4 replies to this topic

[OTG_Whip]

The main reason why I signed on the dotted line was just to pass on some info, and to have a sticky beak as well ......... See what some other's get up to besides playing this game.

Anyway, this morning, my time (about 0600 Australian Central) I was on server 165 US West, I had SOJCountReporter on and up and someone decided to go start selling stones on the server (Thanx to whom ever, got a nice 15A 20R 10% out of it). To cut the long story short, the SOJCountReporter said it was sending on the info back to the site, but on investigating and having a look see 12 hous latter, the info for that server had still not been updated (walk at 7652 with 7653 being sold) So I thought I would try and get this info passed on to those in the know. Ohhhh and my SOJCountReporter is version 1.1b build 09.

[BreCalmor]

Its possible the folks who track that haven't been on the validate your information.  Also, unless a trusted or mod sends the info, it needs to be confirmed.  That also may have slowed down the information update.  The mods don't want to put out information that is invalid.

Just my thoughts,
Bre
*diablo

[OTG_Whip]

Quote

Its possible the folks who track that haven't been on the validate your information. Also, unless a trusted or mod sends the info, it needs to be confirmed. That also may have slowed down the information update. The mods don't want to put out information that is invalid.

Just my thoughts,
Bre

Fair enough Bre, I can live with that, in which case however, why am I running the program?? That is what validates the info.......It's not my word, it's the words of the program. If your not accepting the validation of the program, why should I run the program?? From what I understand, the whole site relies on the information from the SOJCountReporter program. The more programs running, the more information in regards to the counts is being collected the easier it is to start selling on a server and to get a pop quicker, BUT, if the site is not using the information recieved, why run it ( the program in the first place)?? The program conflicts with my IP hunter program anyway and so what I have to do is first find my server that I want, minamize my screen, exit out of the IP hunter, start the SOJCountReporter, then max the game, if I have to do that to get the info back and then not have the info recorderd, then why am I putting myself through jumping through hoops?? So, I thought I would try to bring it to someones attention that a.) something maybe wrong, or b.) it is as you say, unvalidated info and information is not going to be used in which case I won't waste my time running the program. All I wanted to do was pass on this, what I thought was relevant information to those  in the know so they can give me some feedback and give me some peace of mind

Call me whatever you want.
It's all water of a ducks back.
I am too old to get angry.
and
To young to give a rats a$$!!

[Nomad]

I don't know exactly how the whole setup works, and I've never used the SojReporter.  But I agree with you completely.  If the information sent from the reporter is not considered to be fact (unless your report is saying one number, while 50 others are reporting a different number), then why bother running it?  

Chances are that something is wrong.  I believe the reporter directly contacts a IRC channel bot which keeps the soj count records (I could be wrong).  Maybe the bot which collects the reports was down or something.

If there isn't direct contact between the SojReporter and the channel bot, then someone needs to do some serious re-structuring of the program (that also means that somebody would have to be online 24/7 and do nothing but sort the info and input it into the bot).  This concept can be accomplished very easily in AutoIt, so I know it's easy in C-based languages, since AutoIt is written in C++.

There's no reason to not have something like this in place.  Someone might try to argue that a person might hack the program and make it send false reports.  Well, the bot can be programmed to ignore, and even take action against, input from a single reporter that is sending reports different than all of the others.  If it just happens to be the only reporter on a server, then the bot can either ignore the reporter, or enter the info.  Sure, in that case the info might be incorrect... but I can't count how many times I've seen mis-walks because the counts weren't updated because the information couldn't be verified.  These "mis-walks", which are caused by the people who fail to update the counts, are causing a lot more "incorrect" information to be posted from the bots than would be posted if the reporter was in direct contact with the bot.  There are also other ways of programming to minimize the chance of the information being incorrect (like generating hashes).

Also, "most" decent hackers have moved on to newer games.  Diablo II is getting very old, it's about 7 years old now.  Out of the few that are left behind, very few of them, if any,  would even be interested in mis-reporting walks.  So, if the programmer of the reporter knows his stuff, he can make it, and the bot,  very secure against intrusions.

Ok, I've probably typed too much again, so I'm going to go now.  I could've went on for a few pages about this stuff though, hehe.

Cya Around,

Nomad :hunter:

Edited by Nomad, 16 July 2006 - 12:02 AM.

[BreCalmor]

Nomad, I understand what your saying, but to be honest, the ops are just trying to put out truthful information.  These folks aren't on here 24/7 and the soj reporter has enough folks out there to get most of the counts.  I have an acct set up that if I send it a count from soj reporter, it goes right into the dclone bot in the channel, but thats me...  if there are others sending in information, then it has to be verified from a trusted source...  thats about it.  

I am sure they could automate it, but in doing so, if their rule assumption is incorrect when programming the bot, then they can get bad numbers.  So, without repeating what you have already said, maybe if D3 comes out...

Bre
*diablo