Months of harassment

Right well this is the kind of stuff we're getting blasted with.
Forewarning: These have been cropped but not censored. Contained racist, transphobic, homophobic, and offensive remarks.
April 20th 1/2
April 20th 2/2

Even attempting a kick with a canned message during the flood is ineffective.

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Originally Posted by Helbya

Right well this is the kind of stuff we're getting blasted with.
Forewarning: These have been cropped but not censored. Contained racist, transphobic, homophobic, and offensive remarks.
(snipped links)

Even attempting a kick with a canned message during the flood is ineffective.

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Just a warning, you may get forum-banned for not censoring these screenshots (both the character name and the slurs). But I can confirm we got hit with these same ones on Adamantoise earlier, too.

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Originally Posted by AstraBraifort

Just a warning, you may get forum-banned for not censoring these screenshots (both the character name and the slurs). But I can confirm we got hit with these same ones on Adamantoise earlier, too.

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Honestly at this point it needs to be seen. This is so problematic on so many levels, and like usual, nothing has been done. Where are the moderators and the devs on this?? Surely if the moderators can't understand what to do, there has to be someone who speaks English fluently, and works for the FFXIV team.

I remember during a live stream, they instantly banned people from saying "la-hee", because it was spamming up everything. It's kinda funny that they can instantly take care of something so nonsensical as that, but do nothing in the actual game about any of our problems involving player conduct.

Was it the same messages?
If so that says our little troll here is queuing a world transfer and slapping that macro button when the transfer dings to evade the kick and run amok across all worlds.

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Originally Posted by Helbya

Was it the same messages?
If so that says our little troll here is queuing a world transfer and slapping that macro button when the transfer dings to evade the kick and run amok across all worlds.

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Yeah, that's what he's been doing since day 1 of spamming. Unfortunately old news.

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Originally Posted by DamianFatale

Honestly at this point it needs to be seen. This is so problematic on so many levels, and like usual, nothing has been done. Where are the moderators and the devs on this?? Surely if the moderators can't understand what to do, there has to be someone who speaks English fluently, and works for the FFXIV team.

I remember during a live stream, they instantly banned people from saying "la-hee", because it was spamming up everything. It's kinda funny that they can instantly take care of something so nonsensical as that, but do nothing in the actual game about any of our problems involving player conduct.

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We've been posting censored screenshots in this post and it still gets the point across just fine. I just didn't want that guy to get banned as a result of posting them.
It's absolutely horrendous what's being said, I agree. No one should have to see this on a near-daily basis for as long as it's been going on. The GMs are only taking action against the actual accounts that are spamming since the person behind it all isn't using his main account and instead is using a side account with burnable alts. This forum post is months old and it's awful that nothing has happened to address it for real.

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Originally Posted by AstraBraifort

Yeah, that's what he's been doing since day 1 of spamming. Unfortunately old news.



We've been posting censored screenshots in this post and it still gets the point across just fine. I just didn't want that guy to get banned as a result of posting them.
It's absolutely horrendous what's being said, I agree. No one should have to see this on a near-daily basis for as long as it's been going on. The GMs are only taking action against the actual accounts that are spamming since the person behind it all isn't using his main account and instead is using a side account with burnable alts. This forum post is months old and it's awful that nothing has happened to address it for real.

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considering the amount of dedication this guy has, its likely that hes also got mentor alts as well on burner accounts, as well as a way to reset his IP so that he cant be tracked and IP banned. I mentioned this earlier but, I personally think his payment information needs to be banned. I also dont think targetting the people who invite him in would work because it could simply be a case of them shouting in limsa “Can someone please invite me to novice network?” majority of the time.

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Originally Posted by MilkieTea

considering the amount of dedication this guy has, its likely that hes also got mentor alts as well on burner accounts, as well as a way to reset his IP so that he cant be tracked and IP banned. I mentioned this earlier but, I personally think his payment information needs to be banned. I also dont think targetting the people who invite him in would work because it could simply be a case of them shouting in limsa “Can someone please invite me to novice network?” majority of the time.

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He absolutely has a mentor main that's doing the inviting. We used to know the character name, but he's not using that account anymore. Plus with the spamming not being directly tied to the main, there's not much to be done about it with the way the GMs are handling it currently. They can only really go after the alts with the spam. And I believe SE doesn't IP ban for fear of accidentally IP banning a big public place (like a university for example). Unsure if a payment ban would work - I don't know if he could just get a new card number and skirt it that way if he did get payment info banned. I can also confirm he's not shouting in Limsa asking for an invite, at least not on Adamantoise or a few of the other servers I've talked to mentors on. We're all certain he has a mentor main doing the inviting.

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Originally Posted by AstraBraifort

He absolutely has a mentor main that's doing the inviting. We used to know the character name, but he's not using that account anymore. Plus with the spamming not being directly tied to the main, there's not much to be done about it with the way the GMs are handling it currently. They can only really go after the alts with the spam. And I believe SE doesn't IP ban for fear of accidentally IP banning a big public place (like a university for example). Unsure if a payment ban would work - I don't know if he could just get a new card number and skirt it that way if he did get payment info banned. I can also confirm he's not shouting in Limsa asking for an invite, at least not on Adamantoise or a few of the other servers I've talked to mentors on. We're all certain he has a mentor main doing the inviting.

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I forget how NN’s user list works, but is there a way to narrow it down with the list of mentors online and in NN and go from there? Im pretty certain if you figure out who the mentor is there’ll be some indication within the spam. Or can mentors not in NN invite?

I know it seems like Im probably pulling stuff outta my a** desperately, and I partially am, but I also have a tiny bit of an idea forming in regards to this that I hope *may* work for at least a little bit longer than the reprieves of only several weeks that you guys have already been getting.

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Originally Posted by MilkieTea

I forget how NN’s user list works, but is there a way to narrow it down with the list of mentors online and in NN and go from there? Im pretty certain if you figure out who the mentor is there’ll be some indication within the spam. Or can mentors not in NN invite?

I know it seems like Im probably pulling stuff outta my a** desperately, and I partially am, but I also have a tiny bit of an idea forming in regards to this that I hope *may* work for at least a little bit longer than the reprieves of only several weeks that you guys have already been getting.

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IIRC you can invite sprouts to NN without physically being in NN at the moment. Even then, for example, he can invite the sprout alt on Sargatanas, and then the alt can travel to Cactuar to spam there. We only knew his main account because that's how this issue started in the first place. Back around August, his mentor main was spamming spoilers in Adamantoise's NN and got temp banned as a result. Then he came back with a vengeance.

A lot of us mentors are desperate, especially those of us who've been witnessing this behavior from the start. We have such a good idea of how the guy is getting away with it, but nothing can really be done about it. That's why this forum post was made - so that maybe someone higher up on the chain would see it and be able to address it in a more effective manner. We're all sick and tired of seeing the walls and walls of spam and slurs. I'm pretty much desensitized to it at this point, but I feel terrible for the other mentors and sprouts that see it for the first time. I don't want them to think this is how the community is, because it isn't.

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Originally Posted by AstraBraifort

IIRC you can invite sprouts to NN without physically being in NN at the moment. Even then, for example, he can invite the sprout alt on Sargatanas, and then the alt can travel to Cactuar to spam there. We only knew his main account because that's how this issue started in the first place. Back around August, his mentor main was spamming spoilers in Adamantoise's NN and got temp banned as a result. Then he came back with a vengeance.

A lot of us mentors are desperate, especially those of us who've been witnessing this behavior from the start. We have such a good idea of how the guy is getting away with it, but nothing can really be done about it. That's why this forum post was made - so that maybe someone higher up on the chain would see it and be able to address it in a more effective manner. We're all sick and tired of seeing the walls and walls of spam and slurs. I'm pretty much desensitized to it at this point, but I feel terrible for the other mentors and sprouts that see it for the first time. I don't want them to think this is how the community is, because it isn't.

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Valid. Ive been following this on and off since practically day 1, and while Im not in NN in Aether, Id hate to think that *this* is the experience that new players are getting, and thinking this game is *this* toxic, when its just one dude with a vendetta and a creepy amount of spare time.

Has anyone put the FF_XIV_EN twitter account on blast for this? It’s stupid, but normally when companies are called out on a public forum where they can be seen by more than just their core consumers, they tend to be a bit more proactive. If not, perhaps have one person make a tweet and attempt to get others to like, retweet, comment on it. If they dont respond to just the one tweet, make multiple tweets, begin tagging SE’s main twitter account, and ensure that each of these tweets get similar traction (perhaps by sharing amongst a specific, large group of people?)

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Originally Posted by MilkieTea

Has anyone put the FF_XIV_EN twitter account on blast for this? It’s stupid, but normally when companies are called out on a public forum where they can be seen by more than just their core consumers, they tend to be a bit more proactive. If not, perhaps have one person make a tweet and attempt to get others to like, retweet, comment on it. If they dont respond to just the one tweet, make multiple tweets, begin tagging SE’s main twitter account, and ensure that each of these tweets get similar traction (perhaps by sharing amongst a specific, large group of people?)

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A few of us have tried tweeting about this and sharing it around, but unfortunately none of us had a large enough following on the platform to get it rolling. We even directly replied to a few FF_XIV_EN tweets, but even then only a couple of other players would reply either dismissing the situation completely or offering unhelpful advice (like "Just block him?" as if that would actually work in this situation because of new alts being used every time). We're all just feeling a little defeated because if this situation were happening on a JP data center, it absolutely would've been addressed by now. But because it's on an NA data center, it's no real issue to SE it seems... Especially since it's only really affecting a small subset of players too (those in Aether's NNs).

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Originally Posted by AstraBraifort

A few of us have tried tweeting about this and sharing it around, but unfortunately none of us had a large enough following on the platform to get it rolling. We even directly replied to a few FF_XIV_EN tweets, but even then only a couple of other players would reply either dismissing the situation completely or offering unhelpful advice (like "Just block him?" as if that would actually work in this situation because of new alts being used every time). We're all just feeling a little defeated because if this situation were happening on a JP data center, it absolutely would've been addressed by now. But because it's on an NA data center, it's no real issue to SE it seems... Especially since it's only really affecting a small subset of players too (those in Aether's NNs).

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How would they be able to address it on a JP data center any better than on a NA data center?

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

How would they be able to address it on a JP data center any better than on a NA data center?

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They tend to respond to JP related issues with much less public outcry.

If half as many JP players reported this as NA people did it would've been taken care of.

Take natural disasters as another example. Any kind of natural disaster that knocks out power in JP they pause things like housing auto-demo yet here in NA it takes several thousand people for them to do anything in the same manner.

While I want to believe it's just "Japan knows Japan problems better than other places' problems" there are some things that have made me question it. I think the mass amounts of nonsense that happens in the NA community has led them to start ignoring a lot of what we post/say about things.

I suppose you could also gather some people together and politely explain the situation to a prominent FFXIV streamer to see if they can start raising awareness about the issue through their platform.

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Originally Posted by Theodric

I suppose you could also gather some people together and politely explain the situation to a prominent FFXIV streamer to see if they can start raising awareness about the issue through their platform.

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That's a really good idea, actually.

Good luck. I’ve been harassed by months by someone imitating me by putting an apostrophe in their surname (exact character name otherwise) who then follows me around and harasses me. I fear for my life every day I log on. This person is deranged. GMs do nothing.

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Originally Posted by OGPupDoge

Good luck. I’ve been harassed by months by someone imitating me by putting an apostrophe in their surname (exact character name otherwise) who then follows me around and harasses me. I fear for my life every day I log on. This person is deranged. GMs do nothing.

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You dear for your life every day you log on but I assume you that is your twitch in your signature.

I mean if it is that scary why give the person more info? I get why to a degree no need to hide in fear or should have to hide in fear but to some degree if it is truly scary for you at that point one has to put their own safety first.

Some people are mentally ill and go to extremes to have the recognition they don't get in real life.

Damn. It is absolutely ridiculous that this is allowed to go on. SE really, really needs to step up its game or they're going to have his guy chase away all the new people.

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Originally Posted by SpiritMuse

Damn. It is absolutely ridiculous that this is allowed to go on. SE really, really needs to step up its game or they're going to have his guy chase away all the new people.

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That's exactly my main concern. As Astra previously said, we don't want new and old players alike seeing this BS and feeling like this is how the FFXIV community is, because it's not.

Start a petition for SE to take some action. Post the link too it in the Aether discord make sure you ask the Admins there before hand. Most importantly DO NOT POST IT HERE!!! As such things are not allowed on the forum page. Get a couple thousand people to sign if possible then mail the entire thing to SE the same way players petition Blizzard for Classic servers. Its clear that forum posts are not getting their attention so time to make a big rukus that will. Harrassement is not acceptable and even though I am not on Aether I agree its time for the nonsense thats been happening to stop. Players should not have to deal with the constant garbage Aether has being going through or being harrassed personally by another player.

Alright, but what exactly do we want SE to do about this? Novice Network obviously lacks in the moderation side but I doubt SE will spring for hiring moderators with the tools to intercept, track, and block this kind of harassment. There has been sufficient discussion on the ineffectiveness of IP Bans and such. Blocking all macro scripts from inputting anything to the Novice Network seems like the least intrusive way to inhibit these attacks, but doesn't exactly stop them from happening. Tracking the 'Mentor' inviting these alts could lead us to the primary account, but could also lead to random victims who invited the inconspicuous sprout in Limsa.

It's sad that this thread is still going. I hope an investigation gets going on the issue already.

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Originally Posted by MilkieTea

considering the amount of dedication this guy has, its likely that hes also got mentor alts as well on burner accounts, as well as a way to reset his IP so that he cant be tracked and IP banned. I mentioned this earlier but, I personally think his payment information needs to be banned. I also dont think targetting the people who invite him in would work because it could simply be a case of them shouting in limsa “Can someone please invite me to novice network?” majority of the time.

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That guy is lifeless, he has nothing to do but harassing the public? w...t...f.. ? Is he mental?

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Originally Posted by MiniTofu

Is he mental?

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By the sound of things? Yes. No question about that.

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Originally Posted by SomeRandomHuman

They tend to respond to JP related issues with much less public outcry.

If half as many JP players reported this as NA people did it would've been taken care of.

Take natural disasters as another example. Any kind of natural disaster that knocks out power in JP they pause things like housing auto-demo yet here in NA it takes several thousand people for them to do anything in the same manner.

While I want to believe it's just "Japan knows Japan problems better than other places' problems" there are some things that have made me question it. I think the mass amounts of nonsense that happens in the NA community has led them to start ignoring a lot of what we post/say about things.

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My question wasn't why would they be more likely to address it on JP servers than NA. Clearly SE practices bias toward their JP player base despite all of us paying the same subscription (look at the greater number of worlds for JP players despite lower active population and how that impacts house availability for JP compared to NA).

My question was how would they be able to address it any better? VPN are extremely common these days when one wants to mask identifying factors and it's quick and easy to make throwaway trial accounts. Assuming SE would go to additional lengths to get the assistance of law enforcement in obtaining the real world identity of the individual responsible (which I doubt over something players can easily handle on an individual basis through blacklist), they're still going to be tied up by whatever the legal system is where that individual resides and whether or not that legal system would consider the individual's actions a crime.

So again how could SE address it any better if it was happening on the JP servers instead of the NA servers? They're still up against trying to identify the individual responsible then getting assistance from law enforcement to stop that individual's activities.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

So again how could SE address it any better if it was happening on the JP servers instead of the NA servers?

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The same way they responded to PvP hacks, I guess.

They didn't care until it sprouted up on JP servers, and they responded by banning trials from every doing the content so if one does it on their JP servers, they can ban them.

So if they do respond, they'll just prevent trials from accessing the NN.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

So again how could SE address it any better if it was happening on the JP servers instead of the NA servers?

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It wouldn't be addressed "any better". It's just that, as with most issues on JP servers, it would be addressed faster and taken more seriously.

You originally posed this question to one of my responses, and I honestly don't know why, because my post didn't mention it would be addressed better either. I said it would've been addressed by now.

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Originally Posted by AstraBraifort

(...) because if this situation were happening on a JP data center, it absolutely would've been addressed by now. But because it's on an NA data center, it's no real issue to SE it seems... Especially since it's only really affecting a small subset of players too (those in Aether's NNs).

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"What do you want SE to do about this?" I've seen people ask this in the thread a lot. The purpose of this thread was to raise attention to this issue because players shouldn't have to put up with this for as long as it's been going on (since around August), especially in a chat meant for new players to get help in the game. So what do I want SE to do about this? Honestly, at this point, I want them to do whatever they need to as long as it solves this issue. It's nice to try and think of solutions on here, but ultimately if there is an issue going on in the game, the onus is on SE to figure out how to solve it, not the players.

That's a fair point; This is a service we are Paying for, and someone is clearly harassing and attacking the community in contemptuous violation of the stated rules. It doesn't fall on us to fix the problem.

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Originally Posted by Helbya

That's a fair point; This is a service we are Paying for, and someone is clearly harassing and attacking the community in contemptuous violation of the stated rules. It doesn't fall on us to fix the problem.

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Couldn't agree more.

Though if SE has failed to fix the problem it begs the question what else can the communityn do if SE has shown either an unwillingness or an inability to do anything.

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Originally Posted by Awha

Though if SE has failed to fix the problem it begs the question what else can the communityn do if SE has shown either an unwillingness or an inability to do anything.

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Be hyper vigilant is about all I can suggest, whatever that may entail.

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Originally Posted by Theodric

I suppose you could also gather some people together and politely explain the situation to a prominent FFXIV streamer to see if they can start raising awareness about the issue through their platform.

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Still though, I feel this could be more beneficial if the right streamer is found and is willing to talk about it. SE hates bad press like any other big company does. Well, with the exception of Blizzard. They seem to love it. lol I guess someone could also try to ask Yoshi P himself during the live Q&A next month but chances are he won't bite.

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Originally Posted by Vahlnir

Be hyper vigilant is about all I can suggest, whatever that may entail.




Still though, I feel this could be more beneficial if the right streamer is found and is willing to talk about it. SE hates bad press like any other big company does. Well, with the exception of Blizzard. They seem to love it. lol I guess someone could also try to ask Yoshi P himself during the live Q&A next month but chances are he won't bite.

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Personally at this point I think at this point all we can do is just starve this man of the attention. Sure hateful speech is hard to ignore but sadly within the game space in terms of player control the tools are rather limited especially if the person has burner accounts and a lot of free time.

It took blizzard with overwatch a hardware ban and said troll making youtube videos to get them off overwatch.

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Originally Posted by Awha

Personally at this point I think at this point all we can do is just starve this man of the attention. Sure hateful speech is hard to ignore but sadly within the game space in terms of player control the tools are rather limited especially if the person has burner accounts and a lot of free time.

It took blizzard with overwatch a hardware ban and said troll making youtube videos to get them off overwatch.

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I think a hardware ban is more than justified at this point.

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Originally Posted by Chie_M

I think a hardware ban is more than justified at this point.

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That is true.

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Originally Posted by Awha

Personally at this point I think at this point all we can do is just starve this man of the attention. Sure hateful speech is hard to ignore but sadly within the game space in terms of player control the tools are rather limited especially if the person has burner accounts and a lot of free time.

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This has been suggested in this thread multiple times already. It's almost impossible to do given the sheer amount of players that rotate in and out of Novice Network every day. Obviously, those of us who know what's been happening don't react to it. But new players? Returning players? Mentors who casually play? All examples of people who might not know this has been going on and will react in chat to the wall of slurs. Then those of us who do know what's going on have to respond to try and explain that this is just one guy and not reflective of the community at large.

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Originally Posted by AstraBraifort

This has been suggested in this thread multiple times already. It's almost impossible to do given the sheer amount of players that rotate in and out of Novice Network every day. Obviously, those of us who know what's been happening don't react to it. But new players? Returning players? Mentors who casually play? All examples of people who might not know this has been going on and will react in chat to the wall of slurs. Then those of us who do know what's going on have to respond to try and explain that this is just one guy and not reflective of the community at large.

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End of the day we only have control over our own actions. One really does not have to respond people will be shocked but as time goes on fewer and fewer people will respond to his comments. I did mention it would be hard to ignore but the reality is outside of starting a mass movement around this (which I personally do not see happening) not much we can do as players short from not let it been seen that it is bothering us. With time even the most deprived troll will get bored.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...70/spammer.png
Timestamp: 04:18 (4:18 AM), GMT+9 (Japanese Time), Midgardsormr, Novice Network

They're making sprouts/returners want to leave. We've all noted that it's been ongoing for months. One of our mentors got personally targeted by the spammer through the spammer imitating their name in chat.

This cannot continue. Square Enix, PLEASE PUT A GAMEMASTER IN EVERY NOVICE NETWORK FOR AT LEAST THE NEXT MONTH. It will be much less of a strain to the GM system for them to assign a single GM to observe Novice Network, trace the spammer, and hopefully nip the weed in the bud than it would be for them to keep recieving reports on this for MONTHS and for us to keep suffering from this for MONTHS.

And, after that, they need to take legal action against the person responsible. I'm pretty sure this guy must have broken a rule somewhere, or at least their actions are significant enough that one can consider their actions as having incurred /damages/ to Square Enix. Surely they can track the person through their bank/registration info/etc.

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Originally Posted by Vinupra-Rosa

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...70/spammer.png
Timestamp: 04:18 (4:18 AM), GMT+9 (Japanese Time), Midgardsormr, Novice Network

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Can I just get this on record: These are active hate crimes at this point. SE's own arbitration rules in ToS are unable to protect them from this since you cannot arbitrate illegal activity. They have a lot of potential lawsuits at their front door with that number only growing each day they let this go.