WARNING - New Players or Players thinking of coming back - Consider this first.

I'm a really old player and have experienced the game in many manifestations. I don't agree with you specifically. In general yes it seems like no one will help you however, there's a difference between helping you and "baby-sitting" you. The game now is extremely solo friendly at beginning levels, even more so now with NPC is all town selling several beginning tiers of equipment.

Second, dont neglect crafting..I'd suggest cooking and alchemy, these two will save you and make you allot of gil, still.

I remember someone asked me for help with the ninja quest. I said sure I'll help you with the fight(leeches). This all in /tell. But, no he still needed even more help. He wanted to know exactly where the NPC was at, even though I told him to check the Port Bastok houses. He then asked me to take him there cause he couldn't understand my instructions via /tell. At this point I gave up and told him good luck and went about my business.

When I first played this game, I lvl redmage completely solo to lvl 30 the "hard way". It took me about 3 months with plenty if deaths, until I was introduced to party. It was my own loner personality that made this game even harder for me. Much like people griping about the "elite" crowd. Though they are jerks, theyve mastered group efforts to successfully power through farmng and battles. Nothing is gonna be handed to you on a silver platter, if it was you could probably buy it at brosale.com

i remember when i first started this game.course that was around the time the 360 beta started.the beta server has at least 8k+ people on it.a party wasn't hard to find,but getting your own mobs without them being stolen was.i also ground my way solo to level 30.my first linkshell was started when me and a handful of guys i met pooled our tiny bits of gil together and bought our own shell.man.things were alot harder back then,and that was only a couple years ago.

having restarted this game a few months back,knowing what your doing makes things alot easier.i was asked to join a linkshell that since then,has helped me get to lvl 90,get access to dynamis [and most of my wins] as well as a handful of other things.this in turn of course,got me to do the same for others.niceness is a very vicious,and welcomed cycle :).

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Originally Posted by Inafking

<sarcasim>Yeah, I know lots of people who soloed G1-8, AF, Missions, Quests, etc.</sarcasim>

I don't have the words to describe how badly you need to go away.

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Did you even read the rest of the post you quoted? The point is to say that if you actively try to set things up yourself that you need, rather than wait for some lvl 90 to organize everything for you (sending tells, joining a social shell, doing research on what you have to do for a quest, etc.) then shit gets done.

Reading comprehension is hard.

I don't know about you guys but when I am exping on dolls on my blm I usually have a band of random new players I don't know at all following me around soaking up that exp. When someone asks I never turn them down, they just have to ask first. I've taken people all the way from 40ish to 90 in one night, its not like its hard.

this game was never newb friendly, it was always difficult to get help. the thing is that it takes so long to finally accomplish things, that to go back and help someone else doubles+ the amount of time you spend on each thing.

all you can do is ask ask ask questions and HOPE for replies. that's what i did. you also have ffxiclopedia.org or gamerescape.com so use them! getting parties is difficult now but go look for book burns. just go to the areas they occur at and put your flag up (seek party). if you xp on thier mobs they are even more likely to invite you lol.

i was always dirt poor but i managed ^^ you can level thf or just pick less expensive jobs. blue mage you dont have to buy spells, mnk is a easy DD and beneficial to have at 90, and thf is super cheap and great to get drops. if you need help try finding people who will help ya or level up until you can solo it. its funny to hear people complain about soloing because the whole time i played i just DREAMED of soloing stuff so i wouldnt have to constantly beg people to help me :(

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Originally Posted by Aeonk

The point is to say that if you actively try to set things up yourself then shit gets done.

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Too bad that's not true either.

Not being a dick is hard.

Are you seriously saying if some new player takes the time to learn what he needs to do and takes the initiative in shouting/finding people that it doesn't help him complete his task?

If so i think you're simply being cynical. Sometimes a new player may go ignored for a while, but there is always at least 1 person who will help a new player.

I know on more than one occasion I've helped new players. Farmed the 3 items for 50 cap (?i think 50, Papyrus/etc), helped a fella with AF quests, etc.

Theres always someone to help, All a new player needs to realize is that people will help you but you need to help yourself too (Read what you need to do, etc)

What I'm saying is that the shout of:

G1 (help me out!)

will get the same response as

G1 (mushroom) (crawlers nest) (help me out!)

But for some reason, there is one thing you can add to both that will get a better response.

(Reward)

That is why I suguest this:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/th...Bulliten-Board

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Inafking

What I'm saying is that the shout of:

G1 (help me out!)

will get the same response as

G1 (mushroom) (crawlers nest) (help me out!)

But for some reason, there is one thing you can add to both that will get a better response.

(Reward)

That is why I suguest this:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/th...Bulliten-Board

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I've never once asked for or expected a reward for helping someone... I there are many like me if you're willing to look. Shouting for a bit isn't a catastrophe, and eventually you will get help.

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Originally Posted by Karbuncle

Shouting isn't a catastrophe, and eventually you will get help.

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The first part is not true. You have obviously never been on Titan / Ragnarok / Phoenix. From what I hear, Asura is prety bad too. So Asura isn't as bad as everyone says it is, you've never been to Jeuno or you don't know what it's like to be a new character without friends nowadays.

I guess the second part is true, it might take a couple days, but someone will respond eventually. But why should we have to wait days when people will do it for a reward now?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Inafking

The first part is not true. You have obviously never been on Titan / Ragnarok / Phoenix. From what I hear, Asura is prety bad too. So Asura isn't as bad as everyone says it is, you've never been to Jeuno or you don't know what it's like to be a new character without friends nowadays.

I guess the second part is true, it might take a couple days, but someone will respond eventually. But why should we have to wait days when people will do it for a reward now?

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Back in the old days you had to shout for a long while too... Like doing CoP events, It was hell finding people for Bahamut V1 and things like Divine Might as well.

I can't adequately speak on what its like to be a brand new player in 2011, But neither can you, but i do know its been rough from the beginning, and as a new player to a nearly decade old game it wouldn't be wise to expect to jump in and have dozens of people waiting to hold your hand through the game.

We're not saying that the system is fine, what we are saying is that you can find help if you try, a lot of people are still out there helping new players, the only thing you really have to do is make it to port Jeuno to shout.

Your bulleitn board idea, . I think you should flesh the idea a bit more. I tried reading the OP to get a good feeling of what you were proposing but I'm afraid i don't understand.

You say a player can put put a request for help at a cost (i.e gil? or an item) and hope players chose it?

How would you make a request/
How would rewards be handled?
What types of Rewards are there? Exp?
Could you leave messages on these boards if you're say, in a different time zone but still want to help?
How would it handle Different languages (i.E would it translate it? or would there be JP/EN requests separately/Together?)
What Items do you mean when you say "Sign up using items"? Do the players who help get this item? is it lost?
How long would the request stay on the board? would you get a refund if no one took it? Could you cancel it?

I'm not saying its a bad idea But explain it to me like I haven't played the games you suggested its like. Because its very confusing to me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Karbuncle

I can't adequately speak on what its like to be a brand new player in 2011, But neither can you.

the only thing you really have to do is make it to port Jeuno to shout.

Your bulleitn board idea, I'm afraid i don't understand.

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Yes I can, I just did g3-8 in a few weeks worth of work. If I didn't dual box, would have been months. A lot of that time would have been days waiting for people to respond to shouts. I'll be happy to respond to your questions about the board in it's thread. (Please give me time to formulate my response.)

-- edit --
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/th...l=1#post155975
there ya go

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Inafking

Yes I can, I just did g3-8 in a few weeks worth of work. If I didn't dual box, would have been months. A lot of that time would have been days waiting for people to respond to shouts. I'll be happy to respond to your questions about the board in it's thread. (Please give me time to formulate my response.)

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When did you create your account? I have trouble believing you've only been playing the game for 6 months... (note i did say Brand new, not "I played back in xxx and quit and no i play again")

and i'll bring it up there in a bit so formulate away. i'd actually like the idea fleshed out a bit, Might actually catch some Rep attention

Collect yourselves on Bismarck, it seems to have alot of good helpful players (: I would be one of them if it wasn't for this new payment method.

Just watch out for like Mitsurgi (SP?) and Kuroganashi.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Karbuncle

When did you create your account?

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Batmanxi has been around sience 2004. Never used him for anything other than a mule. I SMN burned his DRK to 56 just before Abyssea and FCed it 85 this month.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Komori

Collect yourselves on Bismarck, it seems to have alot of good helpful players (: I would be one of them if it wasn't for this new payment method.

Just watch out for like Mitsurgi (SP?) and Kuroganashi.

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Ahaha, seconded.

I must admit I got a taste of what beginning players are experiencing the other day. I decided to level up my bard sub a bit more -- I'd like it to be level 49 for an appropriate sub level, although I can already use all threnodies now -- and was struggling for the longest time to get a party! Let me tell you, brd/whm and a healing npc are not the fastest killers in the world. I would constantly do a /sea "Crawler's Nest" and /sea "Gusgen Mines" for invitations, but the two zones were empty for hours.

Could have been because I was playing during Japanese prime. As Americans started waking up around 7 A.M. PDT and the Europeans were getting off work, the Mines filled up decently. But I felt kind of... hopeless as I staggered through slow xp. So if you feel down because of soloing, do try to get into a GoV party when you can. If there are no GoV parties up, then do try to solo.

This is a bunch of crap. Stop posting negative things, and go make some friends.

ya simply putting your flag up wont cut it anymore and its a bit hard to find enough members for a typical 6man party (even harder to find a tank -good dd's -whm). but leveling goes REALLY quick now (12-45 rng in 3days and i work 8hours a day). only the level-break quests would be hard but you can find someone who will help you. you dont have to have the greatest gear leveling up to 75+ but you should already be trying to be the best you can at level 1. there are plenty of guides on wikia.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Amador

This is a bunch of crap.

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And you're a sack of crap. So it's like the pot calling the kettle black.

Wow, this is probably one of the most fail threads ever. Jesus Christ, its not hard to get started into this game at all if you put some research into it to begin with. Before joining any server at all, look for a beginner friendly linkshell that is currently accepting members. It'll help increase the enjoyment of the game tenfold, and you'll have a place to ask questions and perhaps obtain some help with parties and quests.

There are areas in the game where beginner parties/alliances are pretty much always running, such as the dunes and gusgen mines, with the latter pretty much always having an alliance whenever I go in there. I've put up my party flag around lvl 10, and have gotten tells for the dunes within not long on Phoenix. If you're not getting any tells, the player search function is your friend. Someone needs to be somewhat social to get parties started, so if noone is breaking the ice, start doing that yourself. If you head for the gusgen mines, all you really need to do is put the party flag up and you'll be picked up usually within seconds if its not full. As long as you read up on the game with various wiki sites and are willing to ask questions from your linkshell, you should be able to do fine. I just started a couple of months back, and I'm already lvl 75 about to start on abyssea content, so it's definitely gotten easier on the new player these days.

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Originally Posted by Andreja

You can get EXP easy. The game isn't hard.

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Why don't you actually do something in the game before you tell us how easy it is.

All I can say is... wow.

Learn to use a couple tools available to you that I rarely EVER see brought up in these debates:

Use your server (and job) pages on the forums.
Strikes me as odd the outcry about lack of help not just here, but elsewhere--and yet I don't see much activity in server forums asking for help with the lower level stuff. Didn't find a single request for help with Genkai in the server forums here--33 hits on the term. A couple in job forums but none in the server forums. List what you are needing help with and search them for what you need. Other sites also have Private Messaging--join some of those forum sites and post on their server/job pages requesting help. PM is very handy for teaming up with people on those forums.

Search Comment, Bazaar Comment, Auto-Translate.
Learn how to use them, they can be your best friend in a multi-cultural, multi-language community like FFXI.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RAIST

Use your server (and job) pages on the forums. Search Comment, Bazaar Comment, Auto-Translate.

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No one on any of the servers I've ever played on uses anything you've suguested.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Inafking

No one on any of the servers I've ever played on uses anything you've suguested.

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Noone on any of those servers uses Auto-translate? Really? Sorta hard to believe you aren't exaggerating just to make things seem worse than they are at this point.


@ OP
Like a lot of other people have said, Bismarck seems to be a very helpful server. My wife and I just started helping out a new player that was shouting for help the other day. What makes him fun to help though, is he attempts the missions and tries to progress on his own, and asks questions when he's confused, or asks for help when he gets stuck. We suggested he work on some rank missions for his airship pass, he got to rank 4 in 3 days. We told him to get a choco license, he looked up what had to be done and got it done that day. He's got 2? lvl 50ish jobs now, and we were happy to help him beat g1 and 2 because he puts forth some effort on his own. And thanks us lol. I cant tell you how many times I've helped people and haven't been thanked.

I also know at least 2 LSs that help anyone from lvl 1 on, and also do endgame stuff for their other members. Thats not even counting for the 2-3 other LSs listed in this thread.

lol, sorta off topic but, funniest part about helping this new guy lately...
He was doing mission 2-3, and had to kill the Orc Warlod NM in Ghelshba(sp?) Outpost. He climbed to the top of the zone, got to the NM, and sent me a tell for help, saying it was too hard for him. He was a lvl 52 DRK. So I head out to help, and start asking him questions about his scythe skill, wondering if he lvled too quickly and wasn't up to par. I get up to him, and tell him to kill the NM, saying I would cure him and give him advice if he ran into trouble. He went up and 2-shotted the NM.

Me>> Um...? Good job!
Newbie>> OMG HOW!?
Me>> I told you you could handle it!
Newbie>> But it said it was impossible to gauge! I swear!

I laughed for a good 5 minutes after that lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Eurell

Noone on any of those servers uses Auto-translate?

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Yup. Only the english players use it to correct their spelling. German / French / JP don't even bother.

You are like the man of 1,000 excuses.

He's right though

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Inafking

No one on any of the servers I've ever played on uses anything you've suguested.

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You do realize that you just emphased my point 10-fold?

Sounds like a real opportunity for a teachable moment.....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Inafking

Yup. Only the english players use it to correct their spelling. German / French / JP don't even bother.

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Maybe on your server... but I've got about 5 or 6 JP players on my list that I teamed up with because they had auto-trans comments in their /seacom when I was doing bazaar.

You are falling into the same trap as the OP. Basing your point of view only on your server's population and not accepting that may not be the way it is for the entire game. Maybe if someone was maybe getting the word out to some people somehow that these exisitng tools are useful instead of just discarding them as not worth it or nobody uses it when in fact people DO use it and they DO work...it may effect a little change here and there.

I've tried putting stuff up in /seacom. Does not help if no one reads it. Just because it worked for you once, does not mean it works. Hell, people don't even read /seacoms when they invite you for EXP.

Bring FFXI to PSP Vista. It would bring more players into the game to support it.

Next set would be to uncap all the CoP,RoZ and what fights in the game where a lv90+ job could enter and solo them. This would make the games easyer but at this point in time... that content is very old and very hard to even complete.

FFXIV missions are solo based. Its not good for the game but it also has its benfits. FFXI should do this for FFXI,RoZ,CoP,ToAU and all 3 Mini Packs Storylines.

Also Boost the final reward for Wings of the Goddess by increassing completion of all 3 storylines. More players would plan on beating all of the content then. Wotg is far by the longest storyline in the game which takes alot of groups.

Keep Abyssea the way it is.

Make Void (New Endgame) More like Endgame focus on upgrading older equipment based on finding new (very hard) Magician Trial items. Also include new Void gear and make a Combin system when having 2 fully completed pieces of equipment.

Skadi Body+1
Thief EMP AF+2

Combin those 2 pieces =

((New lv99 Equipment))

See this way you gotta complete 3 types of endgame to earn equipment

Salvage,Void,Abyssea

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Inafking

I've tried putting stuff up in /seacom. Does not help if no one reads it. Just because it worked for you once, does not mean it works. Hell, people don't even read /seacoms when they invite you for EXP.

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Seem to be contradicting yourself....How would you know this if you aren't using it.

And I have had people who read my /seacom as I would solo /DNC and would put my available main jobs and subs and they would invite me and ask me to change subjob or if I wanted to change to another of the main jobs I had listed.

Korpg made a point in a thread about the payment systems, and the concept behind it may apply to this:

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Originally Posted by Korpg
Just because a problem happens to a superminority does not make the system horrible.

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It cuts both ways. Just because it works/doesn't work for a select few does not necessarily mean it is a good/bad option.

All I meant to point out about using the server/job pages to ask for help and using search/bazaar comments is there are tools already there that can help the situation, but people aren't using them--and maybe they need to start.

Edit: /seacom dind't work for me just one time...It's panned out for me too many times to count. So much I can't recall in fact. I just only listed some specific instances that stuck out for me. Case in point--it's helped out at least once on nearly every one of my 80+ items I've upgraded through the magian moogles so far. By the time I finish +2 armors, it may well wind up having helped on every single piece in the end.

I disagree with what the OP is saying (to some degree), the linkshell that I am in helps each-other out on nearly everything, from newbie conquest missions, to high-end sky things, Quest lines from all expansions included. We do regular shouts for people to join up, we get along like one big family. Many of the community, true, are more interested in higher level things, only for the fact that maybe.. they did it once, so why bother doing it again? (thats one thought they might have) But just as equal as there are people unwilling to help, there are many that are very generous with time and other luxuries in the game. So, its just very unfortunate that some people take things too personally. Just think, back in the day, we used to sit DAYS Seeking a PT. Final Fantasy 11 has become so much easier to play. As for the remark about not getting a subjob at Lv18.. You dont HAVE to get a subjob unlocked at 18, for most new players (or characters) you might not even have an adequately leveled subjob yet, so that remark isnt exactly valid, imo... I understand that people might find it frustrating, but trust me, we are out here, willing to help out a friend. It just annoys me, when I find people blasting the entire community from such a niche catchment. ALSO, the language barrier is next to null and void these days, if you dont understand, say Japanese, you can just as easy jump onto Google Translate and convert english to japanese, and pull up the Romaji (and ask the japanese to communicate in Romaji instead of characters) and its easy. (I already know enough Japanese to hold my own, so its not too much of a problem) But it just feels like, 'If you dont talk English, GTFO' considering its still a Japanese based game. But hell, what do I know, im from England... ((Sorry for the lack of paragraphs, my enter key is broken ;(..)

Maybe it's just me... but for the most part, I've had good experiences with non-english players. I've been pleasantly surprised at how many JP players can speak at least broken english and will make the effort to communicate with me. Probly helps that I often degrade myself right off the bat by admitting <<---Amerika no baka or something along those lines....

I already knew the reputation of FFXI for a long time (elitist community, solo unfriendly, yada, yada,...) when I signed on a couple of days ago. And I don't really care anymore. I want to play a FF mmo and my primary game, XIV, is being rebuilt at the moment.

I do realize things are going to be different but then again that's par for the course for a FF game.

I understand how you feel, but being cast aside is a part of this game. Nothing you can do about it.

I've soloed the majority of the game (didn't get a chocobo 'til 40) and found it rather satisfying--and mind you, I was a WHM. The first and second Linkshells I was in did practically nothing to help me. And in the second, the LS founder had it in personally for me. He despised me for distorting WHM as I did and eventually kicked me from the shell (not entirely a bad thing, he taxed the non pearlsack-holders). For a time, I though all 75's were like that. I did things on my own until I found a good LS.

Eventually, WHM became tiring and ceased developing it at 74. I started leveling PLD, soloing a lot of it as PLD/WHM--at 45, I was even able to self-EXP chain and at 71, I solo'd Promyvion-Vahzl (see http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Ta...s#Testimonials).

My point is, don't give up. Soloing has its rewards and it's not so bad.

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Originally Posted by RAIST

How would you know this if you aren't using it.

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I use it all the time. That is how I can tell you it does not work.

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Originally Posted by Sephiran

My point is, don't give up. Soloing has its rewards and it's not so bad.

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We're talking about quests / missions. Not EXP. Please read before posting.

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Originally Posted by Yokoh

you can just as easy jump onto Google Translate and convert english to japanese, and pull up the Romaji (and ask the japanese to communicate in Romaji instead of characters)

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good luck getting "JP ONRY" to use Romaji so you can read / translate what they say.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Inafking

No one on any of the servers I've ever played on uses anything you've suguested.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Inafking

I use it all the time. That is how I can tell you it does not work.

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soooo this post is mistaken then? or was it the first one? Which is true?

Again... just because it didn't work for YOU specifically the way YOU were trying to use it, doesn't mean it doesn't work for others.

Please, just stop as it is getting old.

I'll quote it again from the Boondoocks in that other thread you are also trolling this viewpoint in:

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Gin Rummy: I always say the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.
Riley: What?
Gin Rummy: Simply because you don't have evidence that something does exist does not mean you have evidence of something that doesn't exist.
Riley: What?
Gin Rummy: What country are you from?
Riley: What?
Gin Rummy: 'What' ain't no country I ever heard of! They speak English in 'What'?
Riley: What?
Gin Rummy: English, motherfucker! Do you speak it?
Riley: Yeah.
Gin Rummy: So you understand the words I'm saying to you!
Riley: Yeah.
Gin Rummy: Well, what I'm saying is that there are known knowns and that there are known unknowns. But there are also unknown unknowns; things we don't know that we don't know.
Riley: What?
Gin Rummy: Say what again! Say what again! I dare you! I double dare you, motherfucker! Say what one more time!

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/facepalm