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

[MicahZerrshia]

My bans have come from critiquing the development team. Even when that criticism is written in a professional and constructive manner. If you dare to question whether certain people actually play their own game or just say you don't understand why they did something because it makes zero sense to the average player and explain why you think that. Banned.

I think I have only been banned from something I said to another player once overall (here of course) and I am active on many forums. But I think they either thought it was a troll since you cannot hear 'how' I am saying it (I thought I was being obviously just silly and funny) or they were just very very fragile as I try never to dip into anything that could be construed as offensive. I firmly believe there isn't as much trolling as people think but since you cannot hear tones or see body language its easy to take things as such. Every time I get responses that seem 'mean' or are not obvious trolls, fanboys or salt I take a step back and question what was said before I reply.

I have learned not to criticize the devs on here or question any choices they make. The forum moderators seem to have very little tolerance for having the choices of the dev team questioned. And I seldom try to be funny or friendly here, or even in-game anymore, since some can have a skin so thin its translucent. Funny thing is this game seems to have the more fragile playerbase overall or people who just take advantage of a very strict code on conduct. I don't have this issue in ESO or GW2. Sometimes you just feel like your walking on eggshells here moreso than other games.

[Rockette]

Snip

Thank you for sharing. There's one other thing I wanted to bring up but I haven't gotten confirmation on it. I've heard from someone who was banned from Lodestone that they are no long treating lodestone/forums and game penalty as separate things. That a strike on the forums could count towards your record in game as well.

I haven't asked a GM myself so I don't know about that for a fact but it might be something to keep in mind.

[ElHeggunte]

I've heard from someone who was banned from Lodestone that they are no long treating lodestone/forums and game penalty as separate things. That a strike on the forums could count towards your record in game as well.

When I got my 10 day ban last year for being passive-aggressive towards a forum troll the email they sent me said this:

Please be aware that during the suspension, we will review the case and determine if you are eligible to access the forums in the future. Depending on the situation, we may decide to take further action by terminating your access to the FINAL FANTASY XI Forum and/or FINAL FANTASY XIV Forum.

Further violations made on the forum against the Square Enix Account Terms of Use, the FINAL FANTASY XIV User Agreement, or the FINAL FANTASY XIV FORUM Guidelines, may result in forum access rights being revoked, and the temporary, or permanent, suspension of access to your Square Enix account. This would mean losing access to both the forum and to FINAL FANTASY XIV itself, so please take sufficient care before posting.

So yes, it appears so.