[Controversial suggestion] Drop the like boost rule!

F4: Do Not Abuse Features


Offenses covered by this rule include:

• Using alt accounts or friends to boost likes, followers, or trophies. Alternate accounts include any accounts on your IP connection, even if you're not the same person.

I emphasized the reason why I think this should be dropped right away.

Can someone please explain to me what the added value of more likes (or followers!) is because I seriously fail to get the point. I mean: we're not in a competition of who has the most likes of followers, and even so with trophies.

Yes, I get the point: theoretically I could put down dozens of dollars, get all of them to like my stuff and then.....

There is my question: then what? who the heck cares?!

Also: please notice: or friends. If you have a lot of friends, who all like your stuff, you could theoretically get into trouble when the staff feels they're "boosting" your posts.

Don't take my word for it: it's all right there!

Will never happen? Trust me: it can. I won't share details, but I myself have been warned not to do some likings while in fact I was fully within my rights to do so (this got acknowledged by staff). It was a misunderstanding, and nothing serious, but in the end it did show that "will never happen" doesn't apply.

As such my controversial suggestion: can't we simply drop this rule all together? Whats its use in the first place?

I think it's an important rule.
It shouldn't always be in effect, but it sometimes needs to be enforced.
I've liked a couple posts of myself. But I've also seen someone like all of their posts using an alt. I don't agree with that and asked him to stop doing it, if I recall correctly. When it's appropriate and done in a role-playing kind of way, I don't mind. But structurally liking your 'own' posts... that should be stoppable by more than just politely asking.

Also, you being warned, was that by any chance caused by you pretending Aya was your alt?

I somewhat agree, but also want to point out the problem (no offense): when should it and when shouldn't it be? That could create a 'slippery slope' as I believe is the saying.

Agreed, but it also shows the problem here. When it comes to the rules you can't really have this both ways. that could create partiality, I mean when to apply a penalty and when not? That's the big question.

BUT... The staff does a fair job here. No questions there.

Lets have one thing very clear here: the above suggestion is both for the controversy and what it can hinder, but not for how the staff acts. I need to emphasize this: when it comes to roleplay, fair use (<- so much this) and such then generally speaking you're pretty much safe.

But that also shows you a problem, the fundamental one: "So when are you in trouble?". If you answer that then it'll be a matter of time before some players start to abuse this. It's a given.

So when how are you going to separate legit votes / likes from boosts?

And that's also my drive here: what do players have to gain from all this?

Let's be honest: I can use alt armies to boost votes on the respective sites and then they'll be credited no problem. It can even enhance my options to gain the block of clickeness. But whenever I like the posts that alt makes on the forums there's a theoretic chance I could get into trouble?

EMC likes it when my alt voted for 'm, but they don't like it when I "vote" for my alt? It doesn't add up

BUT... I need to stress this out: my controversial comment is meant in general. When push comes to shove (I'm in a mood today!) then I have no complaints what so ever about the way staff handles this.

I'll go on even further: we may be better off without (oops ) regulations regarding this. BUT.. Doesn't mean I can't try, especially now that I got this thread going

And yes: I was warned about me liking some of my alts posts. But all in a very respectful and useful way. I wasn't even close to getting into trouble, but because of the shown pattern staff warned me (and rightfully so!). (edit): However, what I'm talking about in my original post is something else

Staff isn't out here to get us. But that's also not why I made this suggestion.

Yah, I wasn't too sure about that and eventually decided for this. Thanks for the feedback

Likes are likes, follows are follows. As you said yourself it's not a competition, so why care about it at all? If siblings wanna like each others posts they can, if friends wanna like each others posts they can. People can follow who they want.


The term "Boosting" is in my opinion meaning competition, it's frowned upon but why?
Because those people are getting more likes and follows than you? But as you said who cares right?

So with that I'll leave my rate at a 0

I'd like you but then I might get into trouble

Ok, that was a really bad pun, you make an excellent point I think!

(This is my personal view, not what staff as a whole thinks.)

I feel that likes and follows do matter, in contrast to what you have said, and this rule actually is very important.

1. The only time that likes/follows don't matter, is when there is an abundance of them that truly don't matter - namely, ones given by alts. If we only gave/received likes/follows on our main accounts, then they would actually mean something. They mean that me, as an individual, supported or understood what you said, so I liked it, or I appreciate your opinion or your posts enough to follow you so I can see them more often, and to support you as a fellow player. However when I use my alts to give likes/follows, then thats what steals the meaning of them. Instead that *turns* it into a competition, because now we are looking for more likes/follows, rather than giving them when they actually mean something.
2. This rule also indirectly prevents spam on the forums. If you have the ability to like all of your posts with your alts, you're still limited to the number of alts you have for the number of likes you get. So what will some people begin to do? They will start to spam the forums with useless and meaningless comments and threads, just so they can get more likes from their alts (since nobody else will like these posts/threads).

So in my opinion, this rule is very important to keep in place and in fact works great the way it currently does. People understand this already, that it would be "cheating" or "wrong" to use their alts as a boost. And like you said, a friendly reminder from staff is all that is needed in these situations to set us back on track.

I have a question for staff (or anyone who happens to know): does like spamming fall under this rule? As long as a player isn't specifically asking to be "spammed" with likes or alerts, is it wrong?

I am not sure what you mean, since there isn't really a way to be spammed with likes/follows. You can only follow somebody once, and I guess you could continuously like people's posts to spam them with likes. However, no there isn't a rule against this since if you post on the forums, you expect to get alerts from threads/people.

Edit: And even on the "spamming with likes" idea, its still not really spam since the player would just log on with like 30 alerts for example. Once they look at the alerts, they go away.

I agree with all of the posts above me, but this rule should be removed. There is no popularity contest with follows/likes. It just gives a sense of achievement. There's no diamond supporter voucher if you have 4k likes.. Or 300 folowers. There are no prizes for a reason. Someone could have no followers, but be the most popular. That's why we have the community apprecation contest. Its not based on followers/likes, but from the hearts of the community. I don't know what you guys are doing.. But are you looking to see who has the most followers? That's just wrong. No one cares. This isn't Instagram. If you are 'boosting' likes, who cares.. The player paid money for that alt.

Just my opinion. Please don't start a flame war. Cya later +1

I support the rule. You recieve trophies for reaching a certain amount of likes. These trophies eventually give you higher forum ranks. In a way, these ranks show your dedication to the community. It would not be fair for a person who has spent hours upon hours working their way up the rank ladder to suddenly have a lower rank than a person who uses alts to spam their likes and then spams the forums to get posts.

-1 from me. I like the rule as it stands.

DOLPHINS!
Ummmmhh i mean constructive answer. Yes! Constructive!

Anyway, I think this rule has a rightful and meaningful place. If this was abolished, titles (although they aren't too important) will hold less value and people who are really trying could get demoralised about the insignificance of their like counter in comparison to their boosted and cheated peers.

Someone could pour their heart and soul into a thread, event or post and then feel completely and utterly gutted that they have such a low number of likes when they see people with much more. This also gives a style of pay-to-win popularity, although it doesn't really work that way.

However, the problem is when friends and people from the same IP are considered boosting fuel.
Friends for the most part will just want to be supportive, and that is intrinsically what a like or a follow is. Showing support. But then again I doubt that the staff would actually punish your friends or siblings for just being supportive. I feel this needs to be here, even as a secret grey area (which it most likely is) so people know it isn't fair to throw yourself ahead of the worthy members. And staff can just turn a blind eye to, when looking at it technically, the breach of the rule when it is clearly done with no malice intentions. (Which I can guess they probably do already).

Sorry for the dribble, I'm pretty sure I'm not that qualified XD
~Jack

I think I know what Rhy is aiming at: the (as I call them) "profile invasions". So basically you go to someone's profile and then practically like everything you see there (or at least as much as you can). This can sometimes create absurd & silly alert amounts. One time a friend of mine had to go through several hundreds of alerts because I was in the mood to, well, do some clicking And what goes around sometimes also comes around

Just for the record: obviously there were no alts involved here, and this is also something I'd never consider doing with an alt.

And thanks for all the feedback guys, there are some very well made points shared.

All my alts, and Tom's, (Tomvanwijnen) are following all our accounds, for the same reason we made all accounds "freinds" imedeatly, just so that we can do everything we want on anny accound, and because we want to show that those accounds are indeed related to eachother. annother thing: I am quite often at Tom's place, and so, liking Tom's posts at Tom's place, wich would be some kind of illegal with this rule activated.
Also, if you do really care that much about the amount of followers you have, if you really care that much about your amount of likes, and if you are indeed liking your posts with your alts. Please, go ahead, it doesn't have to be illegal to be immoral (I didn't understand why it would be immoral when I first joined EMC, but well...) I mean, you don't hurt others with it, you won't get extra perks for it, the only thing that happens is that everyone ignores you because you're doing immoral things. and if you really care that much, I don't.

And a small bump, but also to add some extra feedback...

I really need to clear something up here: There is no way this suggestion would ever be considered by the staff and rightfully so. Here's the problem: the rules are made with game play and fairness in mind, not based on the popular opinion of the community itself. Sometimes we need rules which we simply don't like, it's a given.

If you have suggestions about the rules or feel that some are unjust (note: I never felt this way here) then the best thing to do is to carefully write down your arguments why you think things aren't fair. Then sleep a night over it and re-read your arguments the next day. If you still think you're making a good point then you should definitely PM Krysyy and explain your case to her. That is the best way to actually help the Empire. Sure: chances are high that your request / suggestion gets denied, but at least you presented Krysyy with another opinion / view which could just as well give her some ideas. You never know....

And yeah, once again thanks for all the feedback. I re-read a few arguments and I actually have to agree with some, despite my initial suggestion