Stupidity Filter In Grid (Zelmaru)

Zelmaru is a co-author of Murloc Parliament which talks about very Srs Bzns Murloc Government. And other stuff like healer addons.

In keeping with the series of Grid articles I’ve been doing lately, I’d like to draw your attention to a new plugin called GridStatusStupidity by Bee Pit Enterprises. The goal of this plugin is to remove or deemphasize the health frames of people who are stupid so you are not tempted to heal them and reward their stupidity.

Now, a similar addon exists called GridStatusIgnored, where you can dim out the grid frames of those people on your ignore list. However, you still have to evaluate the person’s stupidity manually and determine whether the person should be placed on the ignore list. You don’t need the aggravation of this extra step.

How The Plugin Works

This highly-configurable plugin allows you to set a “Stupidity Threshold” which is a numerical value of your choosing. When a person hits the threshold, his or her frame is dimmed or removed entirely, depending on your chosen settings.

A person reaches the Stupidity Threshold by his or her actions or choices (“Stupidity Factors”). You can set which Stupidity Factors will count toward the Stupidity Threshold and designate a value for each Stupidity Factor, although the addon comes with fairly workable defaults already programmed. The addon will actively scan your group in real time for such behaviors and, if the stupidity threshold is reached, make the UI change accordingly.

Stupid person is now invisible (yay)

Configuration

Opacity: You can determine whether reaching the stupidity threshold will dim the person’s grid frame, or remove it entirely (in which case, set the opacity to 0).  You can also use the “incremental opacity” feature which gradually dims the person’s grid frame as the person accumulates stupidity points.

Exemptions: The plugin comes with the following options for exempting people from the stupidity filter. Their frames will never be filtered even if they are incurably stupid.

• Tank. By default, the tank (as designated by the dungeon finder or by a raid leader) is exempt. Turn off this exemption at your own peril.
• Guildmates. This exemption is on by default. If you turn it off, you may have trouble with guild relations.
• Friends List. This exemption is on by default
• White List.  You may manually add people “on the fly” to the “do not filter” list through the grid interface or by right clicking on their name in an instance and using the drop-down menu.  This may be necessary if a person is flagged by mistake.

Stupidity Exemptions

Stupidity Threshold: The plugin has a default threshold of 50. I set it to 20 when I am feeling irritable.

Stupidity Factors: In general, the plugin’s authors have done an excellent job of identifying triggers (that can be enabled or disabled depending on your preferences) and assigning them appropriate weights. However, you can always fiddle with the settings depending on what pisses you off.

• Improper Spec. Because of the vast array of acceptable specs, this factor only weeds out the most obviously bad specs, such as 71 points in the same tree.
• Improper Gear. Again, because of the vast array of acceptable gear, this factor only triggers with obvious errors such as a priest wearing gear with high agility.
• Naming Stupidity. A person may be filtered almost immediately if the person enters the instance and the plugin discovers a name that meets the stupidity criteria, which include:
  • Characteristically annoying names that suggest a person put almost no thought into the name.
  • Rude or offensive names. The plugin creators have plugged in an extensive list of rude names or parts of names, including those used to get around the filter, such as “bewb” and “cawk.”
  • The user may add specific names to this list in the interface.

Naming Stupidity.

• Behavioral Stupidity – Chat.  A person’s stupidity rating will rise upon uttering certain trigger words or phrases in chat, including:
  • “gogogo” or a variation thereof
  • “FFS” or a variation thereof.
  • various obscenities
  • The user may add specific words or phrases through the interface.
• Behavioral Stupidity – Actions.  A person’s stupidity rating will rise upon doing certain actions, including:
  • Taking a specific amount of damage from avoidable sources (amount of damage configurable)
  • Pulling aggro a certain percentage of the time if not the tank (percentage configurable)
  • Having the AFK flag appear
  • Breaking crowd control a certain number of times (configurable)

In Practice

In practice, I found this plugin extremely useful, though often my box and the tank’s were the only ones remaining (only because I have filtered tanks to always show).  I would recommend it to anyone who is having issues with stupid people.