So what IS farming anyway?

The current "policy" dictates that if someone creates a number of games on the same map and those games happen to attract a healthy percentage of newbies to them, then that player is farming.
I am about as anti-farming as one can get (on record, in these fora) and yet, I must disagree and I think this "policy" needs to be struck down immediately. It is thoroughly illogical.
I have almost NEVER had an 8-man public game I've started (which is my preference) not have a ? in it. That's based on ALL maps (because I play a great many). It's frankly ludicrous to expect that it won't happen, as there are so damn many newbies running around...so should I be accused of newbie farming, as well?
The only difference between those currently being accused and myself is that they happen to love playing public games on one particular map whereas I love the strategy of playing public games on many different maps. As far as "intent" between those being currently being accused and myself, there is no possible way to determine that there is a difference in that respect.
If a map preference can determine "farminess" when the user creating the games has no control over who is going to join them, then that is a problem with the map, not the user creating the games. I have no problem if the user has been found to be sending out invitations to newbies - then hammer the bastards. But this witchhunt crap is ludicrous - to convict someone for something they have no control over just makes no sense at all and simply makes the site look stupid.
Then again, if the site would simply implement the many-times-suggested idea of putting limitations on who can join your games, THIS WOULD NOT EVEN BE AN ISSUE...it would be apparent if they were trying to avoid newbies or not. It's almost as if the site WANTS to be able to accuse people of farming, perhaps as a way of keeping them in line. Seems stupid to consider, and yet...as stupid as the site looks with this policy, it's probably the case.
As far as "creating subdivisions" (not the term that's used, but I can't think of the accurate one), there was one suggestion that implemented a percentage of the game-creator's score rather than having the game-creator be able to just select a number. That's not going to create too many sub-divisions and most games started would still fall well within newbie-joining range. Keep those blinders on though, folks, and continue to accuse your paying members of inaccurate crimes - that's always a swell business plan!
I am about as anti-farming as one can get (on record, in these fora) and yet, I must disagree and I think this "policy" needs to be struck down immediately. It is thoroughly illogical.
I have almost NEVER had an 8-man public game I've started (which is my preference) not have a ? in it. That's based on ALL maps (because I play a great many). It's frankly ludicrous to expect that it won't happen, as there are so damn many newbies running around...so should I be accused of newbie farming, as well?
The only difference between those currently being accused and myself is that they happen to love playing public games on one particular map whereas I love the strategy of playing public games on many different maps. As far as "intent" between those being currently being accused and myself, there is no possible way to determine that there is a difference in that respect.
If a map preference can determine "farminess" when the user creating the games has no control over who is going to join them, then that is a problem with the map, not the user creating the games. I have no problem if the user has been found to be sending out invitations to newbies - then hammer the bastards. But this witchhunt crap is ludicrous - to convict someone for something they have no control over just makes no sense at all and simply makes the site look stupid.
Then again, if the site would simply implement the many-times-suggested idea of putting limitations on who can join your games, THIS WOULD NOT EVEN BE AN ISSUE...it would be apparent if they were trying to avoid newbies or not. It's almost as if the site WANTS to be able to accuse people of farming, perhaps as a way of keeping them in line. Seems stupid to consider, and yet...as stupid as the site looks with this policy, it's probably the case.
As far as "creating subdivisions" (not the term that's used, but I can't think of the accurate one), there was one suggestion that implemented a percentage of the game-creator's score rather than having the game-creator be able to just select a number. That's not going to create too many sub-divisions and most games started would still fall well within newbie-joining range. Keep those blinders on though, folks, and continue to accuse your paying members of inaccurate crimes - that's always a swell business plan!