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

[Rockette]

It's become a meme elsewhere in FFXIV communities, how many long term players are permanently banned from these forums.

When the game first started up and people were finding their way around the forums, the amount of permanent bans for the smallest misstep was crazy. I know people who got banned for offering to help a player transfer servers for a raid group. People in beta who got banned for grumbling that the frequent maintenance we used to have in 2.0 was seriously impacting being able to play.

There are literally thousands of players permanently banned from these forums. It got bought up again recently on reddit in discussion about Ultimate raiding. Those who really wanted to voice an opinion to SE about it can't.

Here is a small recnt thread on reddit discussing it:

Here's another

One example of permanent bannings:


There are players that got banned back in Beta for the weirdest things that have never been allowed back here. Hence why the reddit community in particular is so large with a broader range of topics and opinions.

To be clear: I'm not protesting the rules of the forums nor am I stating that all bans were undeserved. But I think some of these mass historical bans need to be addressed.

[Penthea]

Usually there is a way to appeal bans, if these forums have a way I don't know. Logically they should given you can appeal in-game bans, so I don't see why the forums should be any different.

Depending on the severity of the "offence" I do think some bans should be lifted especially if years have since passed. I'm sure a lot of people who got banned were stupid kids who said stupid crap and are by now adults who no longer act this way. Definitely if their subscription to the game has remained very active during the ban SE should entertain the idea of giving back their voices.

As for the perma ban of the player due to reporting their own thread after realising an error, that could have been an automated system that simply scanned for keywords as well as potential lodestone entries of characters. If a person did manually ban them then that certainly was a very stupid decision or it could be a simple case of not reading the report as a whole properly. I wonder if the player appealed the ban. It's not unusual for people to be unaware that you usually can appeal bans.

[Dualgunner]

So in other words #GetSelliBack2018?

[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.

[Dualgunner]

The other irony is discussing it here will probably just cause more ban victims. Yes, I do agree however it is a particular issue that a disturbingly large portion of the playerbase has been silenced on the OF for some relatively minor things.

That second thread you linked, with Dervy's comment really stung a bit: banned four times for the same offense? Like...how?!

[Rokke]

Hence why the reddit community in particular is so large with a broader range of topics and opinions.

frontpage of r/ffxiv any day of the week:
____ need buffs
look at this artwork I commissioned of my catgirl
look at this screenshot of a thing everyone has seen 10+ times since the expansion
look at how I decorated my house
look at this artwork I commissioned of my lizardgirl
look at my bad tattoo
fashion report hints or answers
2 or so interviews
I got a __ that was bad in my roulette! Is this normal?
hi im new to mmos is this mmo new people friendly? :)

I agree there should be some sort of appeal process if you were banned for something dumb or banned a looooong time ago but lets not pretend anything deep and meaningful is going down on reddit lol

[Vnolan]

In-game GMs also moderate the forums. A player can make an appeal by contacting a GM. I was told that by a GM a few months ago when I asked how one could appeal a ban from the forums.

[Istaru]

So in other words #GetSelliBack2018?

Yes! Bring her back please.

[Lukha]

I think part of the problem is the lack of basic features like a messaging system, so there's no way to communicate with mods, or for them to communicate with you. I was given a temp ban last April and I still have no idea why. If there's a way to appeal I couldn't find it; I tried both via SE's support web page and in-game GMs and both basically directed me back to the forums I was currently banned from for more information. I didn't even get an email.

[Rockette]

I agree there should be some sort of appeal process if you were banned for something dumb or banned a looooong time ago but lets not pretend anything deep and meaningful is going down on reddit lol

Yes, I could also cherry pick asinine and casual topics from reddit alongside Stat weight discussions, raid discussions, dps advice and guides, basically all the raider stuff that isn't discussed here.

Saying there isn't anything worthwhile on reddit is blissfully dense. Where would you go for a basic guide on a class you wanted to learn. Here? Please. The best options are reddit and a certain discord which you can find via... Reddit.

Trust me, if I want to discuss glamour options for Kurenai, complain about choco racing and parsers, I know where to come.

I agree there absolutely needs to be some sort of appeal option for forum bans. The English community team just seems so trigger happy to hand out permanent bans instead of any sort of communication with players.

It just bothers me so much when Yoshi and the team ask for raid/class feedback from the community when they probably are not aware of how many raiders and long term players are banned