I'm sure you've all had this experience: You'll log on to a server on Club Penguin, and you'll see a penguin, standing in the middle of a room. Shouting nonsense like "SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!" followed by something like "WOOKY UP" "JOIN TODAY."
What these are, are bots on Club Penguin. They are not affiliated with Club Penguin at all, but they aren't normal penguins either like you and I. They are automatic scripted programs, or bots, designed to advertise something, like an army or a website, and more recently Club Penguin Private Servers. While armies on CP are very fun and can grow into amazing communities, bots aren't. They need to be stopped.
Bots work by making tons of free accounts and then immediately jumping onto a server to spam their messages, cleverly written to bypass the filter and show up for everybody else on the server! I think it is time that we take a stand against these advertising bots and try to stop them. For good.
With bots being seemingly everywhere on Club Penguin, the game is beginning to become unbearable due to their high numbers. I've seen as many as 5 bots in one room, on the biggest servers. They stand there and spew out their messages infinitely. Go onto any non-safe chat server and you can find them anywhere. I stood in the Big Surf server for 2 minutes, clicked my chat log and recorded the results.
This is atrocious! As you can see, they'll say eye-catching things, like "IMPORTANT WARNING", "NEED MEMBERSHIP?", "LOOK LOOK!" to gain the attention of everyone in the room, and since there are usually many of them, it is IMPOSSIBLE to get away from them!
Bots usually have a blank playercard and a generic name relating to their army, like this. "Wvtroop1" refers to Water Vikings, a popular army.
Please note: I have nothing against armies. However, I believe the bots they have and the negative impact that their bots have made on the community is outrageous and dangerous.
I'm not the only one that has noticed this too, a lot of people on Twitter are very outraged as well.
As I stated earlier, bots also use cleverly written messages, to bypass the filter. Since Club Penguin don't allow you to advertise or mention websites/places outside, bots usually use different slang terms to get you to Google search their army.
For example, you can't say "Google" or "search up", so they'll say something like "looks on for" or "sea" instead of search.
This is harmful, since they can say these type of things, it increases their danger, since innocent children online are being exposed to this content.
So, how can we stop them?
The traditional method of reporting them to a moderator can be helpful, but it won't stop them entirely. However, if enough people are reporting these bots, Club Penguin may take notice and edit their chat filters or better monitor their servers. To report a bot, click their playercard and click the golden "M", or "Report Player".
It will bring up this GUI, which reads:
This feature will send a complete report to a moderator. The moderator will read the chat log and ban all players that break the rules. Are you sure you wish to send a report?
Click yes.
Click yes again. When it comes to this section, select "Rude or Mean" then "Lying or Cheating".
After following those steps, you have successfully reported the bot to a moderator.
Your report has been sent to a moderator for review.
Okay good! That's the first step to bringing them down, raising awareness with the moderators. But how can we be sure that actions are being taken? Well, the Disney Interactive Support website article: "How do I report another player?" states:
Remember that it can take a few days for us to read through every report – but we do read through all of them, and penguins who have broken the rules will receive bans.
This is helpful information; it firstly tells us that there are usually a lot of reports, which is to be expected, but secondly it informs us that they are actively being inspected and resolved.
But, they keep showing up? How?! Well, I am not sure whether they are immune to bans by hacking, or the moderators can't keep up with their growing numbers. It is unknown. BUT, we won't stop there! Oh no. Get ready for the cliché rebellion movie scene.
If you really want to help stop bots on Club Penguin from ruining the game, we must raise attention with Club Penguin personally. Reporting in-game just isn't enough. Send an email, tweet them or call their support lines and inform them. Usually when a serious issue occurs, the support team tell you that they will send it to people working higher up, where they usually have the most power.
Here is an example of an message I sent to their email, support@clubpenguin.com:
Hi Club Penguin!
Recently, something has been really bugging me. On every server that I go to, there are bot penguins in the Town, Snow Forts, Dock or Plaza which are advertising armies or places outside of the Island, and it is very annoying and dangerous.
These penguins are not only hacking to say these messages using scripts and such, but are using words to coerce penguins to a website outside of Club Penguin, and since they are on the most popular servers, I fear the safety of players are at risk.
Not only that, but it is making Club Penguin unplayable! Since these bots are in every room, it makes it hard for me to talk to my friends or enjoy the newest party because they never leave. I've tried ignoring them, I've tried reporting them online, but nothing is being done.
I am not the only one who has noticed this, a lot of my penguin pals are outraged too. I think it's time something should be done. I'd appreciate it if this was forwarded to the administrators too.
Thank you!Dino Boy7.
I also attached a few images to the email as well, for evidence of the bots' actions.
They replied less than 24 hours later with the following:
Hey Dino,
Thanks for your commitment to the Club Penguin community and its safety! We are aware of these penguins who are advertising and trust us we are doing everything to make sure that Club Penguin stays safe and is enjoyable for everyone.
We ask that you continue to report these penguins when you see them online it helps us find them.
Thank you for understanding! Please let us know if you have any questions.
Waddle on,
FrankClub Penguin Support
Here we have some clear confirmation that they are indeed not only aware of the advertising bots, but they are doing, and I quote, everything to make sure that Club Penguin stays safe and is enjoyable for everyone. From this I can conclude that they are moderating more, and possible altering the chat filter. They altered the filter before to block a certain message from a popular army, so in the near future they may be researching other popular terms and keywords to filter out from their system.
Frank from the support team also said the following: "We ask that you continue to report these penguins when you see them online it helps us find them." I suggest to all of you as well to report bots using the moderator system that I explained above. It does indeed help them monitor the activity of these bots and rid them one by one. If you continue to see the same bots days after reporting, get in touch with the support team. Below I have listed ways you can do this,
Do you want Club Penguin to be safe and bot-free once again? How to get involved:
- Tweet Club Penguin and tell them to do something about the bots. (@ClubPenguin)
- Email them with pictures of bots that you've seen and explain to them that bots are ruining the game. (Support@ClubPenguin.com)
- Call their hotline and inform them, then ask if anything can be done about the bots. (https://help.disney.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/Contact-Us-Club-Penguin)
With your help, we can stop the bots for good.
Thank you for reading. Waddle on!