u/NzLawless

Hello everyone,

Shortly before the start of this league the league launched there was a post regarding Mobalytics, specifically that we'd been allowing posts with Mobalytics links to stand in for POBs under rule 3.

Here is that post: www.reddit.com/r/PathOfExileBuilds/comments/1rm0sw9/sub_meta_can_mods_start_enforcing_rule_3_please/

For the sake of good faith discussion u/Uthgar did respond on behalf of Mobalytics' behalf but after the post had already left the front page so it went largely unseen addressing the criticism in the above post: https://www.reddit.com/r/PathOfExileBuilds/comments/1rm0sw9/sub_meta_can_mods_start_enforcing_rule_3_please/o92ik7p/

Rule 3 for reference: > > Build posts must include a PoB - > If you are posting a build you must include, either in the post or the comments, a PoB for the build as well as (at the very least) a short explanation of the build. If the build is speculative (i.e. about an unreleased skill) then requirements for a PoB may be waived.

With the looming release of poe2 0.5 we want to have a firm ruling in place now to give content creators and posters a warning about the proposed changes so that they don't get caught out and know what is expected going forward. The purpose of this post is to outline what our proposed plan is going forward to address the concerns about Mobalytics.

---

The updated POB rule:

> Build posts must include a PoB - > If you are posting a build you must include, either in the post or the comments, a direct PoB link as well as (at the very least) a short explanation of the build. If the build is speculative (i.e. about an unreleased skill) then requirements for a PoB may be waived.

The small changed section in bold. The purpose of this clarification is that it must be a link to a PoB build sharing page, the allowed sites for this will be the ones that PoB supports for exporting to (poedb, Maxroll, pobb.in and poe.ninja). Of note here PoB supports exporting to Maxroll, this rule still requires the direct Maxroll link as opposed to the build guide link. An example of a build guide link and here is an example of the direct PoB output link

Edit: We'll also allow the tool made by /u/ww_crimson https://pob.codes/

If PoB updates in the future to support other websites those too will be allowed, we will follow their lead on this.

---

FAQ

• So how will this work for posts where the creator is making their builds on one of the build websites?

Just like with Youtube posts the poster will be required to include a direct PoB link in either the post or comments. If it's a link post we expect it will be in the comments, if it's a text post the expectation is that it's in the body of the text post.

• Are you banning Mobalytics or Maxroll?

No we aren't banning them, creators are more than welcome to link to these locations as their primary build guides, we just require that a PoB link is also shared at the same time by whoever posts the guide here.

• Are posters required to add PoB links to existing posts?

No, this enforcement change would begin from the announced date (likely in a few days if the feedback is in favour of this change) and wouldn't be back dated.

• Are build creators/posters required to update PoBs here if they update their builds after they're posted?

No this isn't a requirement. We only require the PoB that is posted to be the one from the build at the time it was posted. As always if users want updates or more info they can seek that out through the external build guide links, youtube videos, twitch streams, etc.

• What if builds have multiple POBs?

With the loadout system in POB a lot of creators just have a single POB but if that isn't the case we would expect the baseline version of the POB (for example if it was League Starter and Mirror Tier you'd likely post the League Starter version). Though most people who have multiple POBs just post all their POBs. As always though it's about engaging in good faith. Though who intentionally engage in bad faith actions to get around this are dealt with on a case by case basis.

• Won't people just post an complete/bad/very basic POB/otherwise try and circumvent this rule?

These aren't laws, and we aren't beholden to follow enforce these rules to the letter. We'll make judgement calls as situations come up like we do for all of our rules. As always if people engage in bad faith we'll deal with it as it comes up. But as we've been enforcing this rule for most other platforms for years we've had only a few people try this so I don't expect it to be a problem.

• Why didn't you just enforce it like this the whole time? Wtf?

The criticism we got about this is totally fair. It largely came about because our team looks after both build subs and these build sites became very common in the POE2 space as the prominent tool creators were using as in the early days PoB wasn't quite there for POE2. That slowly bled over into how we enforced the rule in the POE1 sub as well. Even once PoB was up and running properly for POE2 we allowed the status quo to continue. This has been a good chance for us to really look at how we were enforcing this rule and also a few other rules.

Also to just put this here: There were a handful of comments on the original thread insinuating we get kickbacks from these sorts of sites and that's why we allowed them, we don't. All of us are here looking after the subs because we love POE. I know, I know, volunteer internet jannie xdd, etc etc but we just care about having a decent place for people to actually discuss the game with other people who want to engage with them about the game and not get bogged down in the negative shit. If you want to help out feel free to flick a message through to the modmail, we could probably use a couple more mods to help out in both subs.

---

We're interested in any feedback before we go ahead with this. If we do go ahead with this it will apply to both build subs going forward (/r/PathOfExileBuilds and /r/pathofexile2builds) and will likely come into effect in a few days (just to give time for any feedback to come in).