This may be only one of the solutions Blizzard has implemented to prevent 3rd parties from selling items.
This is occurring on POE as well, as far as I know of. I don't go into general chats at all (too much chatter for me), but in the guild I'm in, I see text from other members complaining about bots advertising their items / sites.
Besides, on a moot point - why trade? Isn't this what people wanted with their so-called "self-found" claims? No trading with others, just in-game merchants for the upgrades and/or using what is found in the wild? At this point, it's pretty much "working as requested." People wanted a "self-found" mode, so Blizzard is simply complying with what people wanted - with the BoA effect.
And you referred to the older D2 days when duped SOJs were rampant. Bots have been going forever in that game, even in passworded sessions. It's way beyond the point of trying to block the bots since they are not officially logged into the Battle.net system and so they can still whisper you their "Hey, go to this so-and-so site" babble.
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This is occurring on POE as well, as far as I know of. I don't go into general chats at all (too much chatter for me), but in the guild I'm in, I see text from other members complaining about bots advertising their items / sites.
Besides, on a moot point - why trade? Isn't this what people wanted with their so-called "self-found" claims? No trading with others, just in-game merchants for the upgrades and/or using what is found in the wild? At this point, it's pretty much "working as requested." People wanted a "self-found" mode, so Blizzard is simply complying with what people wanted - with the BoA effect.
And you referred to the older D2 days when duped SOJs were rampant. Bots have been going forever in that game, even in passworded sessions. It's way beyond the point of trying to block the bots since they are not officially logged into the Battle.net system and so they can still whisper you their "Hey, go to this so-and-so site" babble.