Voting restrictions on player housing

Nightfang · 10-28-2012, 06:38 AM

Just curious what the restrictions are on what account type can vote on the housing leaderboards?

I have a silver account, and before I couldn't vote, but I noticed recently when visiting a friends house the vote icon was now there, so I have to assume that silver merely has an account age/char level restriction before they can vote?

What about free players, can they ever vote, or are they blocked to prevent abuse ( idiots making dozens of accounts with level 1 chars just to vote on their own houses )?

Keratis · 10-28-2012, 12:18 PM

I dont think there is any restriction. Maybe I will test this. In fact many of us believe that is how certain decorators keep getting tons of votes for "less than stellar" houses. Making free accounts and voting. Im not sure if making a toon, voting, then deleting that toon removes the deleted toon's vote. Knowing SOE it doesnt so one could just keep making toons, voting, and deleting the toon. Freeport seems to have a big issue with this. Just look at the top 10 houses there and ask yourself if they should have the votes they have.

Keratis · 10-28-2012, 12:24 PM

Just tested it on my free account with a new lvl 1 toon. Can indeed vote so not sure why you couldnt before unless the house was not up for voting. There is a difference between houses you can and cannot vote on. If you "visit" a house you might not be able to vote unless they enable voting. Once they enable voting it goes up on the "Housing Leaderboards." Any house on the Leaderboards can be voted on.

For instance, my Hobbit Hole has voting enabled is on Housing Leaderboards. My Mage Tower has visiting rights enabled so anyone can visit it, but voting is disabled and thus not able to be found on Housing Leaderboards not able to be voted on.

Nightfang · 10-28-2012, 02:32 PM

Hmnn thats odd then, and has me even more confused.

My friend has a house that has been published for quite some time, and originally I tried to vote for it, but couldn't, but I was visiting the house recently and the vote option was there now, I thought maybe you had to be silver for a certain time before it unlocked or something.

We have another friend who has recently started playing and is just on a free account for time being but they can't vote either, even though the account has been active for a while.

I told them about my situation, and maybe they just needed to wait a while, but was just curious for more precise info.

If what you say is true though and its possible to vote right away on a new char then I don't understand why we have the issue with existing accounts/chars.

Incidently my friends husband also has a published house, and same issue there, so its not isolated to one particular house.

Cloudrat · 10-28-2012, 03:26 PM

Ok here is what I have seen, I can't say exact number of days or hours because it has changed and I don't have the inclination to get it down to a science.

1. Any account can vote, One vote per account, per server will count. So if you log in and vote Like Like on a house then log in another toon and go in the same house you will see option with gold thumbs up highlighted and unlike unlike which you can save or cancel or just ignore. Which means you can save your previous like like vote from your other toon or change it to unlike unlike or cancel the original vote or leave it alone. I am guessing the save is like refreshing the timer on it.

2. After a certain amount of time your vote will decay and you need to revote as it is no longer counting towards awards,

3. Every so often the boards reset to issue awards. I think at that time it wipes any old votes.

4. Yes people can make a lot of free accounts and toons and vote for their own houses, but most of the high number vote houses have a lot of guildies stop in and vote or are selling lots of high ticket items which bring people in who are shopping and vote while they are there. There are also a lot who mention stop and see my house in various channels and lots drop in and vote.

If you are on Freeport server there were some issues the other day when open Beta started.

Nightfang · 10-28-2012, 04:12 PM

OK so it seeems that there are no actual resctrictions and I what we are seeing is just a bug?

We are on Splitpaw, but I also have a char on Freeport so I logged in and checked a random house, and was able to vote on my (silver) account.

We got our friend to make a new char on Freeport and go to same house I confirmed voting was enabled, but they were not able to vote, yet the other poster said they were able to vote with a new lvl 1 char.

So it seems its that particular account that is having issues as they can't vote on either server.

Any ideas?, or just a bug they need to wait out?

Oh I think the votes only count for a week, then they reset and you can vote again, and during a week you can change your vote and that resets the timer I think.

Afista · 10-29-2012, 07:25 AM

You should not be able to vote on a free account. This was changed a long time ago actually as it was an 'exploit' when the system first went live. If you can, it's a bug and needs to be reported.

You are correct though, "recent" votes last a week. Your "overall" like will always be there as long as you have liked it once, but you'd have to recast your vote to keep the "recent" one active. It doesn't matter how many different characters you log on the same account, only one vote per account will stick.

10-28-2012, 03:26 PM	#5
Cloudrat Tester Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 2,560	Ok here is what I have seen, I can't say exact number of days or hours because it has changed and I don't have the inclination to get it down to a science. 1. Any account can vote, One vote per account, per server will count. So if you log in and vote Like Like on a house then log in another toon and go in the same house you will see option with gold thumbs up highlighted and unlike unlike which you can save or cancel or just ignore. Which means you can save your previous like like vote from your other toon or change it to unlike unlike or cancel the original vote or leave it alone. I am guessing the save is like refreshing the timer on it. 2. After a certain amount of time your vote will decay and you need to revote as it is no longer counting towards awards, 3. Every so often the boards reset to issue awards. I think at that time it wipes any old votes. 4. Yes people can make a lot of free accounts and toons and vote for their own houses, but most of the high number vote houses have a lot of guildies stop in and vote or are selling lots of high ticket items which bring people in who are shopping and vote while they are there. There are also a lot who mention stop and see my house in various channels and lots drop in and vote. If you are on Freeport server there were some issues the other day when open Beta started. __________________

10-29-2012, 07:25 AM	#7
Afista Loremaster Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 1,263	You should not be able to vote on a free account. This was changed a long time ago actually as it was an 'exploit' when the system first went live. If you can, it's a bug and needs to be reported. You are correct though, "recent" votes last a week. Your "overall" like will always be there as long as you have liked it once, but you'd have to recast your vote to keep the "recent" one active. It doesn't matter how many different characters you log on the same account, only one vote per account will stick. __________________ Click Image for link to decorating consolidated works website Consolidated Works Fourm Thread

10-28-2012, 06:38 AM	#1
Nightfang Champion Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 11	Just curious what the restrictions are on what account type can vote on the housing leaderboards? I have a silver account, and before I couldn't vote, but I noticed recently when visiting a friends house the vote icon was now there, so I have to assume that silver merely has an account age/char level restriction before they can vote? What about free players, can they ever vote, or are they blocked to prevent abuse ( idiots making dozens of accounts with level 1 chars just to vote on their own houses )?

10-28-2012, 12:18 PM	#2
Keratis Server: Antonia Bayle Guild: Dynasty Reborn Rank: Member w/ 10000 + status pts Loremaster Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 99	I dont think there is any restriction. Maybe I will test this. In fact many of us believe that is how certain decorators keep getting tons of votes for "less than stellar" houses. Making free accounts and voting. Im not sure if making a toon, voting, then deleting that toon removes the deleted toon's vote. Knowing SOE it doesnt so one could just keep making toons, voting, and deleting the toon. Freeport seems to have a big issue with this. Just look at the top 10 houses there and ask yourself if they should have the votes they have.

10-28-2012, 12:24 PM	#3
Keratis Server: Antonia Bayle Guild: Dynasty Reborn Rank: Member w/ 10000 + status pts Loremaster Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 99	Just tested it on my free account with a new lvl 1 toon. Can indeed vote so not sure why you couldnt before unless the house was not up for voting. There is a difference between houses you can and cannot vote on. If you "visit" a house you might not be able to vote unless they enable voting. Once they enable voting it goes up on the "Housing Leaderboards." Any house on the Leaderboards can be voted on. For instance, my Hobbit Hole has voting enabled is on Housing Leaderboards. My Mage Tower has visiting rights enabled so anyone can visit it, but voting is disabled and thus not able to be found on Housing Leaderboards not able to be voted on.

10-28-2012, 02:32 PM	#4
Nightfang Champion Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 11	Hmnn thats odd then, and has me even more confused. My friend has a house that has been published for quite some time, and originally I tried to vote for it, but couldn't, but I was visiting the house recently and the vote option was there now, I thought maybe you had to be silver for a certain time before it unlocked or something. We have another friend who has recently started playing and is just on a free account for time being but they can't vote either, even though the account has been active for a while. I told them about my situation, and maybe they just needed to wait a while, but was just curious for more precise info. If what you say is true though and its possible to vote right away on a new char then I don't understand why we have the issue with existing accounts/chars. Incidently my friends husband also has a published house, and same issue there, so its not isolated to one particular house.

10-28-2012, 04:12 PM	#6
Nightfang Champion Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 11	OK so it seeems that there are no actual resctrictions and I what we are seeing is just a bug? We are on Splitpaw, but I also have a char on Freeport so I logged in and checked a random house, and was able to vote on my (silver) account. We got our friend to make a new char on Freeport and go to same house I confirmed voting was enabled, but they were not able to vote, yet the other poster said they were able to vote with a new lvl 1 char. So it seems its that particular account that is having issues as they can't vote on either server. Any ideas?, or just a bug they need to wait out? Oh I think the votes only count for a week, then they reset and you can vote again, and during a week you can change your vote and that resets the timer I think.