Why Are the FFXIV Forums So Bad?

Another alt, move along

little moderation on top of the forums being hijacked by several repeat offenders who attempt to downplay and dissemination discussion they disagree with

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Originally Posted by Orinori

Literally every discussion post is littered with lonely 40 year old women

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https://i.imgur.com/K9Bij0g.gif

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Originally Posted by Carin-Eri

Waits for inevitable reply/accusations pertaining to toxic positivity

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What do you want people to say when this is clearly bait? Fresh character posting like a certain you-know-who. I don't like to witch hunt but they're not even trying to hide it at this point and you're sitting there lapping it up.

They're aware that they don't need to bait with outlandish topics when simply posting something about positivity/negativity/anything about the forums is such easy bait that most forumers find irresistible.

What makes it worse is the fact that this behavior is apparently acceptable to most of you as long as the sentiments provided by the OP align with your own.

I think message boards in general are a relic of 2000s era internet. So it already attracts a specific type of person who was probably active on the internet near this time which is usually older and more cynical.

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Originally Posted by NekoMataMata

What do you want people to say when this is clearly bait? Fresh character posting like a certain you-know-who. I don't like to witch hunt but they're not even trying to hide it at this point and you're sitting there lapping it up.

They're aware that they don't need to bait with outlandish topics when simply posting something about positivity/negativity/anything about the forums is such easy bait that most forumers find irresistible.

What makes it worse is the fact that this behavior is apparently acceptable to most of you as long as the sentiments provided by the OP align with your own.

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I don't find the behavior acceptable and I have an extremely poor/comical vision of how I imagine such posters behind the screen. But...I can't put the energy in caring more than the moderation team, so here we are.

I am impressed with how disruptive ONE person is to an entire forum...not impressed with that person, but that it's allowed to continue.

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Originally Posted by Orinori

Just curious, in-game its pretty pleasant, most people are reasonable and easy to talk to, the game has a pretty bustling social scene, I've made plenty of friends that I've linked with irl, but on here you're all like 12 year olds screaming at each other over who loves FFXIV more like you're some weird attention starved children begging for your parent's attention. Literally every discussion post is littered with lonely 40 year old women and neckbeards spurting Mean Girls comments over any and everything.

So what made you all this way? Was it years of neglect and moderation from Square-Enix? Lack of healthy social lives? Mental illness? I'm curious

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Those fake PMA in game doesn't fool anyone with half brain, sorry buddy but most people in game are unlikeable. Also you can say anything or you get immediately banned.

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Originally Posted by Tahbitha

If you think these forums are toxic, go log into the General Discussion of another game whose name I shall not mention here (but it rhymes with Borld of Borcraft). The last time I was there, a little over a year ago, it was so toxic that if you spent much time there you would come out of it with white skin, green hair, a penchant for jokes, and a hatred of Batman.

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This actually made me chortle, if I could commend you I would

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Originally Posted by NekoMataMata

What do you want people to say when this is clearly bait? Fresh character posting like a certain you-know-who. I don't like to witch hunt but they're not even trying to hide it at this point and you're sitting there lapping it up.

They're aware that they don't need to bait with outlandish topics when simply posting something about positivity/negativity/anything about the forums is such easy bait that most forumers find irresistible.

What makes it worse is the fact that this behavior is apparently acceptable to most of you as long as the sentiments provided by the OP align with your own.

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I'm really not baiting, though in hindsight I didn't mean to have the rude vibe the OP had, I was more or less in a joking manner trying to explain the demeanor and how ridiculous it is given the assumed average age of forum users.

I was actually genuinely curious why the forums just seem like an entirely different atmosphere and why this exact thing you're demonstrating here happens. There has been a ton of super interesting and helpful answers, basically summing up to lack of moderation and anonymity combined with a lack of punishment being tied to SE account.

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Originally Posted by CNitsah

You basically said the most probable reason people acted as they act is because they "lack healthy social life" or "are mentally ill". You also described them as "children starved for attention" and "Neckbeard". You basically insulted 80% of the forum users. It's kinda mean spirited, and you didn't even realise it. This is part of the reason, people don't even realise when they stop being civil. As I said, it's very weird it only happens on english forums, and japanese, french and german ones are decent.

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Someone explained this to me earlier, and I apologize if I offended you. English is not my first language and I didn't think I was actually insulting anyone, just trying to joke around but this isn't the first time I've had misunderstandings like this, so apologies to you if I offended you in the post

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Originally Posted by Fyrebrand

These forums are infested with trolls that use various sock puppet accounts and post multiple bait threads every single day. Occasionally they get suspended or banned, but they invariably come back with another not-so-subtle forum alt and start all over again.

To the unfamiliar, it may appear like some of them are posting legitimate conversation topics and getting undue hostility out of nowhere. But often, it's because they are a known troll who doesn't mean anything they say and are just trying to stir up drama. Typically, if you see someone who only joined the forums in the last month and they keep making new threads constantly, they are a bad actor. Another big red flag is if you look up their character on the Lodestone site and see that they have paid to boost all their crafters and maybe one battle job to max level, despite not even playing the game. One such example even admitted they don't play, they made a whole topic just to say so.



Really? My experience here has been pretty much the polar opposite. These forums are basically the Hate Olympics to see who can screech the most about how terrible FFXIV is. Every day, it's people saying the game is dead, Yoshi-P owes us an apology, the devs are lazy and incompetent and don't care about the game anymore, everyone has quit FFXIV for <insert new game just released>, FFXIV hasn't been any good since Heavensward, etc. Now, there are of course legitimate criticisms and complaints to be made about the game, but the way people go about it here can be really irritating and tiresome.

It comes in waves. They'll latch onto a topic like "The FFXIV community is so toxic" and then create new threads about it for days on end. It was their personal mission to make sure everybody knew how sick and evil FFXIV players are. And if anyone gets the least bit snarky back, they're just like "See!? Did you see that everybody!? Way to prove my point!! #GCBTW."

Recently we had a run where somebody would post literally every video they could find of streamers listing off all the problems with FFXIV. Nothing wrong with wanting to talk about it per se, but that's just it, they didn't even have anything to say. They just wanted to post something negative, and leave. Sometimes there was more than one thread about the same video.

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Oh.. o.o thats definitely not what I've picked up but I've only been on the forums a few months now, so maybe I'm just seeing a small slice

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Originally Posted by Orinori

Just curious, in-game its pretty pleasant, most people are reasonable and easy to talk to

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That's because in game you can quite literally cop a ban for cut and pasting NPC dialogue if someone reports you over it.

I still laugh to this day at an old friend eating a temp ban in a dungeon for politely asking to be kicked as he had a raid starting shortly that he didn't anticipate and got reported for it. Doubly ironic as that was probably one of the few times he was actually ever polite =(

Here on the boards, the stakes aren't as high (Can confirm, you don't lose your character in game if you take a ban here), the rules and lines are much more clearly defined and overall the moderation would appear to be much laxer with things seemingly taking a sizeable mass report to get acted on perhaps the Mods here are kind of inconsistent in how they tackle posts that go past what's acceptable.

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Originally Posted by Orinori

I'm really not baiting, though in hindsight I didn't mean to have the rude vibe the OP had, I was more or less in a joking manner trying to explain the demeanor and how ridiculous it is given the assumed average age of forum users.

I was actually genuinely curious why the forums just seem like an entirely different atmosphere and why this exact thing you're demonstrating here happens. There has been a ton of super interesting and helpful answers, basically summing up to lack of moderation and anonymity combined with a lack of punishment being tied to SE account.

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It's genuinely hard to tell if this is real.

If you're a different person then you have my apologies. The forums has a ton of alt accounts posting attempts to bait the forums, and honestly, we don't know how many bad actors there are either.

It's at the point where I can't even tell if you're real, because the main culprit who has a small army of alts has made high effort "new person posts" that we believed to be genuine, only for the forum account to start necroing their threads a few months later.

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Originally Posted by NekoMataMata

It's genuinely hard to tell if this is real.

If you're a different person then you have my apologies. The forums has a ton of alt accounts posting attempts to bait the forums, and honestly, we don't know how many bad actors there are either.

It's at the point where I can't even tell if you're real, because the main culprit who has a small army of alts has made high effort "new person posts" that we believed to be genuine, only for the forum account to start necroing their threads a few months later.

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Thats pretty intense, no I'm no alt, I play very regularly this is my main. Although it does spread some light on all the alt comments lol I was very confused, and if thats going on I could understand everyone being on guard
You can feel free to check my mediocre logs kekw

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Originally Posted by Sebazy

That's because in game you can quite literally cop a ban for cut and pasting NPC dialogue if someone reports you over it.

I still laugh to this day at an old friend eating a temp ban in a dungeon for politely asking to be kicked as he had a raid starting shortly that he didn't anticipate and got reported for it. Doubly ironic as that was probably one of the few times he was actually ever polite =(

Here on the boards, the stakes aren't as high (Can confirm, you don't lose your character in game if you take a ban here), the rules and lines are much more clearly defined and overall the moderation would appear to be much laxer with things seemingly taking a sizeable mass report to get acted on perhaps the Mods here are kind of inconsistent in how they tackle posts that go past what's acceptable.

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Unfortunately the terms of service is all too easily weaponised. Which in turn either causes people to get banned for stuff that could very easily be overlooked by any reasonable individual or they end up having to maintain a completely different style of speech to how they normally operate.

I know there's a lot of people who just don't bother socialising in this game because of it - which is a shame, since MMO's are meant to be social experiences at their core.

https://media0.giphy.com/media/DZDHu...pDvM/giphy.gif

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Originally Posted by NekoMataMata

It's genuinely hard to tell if this is real.

If you're a different person then you have my apologies. The forums has a ton of alt accounts posting attempts to bait the forums, and honestly, we don't know how many bad actors there are either.

It's at the point where I can't even tell if you're real, because the main culprit who has a small army of alts has made high effort "new person posts" that we believed to be genuine, only for the forum account to start necroing their threads a few months later.

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I know it looks suspicious given the language and tone of the OP, but the join date isn't this year and other details look normal and not like an alt.

Sorry, but what a ridiculously phrased and loaded question. Why take this seriously at all, when they finish off with: So what made you all this way? Was it years of neglect and moderation from Square-Enix? Lack of healthy social lives? Mental illness? I'm curious

Weirdly enough...the forums is why I have paid a sub for so long this last year. I find most of you to be good people and that's why I stuck around. However even I know it's weird to pay a sub to access just the forums so I've canceled my sub and it'll expire in a couple months.

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Originally Posted by ChrysOCE

Sorry, but what a ridiculously phrased and loaded question. Why take this seriously at all, when they finish off with: So what made you all this way? Was it years of neglect and moderation from Square-Enix? Lack of healthy social lives? Mental illness? I'm curious

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I'm not understand totally your question? What do you mean by loaded

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

I know it looks suspicious given the language and tone of the OP, but the join date isn't this year and other details look normal and not like an alt.

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Yeah nah this is an alt of you know who 100%, he has alts from accounts he's had in the past, not the first time

way too obvious

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Originally Posted by Orinori

I'm not understand totally your question? What do you mean by loaded

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Just means if not handled with care it can go off in your hands. Just means it's a topic that can easily get into arguments...which I've no doubt you have seen.

Frankly all forums do this but this one is getting bad because of...inconsistent moderation. I wouldn't say they are absent but the mods are very unknown and one thing that you think would be a ban can go on for months and another thing you think would be innocent goes to the chopping block nearly immediately. It has caused the good to be cautious and the bad to just run amuck.

Then you got those just here for the drama...and frankly I don't blame them...drama is always around the corner if none to be found immediately.

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Originally Posted by Orinori

I'm really not baiting, though in hindsight I didn't mean to have the rude vibe the OP had, I was more or less in a joking manner trying to explain the demeanor and how ridiculous it is given the assumed average age of forum users.

I was actually genuinely curious why the forums just seem like an entirely different atmosphere and why this exact thing you're demonstrating here happens. There has been a ton of super interesting and helpful answers, basically summing up to lack of moderation and anonymity combined with a lack of punishment being tied to SE account.

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honestly? ballony sausage.. like really im not buying this lame excuse. u dont just post something so provocative and insulting to your fellow players without a modicum of self awareness to even read it. if u had any self respect ud delete or at least TRY to necro this thread. ull find nothing of value on here with a post like this, only anger and spite.. and unless u genuinly enjoy negitive attention, i cannot fathom why youd encourage it your way. you're not proving some point about the community being toxic, ur being the very toxicity you claim not to like

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Originally Posted by Stormpeaks

Yeah nah this is an alt of you know who 100%, he has alts from accounts he's had in the past, not the first time

way too obvious

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is it somebody whos name sounds like numerous? ive been thinking its them just not sure

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Originally Posted by ZephyrMenodora

I don't find the behavior acceptable and I have an extremely poor/comical vision of how I imagine such posters behind the screen. But...I can't put the energy in caring more than the moderation team, so here we are.

I am impressed with how disruptive ONE person is to an entire forum...not impressed with that person, but that it's allowed to continue.

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once zepla/mr happy or xenosys catches on and exposes it the mods will deal with it and actually moderate the forums

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Originally Posted by Orinori

Oh.. o.o thats definitely not what I've picked up but I've only been on the forums a few months now, so maybe I'm just seeing a small slice

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not buying this bruh. been on these forums 2 weeks now and this an neumenons other post is only time i ever seen u around

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

I know it looks suspicious given the language and tone of the OP, but the join date isn't this year and other details look normal and not like an alt.

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as soon as i saw the character's face and the lack of a certian presence on this particular thread i too was sus it could be an alt. That person has been getting constant backlash here latley and i figured they just went mask off on an alt out of frustration

People are just now discovering that this forum was built over an Indian burial ground and it's literally cursed. Sometimes vengeful spirits inhabit the accounts of frequent forum posters like how an Ascian takes a new body as its host. The goal is much the same. When the confluence of chaos reaches its peak, the one true troll shall be reborn. That highlander guy, I guess. As we speak his dark servants work to rejoin his alts.

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Originally Posted by Rufalus

People are just now discovering that this forum was built over an Indian burial ground and it's literally cursed. Sometimes vengeful spirits inhabit the accounts of frequent forum posters like how an Ascian takes a new body as its host. The goal is much the same. When the confluence of chaos reaches its peak, the one true troll shall be reborn. That highlander guy, I guess. As we speak his dark servants work to rejoin his alts.

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Sounds like we need White Auracite. Or Scrubbing Bubbles.

The op claims every poster is toxic then proceeds to call everyone names and that everyone on the forums lack a social life and have mental issues and various other insults.

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Originally Posted by Nebelheim

The op claims every poster is toxic then proceeds to call everyone names and that everyone on the forums lack a social life and have mental issues and various other insults.

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But then comes back in and basically says "just kidding" yeah mmhmm I got this bridge it's only seen 50 years of use still in good shape selling it for a cool million in the next hour. Oh it comes with a bucket of flex seal just in case.

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Originally Posted by Snorky

But then comes back in and basically says "just kidding" yeah mmhmm I got this bridge it's only seen 50 years of use still in good shape selling it for a cool million in the next hour. Oh it comes with a bucket of flex seal just in case.

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Oh I love bridges! I sleep under them often.

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Originally Posted by Snorky

But then comes back in and basically says "just kidding" yeah mmhmm I got this bridge it's only seen 50 years of use still in good shape selling it for a cool million in the next hour. Oh it comes with a bucket of flex seal just in case.

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It's funny when a troll insults the entire forums then comes back and claims it's a joke when it's possible it's another titanmen doing there usual stuff.

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Originally Posted by Nebelheim

It's funny when a troll insults the entire forums then comes back and claims it's a joke when it's possible it's another titanmen doing there usual stuff.

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willing to bet considerable cash its neumenom alt.
*they were getting a lot of hate latley on here
*claims to have poor english but speaks cohearently and understands equally well
* plays on the exact same server
*character race/gender/skin colour is identical
*Neumenon is nowhere to be seen on this post but is constantly posting and replieng to every thread
*proven rage baiter with several provocative posts

I can't tell if you're mad people are criticizing the game right now or mad at people who are mad people who are criticizing the game right now.

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Originally Posted by sindriiisgaming

willing to bet considerable cash its neumenom alt.
*they were getting a lot of hate latley on here
*claims to have poor english but speaks cohearently and understands equally well
* plays on the exact same server
*character race/gender/skin colour is identical
*Neumenon is nowhere to be seen on this post but is constantly posting and replieng to every thread
*proven rage baiter with several provocative posts

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I think it's there alt as well and both accounts seem to be the new titanmen of the forums.

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Originally Posted by Renalt

Oh I love bridges! I sleep under them often.

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I'm glad you got my weird humor :)

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Originally Posted by Orinori

Thats a good point, though I wasn't aware just how poorly the forums were moderated, I was kinda just making a joke over how ratchet it gets in here. I also assumed your square account was just your square account and if you got banned that was it for that account, so that actually makes a lot more sense, theres not really any consequences so people just treat it like twitter lol

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poor moderation is one thing

the moderation here is virtually non existant.

it was not always this bad, it was not the flaming dumpster of a trainwreck it is today. in recent years it has deteriorated, and some of the forum users take full advantage of that. there is the rare occasion when they wake the moderator up, more to justify whatever pay they give them as opposed to any real sense of moderation. kind of like the way the Special Task Force deals with in game bots....

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Originally Posted by Kaurhz

In-game is moderated a little more stricter, and for the most part the severity of loss is much higher.

If you're banned on forum, I don't think the ban extends to in-game. If you're banned on forums, then you're banned on forums alone. Whereas with in-game you have the potential to lose hundreds or thousands of cumulative effort.

If bans on forums extended to in-game bans, then a lot of what happens here would quieten down.

Plus, the purpose of a forum is to debate and discuss more than anything else, so you get a lot of conflicting personalities, and generally speaking people can take disagreements as an attack, regardless of what side. Compared to in-game where you're more just using it as a social outlet, so the interactions are more of a social manner.

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Actually forum bans can at severe enough levels cost you your in game account. I have read enough SE emails about forum bans that have been posted elsewhere on the net to know the company specifically warns you that that is possible. That said I haven't seen it actually happen in a VERY long time.

Mostly the forums are not moderated unless someone files a report on someone else and even then it is minimal. So nasty behavior is free to continue. Sad state of affairs but it is what it is.

1. because some people are upset with the state of the game.
2. voicing opinions is most easy here and like reddit?
3. Idk some people like trolling IG.
4. Forums are usually like this from my experience honestly, nothing out the norm.

It's not really that complicated why you would get the more "negative" or passionate type of people here really.

Titanmen is actually amusing to Interact with on the forums regardless of account. I'd be sad if OP was him.

Forums are fine except for the constant "look what zelpa said!!!" Threads every other day.

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Originally Posted by sindriiisgaming

willing to bet considerable cash its neumenom alt.
*they were getting a lot of hate latley on here
*claims to have poor english but speaks cohearently and understands equally well
* plays on the exact same server
*character race/gender/skin colour is identical
*Neumenon is nowhere to be seen on this post but is constantly posting and replieng to every thread
*proven rage baiter with several provocative posts

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*lately

*coherently

*replying

There is basically zero moderation. What little does happen is entirely handled by automation. Only on very rare circumstance is there any manual input. On top of that, what's enforced is both incredibly inconsistent and often based on reports. You'll see someone permabanned for swearing yet put in any swear word into the search bar and you'll find posts with several. The fact that's even a thing when forums have built in censorship is kind of hilarious and really goes to show how archaic the forums are.

It's all a bit ironic considering the forums used to be the exact opposite. You'd be flagged almost instantly for mentioning parses but nowadays people have made threads outright listing every single plugin by name and the thread remained up.

Which is why whenever you're told to "submit feedback on the official forums," people laugh. Nothing said here goes to the devs unless it absolutely blows up such as Stormblood Lilies. Even then, it's usually reddit, twitter and content creators bringing attention to it.