Is this right?Follow

So I have a question for everyone, today i was playing EQ and a person from the Zek server started spamming our general channel with him selling MacroQuest precompiled and loaded with macros to people. Another person from my server told him he was stupid and for people not to buy it for various tech reasons. The Zek guy wouldn't leave him alone after that asking for exact reasons to make the guy look dumb, this is when i spoke up. To set the record straight, I don't use MQ2, thought about it at one time but decided to keep playin EQ the way it was meant to be, but I did do alot of research on it beforehand. Back to the story, so I told the Zek fellow what he was askin for and he quit spamming the channel. About 20 minutes later I start getting questioned by a GM about my knowledge of MQ2 and why I know it and such. Long story short i was told that my account is now under consideration to be banned.......I ask you is this right? Just because I have knowledge on something that goes against SOE's EULA they want to punish me? I thought there was some way the could look at the logs and tell if I was using something like that.

I recently saw a similar occurence on Zek on the General chat channel by someone from Povar. I promptly /reported the individual. However, your encounter leads me to believe that perhaps these spammers may be gm/sony controlled inducing or even entrapping would-be cheaters.

While this is just a theory, prehaps the money made from selling hacker programs outweighs a prompt banning of one's account and said cheaters may very well not face as swift a reprisal as you or I may think.

this guy offends me, far more than normal l33t-hax0rz. He is spamming channels not just with hacks to make money, but hacks he's ripped off other people, I don't think the man's done a minute of original work in his life.

yes, imho it is good that they investigate. no harm done, if you're clean.

if they wouldn't be checking you out, I even would say, that they are not doing their job well...

If this was SOE controlled, it would be a stupid way to curb cheating. Especially over OOC or General Channels. Why even plant the idea? Lets say 90% of the EQ population had never heard of MacroQuest. Wouldnt there be better ways to hunt out the remaining 10% (Percents are made up btw) rather than giving the other 90% the chance to think...."hmmm...wonder what that is?" or "maybe I'll look that one up?"

I wouldn't put this past SOE to do...they dont have the best track record for makng the best choices but....

Just my thoughts

Yep. You can be banned for talking about it:
http://eqlive.station.sony.com/support/customer_service/cs_rules_of_conduct.jsp

It's definately a grey area but I guess macroquest falls into the category of exploitation that grants unnatural or unintended benefits.

I think they should clear Elmika since the MQ person on the chat was clearly the offender and other folks were merely responding.

It's only related to in-game or official SOE forums. This place has no actual affiliation with Sony (that I know of) and they can't investigate solely due to discussion here.

Having knowledge is not the point. It is the dissemination of the knowledge that is actionable. Discussing exploits or bugs in /ooc is exactly that.

If I know how a certain bug works, even if I do not use it, and I tell you how to use it, and even if you don't use it either, I can still get banned.

People here (on Alla's) *usually* only discuss legal procedures to do things in-game. Many are VERY careful not to discuss exploits in detail, not because they FEAR SOE, but so as not to foster behavior of this nature. Who wants to play a game full of hacks and cheats? Not me.