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WoW In-game Group Finder Policy Changes

The World of Warcraft team has been hard at work freeing the Group Finder from the ads.

By Elnian Thu 05 Jul, 2018 3:47 PM - Last Updated: Fri 06 Jul, 2018 3:11 PM
Header image permission was provided by Sammygm.

Blizzard has recently announced some very important changes to the In-game Advertising Policy that affects the Group Finder. Starting June 2nd, 2018, players will no longer be able to use the Group Finder to advertise carries or other services for gold. The option Advertisement will be added to the drop down menu when reporting group listings. For now, players can use the Spam option when reporting those groups.

These types of advertisements were typically used as a front for gold-selling, since Gold cannot typically be sent cross-realm. This will definitely put a stop to the gold-sellers we typically see in the Group Finder. Finally, Group Finder will be able to do what it was intended to do in the first place - find groups!

Originally Posted by Blizzard
As part of our ongoing efforts to crack down on in-game advertising, we’ll be implementing some policy changes with how we handle moderation for advertisements made through the in-game Group Finder, and wanted to give you a heads up before these policies are put into place.

Beginning Monday, July 2nd, we will no longer allow any advertisements in the Group Finder for in-game services such as carries or boosts, including those being offered in exchange for in-game gold. The Group Finder is intended for -- as the name suggests -- finding groups, and these advertisements make it difficult to find active groups that are currently being formed. Additionally, these are often used as a cover for real-money sales, particularly given that in-game gold cannot be transferred cross-realm.

Note that this does not change our policy on selling things such as raid carries for in-game gold. Those are still allowed, but should be advertised through realm-specific methods such as trade chat.

We’ll be adding an “advertisement” option to the Group Finder’s right-click reporting function with Patch 8.0, but in the meantime, they can be reported using the “spam” option. Thank you for your understanding, and for helping us keep the Group Finder clear of unwanted advertisements.
This is certainly a welcome change, and I'm excited to finally be able to go through the Group Finder without seeing all of those "M+17 Carry, pst for info" posts!

What are your thoughts on it?

If you would like to learn more about World of Warcraft, we have a sub-forum all about it HERE. The UFP also has a World of Warcraft Guild called Champions of the Sunwell.

WRITTEN BY Elnian
EDITED BY Infinity - lewis.holt@ufplanets.com
3 Comments
Thu 05 Jul, 2018 3:52 PM
Nice article. Big Grin
Thu 05 Jul, 2018 5:34 PM
Woo I like this!
Thu 05 Jul, 2018 7:00 PM
Good change for sure, we'll see how it actually turns out