Would adding new, amazing trade facilities stop spamming of <WTS> in local chat?

Dozens, if not hundreds of threads have been made asking for trade houses, auction houses and basically an improved trade system.

We do need one, there is no denying that.

One of the main reasons people ask for this, is to remove spamming in local and trade chat. But would it really stop, or reduce the spamming of <WTS> and/or <WTB> in the chat window?

I dont see how it would.

Anet gave us the "party search" facility which lets you post trade messages. Its not perfect, mainly due to its limit on text length, but its there to use. Does anyone use it?

No!!

Anet could quite easily improve the existing "party search" and let us enter larger sentences. They could add icons for the items, and descriptions, and perhaps a way to place a bid. They could add a search feature to find what your after, and let us catergorise stuff we sell into sections. They could make it include all towns and outposts accross the games.

They could improve it to the point that it was perfect. They could make it exactly what we want. It could have 100% funcationality.

But would anyone use it?

Would people wake up one day, and see the changes and think "Im going to stop spamming local chat and trade and use this amazing tool instead"?

I doubt it.

Maybe I'm being pesermistic and negative, but we all know the mentality of traders in GWs. Traders want to get as much attention as they can to sell an item.

They wouldnt be satisfied with posting ONE message on the "party search" and then sitting back and waiting.

They want to be stood at storage, spamming "<WTS>" over and over again, until someone sees it. And because they wont use it, no one else will!

People will think that spammers have an advantage over those who use a trading tool. And they will if no one checks it.

To fix trading, we need to do more then just give add a flashy tool with 100% functionality. We need to remove this mentality of spamming. But whats the first thing you learn when you start playing?

"If you want to sell something, you need to get a persons attention. You need to make your message stand out more then the other guy's"!

The result is everyone spams at some point in the game. We all reach a point where we need cash fast, and want to sell an item badly and we resort to spamming.

Id be surprised if one single player could say "I've never spammed. I've never posted the same message atleast 6 times in 2 minutes".

Everyone learns that, and everyone does it. Thats what we're up against in trying to change trading in game. If we can fix that then we can focus on fancy tools.

Fix the spamming mentality before we try to add improved trading facilities.

Yeah, just look at WOW, even with a trade house, there're still people spam WTS/WTB all the time. Tradehouse in GW won't completely stop trade spam but at least it will be cut down.

There is a trade house!

It's called Party Search!

YEAH!

Old habits Die hard. I dont think the spam would ever stop without a lot tighter messaging restrictions and improved trading facilities.

Although having said that i dont think ive ever spammed (because it annoys me when others do it so i refuse to do it) the most ill ever message is once a min and thats once in a blue moon since i avoid selling things whenever possible, i prefer to give stuff away to guildies, friends or random nice people.

Theus, you call that a trade house?

i don't think many people actually like to sit there and spam. (i know i don't!) as it is now, however, we're given no other alternative. it is currently the best way to sell your stuff. the party search is about as useful as a poopy-flavored lollipop to traders.

if a new and improved trade system were implemented, i think the majority of traders would use it instead of spamming. there will always be people who want to sell their stuff ASAP and resort to spamming though, but if given a more convenient way to trade...they would be a minority.

No.I don't.But chances are Gaile Grey and Anet would.

Was about to post that when saw thread title. Still lots of spam in WoW with auction house.

adding one in gw wont totally remove spam.

I couldn't care less about the removal of spam - spam comes free with all internet connections. I do care about [better] ways to trade in-game.

Like others have said, you'll never completely stop trade spamming. I do think an improved trade system would cut it down a lot, though.

If the trade system allowed you to put an item up for sale and have it stay there (and possibly sell) while you continue playing, I think most players would use it. The key is to have some way for trades to take place without both parties being present, so both the buyer and the seller can do so at their own convenience. The problem with the party window is that you basically have to sit there babysitting it, and if you're stuck in one place anyway, you might as well trade spam to speed up the selling process. Eliminate the need for sellers to stay in town, and you'd eliminate a lot of the spamming.

Another big thing that would help curb spamming would be putting an auction/trade NPC in every outpost. If buyers can browse the market from anywhere in the game, then LA/KC/Kamadan would lose their status as "trade hubs," and spammers would have a more limited audience there. Once enough people started using the alternate trade system, so few people would respond to spammers that they'd be forced to adapt.

I'd say that to reduce the spam we will need the following:

- A trade system that doesn't give any benefit for advertising. This means a system where the only way to find an item is to use a search for a particular item, meaning that if you advertise and someone has a cheaper price for a similar enough item your work at advertising benefits them as well.

- ANET cracking down on spammers after the system is up and running. Start with warnings for spammers then move up to temp bans with increasing length for each offense. This should deal with any lingering spam, especially if ANET also punishes those who buy from the spammers.

I don't think this will kill all the spam, but most of it should vanish from the trade improvement, and the warnings/temp bans should take care of most of the rest.

I would be happy if they make the description in the party search window longer.

At least long enough for a full description and price of 3 items

Then it would be more useable for party search too. not just "lfg m+b".

I would like a better way to trade yes, but the tradespam will always be there unless it becomes a controlled environment like Bilateralrope said
That would be the only way to really decrease it I think. But seeing as we don't pay monthly I doubt this will happen at any time nor would it be a realistic job in so many different districts, area's etc.

Its good to have a trade house..
but...
How about Trader Agentthat u give him your item and s/b it and leave it with him till u get note that some 1 bid on your item and the amount($$$)
do u (accept) or (refuse) or (w8) for awhile or (c/o)the price with the name of the player in game
and every 1 can check him to c all the items in the town the prices,discribtion,and if its hot item or not.

sry for my english.

solution: add a better sell system like an auction house or player merchants, then add a system to automatically temp-ban if you send the same message more than 3 times in a minute. I spam sometimes, but only because there is no alternative. (yes theres guru auctions, but guru pages load sooo slow for me that its impossible to do much...)

Somebody's mentioned this before, but one solution that would definitely cut down on local chat spam (but is not the ideal solution) is item linking, and restricting item linking to the whisper and trade channels.
We know that the technology exists for linking things to chat (see skill linking), so ANet just need to expand on this.

Likelihood of anything happening?
Pretty slim. I'm sure that as far a they're concerned, they've ALREADY implemented the trade improvements with the addition of party search.

There is already a perfectly good trading system ingame, the Party Search.

But in its current form its useless... character limit, doesn't go over different towns, and worst off most people don't even know about it!

A.net simply needs to improve upon the existing system available.

Trade improvements will not eliminate trade spam...it will reduce it.

That said...a better trading system should be implemented.

I think item linking combined with some form of an auction house would be good and would reduce the amount of local chat trade spam by a great deal. Like has been said...most people don't like having to sell their wares by spamming in chat. If given another option that is more useful than the party search window...I believe that most people would use it.

Give us a place where we can put up our items for sale without having to stand there wasting our game time and I bet we'd see at least a 75% reduction in trade spam.

There will always be people who think they need to get their items sold ASAP...and they will always be too impatient to wait for their items to sell in an auction house. Trade Improvements should not be targeted at those kinds of people, they should be targeted at the people who would much rather be playing the game.

Also the party search window was designed to reduce spamming for team members...LFG GLFM...etc...not trade...if it was meant for serious trade they wouldn't have left the current restriction in as it's useless for people wanting to use trade. The fact that a trade option was put in seems like it was an afterthought...

I doubt it. thank dwayna for the bubble chat over their heads, At least then I can randomly find a person to whisper too when they are looking for a group. I tend to have all chat off anymore because of the endless spam and near impossibility of using it for what it was designed for. And when confronted people say they do not use the trade channel cause no one looks at it. Gee, Maybe that should be a hint that no one wants too see that spam? don't you think?

IF I had my personal choice it would be not for auction houses but 1 commerce island in the battle isle, so everyone can go there from all chapters. have like 10 districts and make it so all those posers can be redirected there to do their spamming and leave the rest of the community alone. Anywhere else should result in the anet warn, temp ban, warn, Chat ban route as it does now when staff witnesses it.

If it wasn't for the fact that LA is the main place that people go when switching chapters it would not be so bad but its annoying to go to prophecies at all because you HAVE to go through LA, which is LAGGY to all hell due to the relentless spam in that town. Takes forever to load at times Just to be able to switch out of it as fast as possible. Kaineng is almost as bad but not quite...

as far as what they would do with their private trade island well thats up to them, but I'll bet you all it will be is more sellers then buyers, just like it is in the spam garbage. Cause who really wants to be bothered with that garbage. I mean seriously, I would rather trash things given the choice. Its just not worth the hassle. Auction house, trade island, or spam... I think Anet pretty much agrees, that the Spam has to stop. Just as they did with the unreasonable inflation. The best thing I ever saw in my life was GW gold jumping to like $650 per million gold last week. lol Thank you anti farming code... Bravo Anet, NOW maybe we will see people THINKING before they do stupid trades...

"I've never spammed. I've never posted the same message atleast 6 times in 2 minutes".

Really, I haven't.

Ever.

Not once.

Been playing since week one and I have PLENTY of gold. Go figure.

Can't believe I was the first one to say that. ^_^