Can we talk about the elephant in the room - Permanent Bans from the Official Forums

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Originally Posted by Rockette

SE does have to uphold a reputation after all.

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Yeah, um....nah, too easy.

Worst for me was a forum sig referencing the director of FFXV describing a particular term he coined to describe a major obstacle he felt that his team faced. Definitely worth reading about.

VanilleFang was banned for a joke thread. They posted an incredibly small portion of their own fflogs page in a screenshot - literally just their 100% run as a WHM on the last boss in Rabanastre. The caption was something like "look what Holy did!" and that was it. It was a cute lol and a nice thing to congratulate.

I was there in that run - everyone was really positive, there was nothing bad in the run or in the post Vanille made but they were literally banned for just the screenshot. It didn't show anyome's name, it didn't prove anything other than at least 1 of the 24 people in that run was parsing and it didn't shame anyone.

Yes, the moderation here is trigger happy.

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Originally Posted by Rockette

I've now realised the irony of this thread is that the people who would want to talk about it can't because they've been banned.

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Im afraid to talk about it but ... well..

The real problem is the moderators seem to ban who they choose and aren't consistent at all with the reason they ban people. I was banned on my mains forum account and when I tried to appeal I got 0 answer to it. It's pretty pathetic that THIS forums moderators don't get how gamers are when it comes to the forums. Even WoW is more laid back in their forums.

Something needs to be done about these moderators, they are so trigger happy that anyone that has the smallest of disputes and argues gets banned. Post negatively about SE (more aggressive that most) banned, one cuss word banned, these forums should be renamed to carebear land because that's how these mods want them. They don't even read the posts half the time, just banhammer without reading or understanding the context of the post!

Hell, i'm probably gonna get banned for this post, and if I do I'm prolly gonna cancel all three of my accounts and just move on and I've been paying them and playing since 1.0.....

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Originally Posted by Valkyrie_Lenneth

Meanwhile, there are several dissent threads, complaint posts, and other such things here and the people who created them have not been banned. Clearly SE is not banning people for being critical of their product. I love that people who say they were banned always say that the forums are a hive mind safe room, yet reddit is the worst place ever in terms of down voting unpopular opinions and the "way things should be"

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Yea, my main account was banned from the forums for saying "a**" (rhymes with sass) literally why. So dont sit and pretend you know this isnt a daycare center, when it is.

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Originally Posted by Hakuro89

It was especially unfair because I had already been handed a 14 day ban for language, and a couple days into that ban I got another email about the aforementioned post and the ban was just made permanent.

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This is exactly what happened to me

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Originally Posted by Rogatum

While not a popular opinion, I have always been of the mindset forums should not ban players outside of extreme cases. Just leads to an echo chamber being created and defeats the purpose of having a forum. In my eyes.

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These moderators seem to try to carebear too much.

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Originally Posted by Driavna

People need to be mature enough to filter their own content. I mean, block people that annoy you and move on with your life. Moderation should only be there for extreme stuff.

Anyway, from my own experience all this stuff is usually twisted for personal/petty wars. "I don't like you and I going to wait for any mistake to get yourself ban" is something very common.

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There is no way to block anyone on these forums....unless they get perma banned... lol

This is a gaming forum, and unfortunately the options available to us are slim to none. We have a character limit that we all bypass with edits (makes no sense), no way to message others on the forums, no way to BLOCK others on the forums, and LITERALLY 0 COMMUNICATION FROM THE MODERATORS EVER. (unless you've been banned) It's sad

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Originally Posted by MoroMurasaki

VanilleFang was banned for a joke thread. They posted an incredibly small portion of their own fflogs page in a screenshot - literally just their 100% run as a WHM on the last boss in Rabanastre. The caption was something like "look what Holy did!" and that was it. It was a cute lol and a nice thing to congratulate.

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Oh, damn. And I thought she deleted it to avoid issues with the community in general. That's sad. :(

I strongly disagree with the ban policies in this forum. They are far too strict and exaggerated. Did you throw an "F" word? Bam! 10 non-paid days of vacations, leading to a perma-ban in some cases. This hurts the community and it doesn't help anyone to improve. You can't even appeal it succesfully. You're silencing your customers! Forums are a way to voice opinions, complaints give ideas, share information and help other players. I honestly feel that the moderation rules should be addressed accordingly.

I used to work in a private RO server as a GM and community moderator, about 3k+ players on and a very active forum board. We had a "warn" system, where we would contact the user directly, quoting the "infraction" and asking them to not repeat the offense. In some cases, that would lead to a 24hrs ban, 3 days ban, 5 days ban. Extreme cases would lead to a permaban. Or if the user accumulated a crazy amount of warns and always under the staff's discretion.

I know someone who was banned for defending the cashshop. :/ People make me confused indeed.

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Originally Posted by Driavna

Erm... I guess the right way to say it is: "Ignore". But yeah, you can ignore anyone and all his text will be hidden by default.

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do explain how

For the person who asked before, no there's no official way to request a ban appeal, once they ban you you can't do anything about it even if it's a wrongful ban, an in game GM can explain to you the reason of the ban but (as per said GMs) there's no procedure to reverse a ban.

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Originally Posted by Driavna

People need to be mature enough to filter their own content. I mean, block people that annoy you and move on with your life. Moderation should only be there for extreme stuff.

Anyway, from my own experience all this stuff is usually twisted for personal/petty wars. "I don't like you and I going to wait for any mistake to get yourself ban" is something very common.

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It's practically the opposite of maturity expecting everyone else to filter them out. It's the same idea with the mature language filter in most games, it's not an excuse to be a sailor. If you don't want to use tact, don't be surprised at the results. This isn't a new concept, much like feigning innocence.

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Originally Posted by Theodric

I hold the firm belief that permanent bans should only be handed out in the most extreme of circumstances. Everybody has 'off' days. Sometimes people endure months of the same poster carefully skirting the established rules to cause trouble, often following them across different threads in an attempt to rile them up. All it takes is for the target to snap and call their stalker an idiot and they risk a ban. I know a lot of people who do not post on this forum due to being banned and more often than not the things they have said are hardly worthy of stifling them permanently.

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The fact that its so easy to get banned both here and in game hasn't gone unnoticed by players. There are a prolific couple on my server who encourage and taunt people into shout chat fights in attempts to report them and get them banned. Over hunts, no less. It's almost a game now. First one to slip up gets their account taken off them. No matter how long they've played, the communities they run, the passion they have for the game. One 'naughty' word to the wrong person and bam. All gone. The GM's / Mods don't care.

It's pretty awful :/

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Originally Posted by Rockette

The fact that its so easy to get banned both here and in game hasn't gone unnoticed by players. There are a prolific couple on my server who encourage and taunt people into shout chat fights in attempts to report them and get them banned. Over hunts, no less. It's almost a game now. First one to slip up gets their account taken off them. No matter how long they've played, the communities they run, the passion they have for the game. One 'naughty' word to the wrong person and bam. All gone. The GM's / Mods don't care.

It's pretty awful :/

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Then the lesson is to not engage with trolls and watch your language. Do you actively interview every single person that has been in a shout match to see if they've received a suspension or ban?