The whole point of newcomer is that things that seem obvious to you, aren’t obvious to new players.
I have regularly explained they can opt for just a sub and what that will give them access to and then if they want to reach end game they would need the latest expansion.
Yes, but there is obvious and there is “WARNING TRIAL CHARACTERS ARE ONLY CAPPED AT LEVEL 20”. Idk I feel like no chat for trials solves a lot of issues with bot spamming, and this guy in particular. I mean a lot of new players in newcommer chat are asking why is this still going and how is he getting away with it. Just I feel like it gives the wrong impression. And also a lot of games used to restrict chat for trials (might still do haven’t really checked).
What I mean is that it’s likely just one guy being a jerk and endlessly ban evading, making it a bit more understandable why they’re still there. Just look at the UTTP situation on YouTube. There’s just about nothing the company can do other than keep banning them, but they’ll keep coming back.
It’s either someone severely demented, or part of an actual group of other mischievers who want to test Blizzard’s punishment systems in order to then find a way to exploit them for their own benefit and the simultaneous detriment of other players.
-=EDIT=-
As for how to further prevent it:
For one, everyone should be able to post in Newcomer Chat. Someone who tries the game as a trial account needs to be able to ask questions; otherwise they won’t get help when they get stuck and that will simply remove any incentive to become a regular subscribed player.
The next step Blizzard should take is to actually make the flood protection even harsher than that of other channels. This specific individual (if it’s just one) is spamming exactly 3 identical messages at exactly 30seconds apart with all messages appearing instantly as from a macro or an addon. So the next steps can be:
Allow Newcomers only 1 message per 5 seconds and 5 messages per minute.
No 2 messages posted in the last minute allowed to be identical (or similar) even if posted by different people.
(This may be exploited) If a small number of Guides (2? 3? 5?) report a player in Newcomer Chat, that character receives the full squelch penalty immediately. The game should not wait for the usual number of reports.
Yep. Essentially my suggestion reduces the spam from 6 messages per minute to just 1. This is important for Newcomers especially, since they 99.9% have the chat window at its initial size, which means they can see very few lines of text. It’s good to reduce the amount of clutter there.
And my 3rd suggestion, the exploitable one, exists to allow Guides to prevent that bot from having enough time to post it a 2nd time.
That’s an option, but trial accounts are exactly the ones that need newcomer chat the most. And if this troll (or trolls) are as dedicated as you claim, chances are that the sub fee wouldn’t stop them, and then you’d have alienated the group of players that needed newcomer chat the most for very little benefit in return.
The only solution I can think of is a shadow ban (or shadow silence) which I don’t think the game as it is now supports. The idea is that for them the game looks normal and they think they’re sending chat messages only the messages aren’t displayed for other players.