Most things already said, I’d like to add my point on this issue, just because I was the once originally accused to be suspicious:
- I got these 20 5 Euro bills, as stated in the comment field, at a bank in Donau City. I had a work meeting at 2 p.m. there and was a little bit too early. So I decided, spontaneously, to exchange one 100 Euro bill for 20 5 Euro bills there. No long run plan involved.
- I know that team nossi and gnaeus are living or working close to that bank, I am also at Donau City at least once a week because of my work; to reduce mass hits I don’t change at this location complete 100 bills bundles. Banks in Vienna tend to keep these 100 bills bundles together, so by asking for much smaller amounts I actively reduce the likelihood of getting already tracked bundles. This works in general quiet well but we can’t reduce this risk to zero. If I would not go to any bank which is also used as a (potential) note source by other trackers I would have to quiet using ebt. Not just in Vienna but in almost all parts of Austria.
- Yes, I also think that bundling hit notes is not a smart move, just because I know that this may lead to such discussions. I always spend my hit notes as soon as possible after I got them.
- I also reduced the amount of notes entered in Vienna significantly and I am trying to enter as many notes as possible from outside Vienna, as this leads to more interesting hits, for my hit partners as for myself.
- All this said it is still completely within the rules of ebt and not suspicious at all if Viennese tracker enter 1000+ bills a week by changing bundles of 100 bills at banks. As gnaeus said, that proves at least that most bills stay at the same place for quite a long time.
Such a Wien-Wien hit is in my opinion very interesting, although just within Vienna and from one bank to another.
- What happens in Vienna is not suspicious, so this thread is the wrong place for this discussion, the mass hits happening time by time are more a proof that the Viennese tracker don’t fake. If 10+ tracker move lots of bundles from bank to bank finding one of these bundles again has to happen. Maybe uninteresting but as long as it happens randomly part of the game and a sign that these bundles are all real.
Summarized there is nothing suspicious but just the result of the unusually high activity in Vienna. The same is the case in Finland; the same is or was the case in Nürnberg and Helmbrechts. I can understand that the resulting hits are not really interesting for people outside the respective areas and I would personally suggest the following solutions. Please keep in mind that this is my personal opinion and that it is likely that other Viennese tracker disagree in some points:
- Additional filters at the ebt webpage hitlist. An option to show all hits except hits involving country/city xy would be helpful
- Partly moderation. In the case between me and zimmerge I would keep the quadruple and moderate the triples to normal hits. So they would stay hits for zimmerge but not for me because I was the one who found them bundled.
- Modify the rules for auto moderation to, for example, 10 days and 10 km. If a hit does not meet one of the two criteria it would be moderated. If needed manual de-moderation would be possible.
- Don’t blame mass hits automatically as being suspicious, stick with the term uninteresting.
- Don’t bundle hit notes, if you do so (for whatever reason) try to spend them in a shop where they will get separated anyway or at least at a bank which is outside the areas where your fellow trackers are especially active.
- Don’t consider moderated hits as fake/bad hits. More moderation but keeping moderated hits legal for some regional games may be a satisfying solution for people from “hit oasis” like Vienna/Nürnberg/Helmbrechts/Finland and people active in “hit desserts” like parts of southern Europe.
Hope to hit you all in the future
CobbDouglas