having volunteer guides have that much influence in a paid game isn't a good idea. When I was a member of the guide program there was a lot of rules about what you can and can't do including which servers you are allowed to guide on. I would assume they wanted more control over people who would be policing the game having only paid employees was the way to do it.

As for removing favoritism by not allowing them to guide on their play server that is pretty naive as it isn't that uncommon to have friends on other servers especially after they started allowing server transfers. And no I don't trust someone just because they are willing to do something for free (And guides did get benefits such as a free subscription, free expansions and free entrance into Fan Faires)

I disagree. Guides provided valuable evidence to the GM admins on various investigations. It was up to the GM to make the final determination on every investigation. After years of working with GM admins, guides were respected and trusted by the GM admins. If a guide were to have lied to a GM about a player, they would have been removed from the program.

The customer service in the first 4 years, was far better than it is now and the removal of guides from investigation duties as well as other factors, like the lack of paid GM admins is a big part of that.

Again I completely disagree. Guides had very little power to do much of anything except observe while invis and free from detection by /who all GM. Guides who showed favoritism were very rare and ejected from the program. 99.9% of guides were hard-working, conscientious people who worked hard for little in return.

There is corruption in all walks of life and that applies to employees of every company including video game companies. The advantages of a robust volunteer guide program far outweighed the disadvantages. In other words, don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

You can disagree all you like but they didn't remove them from the CS process because they did to good of a job. They have been removed for a reason and are unlikely to ever get those powers back.

I was always under the impression that it was partly the UO lawsuit, and worries about liability that gutted the guide program.

I don't think any former Guides want those powers back. Being a guide was hard work back then and it was unpaid work. We guided because we wanted to help make the EQ experience better for all players on all server. When we processed the queue, occasionally we'd get to run some live events with GM admin permission.

As a Senior Guide I was responsible for managing and training 20+ guides and I was on my different guide teams. There was hours of selfless weekly unpaid admin and bookkeeping work as well. I resent the insinuation that guides were prone to corruption and had malicious intent.

Just because guide powers they were removed for a reason, doesn't make that reason necessarily valid. Perhaps it was valid and the real reasons would not put the company in a good light. As a Senior Guide for many years, I was very well acquainted with SOE GM admins and SOE Customer Service management. SOE did their fair share of crazy and questionable things back in the day.