Statement for strike through mons

Hi PF Staff,
can you make a statement for the rumors (?) that caught pokemon from 3rd Party devices are not usable in the near future?
Does it apply to PF? Is it inevitable?

Other guys: Anyone noticed such a behaviour on your account?

Source of rumors:
https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemongo/comments/6inmem/first_known_image_of_the_striked_out_cheaters/

 

All my pokemon caught with the bot have been striked so yeah I'm pretty sure PF is effected

 

yep. Happened to me now. Many pokemon are affected.
Did you miss something Bossland? Explain this issue pls.

 

i wondering too about that (that there is no official word about all of this, shadowban problem and this one mentioned in this thread too. Because ppl complaining for a long time now i think so)

 

Hate to say I told you so to Bossland....but yeah, all of our moms caught with PF have the slash. All those months of guaranteeing they didn't miss anything...lol.

Anyway...we have a bunch of nice trophies with red slashes now I guess. All three accounts that I ever used PF with, EVERY Pokémon caught with PF is red slashed. Every one I caught manually (which I can tell from places I have actually played) are fine.

I'm not mad, I knew it was coming. But clearly Niantic has been ahead of the game all along, and we only thought it was ok.

I guess we have candies and XP? Lol.

 

I've ran a new account on PF since december, no issue for me. All i can say is if you ain't willing to risk getting banned, then don't bot using that account.

There is not bot that guarantees you don't get caught, no matter what game. it's how you bot, that makes a difference.

Sorry for the loss of your accounts, I've been through that and it sucks.

 

Niantic isn't banning all of the PF accounts...it's striking the pokemon with the red slash of shame. It makes them useless in gyms, you can't evolve them etc.

I'm perfectly fine with "limitations" of botted accounts. But PF should be straightforward with this info now that it's apparently true. Botted pokemon = worthless other than maybe candy when caught.

My guess is (and this is pure conjecture) that eventually they won't even give you candy/XP when you catch them. Seems like a logical next step in the process. (if they haven't done it already) I think currently, they put the red slash because it's easy for people who "didn't cheat" to complain about it if it was not really a botted account. Once Niantic decides they didn't catch too many false positives they will bring the hammer down even harder. Again...my own thoughts here, no proof.

 

I don't get what you mean with us not being upfront and straight forward. We never hid anything. No matter which section I moderate, i tell our users that you should not bot an account you're not willing to lose. That's the risk involved in botting.

 

There are certain mods and/or community managers (not sure if they are here still or not)....that 100% guaranteed that PF was safe all through the last few months. And I 100% agree that no one should bot on an account they truly care about losing, I have no problem with it myself. Clearly it was not "safe", and was being flagged. That's all I was saying. In the FAQ or help section somewhere there should be a sticky that says that currently if you use PF you get red slashes. Then people know for sure what they're signing up for. I have a feeling most people won't care...but they should at least know.

 

@pokerumpo I have ALWAYS stated that PF is as safe as can be for botting, and always explain all botting poses as a risk, please do not confuse the two, no one on our team will ever tell you that PokeFarmer is 100% safe and will never carry any risks, because no bot in the history of botting will ever be able to boast that. I have said, that our bot is safe as far as botting goes, because at that time, it was. The expectation for anyone to know something unknown to all is a bit strange would you not agree. At the time the question was asked I answered 100% honestly, now if you ask me, I would state the known issues being worked on and state once again that no bot has a 100% safety factor. I sincerely hope that whatever your opinion of me is, that you would at least do me the justice of not misquoting or twisting my words.

Here is a prime example:

CAcove-05/04/2017


@Xxxxxxxxx thats the beauty of it, thats the data you get, I get different data, and others get yet other data. The point is, if a group of people get hit with a ban, they automatically blame the bot, despite many others being able to hold onto accounts like Bolan can, and even Hatching or myself or many others. The problem is, people jump onto a fear wagon, and instead of looking at all the info, not just what they think affects them, they look at their data which lets be honest is a bias approach, then they run around and tell others things like "PF isn't safe" and blah blah blah, which just isnt true when measuring safe in botting terms, this has hit our community hard and just isn't acceptable. When someone can look at all of the data, and realize, that PF is still going strong and still being worked on, then maybe our community wont be hit so hard.(edited)



As for announcements, if it was specific to PF, we would have already made an announcement, however given we are currently working on the new API, which may or maynot change the issues moving forward with slashed pokemon is resolved. Only time will tell and when Hatching has some substantial information to present, it will be released.

 

I've always said it's not about save vs unsafe...if you're botting, you're not safe regardless of what app you use. It's cheating and we all know it, and we should all be OK with it. However, letting the community know when there's a problem (like currently) seems fair. That way people know in advance.

There have been conversations in the past that got these responses, when asked if PF was safe to use. And sure, that may have been "true at the time as far as anyone knew". That's not my point though, the red line is a known issue and people should be aware. I have not heard of people being "banned" lately because of botting...but they can't really use the pokemon currently. Hopefully the devs figure out what triggers the flag, and work around it. My bot account will keep those red lines around just in case.

 

This is not meant to present an argument for not using the software, just to make the community aware of what can happen if they choose to. Good communication is the key to happy customers.

 

First: Thank you that you even answer to this thread.
Second: What we are to get to know: How could that happen? Did you miss something? We do not blame you, because it is our own fault by using it. We just want to know what got wrong. Bossland has already admitted several times that they where detected on other bots. We just want some clarification.
For example: in Ingress each Item has a unqiue ID. Bots could not create that ID. Is it the same?

When you tell us that everything is alright and WE (the botters) just got detected and not the program... then I do not trust you anymore. I like your work CAcove because you were everytime open minded and helpful.. but this time I am not convinced.

I think it is from a specific date that Niantic implemented that Pokemon detection. Because not all of my pokemon which where caught by PF are slashed. So there is hope to identify it.

 

Yes and prior to we have stated the reference of safe is stated under the understanding of it being based on the terms of botting safe. The community as a whole for the most part has understood this, until bans come around. Its a vicious cycle, that no matter how much we inform or educate, the blame is thrown on "holding info back", "the bot", or "false claims of safety" or anything along those lines. There does come a point where someone like myself must take a stand and state this. While i respect you are not looking for an arguement, I too do not want one, just trying to clarify to avoid further misunderstanding or misinterpretation.

The other factor that you bring up with the red line is something known across the botting community. For all intensive purposes, all other communities of the PoGO botting nature, are aware of the same issues, for us to make a posting, presents it as exclusively an issue with Pokefarmer, which would be false, and would shed the wrong image and light. As for discussing it, we have been more than open and willing to respond to posts about said issues with whatever facts we do have at hand, and have never discouraged anyone from posting about it. Simply put, at this time we do not have an official statement prepared about the red slash for pokefarmer as it is not a pokefarmer specific problem, but a problem for all bots. To post something now, when we are in the middle of reviewing the new API would be too hasty and a premature decision. As for me, I would have made a proper posting regarding it, if I had been in and given the greenlight to do so, but I have been away for most of the month with my newborn. I cannot speak for the other staff or what directions/permissions they have been given but can only speak for my actions. I do hope this clarifies things, and that we can move forward together as a successful community.

 

As i mentioned above, we are reviewing the current API, which may shed some light on things. At the time the statements were made as mentioned before, we were unaware of any issues, besides some behavioural patterns that got people flagged.

Now we are seeing trends with the red slashes and we are investigating it. I would LOVE to tell you the exact point of the issue or cause of this, but until Hatching and the rest of the PF team have finished reviewing the new API, it would be pointless and would yeild no acceptable answers except simply, we cannot confirm the source at this time. I do not want to be that guy, as you stated I have tried to be very straightforward and I plan to continue that, now that I am back from parental leave with my newborn daughter. I am truly sorry for the frustration or lack of communication or answers that you may feel has been happening. But I will continue to work with the team, and continue to work with the community to get some proper answers and progress that you and I and everyone deserves and wants. All I can ask you to do right now, is please be patient, give me time to speak with the team and get some answers and info that I can present to you.

 

Just a small update: Still waiting to confirm things however this was posted in our discord:
HatchingEggy-Today at 12:20 PM


@everyone I am going to fix a few things that came out on our testing period. Will release an update tomorrow.

 

will it fix the slashed pokemons?

 

As i stated already in this post:

"I would LOVE to tell you the exact point of the issue or cause of this, but until Hatching and the rest of the PF team have finished reviewing the new API, it would be pointless and would yeild no acceptable answers except simply, we cannot confirm the source at this time. I do not want to be that guy, as you stated I have tried to be very straightforward and I plan to continue that, now that I am back from parental leave with my newborn daughter. I am truly sorry for the frustration or lack of communication or answers that you may feel has been happening. But I will continue to work with the team, and continue to work with the community to get some proper answers and progress that you and I and everyone deserves and wants. All I can ask you to do right now, is please be patient, give me time to speak with the team and get some answers and info that I can present to you."

Basically we need to wait for it to be finished all its testing before we can make any solid comment on that (at least on my end) or unless Hatching has time to share that info fully with me prior to release. But the hope is that we have discovered a way to prevent it/reduce the frequency of it.

 

Thank you for your reply.
Will you guys uncover the cause of the red slashes when you know it, or will you keep it for safety reasons?

 

At this time, Hatching has not informed me if we will be taking it public, however if we do not, I trust you can understand as you mentioned that it would indeed be for security/safety reasons. But we will be able to acknowledge in some form what has been changed. Just need to wait for the release to be ready! Thanks for your patience and understanding @Hananashk