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

[Stormfur]

I received a temporary ban once for talking about the horrendous wait times in Feast (in a post made by a community moderator). I think it was a misunderstanding, because I wasn't referencing THEM being the cause of the wait time...just that Feast has really....really.....really long waits sometimes... irrespective of who you are.

In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have made that post on a community moderator-created event announcement... but it was unlocked so I thought maybe it was open for comments. Oops! (and for the one who issued the ban, maybe thinking it was a slight toward them...I promise it wasn't...and I hope we can see each other in the Feast arena one day! I will totally PVP with you all any time!)

[Enkrateia]

Greetings, everyone!

I understand that the process for appealing an account action is somewhat vague, and this is something that we are certainly working on improving. However, there are currently 2 options for appealing any account action:

1. Contact a GM in game to explain why you feel the account action is unjustified.
2. Contact the Support Center (NA)/Support Center (EU) to explain why you feel the account action is unjustified.

These requests are escalated along with the additional information you provide to ensure the account action was issued correctly. As a general rule of thumb, however, account actions will only be reviewed once unless there is determined to be some sort of exceptional circumstance.

As I mentioned before, we are working on improving this process to make it more streamlined for customers.

LGM Enkrateia

[Sebazy]

Greetings, everyone!

Thanks for being brave enough to pop into this hornets nest btw, kudos for that <3

If you're open to a question here, I'd like to put forward the following:

It's interesting to note that Dervy's ban was mentioned above, I've actually been helping him get back into the swing of things and got his first O8S kill only the other day. His case is a good example to highlight where perhaps the moderation team aren't making the best decisions for the good of the community?

Now if you ask me, his first ban was pretty harsh whilst the second was positively trite in a manner that goes against the spirit of a forum. Now this isn't me asking you to reverse Dervy's ban. I suspect that bridge is long burned from both ends now. I'll also add that I didn't have too much trouble getting in contact over my ban either so that's not a concern of mine either.

Rather, I'm more interested in any efforts towards ensuring more balanced, reasonable and consistent moderation towards this forum's users. Needless hate and flaming is unproductive and I'm glad when that gets stopped in it's tracks. However, it often feels like we are walking a tight rope on so many occasions due to the vague enforcement of various aspects of the rules and ToS.

Simply offering requested advice to another player or clarifying details can feel like we are playing Russian roulette with our account rights and that's just wrong when we are actively contributing to the community here.

Perhaps it's time to consider a disclaimered subsection of the board where talk of parsers and such is allowed. This would have the bonus side effect of bringing much of the raid scene back under SE's umbrella whilst also making it easier for the community team to jump on potential sagas such as Ungarmax?

Once again, thanks <3

[Okamimaru]

I got a temp ban for saying a players "attitude may have been $#!tty" in context of someone being a jerk but not doing anything against the TOS.... then later in the same thread there was an f-bomb just sitting pretty.... no ban for the fbomb... just a ban for saying $#!tty

[MageBlack]

I too have had my main account banned from the forums, this is my son's account.I got banned really early in 2.0 for defending the game against the onslaught of overly aggressive and prolific posters. I'm no saint by any means but I know I was reported by certain individuals who disliked what I had to say. One instance was in the SSM insanity, I defended the inclusion of SSM because it really doesnt matter what the in game sex is or what people do outside the game. That was many years ago... I'm still here, still playing, and still posting just not all under a single account. I can even recall a few specific names (that I will leave out) with whom we became nemesis' of sorts. Only difference is I didnt report their terrible behavior but they had friends who reported me. There is really no oversight in the banning process, no communication with the Ban-ee, (I honestly dont know what i was banned for but I can kinda guess) and no way to redeem yourself, let alone discuss what happened or even apologize to the offended parties and make amends. It would be nice if there was a statute of limitations around their banning process and it wasnt what feels like a blind auto-ban based on the number of reports.

[Mikhaill]

I apologized on support system a long time ago and it didn't do anything.
I got some weird ass generic reply...
I even contacted a legit SE support. He was really kind and understanding.
I told him what happened, apologized, and he said that I can contact
the Forum Mods. Little did he know, we're all 100% blocked...as soon as you log in
you get the "Something, something... Ban Lift: Never." He was surprised to the fact
that I couldn't even contact anyone, point blank period. Barring us from actual forum mods
is downright silly. I wish we could at least still log in our mains to "Like" or contact forums mods.

Greetings, everyone!

I understand that the process for appealing an account action is somewhat vague, and this is something that we are certainly working on improving. However, there are currently 2 options for appealing any account action:

1. Contact a GM in game to explain why you feel the account action is unjustified.
2. Contact the Support Center (NA)/Support Center (EU) to explain why you feel the account action is unjustified.

These requests are escalated along with the additional information you provide to ensure the account action was issued correctly. As a general rule of thumb, however, account actions will only be reviewed once unless there is determined to be some sort of exceptional circumstance.

As I mentioned before, we are working on improving this process to make it more streamlined for customers.

LGM Enkrateia

Edit: I have tried this already. We cannot talk to you, or anyone else because of the ban.
The SE support on site have nothing to do with the forums, so we're screwed because we can't
contact you or other mods...I hope this post was directed to forum bans and not in-game bans.
Are the GM's in game the same Forum Mods?

[Enkrateia]

I hope this post was directed to forum bans and not in-game bans.

Greetings, Mikhaill.

I can understand how my post was not specific about this point. I considered trying to fit in the clarification, but it felt awkward when I tried to add it to my original post. However, to answer your inquiry, the methods I noted in my post are for any type of account action. So it could be used to request a review for account actions against a game service, forum access, or any action against the Square Enix Account itself. That is why I included multiple points of contact, so that customers who could not access the game could also request a review.

I hope this clarifies it a bit.

LGM Enkrateia

[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.

[NolLacnala]

I got a two week suspension for telling an admitted votekick abuser that I hoped they would get kicked from every party, almost word for word.

First time offense reason for suspension: Aggressive posting

lol?

[Rogatum]

I got a two week suspension for telling an admitted votekick abuser that I hoped they would get kicked from every party, almost word for word.

First time offense reason for suspension: Aggressive posting

lol?

How can someone abuse a vote kick if one difference of play style is a valid reason to kick someone, and two it takes a majority for a kick to go through? Just wondering.