Thread: Sapience, Celestrata, and Clover's posts no longer in the Dev Tracker

I noticed that in the past hour or so, all of Sapience and Celestrata's posts no longer appear in the Dev Tracker. Now it shows posts just from the actual developers.

Is there a new Community Team tracker somewhere I should be watching?

You can find the new community team tracker at /dev/null

no, they are the only three with the power to switch off tracking of their posts. Probably so that they can joke around with the community without droning out the other devs on the tracker.

Originally Posted by BelamanthDE

no, they are the only three with the power to switch off tracking of their posts. Probably so that they can joke around with the community without droning out the other devs on the tracker.

They've always had the power to switch their posts on and off at will. It appears all of their past posts have been magically switched to OFF, including ones made as recently as this morning.

Hmm and just now the actual developers' posts disappeared from the Dev Tracker. All I see in it now are posts from the QA and beta teams. In fact, posts from the closed Bullroarer forum are showing up in the Dev Tracker now, too.

Perhaps all the trackers are in the middle of being restructured or replaced with new ones.

No we're trying to restructure the tracker to block the access of a twitter spambot.

Originally Posted by Sapience

No we're trying to restructure the tracker to block the access of a twitter spambot.

I'm telling you - if whoever created the bot knows what their doing, they'll get around it.

Given that @lotrodevtracker 's only real function was to post the dev tracker posts (which you could already toggle visability on and off at will). It provided a useful function for players on the go and those who don't regularly engage in the forum community to stay informed about issues and solutions the playerbase is dealing with.

Since this was the only viable way for some of us to keep up with dev posts and the forum on the go with our mobile devices perhaps it'd be a good opportunity to suggest the use of Tapatalk or some other similar program.

Originally Posted by Crell_1

Given that @lotrodevtracker 's only real function was to post the dev tracker posts (which you could already toggle visability on and off at will). It provided a useful functoin for players on the go and those who don't regularly engage in the forum community to stay informed about issues and solutions the playerbase is dealing with.

Since this was the only viable way for some of us to keep up with dev posts and the forum on the go with our mobile devices perhaps it'd be a good opportunity to suggest the use of Tapatalk or some other similiar program.

Ever since I discovered @LOTRODevTracker it's been how I keep myself current with bluename activity.

I don't see why the functionality of the forums should be affected by this account when only twitter users can see it and they a) don't have to follow LOTRODevTracker and b) can block it.

Twitter bots can be scripted to pull information from just about anything. If they can't get it from the on-site dev tracker, they'll just script it to pull directly from new posts from bluenames. Then what?

Edit to add: Tapatalk would be great. I can barely get these forums to function properly in modern internet browsers. Using them on iOS and Android can be a nightmare.

Originally Posted by Sigram

Twitter bots can be scripted to pull information from just about anything. If they can't get it from the on-site dev tracker, they'll just script it to pull directly from new posts from bluenames. Then what?

Exactly. It's a cat and mouse game that ties up valuable hours that the Community Site team could spend actually FIXING the community site. (Logged out while posting, repeatedly logged out while browsing, etc.) or implementing NEW features (mobile view/app)

As a result it feels like Turbine is trying to back off on their 'increased communication' with players and retreat into the shadows.

The dev tracker has always had an RSS feed, and there have been no apparent issues with people displaying that feed however they feel like on fan sites, this feels no different.

Originally Posted by Sapience

No we're trying to restructure the tracker to block the access of a twitter spambot.

Sapience...isn't it about time for Turbine to cut bait with the current forum and start from scratch?
Have a system that actually also works for the European players etc.

The Beta tag in the top left corner is a bit of a joke now amongst the forum dwellers, as no one believes it will actually ever be improved.

Originally Posted by Thoronthor

Sapience...isn't it about time for Turbine to cut bait with the current forum and start from scratch?
Have a system that actually also works for the European players etc.

The Beta tag in the top left corner is a bit of a joke now amongst the forum dwellers, as no one believes it will actually ever be improved.

Pretty much...

Aww... I hope the dev tracker gets fixed soon! I have no problems admitted that I've been checking that link obsessively ever since last Monday in hopes of finding a solution to my problem as soon as possible (I'm one of those still stuck on Examine Game Data).

Originally Posted by Sigram

Ever since I discovered @LOTRODevTracker it's been how I keep myself current with bluename activity.

I don't see why the functionality of the forums should be affected by this account when only twitter users can see it and they a) don't have to follow LOTRODevTracker and b) can block it.

Twitter bots can be scripted to pull information from just about anything. If they can't get it from the on-site dev tracker, they'll just script it to pull directly from new posts from bluenames. Then what?

Edit to add: Tapatalk would be great. I can barely get these forums to function properly in modern internet browsers. Using them on iOS and Android can be a nightmare.

Wow, I never heard of @LOTRODevTracker, how'd I miss it?? I will have to start following that.

Originally Posted by Eryendil

Wow, I never heard of @LOTRODevTracker, how'd I miss it?? I will have to start following that.

Not much point to that unless @Turbine changes its mind. That's the feed they've declared to be a spam bot.

Originally Posted by Crell_1

Not much point to that unless @Turbine changes its mind. That's the feed they've declared to be a spam bot.

Or if the programmer behind @LOTRODevTrack decides to take the time to just make it pull from any new posts from Bluenames. The only way I can think of that Turbine could completely keep someone from being able to create a bot based on dev posts is to make bluenames unsearchable in the forums. If that is even possible with out some crazy vbulletin hacks (or some plugin I am unaware of??), that would be devastating and cause even more problems than some supposed 'spam' bot. With Twitter's privacy controls their is no way that bot can spam people who don't want to see it. Once it's been blocked, it's blocked.

Pardon my ignorance, but how does someone spamming twitter impact the LOTRO forums?

Oh well. I guess I get a few minutes of my life back...

Yeah I'm also kind of wondering why this is a big deal, let alone any kind of deal of any importance to the Turbine community team.

Why is this twitter account sending out links from the forums a problem for Turbine? It's not like they are hidden links - they are (or were, anyway) on the dev tracker. And as others have stated above, it does provide a valuable resource on finding dev posts. If you're on a mobile device (or even if you are on a regular browser sometimes honestly), navigating the forums can be a trial of patience. Having a twitter that directly links to what could be valuable info is great and I see no reason why the account should be labeled a 'spam bot'.

As has also been mentioned above, maybe instead of going after what seems to be a pretty trivial twitter account, resources should be spent on fixing the forums that have been working only intermittently since the game went F2P.

I also don't see why it's a big deal. Plenty of helpful players tweet things like this all the time. It doesn't seem any more spammy than Turbine filling up the dev tracker with 90% charity gaming marathon posts for a week during the launch of an expansion. (I very much enjoyed that event and following the updates here on the forums, but it did make finding important game-related information more difficult for the duration.)

The only reason I can think of is that perhaps the owner of that Twitter account is gathering the posts in a manner that is disruptive to the forum software, perhaps by checking the dev tracker once every second 24 hours a day or something like that.

In the meantime, important information from Turbine has become hard to find on the forums. For example, I didn't realize there was yet another downtime tomorrow until I saw A Casual Stroll To Mordor had tweeted a link to that forum post. I hope Turbine doesn't start seeing that as spam, too.

Originally Posted by Fredelas

I also don't see why it's a big deal. Plenty of helpful players tweet things like this all the time. ...

The only reason I can think of is that perhaps the owner of that Twitter account is gathering the posts in a manner that is disruptive to the forum software, perhaps by checking the dev tracker once every second 24 hours a day or something like that.

In which case, iit'd be better to rate-limit the =dev tracker than to remove all the useful information.

This is quite interesting in the context that official announcements can be in every thread nowadays.

let us summarize:
* Lotro devs started posting an official announcement (goodie bag code expiration date) within off-topic forum threads (for more info see http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.p...-our-Goody-Bad)
* People miss this posting and complain as their codes expired
* there is an official answer that this was "officially announced" within the forum and was visible on dev tracker
* someone creates an automated dev tracker bot on twitter
* dev tracker on lotro forums is blocked to stop twitter bot.
* good chance to do official announcements without anyone noticing ;-)

I think using a bot on a forum is not tolerable, but I am not surprised this happens. I would really think it is time to rework the information strategy.

Remember that something that looks nice and shiny at the front-end (the twitter feed) can have a very dirty back-side (the bot pulling data). My guess is that the bot used to drive the feed is misbehaving, e.g. polling way way way too often, or is sending bad/broken queries that cause the forum software to barf in its log file or produce some other unwanted side-effect at the server side.

Originally Posted by Deusdictum

Pardon my ignorance, but how does someone spamming twitter impact the LOTRO forums?

Oh well. I guess I get a few minutes of my life back...

Depending on how the bot is grabbing the information, scrapping a site continuously can cause major issues on the back-end. It's one reason some people limit web-spiders access to their forums, and why most of the major forum developers have coded in bot detection and management in the base code.

We've tried reaching out to them, with no response. I do see they've changed their twitter bio though to address comments, so clearly they're aware of the effort. Not sure why they aren't responding to attempts to contact them.

I sure hope the dev tracker can be restored to normal soon-ish. That's always my first stop when I visit the forum.

But yeah, do what you have to do to curb unauthorized use.

Originally Posted by Crell_1

The dev tracker has always had an RSS feed, and there have been no apparent issues with people displaying that feed however they feel like on fan sites, this feels no different.

Would someone link this rss feed? I tried finding it on the dev tracker page and failed.

Originally Posted by DBJordan

Would someone link this rss feed? I tried finding it on the dev tracker page and failed.

There hasn't been an official RSS feed for the dev tracker since 2009. However, several people built aggregators using Yahoo! Pipes or other services.

Here's the one used by A Casual Stroll to Mordor:

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.in...77f0ca11ad7a9b

Originally Posted by Issachar44

I sure hope the dev tracker can be restored to normal soon-ish. That's always my first stop when I visit the forum.

But yeah, do what you have to do to curb unauthorized use.

Same here. Dev trackers on gaming forums are the meat of my forums visits. I feel lost without a reliable Dev tracker; maybe a little paranoid, too. Listen, do you smell that? I think a Turbinite posted but I'll never know. Nooooo!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by Cerridwen

Same here. Dev trackers on gaming forums are the meat of my forums visits. I feel lost without a reliable Dev tracker; maybe a little paranoid, too. Listen, do you smell that? I think a Turbinite posted but I'll never know. Nooooo!!!!!!!

We're considering making a new tracker if we can't get this resolved. However if they simply take that one we're back to square one.

Originally Posted by Sapience

We're considering making a new tracker if we can't get this resolved. However if they simply take that one we're back to square one.

Who-ever you are...Please just respond to Turbine's requests directly so we can get back to normal around here =)

Originally Posted by Deusdictum

Pardon my ignorance, but how does someone spamming twitter impact the LOTRO forums?

Oh well. I guess I get a few minutes of my life back...

Yeah, that's what I was wondering. All I want to do is click on the little link at the top of the page and see what the Blue names have to say about stuff, lol.

Why can't the interwebs be in orange (or green) text like it used to be? I'm too old for this new-fangled Googley Twittery stuff!


While I'm complaining about forum-related stuff, why can't I update my sig with my current character levels? (Not the LotRO picture...that's always been goofy...I mean the text I put in below it.) It keeps telling me I'm over the limit on characters, but I'm not trying to add any...I'm just changing the ones that are already there! The only way I can get it in under the limit is to take out all the nice formatting (since that counts against the limit), delete the link to my kin page, and abbreviate the character list to "Sonz80H Lod75M Miss75L....". I mean, that would be fine if the interwebs were all text and everyone had an orange screen, but it is hardly decent for the Googley Twittery age!

(Don't worry, I'll go home soon and be able to play LotRO and not care about the forums for a while. In the meantime, yeah, I know. I just took my forum rep and flushed it down the toilet!)

Maybe you could create your own Twitter feed for Dev Posts, I would definitely appreciate getting those updates direct to my smartphone (cant check forums at work!)

Originally Posted by Eryendil

Maybe you could create your own Twitter feed for Dev Posts, I would definitely appreciate getting those updates direct to my smartphone (cant check forums at work!)

Yep, if we can't have the unofficial one, I'd love for an official one!

Get bet that dev-tracker. I don't see the problem with a user linking dev tracker feeds to twitter?

A other very welcome change would be to make tapatalk work with theses forums...

Originally Posted by Sapience

We've tried reaching out to them, with no response.

No, you have not. The closest thing to "reaching out" I've seen are replies to other people and some inflammatory remarks labeling it a spambot with very vague reasons as to why. That's like saying, "I told my buddy that your house is ugly. Why haven't you torn it down yet?" If you have an issue with someone, address them directly, lay out your reasons and be open to compromise. Don't use heavy-handed tactics like turning off the tracker and trying to reach through the Internet and switch off the twitter feed.

I hope people can see the irony when Turbine disables their own communications in an attempt to vilify a tool which improves communication. That's some real Orwellian stuff right there.

BTW, If its a server issue, then say so. Though that shouldn't be a problem as the feed only accesses a single page twice an hour. That's less than an average user browses the forum.

Originally Posted by phantasm8

BTW, If its a server issue, then say so. Though that shouldn't be a problem as the feed only accesses a single page twice an hour. That's less than an average user browses the forum.

That's a good point. I know I click on the dev tracker link at least that often when I'm reading the forums.

In fact, it's a hard habit to get out of. I find myself still clicking on it now even when I don't expect anything new to be there.

So let me get this straight... Someone posts links to dev tracker posts on twitter and that's not allowed? And in the process of trying to stop them, you'll punish all forums users by making us have to hunt through dozens of posts (assuming the New Posts function decides to work at all) to see if anyone working for Turbine has said anything worth reading? That's like saying "I don't like people walking on my yard, so I'm going to set the grass on fire." Absolutely brilliant.

Originally Posted by Fredelas

That's a good point. I know I click on the dev tracker link at least that often when I'm reading the forums.

In fact, it's a hard habit to get out of. I find myself still clicking on it now even when I don't expect anything new to be there.

Indeed.

I click getnew.php and when the tracker was up tracker.php FAR more often when using the forum MANUALLY.
(Think more like 4-6 times an hour, per page.)

Plus I'm probably reading a large chunk of the actual threads linked.

If you don't want automated capture of the Dev Tracker, add a Captcha page in front of it. As long as you don't use one of the captcha flavors that has been broken by bots, that should keep anything but humans out of there.

or create a feed within the forum that eliminates the need/wish for such a tracker.