The Forum Community - in your opinion.

Hmmm ummm, I think they are pretty expected. Whenever you take groups of humans and place them in same locations these forums are what happens.

Though I much prefer this to over moderation because that creates passive aggressive echo chambers that still have all same issues just no one speaks about them.

These forums have 3 different types of people. There are those that want everyone to agree with their opinion or else you're labeled a troll/bigot/XYZ phobic. There are a very small number that are actual trolls. Then there are people who legitimately want to have a discussion and share ideas about FFXIV.

In my personal opinion? I have previously stated this, but I think a lot of people have a lack of opinion therefore rendering the forum useless, but I cant help but log onto it everyday due to curiosity. Usually, whenever an idea is presented, it is almost immediately rejected.

If the idea is not rejected, it is given the infamous "everyone should be entitled to it" comment, I will further explain; for example, there was a forum which spoke about giving the Hyur's faces a rework as they severely needed it... The forum was bombarded with a lot of "every race needs a rework" - it's just a matter of people disregarding any concept of priority and they expect everyone to have the same treatment at the same time. This is just one example of this, now I have pointed it out, it's all you will see.

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Originally Posted by SherlottaEryut

In my personal opinion? I have previously stated this, but I think a lot of people have a lack of opinion therefore rendering the forum useless, but I cant help but log onto it everyday due to curiosity. Usually, whenever an idea is presented, it is almost immediately rejected.

If the idea is not rejected, it is given the infamous "everyone should be entitled to it" comment, I will further explain; for example, there was a forum which spoke about giving the Hyur's faces a rework as they severely needed it... The forum was bombarded with a lot of "every race needs a rework" - it's just a matter of people disregarding any concept of priority and they expect everyone to have the same treatment at the same time. This is just one example of this, now I have pointed it out, it's all you will see.

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It's not so much that people lack an opinion, but that they won't go to the effort of posting it. I think that needs to be factored in when you're attempting to gauge player feedback/desires, as it means you will need to employ methods such as polls/surveys to truly have a chance of getting a reflective view on something. There is also a lot of gatekeeping in some venues, which again means the feedback they're getting is not always reflective of the wider playerbase. That is easier to control on your own forum, but you have to make a concerted effort in that case.

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Originally Posted by Lufir

These forums have 3 different types of people. There are those that want everyone to agree with their opinion or else you're labeled a troll/bigot/XYZ phobic. There are a very small number that are actual trolls. Then there are people who legitimately want to have a discussion and share ideas about FFXIV.

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And for that first group, it's getting to the point where even having a discussion is "platforming bigots" etc.

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Originally Posted by Lauront

It's not so much that people lack an opinion, but that they won't go to the effort of posting it. I think that needs to be factored in when you're attempting to gauge player feedback/desires, as it means you will need to employ methods such as polls/surveys to truly have a chance of getting a reflective view on something. There is also a lot of gatekeeping in some venues, which again means the feedback they're getting is not always reflective of the wider playerbase. That is easier to control on your own forum, but you have to make a concerted effort in that case.

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I have previously presented an idea to the forums, with both a visual concept and I went into explicit detail as to why it should be implemented. I also attempted to counteract the type of people who say 'everyone should have it' by being overly descriptive in my OG post, but they're impossible to avoid. So, my personal experience still stands that people on the forums lack opinion and just conform to either rejecting ideas or merely saying 'what about everyone' because it just seems to be a norm.

It's a community in constant civil war, and it can be quite alot of fun.

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Originally Posted by Sheriyana

Same here in regards to the reddit as people have pointed out. I used it quite a bit in ARR and HW but then the mods turned it into an echo chamber hug box, killing all meaningful discussion. Now it's all just people seeking internet points for their efforts by posting screenshots of personal achievements, art and the nonstop "I just joined the game and everything's great" threads.

Now I mostly just use the OF to look for any discussion. Sure there's a bunch of trolls here but I've seen a lot worse.

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People who don't understand this probably got used to hugboxes themselves or were raised in echo chamber environments, so any few trolls or people disagreeing with them are enough for them to tear their hair out.

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Originally Posted by SherlottaEryut

I have previously presented an idea to the forums, with both a visual concept and I went into explicit detail as to why it should be implemented. I also attempted to counteract the type of people who say 'everyone should have it' by being overly descriptive in my OG post, but they're impossible to avoid. So, my personal experience still stands that people on the forums lack opinion and just conform to either rejecting ideas or merely saying 'what about everyone' because it just seems to be a norm.

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I see what you're getting at. At the moment, they don't really do much to moderate the forum or encourage productive discussion here, so I don't doubt that what you say is true (it's even worse on sites like Reddit with its easily abused downvote function.) I just think that, on top of that, they're getting a very blinkered type of feedback from various social media sites (forum included), rather than anything that reflects their wider playerbase's views.

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Originally Posted by ReynTime

People who don't understand this probably got used to hugboxes themselves or were raised in echo chamber environments, so any few trolls or people disagreeing with them are enough for them to tear their hair out.

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pretty much the things my friends warned me about when they tried to get me into the game the first time :P
the stories they told me about how some people can make mountains out of molehills out of mere misunderstandings and how it resulted in week or even month long alt-stalking is honestly such a big red flag

I prefer a good old fashioned message board to things like discord or twitter.