Mediocrity should NOT be the standard for players in any content.

[KalinOrthos]

No, callouts towards you can actually net that player a ban, so pugs will tend to be silent. If you aren't being kicked, you're not doing terrible but there aren't many legal means to judge self-performance.

There's a difference between "Hey, I noticed you're using Aeolian Edge alone instead of comboing it, you'll do more damage if you combo into it" and "Wow, ninja, you don't even combo into that attack". One is clearly meant to be helpful, and the other is clearly antagonistic. I make this exact example because I had this exact thing happen in a Qitana run while leveling DRK. Ninja was just spamming Aeolian Edge, not comboing, not Hutoning or Suitoning. Bard was the first to speak up being directly antagonistic and demeaning towards the ninja, while me and WHM actually gave advice. By the end of the run, ninja was actually using trick attack (though huton was still a ways off) and was properly comboing. Bard was being a pi*sy jerkwad the entire time. Ninja eventually told us he only started playing the game a couple of weeks before and just didn't know quite how to play, only making it that far due to trusts.

Point is, tone matters. Context matters. You may think you're being helpful but you're not if you're going to be a demeaning a*shole about it. It muddies the waters of the discussion when you use the hyperbole of "being helpful gets you banned"; no, being an a*shole gets you banned.

[Schan]

There's a difference between "Hey, I noticed you're using Aeolian Edge alone instead of comboing it, you'll do more damage if you combo into it" and "Wow, ninja, you don't even combo into that attack". One is clearly meant to be helpful, and the other is clearly antagonistic. I make this exact example because I had this exact thing happen in a Qitana run while leveling DRK. Ninja was just spamming Aeolian Edge, not comboing, not Hutoning or Suitoning. Bard was the first to speak up being directly antagonistic and demeaning towards the ninja, while me and WHM actually gave advice. By the end of the run, ninja was actually using trick attack (though huton was still a ways off) and was properly comboing. Bard was being a pi*sy jerkwad the entire time. Ninja eventually told us he only started playing the game a couple of weeks before and just didn't know quite how to play, only making it that far due to trusts.

Point is, tone matters. Context matters. You may think you're being helpful but you're not if you're going to be a demeaning a*shole about it. It muddies the waters of the discussion when you use the hyperbole of "being helpful gets you banned"; no, being an a*shole gets you banned.

Two things I would like to point out. Sometimes even by using your first example people will flip out and it's nigh impossible to convey tone via text. You can try and making a cutsey as possible but if the person on the other side reading it had a bad day i can garantee it will come off wrong regardless of your good intentions. It's all how you read things in your head and your current state of mind unfortunatly has a big influence on how you tone what you're reading. People can be genuinely trying to be nice but you can read it as sarcasm. Heck there was a thread in the healer forum where a good chunk of healers when being told that they were doing a good job thought people were being sarcastic towards them instead (probably because they get treated like crap most of the time to the point they fail to see when they're being complimented).

Things are not as simple as you make them out to be sometimes.

[QT_Melon]

The thing is, regardless if they took it the wrong way or didn't - in the case of the former if the person used the more polite example and the user reported them, chances are higher a GM will just cite it up to playstyle differences and not land a player in Gaol.

In a game where people are asking people to do their best in game, it's a wonder to me how many excuses come up from the people making that argument can't do their best to convey information to other players on how one could help to meet better standards.

[Schan]

The thing is, regardless if they took it the wrong way or didn't - in the case of the former if the person used the more polite example and the user reported them, chances are higher a GM will just cite it up to playstyle differences and not land a player in Gaol.

In a game where people are asking people to do their best in game, it's a wonder to me how many excuses come up from the people making that argument can't do their best to convey information to other players on how one could help to meet better standards.

I wasn't even concerned with the fact that they might report you. (In fact i find it interesting how it's mostly the US data center players that are concerned about being reported. As far as I can tell in the EU data centers people don't really worry about that at all lol)
The fact of the matter is that it creates an unpleasant experience for everyone involved in that party if it backfires.

[KalinOrthos]

Two things I would like to point out. Sometimes even by using your first example people will flip out and it's nigh impossible to convey tone via text. You can try and making a cutsey as possible but if the person on the other side reading it had a bad day i can garantee it will come off wrong regardless of your good intentions. It's all how you read things in your head and your current state of mind unfortunatly has a big influence on how you tone what you're reading. People can be genuinely trying to be nice but you can read it as sarcasm. Heck there was a thread in the healer forum where a good chunk of healers when being told that they were doing a good job thought people were being sarcastic towards them instead (probably because they get treated like crap most of the time to the point they fail to see when they're being complimented).

Things are not as simple as you make them out to be sometimes.

So...what, burn it all down because there are some who will overreact, some who have been nigh harassed in the past for doing less than optimal DPS, some who are quick to get defensive against a community that makes threads titled "Mediocrity should not be the standard for any player in any content"? I've been to TalesFromDF, I participate in discussion there, I know those types of players exist. I've experienced them. But they're so few and far between, that I have to wonder if the problem seems to be so bad for you because you don't know how to communicate.