Mentoring question: How does map chat restriction work?

[chemicalderrick.4521]

Hey there,

map chat restrictions are impacting my mentoring experience, as it's important to advertise it regularly in starting areas for maximum player coverage.

I'm not asking to lift restrictions, but further information about how they work would greatly help me work with them. Anyone have some info on that?

[Hotride.2187]

I assume you mean posting the same message over and over and over again? I'm not sure about the specific timers, normally you'll see players add some random garbage at the end of their message, to ensure their message doesn't get filtered. Comms linking waypoints/places during meta trains especially.

Theres some info on the wiki but probably none of the specifics you are asking about:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Chat_panel#Notes

[Danikat.8537]

I think Anet deliberately avoid giving details on how this works so it's harder for people to work around it.

But two things that seem to make a difference are:
1) Other people talking in map chat as well. If you're the only one saying anything you're more likely to get hit with restrictions. One way around this is to ask questions or otherwise encourage responses from other people in the map.
2) How similar your messages are to each other. Copied and pasted text, or scrolling up and reposting the same message, especially will lead to quicker restrictions. Even if you're saying the same thing changing the wording will help.

[hudisgreat.8492]

One time l was restricted for "/s Ty" too much. Lol

[Ashantara.8731]

You can circumvent LFG spam restrictions by either switching instances or porting to another map. Map chat restrictions and mail restrictions, on the other hand, cannot be circumvented.

All spam blocks take effect rather quickly, so the only advice I can give you is to change the message and avoid spamming it. People don't appreciate map chat message spams anyway.

[chemicalderrick.4521]

24 minutes ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

You can circumvent LFG spam restrictions by either switching instances or porting to another map. Map chat restrictions and mail restrictions, on the other hand, cannot be circumvented.

All spam blocks take effect rather quickly, so the only advice I can give you is to change the message and avoid spamming it. People don't appreciate map chat message spams anyway.

To clarify, I don't spam my message. My usual mode is:

- Port to map, put on the apple hat.

- Post the offer to help with questions once.

- After receiving no more questions (or after 10 minutes of receiving no questions), post it again, but never twice within 10 minutes.

- If after 10 minutes nobody asked for help and I asked at least twice, change map.

So basically, once I haven't received a question after posting it at least twice, I leave. And I never post it twice within 10 minutes, usually longer. I think that's reasonable. Unless a map is really stuffed with new players, peeps are only going to read it 2-4 times total. And if it is densely populated with people who obviously need guidance, I think sticking around is justified.

I'm just asking because my third attempt within 40 minutes was suppressed at some point, which struck me as a bit restrictive.

Thanks for the advice folks, I appreciate it. Can recommend offering help to newbies to every experienced players. It's relaxing and wholesome. And gives you an excuse to not run Bjora for the 20th time in a row. 😉

[Andy.5981]

^^^ seems a reasonable way to advertise help to newer players. If as you say you are only posting messages about 10 minutes apart then that isn't really excessive. Are you cutting and pasting the same message into your chat window or manually typing it? Could it be that the chat window is detecting the cut and past and hits you with the supression filter? Try manually typing it?

[chemicalderrick.4521]

9 minutes ago, Andy.5981 said:

^^^ seems a reasonable way to advertise help to newer players. If as you say you are only posting messages about 10 minutes apart then that isn't really excessive. Are you cutting and pasting the same message into your chat window or manually typing it? Could it be that the chat window is detecting the cut and past and hits you with the supression filter? Try manually typing it?

I'm guessing it's the fact that the message is identical. But, so far, it has rarely caused any issues. I might just stretch the time between messages to 15 minutes. It's a minor nuisance, nothing more.

[Danikat.8537]

I've been in a similar situation and changing the wording does seem to make a difference. I'm not sure exactly how it works but changing the sentence structure seems to work better than swapping a few words for synonyms. If you say something like "If anyone has any questions click on my name in the chat window to whisper me" the first time and "I'm here to help with anything you need, there are no stupid questions!" the second time it seems to take longer to be restricted.

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

Keep in mind that in Central Tyria maps, you'll hit the Map chat restrictions much more often, as its required that other players talk back to you (or each other) sometimes but unfortunately F2P players (which are the majority of new players) are incapable of talking in Map chat.

Edited July 8, 2022 by Mariyuuna.6508

[Emberfoot.6847]

23 hours ago, hudisgreat.8492 said:

One time l was restricted for "/s Ty" too much. Lol

I got restricted for pinging waypoints and POIs nearest events in a daily event map.