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

[HyoMinPark]

Anybody got their account unbanned? I know plenty of people that got their reviews rejected telling them their ban was 100% justified.

I’m curious as well. I haven’t heard of any bans being rescinded yet.

[Rockette]

I’m curious as well. I haven’t heard of any bans being rescinded yet.

Ok :<

I guess it was just lip service then.

[NotOliverB]

Just get multiple service accounts.

[Kirsten_Rev]

Ok :<

I guess it was just lip service then.

I think it may have been, sadly. I don't normally post on the forums, but my boyfriend's story is similar to a lot here.

Like many have described, he got perma-banned for a relatively innocuous post. It had a single f-word in it that he bleeped out (asterisks for the three letters after f), and also a four-letter word beginning with p that also means urine. I'm hesitant to type either, because I don't know what he got banned for exactly. He was strongly responding to a post that had labeled a previous one of his with the r-word, but these were the only two words that could even remotely convey rudeness. The poster who called his ideas the r-word didn't receive so much as a temp ban that we could find. My boyfriend, on the other hand, received a perma-ban, despite having only one offense on his record previously (for a more clear-cut, but still language-related, post about a year ago).

He appealed the verdict through the form that was posted a few weeks ago, and got nowhere. Ban fully justified, and stays in effect. This means he cannot participate in certain forum-only community events, cannot contribute his ideas, cannot really comment on the game at all via official means. All because of - near as we can tell - a self-deleted swear word (it was never written in its full form) and a four-letter word for urine that one is likely to hear by the time they're six years old.

Honestly, we feel like permanent bans really shouldn't exist except in extraordinary circumstances. A little profanity here or there, a harsh response to someone, a careful attempt to discuss parsers that include screenshots from said parsers - these sorts of offenses, if considered offenses at all, should be punished (at most) by relatively short temporary bans, a few days maybe, scaling up to a week or so if the behaviour is repeated. That's about what they'd get from FFXIV itself, so why should the forums be moderated so much more aggressively? It just doesn't make sense.

We're also very disappointed that the feedback form appears to be nothing more than window dressing over the same broken process. This is a widespread problem - on the Reddit forums it's almost treated as a badge of pride - and that should be evoking more of a response from SE than we're seeing.

[Theodric]

As an aside, for those in doubt of that bizarre way in which punishments are dished out in this game, check out this thread:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...egrity-at-risk

Obviously take it with a pinch of salt and do your own research, but people are getting away with making dirty money off of this game and cheating to get exclusive rewards even as other players are permanently banned for one off heated posts or naming and shaming out of sheer frustration. There's at least one player - with multiple accounts - who baits players into saying things they regret by bragging about all of the houses they have acquired through dubious means, knowing full well that the artificial shortage of player housing has left a lot of people out of luck.

Worse yet, it'll likely never be acknowledged...because whenever anyone does bring up the state of moderation we just get told that they cannot comment on individual cases.

[Vnolan]

He appealed the verdict through the form that was posted a few weeks ago, and got nowhere. Ban fully justified, and stays in effect.

We're also very disappointed that the feedback form appears to be nothing more than window dressing over the same broken process.

The form is for queries about account actions that might have been incorrectly issued. It was never stated that you could get justified account actions reversed.

You guys should just come out and unequivocally ask for changes to the forum ToS and the severity of penalties handed out for infringements.

[Sebazy]

and also a four-letter word beginning with p that also means urine.

The irony of getting banned over a word that appears in in-game text on countless occasions never ceases to make me cringe =(

[Elamys]

The irony of getting banned over a word that appears in in-game text on countless occasions never ceases to make me cringe =(

If they hate swearing so much, why not just implement an automatic filter like almost every forum in existence? (Though that did result in WoW's forums censoring the item Telaari Grapes...I think they fixed it though.)

[MiniOmegaDragon]

i have sent 2 applies for my account

[MiniOmegaDragon]

i got banned becos i stood my ground as someone thats gay i now hate Sq as full and maybe seeking legal action i feel the person that did report me has abused his rights as a player and i coped it for standing up for myself and a lier/ bully