Minority affect

[admin]

It has come to our attention that some people are spoiling the Isis I game for the majority. Printing all the clues is 1. breaking copyright, 2. spoiling the fun for others, 3. Profiteering on the back of others hard work and time and effort.

The forum has been censored for the same reasons, some people are posting an almost instruction manual on solving the Isis. The forum was setup for people to share their experience of the Isis puzzle, not print the answer, and spoiling the puzzle for others.

The original idea behind the clues was to offset the costs a little of the FREE isis units we provide for everyone every month, now some people are potentially affecting the future of this very enjoyable part of the Isis game by publishing the clues and answers on websites.

I would appreciate your feedback on this topic, and any ideas on how to fix the minority affect. Thankyou

[skhmmi]

I think you could do better than wordfiltering the forum. Appoint a few moderators to remove posts that breach the spirit of the game and/or ban persistent offenders, whilst still allowing sensible posts to be readable. If this seems a good idea, I'm sure people could nominate themselves and a poll run for who should be a mod here.

In this case, you need a very clear NEW MEMBERS READ THIS! topic on the main screen of the forum laying down the law about posting clues and solutions, and what happens if you do (both in terms of SonicWarp's business plan, and in terms of the effect on the forum user).

I for one would like to experience all five of the ISIS series, and so I, as will a lot of other people here, support any efforts of yours to protect your investment in that respect.

And with the eBay listings, SonicWarp has a perfect right to enforce its copyright on eBay and have them removed. Report the appropriate listings to eBay community watch and they normally act pretty quickly:
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/copyrights.html

[TheJuggler]

I think everyone who is having fun with the Isis 1 in the spirit it was intended will agree that this is a very difficult thing to police.

The eBay sellers selling the answers to the clues is failry easy to combat as eBay will remove auctions and ban users who are selling inapropriate materials such as the answers to the clues.

The forums again can be controlled, having a couple of trusted users who can admin the posts and as skhmmi points out a rules/read this type topic which is locked and stickied.

I would hate to see the clues removed from the series as they are a great part of the puzzle and gave me a lot of fun decoding them (and it really doesn't take that long). If people are having real problems with them or with the Isis, then 5GBP is not a lot to get a bit of help. Most people will probably find that once they've solved one or two of the clues, the rest follow on naturally from them.

The difficult thing to police is private websites posting information about the Isis and its solution. We all know that its easy to post videos/images etc and I myself have seen images of the internals of opened isis' on the web. Keeping track on that in todays digital age is near impossible, unless those of us who enjoy the puzzle and want to see everyone else enjoy and have as much fun as we did in solving it, keep an eye out for these things and bring it to the attention of the people at SW.

I would hate to see the forum be shut down or censored to the point that it's unusable as it will only move these sort of topics to somewhere that it can't be controlled.

[ixalon]

I completely agree with the attempts to keep the clues (both the ones from the booklet and others) off the forum. Firstly for the selfish reason that it's quite frustrating to have solved it without help and now to be in a race for the gold coins with those who solved it with additional nudges in the right direction.

The second reason is the harm it does to the Isis Adventure on a whole. As admin points out the decryption keys help fund the adventure and the clues are pretty easy to decrypt, so if people can't decrypt them themselves it's only fair they should pay a little and help support the adventure.

Juggler is right in saying that it's impossible to police external sites and people will always help out friends, but at least it'll take a bit of searching for people to find clues, instead of them being handed to them on a plate.

As for how to go about it, the automatic censorship of certain words doesn't help; it's too easy for people to get round it. You're probably best off doing as skhmmi suggests; provide posting rules and guidelines and then have a number of friendly moderators who remove offending posts.

As for eBay - a quick email should get those listings removed, and fingers-crossed, that user banned.

[anash27]

I agree with skhmmi, simple word blocking is not enough. It is already evident that people are finding a way around it.

I have been a member of several forums in the past and the only true way to police them is to have one or sometimes two additional moderators in addition to "admin". This way posts can be monitored, amended or deleted without taking up too much time of one person.

I have been contacted by several forum member in their desperation to open their ISIS and admittedly I have given some of them some cryptic clues to opening it. But I would never give too much away in "public" on the forum. It just doesn't seem right to spoil something that has taken 3 years to get to this point and potential destroy it all by taking away Sonic's ability (through loss of sales) to produce the remainder of the series.

I know that generally most people here want to see the ISIS series become a huge success. If sales increase then the budget for free ISIS searches and other activities increases. We all benefit by having an "adventure" instead of just simply puzzles to solve.

Regards

Adrian (Ade)

[doth-head]

Hi All

Could'nt agree more - think you are totally right to be doing what you are doing

I have asked for help - but kept it off forum and in private emails that way the fun of the game is not spoiled for the majority - just helps thickie here

It would be an enormous shame to see the project fail - I for one want to be in for the duration - have'nt dedicated this much time to a forum outside of my own for years - lol

But just to pick up on a point elsewhere I think you really do need new members to sign up to an agreement when they first join the forum and perhaps make viewing it only possible to those that have registered

Just my two pennies worth

[taz79]

Every one thinks i'm mad for spending

[ScottyBot]

I must say that I agree with all of the above comments. It's such a shame when people try and ruin the whole magic of the thing. It was such a buzz getting the puzzle initially , then trying to crack the clues , then succeeding in opening the puzzle . Even bigger buzz getting the Gold coin The sense of achievement was great! (All of which was before the forum started!) Then getting the

[UK_Pete_2000]

Solving the Clues was the easy part, once you worked out what to do. It took me just a couple of Hours, and I am not a person who even bothers with the simplist of crosswords (hate them).

So yes when it comes to removing these post I'm happy with that. Even to the extent of getting them removed from EBAY.

BUT to censor certain words (some of which I find pointless) seems to take away the whole point of having a forum to discuss ISIS. I've not seen it on other forums to this extent before.

It may be that they have Moderators in place to stop that kind of thing, and it could be what we need here, and the only people who can modorate are ones which have completed the puzzle and posted the correct code with Sonic.

Forums are places for people to discuss things, work out things, if Sonic had not set up this one, then I am sure other people would have set one going on the various web sites available

[agentwalker]

yep got to agree with most of the above, there needs to be some appointed mods on the forum who can police the forum for your guys and remove posts that even hint at possible solutions.

as for the other websites and ebay, like said ebay can be easily forced to removed the auctions and other websites can be knocked into action as well if you knock up a suitable letter/email with your lawyers. Most website admin will take notice of any legal threat the remove anything you ask.

[neilsc]

Well my thoughts on this issue are -

the forum needs tighter securities, it is too easy for people who have yet to open their isis to pick up clues, the forum might well benifit from an area where only people who have opened their isis can access it, this way there would be no unintentional info made openly available. This could easily be policed with passwords that are issued when they key number is entered into the adventure website. another easy fix could be that to post on the forum you must first have registered your isis, then anyone that give's away the vital info they could be excluded from the game and would not be entitled to any prizes.

The only other way I can see working is to have several more moderators.

The game is designed to be challenging and fun... wheres the challenge if you cheat??

[doth-head]

Hi Neil

I'm pretty sure my moderating is tight - and not sure where you are reading the clues that help people cheat - can you PM me any you feel I have missed

Many thanks

DH

[kelticfox]

Well if you need any help, I've modded/admin'd quite a few boards, including my own guild from WoW.

There are a few changes I would implement if I modded/admin'd.

[neilsc]

Hi Neil

I'm pretty sure my moderating is tight - and not sure where you are reading the clues that help people cheat - can you PM me any you feel I have missed

Many thanks

DH

Hi DH

Sorry.. think that has come across wrong, your moderating is ace, my point should have been that everyone should agree not to post anything that might give it away. I guess some of the clues are only really clues if you have already worked some of it out.. Sorry again


Regards

Neil

[doth-head]

What would those be then KF? - Anything I can improve ?