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.

[LalaRu]

the only downside is being unable to report bugs on the forums,

Some bugs may be exploited hard, if released to the public, just think at something like "item dupe" bugs, the nightmare of a game. It is a good thing you can report them privately in game.

[kamenkuro]

Some bugs may be exploited hard, if released to the public, just think at something like "item dupe" bugs, the nightmare of a game. It is a good thing you can report them privately in game.

To be honest, when bug exploits are public the folks using them get suspended pretty swiftly. The thing is that it's when it shows up on bigger places like Twitter or Reddit that they take notice and do something. It's like no one looks at this place, or only use it for updates and liveletters.

I honestly think making the forum a part of the game would work in their favor. Although that would mean they'd need to police that very hard or the sheer force of the entire playerbase could overwhelm them.

[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.

[Mikhaill]

To be honest, this place is a small part of the community. Most players go elsewhere to discuss the game. While bans are frustrating, the loss of being able to talk here is not major. I can only say the only downside is being unable to report bugs on the forums, but you can do that in game too.

As I said in my other post, the major is you can't participate in any forum activities.

People can try and defend how the ban system works and say "Well then don't say this."
Look at the Reddit posts in OP's link. There's A LOT of things you "can't say".
So here you have us praying each post doesn't hurt someones feelings.
I think someone at one point was actually BANNED because of something they quoted which contains some...words.
(Was that Selli?) It literally can be anything. It's probably because people are too sensitive on the forums.
AFAIK, the only way mods even do anything is if a good amount people report the same comment.
I reported someone once, but on different posts and he was still here. It's a group effort there.

[alimdia]

Being banned from the forums also mean unable to submit questions for live letter, unable to vote, unable to participate in community events, unable to leave game feedback in a place where devs kinda-sorta will read it.

[Ameela]

As someone who browses it regularly, the FFXIV subreddit is home to some of the most joyless and fun-hating players who take this game and everything to do with it way too seriously, more so than any other video game sub on the site, which is probably a result of it being a haven for people who got banned from here.
While I don't doubt some people got banned unjustifiably, I think there's a pretty significant number of players who should probably stay as they are for a while longer.

[Skivvy]

Something that's almost hilariously hypocritical is that many have been banned for using the same language used by NPCs IN THE GAME.

While I agree that SE's forum mod team can suspend for rather tame words, I wouldn't say this argument really holds much water. The game also includes murder of many people, mindless slaughtering of fauna, prostitution, etc - I don't think anyone is ready to say that these things should be acceptable in the real world since we do it in game.

But yeah, as Jojoya stated above, this is SE's forum, they get to set the rules. Since we all choose to post here, that is our acceptance to play by their rules.

Also, GenoReaper - I'm pretty sure I know the poster/comments you're referring to, and he was absolutely unreal, but yeah, unfortunately the comment crossed the line (deserved or not).

[MicahZerrshia]

some of the most joyless and fun-hating players who take this game and everything to do with it way too seriously,

To be fair your definition of fun and others could be, and likely are, vastly different.

You may find the simplicity of the combat or the handout of reward and the lack of effort needed fun, where as I do not. You may find the kawaii elements they add as cute and fun where as I find them seethingly horrible. Its not about taking things seriously or not, its just different definitions of fun. I get called a joyless hack too because I find lala horrible creatures that need extermination, male bunny suits as facepalminglu stupid and the cutesy things added or cross over events as out of place or taking away from the game. While to me they are not fun, to you they are. That does not mean we are soul sucking, joyless, fun-hating players. Its just that my fun and your fun are 2 separate things. And when SE sets up certain expectations in the game, like coil or the msq then throws in something like Yokia Watch, its jarring to me where it may be fun to you.

It's all about personal taste. But I am no more a joy kill than you are likely a kawaii obsessed weeabo. These assumptions are where many of the forum problems lie.

[Fawkes]

I have never liked the idea of a permanent ban with no appeal process.

Especially when there's a lot of stories saying people don't know why they were banned, or they were temporarily banned for something and then before that ban expired it escalated to permanent. At the very least SE should improve their communication with their customers.