[UPDATE] Rules Updates - Auctions and Misc

Discussion in 'Empire Updates' started by chickeneer, Aug 17, 2024.

  1. Today I went through the Rules and Moderation section of the wiki and made a considerable amount of tweaks. The most notable changes were to the auction rules regarding the limits to number of auctions hosted and adjusting some rules around descripting words for auction items.

    Auction Rules
    https://empireminecraft.com/wiki/auction-rules/
    • Add a definition of a "household" which can host up to 3 auctions at a time (per auction section).
    • Accounts in the same household cannot bid on their own auctions.
    • Marketing Adjectives and Tags must be at the end of the Auction's thread title.
    • Added explicit warnings that misleading item descriptions can be classified as scamming.
    Next are the specific rule change additions/clarifications. See the full rules page for the rules that these new changes go with.
    Updated the Auction Template.
    Reverse Auction Rules
    https://empireminecraft.com/wiki/reverse-auction-rules/
    • Made several changes to mirror the changes in the regular Auction Rules section. I plan to further edit this Rules Page to simplify it and only clarify the details which are DIFFERENT from regular auctions - instead of repeating everything that is common to both.
    Auctionable Items
    https://empireminecraft.com/wiki/auction-rules/
    • Made all Music Discs considered a Rare Item for simplicity (I don't have to keep updating the rule each update).
    Reverse Auctionable Items
    Eliminated to just be the same as the regular Auctionable Items

    Storage Banks and Loans
    https://empireminecraft.com/wiki/storage-banks-and-loans/
    • Added a section indicating that although staff does not moderate these things; staff will still punish scamming when presented with evidence of this. Note: this is not a policy change, just a clarification what it means for staff not to moderate or intervene in the listed actions.
    Minor wording changes on these pages. No policy changes.

  2. Was just saying yesterday I wonder if things would be changed. Not that I think it's being done blatantly, but when you have a ton of auctions at once, it takes up the entire "active threads" list which buries everything else. Add to that the bump rules and your thread could be gone before it begins.
  3. Updating some of these rules has been discussed for years. Some recent events definitely pushed me to prioritize adjusting things.

    For clarification to those that may have not paid attention before... but the previous rules only allowed 1 auction per person. But alts can count as their own person. So there was this imbalance between people based on how much money they have shelled out to Mojang. There was an auction limit in place for a reason though. Due to limitations in the forum software, auctions can easily overfill the recent threads section. As long as that is the case, there still has to be fairly strict limits.
  4. * Frantically finds things to auction *
    We3_MPO, fadedmartian and ThaKloned like this.
  5. i like this. thanks chicken!
    We3_MPO likes this.
  6. So i'm a little unclear, does this mean you can just post 3 auctions on one account now? as it's considered to be within the "househould"? As it doesn't state anymore that you can only host 1 per account, only 3 per household, am I correct in thinking you can hold 3 from the one account now? (I only have 1 account so I could now hold 3 auctions, correct?)
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  7. I agree with these changes 100%! Sometimes they have their drawbacks, but really it's just fair to codify these changes. Parents/offspring, siblings and romantic partners tend to be closer emotionally than just any relative or friend would be, and I undoubtedly wouldn't have wanted to bid on their auctions even if we didn't actually live together simply because it'd feel like cheating.
    607 likes this.
  8. My interpretation was still 1 per account + 2 different alts (or other family members in same house.) I could just be assuming though.
    We3_MPO likes this.
  9. I really appreciate this.

    I have only one remark.
    This:


    can be counterproductive.
    Auctions with a lot of unstackable different items might not fit in the title with this rule
    We3_MPO and Bulkinc like this.
  10. To be clear.

    Yes, you can host 3 auctions on one account. There should not be anymore references to the 1-per limit that was previously in place.
    This should be a net benefit for most people, except those that utilized alts to host more than 3 at once - which really hasn't been the case regularly in a long while.

    The only change is the requirement on marketing tags. The auction/item description in the title was already a rule before this. For those many item auctions - there is and always been some flexibility in how it is described in the title.
    607, We3_MPO, Fred_TWK and 1 other person like this.


  11. Oh, that's a much more substantial change than I initially read it as.
    So functionally, for people without family members that play EMC, the rules have changed to "3 auctions per player, no using alts"

    I can't decide how to feel about this. I mean, of course this is great for anyone that wants to host auctions but there has been a limit for a reason. And I feel like "more than one" is a whole lot easier manage (both by staff and by players) than more than a multiple limit.
    I'm sure I'll utilize this though, running auctions with alts where you need separate forum logins is a royal pain.

    I've put the idea out before, which I still stand by, that multiple auctions should be a supper perk, and the supporter auctions be done away with. Because I personally feel like I want to support EMC but have very little features I want enough to actually do it. Other than getting more plots with one time per account diamond.

    At any rate I appreciate the work to do these updates :)

    Speaking of the supporter auctions though


    Is this a reduction from the previous rules? If I remember correctly it was 5 per player. In which case there's absolutely no point to the supporter auctions anymore? (Not that there was much for a long time lol)
    607, We3_MPO, Tuqueque and 1 other person like this.
  12. I'm likely to delete the supporter auctions at some point. I don't really care to give them any more thought.
  13. Okay awesome thanks for clarifying it for my clearly small brain xD
    We3_MPO likes this.
  14. Reading Chickeneer's posts above, if you have 1 account you can now post max 3 auctions at the same time, if there are 3 people in the same household with different accounts or you have 3 MC accounts/alts you can still only post max 3 auctions at the same time.

    A household will share the same IP address and some families play together, hence household, also if you have 3 or more players with separate accounts you are limited to only post 3 max auction at the same time. <- This is an improvement as before you would be limited to just 1 per household.

    Silk,
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  15. yep sounds good :D yeah defs a benefit to those with 1 account like myself :D
    Silken_thread, 607 and We3_MPO like this.
  16. They could and have in the past, but with the increase of the length of the Recently Active Threads box, and the decrease in EMC activity, I don't think they would anymore. ;)

    The household instead of person distinction is interesting, but thinking it over it makes sense to me. It's also clearer, as there are probably cases of family members using each other's alts anyway.
    Why should it be deleted? It's not doing any harm, except reminding people that it exists... but it's a fun concept. :)
    We3_MPO and ThaKloned like this.
  17. I feel like nowadays with far less people, that even less of them will see those auctions and you could miss out on rupees.
    crystaldragon13, We3_MPO and Tuqueque like this.
  18. supporter auctions basically create a parallel economy given that the access to both, supply and bid on item, is drastically reduced (weaker economy). Why opt to create a supporter auction for a fraction of the value, when before a friend/alt could do the same, and well now with the new rules, you can just create a regular auction without the need of a different account.

    I believe supporter auctions never got the value they deserved, however the value they could provide now for EMC is negligible, so it is ok to let them go.
  19. I know, there is no point in doing supporter auctions anymore except if it's just for fun (I think). But that doesn't mean the section should be removed. Few people look at the supporter only section anyway, but it's a part of EMC history. I also wouldn't appreciate it if the Empire Outpost Communications section were to be removed (which seemingly hasn't got any posts in the last five years). I guess I'm sentimental, and I know I don't like change. :p I'm also bigger on preservation than most.
    We3_MPO and Tuqueque like this.
  20. Yeah, I'm more conservative-minded (i.e. resistant to drastic change) than most, but even I'm neutral on the supporter auctions at this point. I won't be particularly upset whether chickeneer removes them or not. I just hope he at least keeps the archives with the normal auction archives so we can still have a record of the past.
    607 and EvilBlo like this.