Possible Measure Against Some Viewbombing

[Zada2011]

I'm not sure if this would be feasibly possible without a major overhaul so I'm only bouncing around the idea. Would it be possible to make it so players who missed an egg did not see the egg's code? And just have one standard page instead? It would at least stop some of the butt hurt "No one can have this egg but me." View bombers. As I said I'm not sure if it's possible it's just a suggestion. I know it wouldn't cut down on all view bombing, but possibly some of it.

 

Edit: I was not taking into account other player's play styles so I can understand where many of you are coming from with not wanting to make codes unviewable.

However there were some possible other suggestions.

 

If TJ wanted to really nip viewbombing in the bud, couldn't he simply change how eggs get sick so that viewbombing would no longer be an effective method of vengeance in the first place?

 

This would honestly be the most viable way to bring view bombing to an absolute halt. I'm not sure how willing the site would be to do away with sickness, as without malicious purpose it does have its place, however it may be necessary if this practice is to end.

 

One thing that would cut down on quite a bit of view bombing would be for all fansites to require you to login to enter your scroll and a 'padlock' like Soti has added to SDNN would be even better.

 

I'm not saying that would stop all viewbombing. Obviously it wouldn't stop malicious people from adding the egg to a page with an auto refresher or extremely heavy traffic, but a lot of people that get viewbombed find their scrolls posted in multiple high traffic fansites that they don't normally use.

 

That is a solid suggestion as well, however it is out of our power to force fansites to change the way they work. I've also seen members who would not want to use a click site to long in on another thread on this subject. Along these lines, though this would also take work.

 

Another OP Suggestion: On the note of trying to make posting eggs more secure in some way I have another suggestion. This would be again if it was viable. What if instead of just being able to use the egg's code to post it places there was a longer "hidden" code that must be used. It would be annoying to type, but if there was a different code required for posting eggs that only the egg's owner could see it'd at least make it so users couldn't use the dragon's usual view code to post it. As I said before I don't even know if this viably work coding wise, so ideas everyone.

 

Also thank you for all of the feedback so far.

Edited June 10, 2013 by Zada2011

[KageSora]

Oooooh! I like that!

 

If that were possible, that might really help deal with some of the " you for getting it when I wanted it! Well, if I can't have it NEITHER CAN YOU!" behavior.

 

That would be great.

[Ashes The Second]

I would approve of this, but what about the AP? I sometimes check lineages of dragons I missed (like GWs, Stripes, ect).

[Fuzzbucket]

I would approve of this, but what about the AP? I sometimes check lineages of dragons I missed (like GWs, Stripes, ect).

Not being able to would be a small price to pay. After all - if you missed it - why do you need to know ?

[DarkEternity]

The code can make the difference between me picking up a caveblocker, and me leaving the caveblocker to rot where it will sit and contribute to the caveblocking issue.

Edited June 10, 2013 by DarkEternity

[purplehaze]

I agree that I often pick up an egg, either from the cave or from the AP based on its code. It would be very disappointing to me to no longer be able to see those codes.

 

It is also helpful to be able to tell if that "This egg reminds you of the sea." egg that is sitting in the far right spot in the coastal biome is the same one for 5 minutes or if there has actually been some action in that biome even though on the surface it appears not. If eggs are moving, even though they are being replaced by others of the same breed, at least there is hope that the next egg might be different.

[Pink]

I agree that I often pick up an egg, either from the cave or from the AP based on its code. It would be very disappointing to me to no longer be able to see those codes.

 

It is also helpful to be able to tell if that "This egg reminds you of the sea." egg that is sitting in the far right spot in the coastal biome is the same one for 5 minutes or if there has actually been some action in that biome even though on the surface it appears not. If eggs are moving, even though they are being replaced by others of the same breed, at least there is hope that the next egg might be different.

This would describe my thoughts on this idea entirely.

I collect codes, so being able to see them in the cave is nice.

 

[Kith]

If there was a way to work it so that the mouseover on the egg shows the code, but the missed-egg "get" page doesn't, that might solve a lot of the issue while still letting people search the cave and AP for funny/interesting codes.

[senyi]

I like the idea, but would this be implemented in BOTH the AP and cave?

[MysticTiger]

Since getting an egg that is too vulnerable to view bombing is pretty much impossible on the AP (Everything is under 5 days, always), maybe just do the code blocking for the Cave.

[tjekan]

Unfortunately I can't say I like this idea. I don't see why the solution to cheating and rule-breaking people should be for the rest of us to sacrifice gameplay. People who like to collect codes would be negatively affected by this measure.

 

If TJ wanted to really nip viewbombing in the bud, couldn't he simply change how eggs get sick so that viewbombing would no longer be an effective method of vengeance in the first place?

[arenee1999]

One thing that would cut down on quite a bit of view bombing would be for all fansites to require you to login to enter your scroll and a 'padlock' like Soti has added to SDNN would be even better.

 

I'm not saying that would stop all viewbombing. Obviously it wouldn't stop malicious people from adding the egg to a page with an auto refresher or extremely heavy traffic, but a lot of people that get viewbombed find their scrolls posted in multiple high traffic fansites that they don't normally use.

[Syphoneira]

Unfortunately I can't say I like this idea. I don't see why the solution to cheating and rule-breaking people should be for the rest of us to sacrifice gameplay. People who like to collect codes would be negatively affected by this measure.

 

If TJ wanted to really nip viewbombing in the bud, couldn't he simply change how eggs get sick so that viewbombing would no longer be an effective method of vengeance in the first place?

 

 

That would work.

 

Edit: to mention that Kith had a good addition to the OP's suggestion.

Edited June 10, 2013 by Syphoneira

[Xythus]

Unfortunately I can't say I like this idea. I don't see why the solution to cheating and rule-breaking people should be for the rest of us to sacrifice gameplay. People who like to collect codes would be negatively affected by this measure.

You are right, I like to pick up eggs by their code because I love to get funny and silly codes too. However, its two-pronged; people who cheat (not even cheating, its just malicious and immature) and view-bomb others affect their playstyle too. Why should someone have to fog their entire scroll in fear just because they caught an egg that someone else wanted?

 

 

[Riverwillows]

Here's a way for both sides to have what they want. Instead of ALL codes being blocked, which I do not like, why not just make an option available on a player's scroll to block the codes only if they wished?

 

Names could still be viewable, but codes only for the person owning it.

[_Sin_]

Here is what happens: someone misses catching an egg in the cave, gets the code from the "missed" page and starts view-bombing the egg. If the code was not showing on that "missed" page, they would have less chances. Can someone explain to me where is the issue on blocking that only on the missed page and only for the cave?

 

Edit: note that my favorite option would be that a view-bombed egg wouldn't die. Period.

Edited June 12, 2013 by _Sin_

[HeatherMarie]

Problem with the not-showing-code idea: Many of us hunters already *see* the code *before* we click on it. When I'm in a biome and my mouse hovers over a mystery egg, my browser automatically gives me the url in the bottom-left corner of the page. I use Firefox, and it's always done that. Firefox is fairly popular, so..... I'm not sure that *just* not letting "missed" users not see the code on the "missed" page would do much good at all.

 

Problem with the "hidden code" suggestion is that anyone who has their scroll set to allow aid would be screwed. No one would be able to help them if a secret, only-available-to-scroll-owner code is needed. (And YES, people can accept aid and still be victims of viewbombs, accepting aid doesn't mean "please kill my egg". Just, fyi).

 

We've been through the fansite suggestion before, it'd be a fairly useless thing to implement.... We can't *force* fansites/hatcheries to make users log in or anything like that, and if TJ somehow codes it so that *only* hatcheries that have such-and-such security in place have access to the eggs at all, well that would *severely* slash the number of fansite options for all of us, and especially when it comes to ER dragons, sometimes we need as many as we can get.

 

Yes, it would be wonderful if TJ could somehow re-code sickness so that viewbombing wouldn't work in that regard. I don't know if it's possible or if he would do it, and I *don't* want sickness to go away altogether, but a recoding of some sort would be great.

[Kith]

Problem with the not-showing-code idea: Many of us hunters already *see* the code *before* we click on it. When I'm in a biome and my mouse hovers over a mystery egg, my browser automatically gives me the url in the bottom-left corner of the page. I use Firefox, and it's always done that. Firefox is fairly popular, so..... I'm not sure that *just* not letting "missed" users not see the code on the "missed" page would do much good at all.

So you can save or perfectly recall the code from the mouseover after clicking the egg, or control-clicking and refreshing? I can't think there'd be time for that under normal cave-hunting conditions.

[_Sin_]

Problem with the not-showing-code idea: Many of us hunters already *see* the code *before* we click on it. When I'm in a biome and my mouse hovers over a mystery egg, my browser automatically gives me the url in the bottom-left corner of the page. I use Firefox, and it's always done that. Firefox is fairly popular, so..... I'm not sure that *just* not letting "missed" users not see the code on the "missed" page would do much good at all.

 

Problem with the "hidden code" suggestion is that anyone who has their scroll set to allow aid would be screwed. No one would be able to help them if a secret, only-available-to-scroll-owner code is needed. (And YES, people can accept aid and still be victims of viewbombs, accepting aid doesn't mean "please kill my egg". Just, fyi).

 

We've been through the fansite suggestion before, it'd be a fairly useless thing to implement.... We can't *force* fansites/hatcheries to make users log in or anything like that, and if TJ somehow codes it so that *only* hatcheries that have such-and-such security in place have access to the eggs at all, well that would *severely* slash the number of fansite options for all of us, and especially when it comes to ER dragons, sometimes we need as many as we can get.

 

Yes, it would be wonderful if TJ could somehow re-code sickness so that viewbombing wouldn't work in that regard. I don't know if it's possible or if he would do it, and I *don't* want sickness to go away altogether, but a recoding of some sort would be great.

It is quite different to read a code while hovering over it - in particular if you were not fast enough to catch it - and on having all the time to copy/paste it from the "missed" page. And the the absence of the code on the "missed" page for the cave would not "screw" anybody?

Look, I'm frustrated, I don't think that the community is taking this issue seriously enough. And will not until more and more petty, small people learn how to use auto-refreshers and start using them every time that someone rejects a trade or write something that they disagree with

I'm begging you, please help on finding solutions, this problem will not go away without action.

Edited June 12, 2013 by _Sin_

[Syphoneira]

Problem with the not-showing-code idea: Many of us hunters already *see* the code *before* we click on it. When I'm in a biome and my mouse hovers over a mystery egg, my browser automatically gives me the url in the bottom-left corner of the page. I use Firefox, and it's always done that. Firefox is fairly popular, so..... I'm not sure that *just* not letting "missed" users not see the code on the "missed" page would do much good at all.

 

Problem with the "hidden code" suggestion is that anyone who has their scroll set to allow aid would be screwed. No one would be able to help them if a secret, only-available-to-scroll-owner code is needed. (And YES, people can accept aid and still be victims of viewbombs, accepting aid doesn't mean "please kill my egg". Just, fyi).

 

We've been through the fansite suggestion before, it'd be a fairly useless thing to implement.... We can't *force* fansites/hatcheries to make users log in or anything like that, and if TJ somehow codes it so that *only* hatcheries that have such-and-such security in place have access to the eggs at all, well that would *severely* slash the number of fansite options for all of us, and especially when it comes to ER dragons, sometimes we need as many as we can get.

 

Yes, it would be wonderful if TJ could somehow re-code sickness so that viewbombing wouldn't work in that regard. I don't know if it's possible or if he would do it, and I *don't* want sickness to go away altogether, but a recoding of some sort would be great.

 

 

Well, it's a lot easier to attack other people's eggs when the code can be copy/pasted from the 'sorry, missed' page, and it might at least cut back on the Viewbombing.

 

Of course, if the Viewbombers are working from memory, the wrong egg with a similar code is likely to be attacked, something they likely wouldn't notice or care about.

 

 

 

 

Edit: to add -

 

Zada2011: '... Another OP Suggestion: On the note of trying to make posting eggs more secure in some way I have another suggestion. This would be again if it was viable. What if instead of just being able to use the egg's code to post it places there was a longer "hidden" code that must be used. It would be annoying to type, but if there was a different code required for posting eggs that only the egg's owner could see it'd at least make it so users couldn't use the dragon's usual view code to post it. As I said before I don't even know if this viably work coding wise, so ideas everyone. ...'

 

 

 

 

If it were possible to copy/paste the hidden code, it wouldn't be any harder.

 

And copy/pasting is the way to go with fansite entry, as such common mistakes such as mixing up various numbers/letters such as I and l or 1 can result in somebody else's egg being posted, rather than one's own.

 

 

However, this would mean that scroll-sitters could no longer function, and they are essential to people suddenly called away on family emergencies, entering hospital, going on holiday. moving/losing internet. etc.

 

We all are likely to need scroll-sitters at various points...

Edited June 12, 2013 by Syphoneira

[Wymsical]

Another OP Suggestion: On the note of trying to make posting eggs more secure in some way I have another suggestion. This would be again if it was viable. What if instead of just being able to use the egg's code to post it places there was a longer "hidden" code that must be used. It would be annoying to type, but if there was a different code required for posting eggs that only the egg's owner could see it'd at least make it so users couldn't use the dragon's usual view code to post it. As I said before I don't even know if this viably work coding wise, so ideas everyone.

Oh trust me, something like that would be very much possible. Look at the URLs of eggs in the AP right now. You'll notice after their code is a bunch of random stuff (and I believe it changes each time somebody takes it and dumps it back into the AP). A similar thing can be done with eggs and needing a hidden code in order to receive views, it just obviously wouldn't be visible in their URL.

 

It'd be a great way to combat viewbombing. You have the egg's code which is pretty just their ID number (you punch in the code to the view URL, and you get that exact dragon no matter what) that will still be visible when cave or AP hunting. This is good for people like me who will often take commons because they have an appealing code.

 

But, once you grab your egg it is assigned a second hidden code that can only be seen by the owner and this is the code that must be submitted to fansites and is shown in the BBCode/HTML lists in order to gain views. How annoying it would be to type wouldn't matter, since you can just copy it anyway.

 

I think though, this would be a thing that's better set as an option for the individual user than be something mandatory. I can see how some people might not like it because it's slightly confusing or complicated for them. But for those who wanted even better security beyond hiding their scroll and fogging their things, it would be highly beneficial.

[DarkEternity]

AP eggs have their codes a / and then a random code. It's to prevent people stealing eggs from the backlog - be it auto'd/whatever - not an attempt to prevent viewbombing. Well why isn't it in the cave? Well unless the Cave is compromised by a hacker, no one can fish eggs from the backlog since they won't know the code of CB metals and stuff so there's no need for a random hash to prevent backlog grabbing.

Edited June 12, 2013 by DarkEternity

[_Sin_]

 

Well, it's a lot easier to attack other people's eggs when the code can be copy/pasted from the 'sorry, missed' page, and it might at least cut back on the Viewbombing.

 

Of course, if the Viewbombers are working from memory, the wrong egg with a similar code is likely to be attacked, something they likely wouldn't notice or care about.

 

 

 

 

Edit: to add -

 

Zada2011: '... Another OP Suggestion: On the note of trying to make posting eggs more secure in some way I have another suggestion. This would be again if it was viable. What if instead of just being able to use the egg's code to post it places there was a longer "hidden" code that must be used. It would be annoying to type, but if there was a different code required for posting eggs that only the egg's owner could see it'd at least make it so users couldn't use the dragon's usual view code to post it. As I said before I don't even know if this viably work coding wise, so ideas everyone. ...'

 

 

 

 

If it were possible to copy/paste the hidden code, it wouldn't be any harder.

 

And copy/pasting is the way to go with fansite entry, as such common mistakes such as mixing up various numbers/letters such as I and l or 1 can result in somebody else's egg being posted, rather than one's own.

 

 

However, this would mean that scroll-sitters could no longer function, and they are essential to people suddenly called away on family emergencies, entering hospital, going on holiday. moving/losing internet. etc.

 

We all are likely to need scroll-sitters at various points...

Exactly!!!

Basically what is been suggested here is: if someone missed an egg in location 1 to 6, send them to a generic "missed" page without information about the egg!

[Wymsical]

AP eggs have their codes a / and then a random code. It's to prevent people stealing eggs from the backlog - be it auto'd/whatever - not an attempt to prevent viewbombing. Well why isn't it in the cave? Well unless the Cave is compromised by a hacker, no one can fish eggs from the backlog since they won't know the code of CB metals and stuff so there's no need for a random hash to prevent backlog grabbing.

Yes, I'm aware of what the point of AP eggs having the random junk on their URL is for. I merely pointed them out to show that the site already makes randomised incomprehensible codes/URLs for certain special functions. Teleport is the same way. Man, you could never have any hope to guess the URL for a Teleport.

Edited June 12, 2013 by Commander Wymsy

[Riverwillows]

On the idea that "coders" need to see a code so they can look for it....

 

Once an egg has been grabbed, and kept, WHY does ANYONE need the code for it?? Take away the code from the "missed" page is a good one....if it was "missed" then someone has it and you don't need the code, cause it won't ever be yours.