Forum posting restrictions

[Delsus]

I thought I would get this out of the way now, and hope for an explanation as to why these restrictions are in place, or to get them removed.

For this I refer you to the "Forum Design and Features post http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...17#post1015217

In paticular I refer you to the section entitled "Thread creation and forum posts and maximum character limit.

For a start I will say I agree with restricting new users, as they are more likely to either break the rules or spam (no offence intended) however the restrictions across the board are extremely strict, especially for a subscription based game, in which you can control who logs on based on their subscription status.

I believe a better restriction will be Level 5-25 characters are unable to make threads, and they can make 10 posts per day and above that they are unrestricted, because people over level 25, and still subscribing are more likely to be serious about the game and not make mindless spam.

The 15 minute cooldown on posts, was already reduced on the beta forum, meaning Square Enix also agreed that was too high, I personally don't see a need for it if only people with an active service account can log in.

I would also like the character limit removing, as it can be difficult to put together a decent well detailed post in 1000 characters.

All of these restrictions are unnecessary and just impede communication in the community, and with this being a community based game this communication out of game can be important.

Yes the beta forum needed restrictions because things were getting out of hand, however this was only close to the end (when there were masses of people in, who will not be playing the game) however when a forum will be restricted to allow only people with an active service account more restrictions are just unnecessary.

I know you don't need to explain yourselves to players, however with restrictions this strict, which I have not seen beyond these forums and the beta forums, I think an explanation is a reasonable request.

This post came out at 2258 characters, and it would be physically impossible to explain it in less than 1000, which I think is proof of my point when I say the restrictions do nothing but impede the communication of the community.

[Duuude007]

Some people still don't seem to get why beta forums restricted forum post size.

If you cannot say it within 1000 characters, it is very often either:

• Not worth saying.
• Too verbose and full of fluff to be worth reading.

This made it important for people to get to the point, else rethink the need of said post. (re:duplicate topics)

^the above post used 355 characters.

[Jinko]

In 1.0 we had to be a paying customer to access the sites I wonder if they plan to remove this restriction and put another one in place. aka the new restrictions.

I am fine with the lay out of restrictions but would think 1 post per level per day would be more suitable.

[Delsus]

Some people still don't seem to get why beta forums restricted forum post size.

If you cannot say it within 1000 characters, it is very often either:

• Not worth saying.
• Too verbose and full of fluff to be worth reading.

This made it important for people to get to the point, else rethink the need of said post. (re:duplicate topics)

^the above post used 355 characters.

I understand why the beta forum was restricted, we basically had a job to do, whilst this forum is mostly a discussion forum about the game, not designed for bug reports and feedback, they didn't even have to give us a general discussion forum in beta, but they did, you also forget that due to the need for an active main character when you log on, we will get much less of the spam already because of that.

Let's not forget we won't have as many people as beta, and most people on here will want to play the game, rather than spam the forum with "I'm not playing because it has a sub."

*snip*

Also let's not forget that quotes are included in the 1000 character limit so expect a mass of this, (used Jinko as an example, no offence) making the communication even worse (when people are just too lazy to click on the link to the quoted posts.)

[Shikiseki]

Actually, I agree with the OP.
Not only that it heavily restricts users to contribute to the forums to begin with but this will either push users to hit lv 50 quickly or not use the forum at all.
I think as the game will progress, mostly the Gameplay, Classes&Jobs and Community forums will suffer from it quite a bit.

And with that, I kindly used my second post, once another interesting thread appears, I have only one post to go for the whole day. Quite ridiculous for a community board ¯x¯

EDIT: Many newcomers probably used 3 posts already out of joy today and can't even give a feedback to this post limit today. Oh irony~ xD

[Mirania]

Hi. New player here.

I know what Delsus mean. In some way the restrictions of the beta forum were ok. Even with that kind of restrictions the forum was over-flooded sometimes. But now we have the official forum here and that kind of restriction is a little overwhelm for new players and new subscribers like me. Because it limit us alot, first to get known each other, then know the community and last make informative, friendly and large posts.

I'm used to read alot(even if english isn't my main language), with large and informative messages, the 1000 character limitation it makes you to limit your words and ideas of the topic/post owner and some people doesn't know that if you edit it you can make it larger.

I think that with friendly, active and good forum moderators, this kind of limitations can be softer. Even the community can give the example to new players too.

And with that, I kindly used my second post, once another interesting thread appears, I have only one post to go for the whole day. Quite ridiculous for a community board

Yeah that's horrible too. I felt like that sometimes with the beta forums, I ended up to not doing the post because of that.

[Abrasumente]

The restrictions in place do not allow you to actually fully articulate on things.

Example: I'm posting about a dps rotation thread and ideal statistics etc for said class. You want me to limit that to 1000 characters? Best of luck.

You wouldn't get anything useful out of it. You'd only get maybe half or a quarter, or even an 8th of the information I could be trying to give to help others out.

These restrictions are garbage. I sign my name in agreement to remove them. Mainly the 10 minute cooldown and 1000 character limit.

I'd say 5 minutes and no character limit are suggested, as this would make better for the community. Just means SE needs to hop on the bandwagon and actively monitor these forums.


While there's a need to remove childish banter and remove inadequate information, the restrictions in place only allow certain limitations in the proper assault on forum trolls, and those with erratic behavior. The idea of a community is to provoke discussion and engagement in threads to allow us to properly discuss topics that warrant information excess and growth. It also is to promote user growth and allow those who have purchased the game to delve into topics that interest them. You're not going to find a person posting on every single topic unless their life is that meaningless in the first place.

To fully articulate on a topic of discussion in terms of DPS guides, dungeon guides, etc.... a character limit of 1000 makes the topic/guide incomplete. I'd rather see a verbose thread with excessive information that may need to be shortened and people posting "TL;DR" instead of "soooo what you're saying is (x) when (y) happens? Well what about (z)?" Mainly due to the fact that trying to rationalize on topics that are incomplete, just provokes skewed perceptions on everyone's end. You want people to be able to fully understand the scope of the topic and the article. In that instance, you have more than one problem. Mainly it's a provocation of people who are inept when it relies solely on interpretation from a post limited to 1k characters.

Personally, the only thing we can hope for is that SE will promote certain community members to a rank of "Moderator" in order to achieve success and people who actively monitor or engage on these forums by locking redundant threads full of tripe and "your mom" jokes that entice the community into leaving. They're already doing a great job of forcing people to use 3rd party forum software to communicate effectively. I've got an account on Killing Ifrit that I haven't used in quite some time. I re-activated it in the hopes of discussion with other players only to find they too are relatively dead, but still have a few avid posters.

Moderators would increase forum stature and promote growth. Locking useless threads, or flame threads, trolls, etc. As I stated earlier... the only way to build a hub/community is to remove the impedance caused by these restrictions.

NOTE: I've already used my 3 post count limit for today so that's why this is edited. Otherwise I would have responded with the additional information via reply.

[Sovjohn]

Hello there,

I wholeheartedly agree with the OP. The restrictions are just too strict, and they point out to me some sort of "technical stingyness i.e. we would not like to properly expand the web server infrastructure to accommodate larger databases and posting numbers", rather than a meaningful measure.

The following restrictions need to be seriously relaxed:

• Ability to create a thread should be granted to users with a lower level character. I'd say level 10 is a good starting point.
• Maximum threads and posts allowed per day needs to be seriously raised. The introductory posting limit is at...3 (!!!) posts per 24 hours, which makes it impossible to participate even in a single discussion.
• The 1000 characters limit is absurd. Period. This is a forum, and forums generally are not a glorified version of Twitter. If we consider that quotes from other posts count towards this, it makes a discussion very much impossible.
• Last but not least, the time limits make posting very counter-productive, especially the 15 minutes between posts one.

The fact that only players with registered characters will be able to post in here already acts as an initial safeguard against flooding. As a registered (paying) customer, however, I expect to be able to use the forums as a forum service, and while limits are acceptable, their severity is definitely not.

Thank you.

[ArcAurora]

This post came out at 2258 characters, and it would be physically impossible to explain it in less than 1000, which I think is proof of my point when I say the restrictions do nothing but impede the communication of the community.

While I agree that these restrictions are pretty harsh, this argument simply does not stand.

You have made suggestions about posting and character limits, primarily. You haven't followed the forum guidelines which ask for topics to each have their own thread. We would have much more concise feedback if this thread was dedicated to one or the other, not both, and definitely not the broad spectrum of "Forum posting restrictions".

Guidelines: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...Suggestions%21

[Reika]

I had a very very detailed post in feedback forums that was over 4500 characters. I don't think it is 'Garbage' because it was over 1000 characters, I had a lot to speak about. Character limit is stupid, and can also be gotten around easily with post edit. Character limits also affect languages where words take more 'characters' as well. The primary language of the game would be the least affected because a very long word with many syllables would more often than not be reduced to 3 kanji characters or less, maybe some hiragana or katakana here or there, but it is overall requires less characters than others.. Unfair, yes. So they really shouldn't start up a character limit for anyone.

Oh and I sign name in favor of removing 1000 character limit.

EDIT: I also don't think there should be a post creation limit, because if someone has a question about something or needs help, I am now inclined not to answer it or help. There are so many questions people have and it ALWAYS goes above 20 per day. I don't even think people below 50 should have a post creation limit. They act as if no one here has a mind to speak about this game, or maybe they no longer want to hear it and these limits are just their way of preventing the feedback hey dont want anymore? thats how I feel with these limits. I'll remember these limits the next time someone needs assistance. Not going to help now. We can't even hold a real discussion in these forums.

This also reminds me that I was right about the launch of the game. The game will clearly still be in 'primary' development, and they are obviously treating these forums as they did beta forums, with even more restrictions than before. They are expecting waves of complaints and much continued feedback and want to limit it as much as they can. Not to mention the servers are obviously going to melt down on early access/launch day. Not that I have much to complain about per say, but I will definitely have more feedback to give, forever, and this is not the way to go about starting the official forums at all.

At the very least, post and thread limits need only apply to General Discussion, to teach people to put stuff in the proper subforum so it can be seen better. Feedback forums should NOT see limits at all. I for one cant believe they haven't figured out that General Discussion is where all the plaguing of spam and repeat topics are...

EDIT2: There is a Thread in the JP forums too on these restrictions. http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...81%97%E3%81%9F
and one in the German forums. http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...n-oder-lockern