The Game Rules have been updated, specifically pertaining to Community Rule #3 - Spam Messages. (Changes emphasized in bold)
3. Spam Messages
Moderation Points Guideline: 20-50
Expiration: 6 Months
Sending unrequested solicitation messages to other players or repetitive or nonsensical messages.
Example: Sending another player an apple pie recipe three times for no reason.
Example: Sending out an invitation to your Discord server to all players in the game.
Note: We do permit unsolicited alliance recruitment messages to players not in alliances for the purpose of better engaging new players. However, such alliance recruitment messages are subject to the following restrictions:
- You may not send the same message to the same player more than once per 60 days.
- You may not message the same player any alliance recruiting message more than once every 60 hours.
- The same alliance may not have different alliance members message a given player more than once per day.
This change was made as a result of a warning issued by the moderation team for sending spam messages that was appealed with the claim that the previous game rules were not specific about the limitations of sending alliance recruitment messages, only that an exception was made for them.
My hope is that these additional points will clear up any confusion and set a new standard that will still allow for recruitment messages to be sent to new players (new players joining alliances is good for player retention and the community) while mitigating spam.
The first point, You may not send the same message to the same player more than once per 60 days, is intended to prevent low-effort spam by sending the same exact message over and over and over again. If you want to continue to message new players, you can, but you will now be required to use new messages, at least every 60 days.
The second point, You may not message the same player any alliance recruiting message more than once every 60 hours, is intended to limit you from messaging the same player every day. We will allow a message up to every 3 days, and 60 hours allows some grace there to make the rule more specific and manageable.
The third point, The same alliance may not have different alliance members message a given player more than once per day, is to prevent an alliance from having two, five, or ten of their members send alliance recruitment messages to the same player. Alliances are allowed to have multiple people send recruitment messages, but you must not bombard someone with messages from the same alliance in the same day.
We'll offer a grace period through the end of the month on strict enforcement of these new rules, as I know some folks have scripts and other procedures in place that may not exactly match these new rules. Starting September 1, however, we will enforce this rule in full if we receive reports regarding spam alliance recruitment messages.
In case anyone has any questions, please ask in the forum announcement here: https://forum.politicsandwar.com/index.php?/topic/45039-8212024-game-rules-update-regarding-spam-and-alliance-recruitment-messages/
