Not profanity, but blatant name-calling was involved. Which is against the Forum Guidelines as much as profanity is.
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I suppose I am trying to grasp at straws for any logic to consistency of bans on these forums. There must be really no way to truly know what can or can't get you banned. Maybe it depends on what moderator was active at that specific time of the day, maybe some moderators don't care while others have an iron fist.
Okay, if that is so why is it you see a lot of people saying the same words directed but nothing is done can you please explain why that is or its just favoritism at this point?
Or
Like I said belongs to a group of friends who don't report because they "Like" that person to much to report letting them get away with it, which meaning only go for those who don't follow others routines.
I find that very disturbing because I have noticed people calling others names who still exist till today and even it being against ToS some people get reported for it some people don't and I believe its because of what I said its the whole they are a friend let them slide we don't know this guy he isn't a regular lets get him.
Which means the whole thing is based on reports if the person doesn't get reported then they get a free pass.
Here I'll give my 2 cents.
Now what if the word was "Nerd"
GM A thinks well its not much of a insult its more like calling someone smart.
GM B doesn't think so he takes offense to this and temp bans you for it.
Now if you look up the definition
1 a foolish or contemptible person who lacks social skills or is boringly studious.
2 a single-minded expert in a particular technical field.
How can you tell if he was insulting or giving him a compliment and how do you know the GM's would take it as such?
Now lets say they let a person slide for the word "NERD"
but then in another post the wording is said the very same way and they ban the guy so is it right to let one guy go then the other guy slide I don't think so and I have seen people get banned for saying Manly gear but in another term like the wrestler randy savage what they call him in front.
Unless you are referring to yourself, or someone you know in a overly friendly manner, I wouldn't post that. If something can be considered an insult to someone, in my opinion, somebody somewhere could be "offended" and WILL report. If they report, technically it does violate the ToS, and would probably get you banned. That is just my opinion though, considering some of the bans that have been handed out.
Take the saying "Better safe than sorry" to heart, when it comes to these forums. It is a minefield.
A post getting reported is absolutely what determines if action is taken. I feel confident in making that claim. However, I don’t know how you can claim favoritism based on regular posters always people to get off scot-free. I have a pretty high post count myself and am very active on here, but I was still hit in this past incident. Post count or regularity here doesn’t mean anything—some of the more popular forum posters are now permanently banned because of pettiness.
Still doesn't make it any less asinine. At the time I wasn't aware that general discussion meant general discussion as long as it only relates to FFXIV. I'm so used to general discussion on forums literally being general discussion. I'm sure that rule is posted somewhere and I didn't read it and yes if it is a rule then technically I violated it and was actioned against. I still think I should have simply gotten a warning and not a step 2 action. Seems a bit much for a post about children. But, lesson learned.
The more popular the more likely you will have "haters" "watching" you ready to reporting anything that can get you in trouble. Also, if these forums are remotely similar to how Blizzard works, the volume of reports for a single post must be very important for a moderator to intervene (let's be real, I'm pretty sure reports in these forums must fly around). And well, we already know what kind of players are more likely to report, probably that's why forum rules enforcement feels random at times.
I don't think mods are acting on bad faith, probably all they are doing is following the forum guidelines and whatever internal rules they have, like only check a topic with X number of reports or more. However, and especially in-game, certain norms are very open to interpretation and that's sucks.
Hooray for daily post limits! (not)
Memes are a part of internet culture and a form of expression. Telling people not to post memes is like telling them to not post at all for anything.
I get where you're coming from and that's what we're trying to advocate for on here: more transparency towards a potential violation and less extreme measures right off the cuff for when someone does violate.
See, I used to think that as well, seeing how there some threads that would use ff14 as a very loose reference to discuss something that ends up not being about ff14 later on.
But then you got a thread discussing Asperger and some other medical stuff where FF14 is not mentioned at all and it manages to stay for days. It's buried now in the pages but unless the OP who made it comes around and says they got banned/warned for it, I'm of the belief the mods will only take action if something's reported.
I think you all should really is actually more healthy for you and for others, so others do not have to get involved in your personal vendettas and the internet doesn't become your personal grudge safe space neither SE your mommy and the Forums moderators your daddy to monitor when someone trigger the hate comments or not.
Don't really think neither SE or forums moderators should be parenting such childish behavior.
On other hand in real life you have places where you can solve your differences with legal representation and all.
Except none of us are even discussing personal grudges or vendettas in this thread. That’s not what this thread is about at all, so I’m unsure why you keep bringing it up. We’re addressing concerns with moderation and consistency in a calm manner, and just wanting a bit more transparency and communication in the future, should this thread been seen by those who need to see it. These are all questions and concerns that really only the forum moderation team can answer, which is why we are asking them here. There is no better place to ask them, really.
I'm just gonna say this, I fully understand the action taken by the mods.
While the action could have been less severe, most of us on that thread were simply trying to lighten the mood, some of the worst things done have been done with good intentions.
In the end, I found a home in an FC because of it. So, I'll take the good with the bad and learn a lesson for the future.
Cheers all!
Lilseph summed up the issue perfectly, The English forum mods act like Ninjas, no interaction, you don’t see them coming you just see posts/users disappear and people are left scratching their heads, there has to be a better way to do this.
I also think it's like what Iscah and a few others have said earlier about how it depends on who reports whom first, which puts those of us who'd just let something slide at a disadvantage against the easily offended or overly spiteful. Kind of the Quick and the Dead, you gotta report them before they report you and that's not a very good system.
I'd really like to reach out to any moderators who may be reading this who might be willing to offer some insight about the process. While I can only vouch for my own actions, I believe in good faith that the responses from the others towards anything posted will be done in a civil, constructive manner since we're all here for the express purpose of understanding and offering feedback.
I feel as though there is a major, major bias and lack of unity between mods. Favoritism per race (smarmy catgirl posts will stay despite rule breaking) and mods who may be players getting their opinions brought to light by allowing rule breaking posts to stay.
I distinctly recall a player during the male viera debate going off like they were on /b/ and not getting banned for days. In fact it may be the same person everyone keeps mentioning. I'm not sure. But those posts had me like oof.
I highly doubt there is favoritism at all when it comes to things like the race of your character and moderation. One of the most popular and well-liked forum members played a female Miqo’te for quite some time (though she is a female Midlander now) and was banned over pettiness in the Tales of the DF thread (you may actually see a hashtag present in some forum posters’ signatures related to her), so that debunks the “smarmy catgirl” theory you’ve suggested. I also don’t think that the moderators are players that are wanting to use rule-breaking posts as some message of their own personal opinions. Posts of all kinds are routinely removed and/or left to stand. There isn’t enough consistency to really prove either of these theories.
It’s all down to reports at this point, and I’m wondering if there’s a threshold that needs to be reached in order for actions to arise—be them from different people or repeated reports from the same person. Right now, we simply do not know. And perhaps we never really will, but. It is what it is.
I think there is some favoritism involved, but not the kind you think. I think they watch some users more than others, almost like a watch list. I get posts of mine deleted all the time, and the content of those posts are actually on-topic a lot of the time. However, I have seen many, many other users posting things actually off-topic, or just the exact same content as mine, and they stay up. I think they have more volatile posters, using me as an example, who rile up others and mass delete, or even ban for something very minor if they (I) slip up. I have seen things that are MUCH worse to what I was actually banned for that literally break the ToS, and those posts don't even get removed a lot of the time - or they get removed, but no further action is taken against said user. I think there is something going on here.
I just know if I was to post something with similar content to many of the posts I know break the ToS, considering the context of my ban, and reading over the ToS multiple times, I would be banned immediately.
Too much censorship around these parts. It's like a virtual Fahrenheit 451 book fest.
I do not think there is favoritism. However, it would be nice to receive a warning with the offending post shown first before you are suspended. I think the moderators have been doing a fine job in general. Since a lot of people who get suspended violated the forum ToS, I think the suspension is justified. However, sometimes I feel the rules are not very clear and other times too strict. Well, I haven't been suspended, so I must be doing something right lol
I could scour this forum and report dozens of post that were equal in context to the post I was banned for, and my "violation" of the ToS, and others that are far more severe. There doesn't seem to be any consistency at all to the bans here. You are right, if you take a very broad interpretation of the ToS, the bans are in fact justified. The problem is when some users get banned for, in my opinion, very minor "violations", and others who post things that could definitely be considered more severe, or equally severe, don't have any action taken against them, sometimes the post(s) don't get deleted.
I think there are either multiple mods with very different interpretations of the ToS, or they are handing out biased reports. The only thing that is consistent is NO "profanity".
Eh I don't know. My rule of thumb is it's ok to have disagreements, but if your post comes across as intentionally petty/condescending/inflammatory, then you have a higher chance of getting suspended. It helps not to use profanity, either. If you don't do any of these things, you're not going to be suspended. Some people may find this too stifling though.
I don't really think the moderators are hugely biased. All we can do as forum users is to manage our own behavior.
Otter pictures don't really seem like it should be cause for a suspension, but I suppose that could be considered spam. It seems like posting pictures in topics is ok as long as it's related to the topic at hand. However, otters were so out of left field lol
Since we're talking about tips and such, I thought to add and I see this one fairly often (here and irl) - if you think something is deplorable/reportable don't then go promptly help propagate it lol. Especially on top of that don't make it worse by actively fanning the flames via that propagation (not only sharing/spreading but how that's done is important as well).
Fighting fire with fire is cool in video games but I don't think it's very impressive in real life, and while I don't know the GMs (I think? lol, stealth GM maybe :D) I imagine if you've made something much worse it doesn't matter that it was in the name of your justice. This was long long ago but I remember reporting someone in PvP for not doing anything (not afk either, just talking bad to people and sitting in a corner) and the GM thanked me and said they were looking into it, in my report I mentioned that the person said some rude things, the GM asked me if I said anything back to them as if "am I sure I want it to be investigated?" lol.. which I said "no should have I?". They said good and prefer people don't make things worse because it can also get you in trouble. Bit of a paraphrase because it was like 5 years ago, but I think that is true then as it is now.
As for the pictures I imagine it only became an offense because it was so prevalent and repeated, if one or two people had posted one it probably wouldn't have meant anything- especially if it was in context and not rude (like you're shocked at the shadowbringers trailer so you post a "mind blown otter"). Just sort of a mob rule, made a mob on accident and now everyone in the mob is going to be told not to make a mob. I realize a mob of otters sounds incredible cute but mob spam is different than one off spam lol.
Also again, I didn't read that thread so I'm not justifying or clarifying any specific action as much as I'm trying to say these things are probably far more consistent if we had all the info. "This person has two warnings, never contributes anything" punishment, "this person contributes, spammed a bit- add a warning to their account", "one photo, doesn't matter next", "30 pages of otters....... .............", also of course reports as I definitely believe a report means a lot here (which is why two people can have a long and a bit heated debate and neither are in trouble and then another two can have a very similar debate and one person comes out with a punishment).
I do miss/wish to hear more from people though so if they were thinking about coming out more often CMs and GMs.. that'd be cool lol. But I'm sure they have their reasons for the change, like "they're monsters, don't make me go out there and post that.. they're going to rip me to shreds" haha :p.
Sturm, the reality is, certain users are actively reporting you. I'm almost totally sure of this.
I definitely don't doubt that. Like what I said yesterday, I think they read reports not the threads. So maybe I am just being mass reported and that's why I will have half my posts in any given day deleted, and other's posts with similar (more severe) content stay up. It's actually kind of crazy. One slip up and I'm banned again! :( I seem to get my posts mass deleted in very specific threads (5 yesterday).
I don't even honestly know what I could have done to potentially earn the ire of users like that.
Thinking about it some more, you can actually see the carpet-bombing on these threads. My posts and any posts around those posts will also be deleted, so it's not just me. But if you go back a few hours, posts with similar content to everything just deleted will still be up.
I don't think you necessarily need to 'earn' it per say. Some people are just spiteful and all that could have happened is that they disliked something as silly as your avatar, signature, or name. Hell I remember a time on another site someone systematically went back years and downvoted every comment I ever made there.
*Taking any other actions that are deemed inappropriate by Square Enix in our sole discretion.
This part of the ToS is particularly worrisome to me with how vague and open to misuse it is. It's literally a blank check for the mods to use for whatever reason they feel like and anything can fall under that umbrella if someone wants it to.
First off, I wouldn't worry too much about a permaban. In forums at least, those happen so rarely they are basically a myth. At worse, they would ban the email or login you created for the site--which doesn't stop you from making another if you so desire (even if you lose access to old posts). The much lauded 'IP' ban is really for things like game accounts or extreme cases (like explicit imagery that would constitute violation in a clearly legal nature) so for people scared of getting a pemanent ban, I wouldn't really worry about that tbh.
With that said, for forums that don't assign mods from the user base, generally the policing is done by the site that hosts the forums. So... A third-party. As someone already pointed out, the forums rules are separate from the FFXIV ToS because the forum host is usually not directly connected to the developer--yeah word can get back because these are the 'official' forums but usually the governing is left to the content host. It sounds like the site relies heavily on scripts to police, rather than active people which isn't really a surprise. With the huge amount of posting that goes on, thats a lot of time for any living person to troll thru the posts. Does it mean there's more room for abuse? Certainly, as mods will react to 'flagged' content rather than posted comments but it also means that bans are generally a slap in the wrist. Sorry it got out of hand for some of you, but please don't fear the reaper. This place would be so boring without you. ❤
No, no they are not a myth. I know several people who tried to be active, slipped up because they're used to an audience of thicker skin, aaand poof. There's no fanfare when you're banned, nothing indicating it to other users outside a lack of badges. I would worry about it.
^ Actually, permabans are extremely common here. They have a 3-strike rule where no matter how little or big the infraction is, it counts toward your way to get permanently banned. These people are completely silenced and they will rarely come back here to say it. As far as I know, you will need to create another account, subscribe to the game, level a character and then you can post again. There was both in Reddit and I think GameFaqs some threads dedicated to players that were affected by this.
The otters came from Otter Space, not Left Field. (Couldn't help myself. Sorry/not sorry)
Back on topic: you can manage your behavior all you want, but that won't stop someone that disagrees with you from reporting you out of spite. If the mods really only look at reports and not the situation at large then it would lead to seemingly unfair suspensions or bans. That's why having some kind of active warning system in place would allow people to course correct more frequently. If a mod could drop you a PM about your behavior (suspected or otherwise) then a lot of people would pay more attention to their actions.
As I've said, this is my first suspension on here since I started posting in 2013 and I felt like what I was posting was in line with previous posts I've made, so I was confused as to the reaction.
I agree most of the good players from FFXI are on reddit discords and they are old players, they seen some of their friends get banned after coming from FFXI and left the forums because of the way things are with people who get worked up over certain words.
So they ditched the forums, it happened the same way it did with Allakhzam forums, people in those forums used to thumbs down topics to hide your comments so they could be seen over yours even if you had good points so they decided to move to FFXIah forums which actually killed allakhzam forums off you give players powers just like the report button here then people realize GM's aren't the problem its players who have itchy fingers ready to ban you for certain words at any given moment.
why people just leave.
I am sure some still exist on forums but im sure they are very careful
Talking about abusing the report system and perma-bans reminded me of a user on here that I came across about two years ago. I encountered them in a crazy post they started about giving summoners animations similar to Pokémon trainers throwing a Poké-ball when they summoned their Egi. Every reply was hostile, calling them an idiot, saying they were going to report them and hoped they got banned.
I commented that I've never seen so much hostility towards anybody on these forums before and was told that the OP had a 'history of spreading negativity'. I made a point to go through some of the OP's post history and none of their posts were negative in any way. Silly and pointless yes, but not negative. They were never rude, insulting or used any profanity or derogatory language. It seemed like people were only mad at them because of all the silly threads they started. I replied later that if they didn't want those types of threads on the forums then they should just ignore them and that they themselves were the ones perpetuating the negativity. Some of the posters actually turned on me, calling me an idiot for 'defending a troll' and essentially proving my point.
Due to all the, in my opinion, unwarranted hostility from a group of users towards this person they eventually earned a perma-ban. I think this is a good example of the report feature being abused just because someone wasn't liked.
I would rather have a dozen pointlessly silly threads than a dozen threads pointlessly covering the same topics all the time.
I also got temporary banned for posting the otter pictures.
They stated it was off-topic.
Which baffles me that they would ban so many people over that, instead of the OP who was trash talking his FC in not one but two threads and used the whole cancer/autism thing as a cover up.
The mods on this forum are a complete joke.