Macroing

Macroing (aka. Autoing or Botting) is the act of using a third-party program to automate an task seen as boring or tedious task, such as skilling, wining, typing, etc.

Individuals who practice macroing are known as as botters, macroers or autoers, and a player character being controlled by a macro is referred to as either a macro or a bot. Jagex considers this a serious violation of rules which resulted in several mass bannings. These third-party programs often control the players' account while he or she is away from the keyboard, allowing the player to gain experience. Sometimes, bots are used for gold farming and real-world trading, which is another violation of the rules.

Spotting Macroers

 * Macroers often move with inhuman speed on exact intervals, following the same paths and steps and usually at the same times
 * Most active bot accounts will not talk or respond
 * Some bots may be using methods to auto-talk
 * Some macroers may be active on their account while it bots, and could respond
 * Keep in mind that not all players suspected of botting are guilty. sometimes the player is shy or is very busy skilling.
 * It is possible to prevent some bots from performing their function by tricking or disabling some aspect of the script it is running, often causing them to have to be manually reconfigured by the human player.

History

 * 17 March 2001 - Update:This weeks update
 * Anti-Cheating techniques first implemented
 * 29 May 2002 - Update:Massive crackdown on cheating players.
 * Mass bans and new anti-cheat methods rolled out


 * On 7 July 2016, a popular macro program for was shut down, leading to 0 players on many worlds.