How forum moderation works - requesting a GM response please

[Crystal_Raven]

It doesn't.

Someone posted a picture on this forum in a long conversation that, I asked them to remove it because it plain and simple was disgusting(it was also against the ToS.) It was even against the law in certain places because of it's nature.

The fun part is that I got a week ban for that, while the picture stayed up. Even though it was violating the TOS. I avoided the OF forums for months after that. Even now I avoid it and I conduct my business elsewhere. If I get banned, so be it. I've already established multiple areas where I can communicate with other players without fear of a moderator banning me for nonsense.

[MistakeNot]

One thing to keep in mind is that it probably matters greatly if some player reports a post or not.
If nobody reports a post, then the moderators will likely never look at it - and thus not ban anyone even if that post broke all kinds of rules.
If somebody does report a post, then it will get looked at, and bans can happen if the post breaks any of the rules - and it is easy to break the rules, even unintentionally.

[kikix12]

You can't expect guidelines when there are none. The moderators on these forums ban as they please.

You get reported for saying something completely non-problematic, in a non-hostile manner, without using swear words but disagreeing with someone. That someone finds offense with that and reports for harassment. Depending on who it'll reach you'll get banned "because he/she felt harassed".

You are told things that could get the writer beaten to a bloody pulp in real life if you came across someone with even modicum of self-confidence. Depending on who the report goes to they may end up doing nothing and thinking "deal with it, toughen up".

Try again?! Too bad. They won't overturn the decision of their peers, whether or not they agree with it. That's mean admitting to having no set rules.

It's such a willy-nilly moderation that I really have no idea how on earth they're still in the business. Then again, Square Enix doesn't care...They hire unprofessional people to cut costs and don't care for the actual quality of service. Being able to say "But we have an official forum!" is all that they care for.

[Zyneste]

You can't expect guidelines when there are none. The moderators on these forums ban as they please.

You get reported for saying something completely non-problematic, in a non-hostile manner, without using swear words but disagreeing with someone. That someone finds offense with that and reports for harassment. Depending on who it'll reach you'll get banned "because he/she felt harassed".

You are told things that could get the writer beaten to a bloody pulp in real life if you came across someone with even modicum of self-confidence. Depending on who the report goes to they may end up doing nothing and thinking "deal with it, toughen up".

Try again?! Too bad. They won't overturn the decision of their peers, whether or not they agree with it. That's mean admitting to having no set rules.

It's such a willy-nilly moderation that I really have no idea how on earth they're still in the business. Then again, Square Enix doesn't care...They hire unprofessional people to cut costs and don't care for the actual quality of service. Being able to say "But we have an official forum!" is all that they care for.

The straw that just breaks the camel's back is that there is NO WAY to contact a forum moderator.

In Game GMs will simply ask you file a report with an email or phone call.
Phone/Email Support is completely cut off from them apart from being able to "elevate the issue once" and to "Post on the forums" about your issue of being banned... from the forums. They couldn't even tell you why you were banned.

Can a mod answer why there is no direct line of communication between mods and customers? Why is it that your job is a one sided communication of perception, but voiceless customers face repercussions?

Not criticizing Square Enix. I'm asking what the benefits are of not enabling this direct support to the forums, which is available for the in game aspect of the game. The forums directly contribute to the value of the game and to remove that without showing clear proof that the ToS is broken and open communication, between the jury and the defendant is unfair.

You can call support and tell them how you got banned and why you shouldn't have been banned, but ultimately they have no more power than you do to unban you. You might as well be talking to a "paid to be empathetic stranger."

[Theodric]

To be blunt, the entire forum is in need of being rebuilt from the ground up. The official site for any major MMO should be the primary source of information and discussion for players. Reddit is plagued by an awful upvote/downvote system that kills any nuanced discussion because group think is upvoted and anything considered even mildly controversial is downvoted. Twitter and Facebook have been caught out in privacy scandals and extremely biased moderation, so they're not particularly good platforms to discuss the game over either.

Back when I played WoW, one of the things that kept me around for so long was the forum community. My server had a very active board, filled with events, discussion threads and so on. People were passionate about the game and it showed. Moderation was reserved for extreme breaches of the terms of service and was always consistent.

On this site, however, it seems like the moderation can be rather heavy handed and context is ignored. I've seen people deliberately rile someone up across multiple threads...only for the person being irritated to snap back with a mild retort. The person doing the harassing did not get banned - the person who ended up frustrated did.

I stand behind the firm belief that minor breaches of the rules should result in a slap in the wrist at best and that permanent bans should be handed out only in the most extreme of cases. I often find myself worrying and double checking my posts to make sure there isn't anything that can be taken the wrong way and used against me. That results in a rather 'clinical' posting style, which I detest.

It's not even limited to moderation, either. There's things like the daily post limit to consider as well...but I digress.

[AriaFairchild]

The main subreddit is a joke of a community. Yesterday a thread posting about the regional championship got downvoted to oblivion, with people coming to regurgitate hearsays about the game mode they have never participated before (bots in 4v4 lul); while another thread of a commissioned fanart of a generic cat girl in latex got 700 upvotes.

But hey, I guess I shouldn't be surprised by priorities of a group who lost their discord partnership by...maining Disciple of the "Hand" and consumed too much CP.

[Zyneste]

The main subreddit is a joke of a community. Yesterday a thread posting about the regional championship got downvoted to oblivion, with people coming to regurgitate hearsays about the game mode they have never participated before (bots in 4v4 lul); while another thread of a commissioned fanart of a generic cat girl in latex got 700 upvotes.

But hey, I guess I shouldn't be surprised by priorities of a group who lost their discord partnership by...maining Disciple of the "Hand" and consumed too much CP.

Off topic, but there is allot of controversy on that and you are playing straight into the toxic forum trope of half information that this forum has come to dominate itself with. From what I read, Discord needs to make things clearer and ALSO need a better appeals system, as this issue, which was a rule just recently made official (the day before the ban) was fixed that same day! The channel also already existed before official status was given.

I think reddit is just a different form of hivemind altogether and affected by multi-accounting, karma-bots and mob hatred mentality. Its also a place that has much more freedom to speak your mind on. Its a double edged sword in that sense, with anonymity comes bigotry.

The official forums is pretty much the same, with the exception that more people come to the forums for TRIVIAL questions to help new players, post a picture in a 10,000 page thread of "My lala" "My house" "My healer glamour," and parser vs anti-parser threads or Healer DPS threads and usually bad job concepts (lol guilty.)

Reddit is just a place that shares things and doesn't really debate, namely memes, BIS sets, and artwork. The only thing worth debating in this game is parsing vs not and most people on reddit accept parsing. [3/4 active forum members also accept parsing, but 1/4 are very vocal in not having it.]

[Lilseph]

This is what you're most likely going to receive from them. Regarding the ban appeal. The moderation here is really not good, to put it nicely.

Greetings,

We escalated the Account Action Review Request to the appropriate team to review the account in detail. After a thorough investigation they found the action to be appropriate. Since the account was found violating our terms of service we are not able to assist with reversing the account action. We apologize for the inconvenience but we will be closing this ticket now as we are not able to help further.

Thank you,
SQUARE ENIX Support Center

The mail didn't state that I shouldn't share this info, so don't even go there, mods. -.-


PS: /r/s*postXIV is a better sub than /r/ffxiv honestly. Great community btw.

[Cylla]

One thing to keep in mind is that it probably matters greatly if some player reports a post or not.
If nobody reports a post, then the moderators will likely never look at it - and thus not ban anyone even if that post broke all kinds of rules.
If somebody does report a post, then it will get looked at, and bans can happen if the post breaks any of the rules - and it is easy to break the rules, even unintentionally.

Here the thing, I along with a few other people reported the person who was admitting to breaking terms of service in-game and was even flaunting a screen shot to prove they owned half a ward by buying houses and was even selling them. They got no ban and yet I got banned for god knows I don't know what. My only best guess is, either because I told someone to shut up because all they were doing was getting people railed up and supporting the other person who was breaking ToS or that I called out SE on their failure to follow their own ToS.

SE doesn't like to clearly state what their banning you for. All they do is give you this long list of things you "may" have done, link the whole post that they banned you for, and calls it a day. I went to appeal the ban, they got back to me five-six days later saying, "We can't explain this over email. Please contact our phone or chat support." to which at that point I just laughed and took my ban with pride.

So no, SE doesn't look into reports. At least not the one's they should be looking into.

[Hamada]

I know someone that can't post here because GMs do not want to address a situation with the user name. Since their user name is the same as their SE ID, it is viewed as a security risk. Anyways, this person got an unfair suspension in game (I was actually there for the drama) and all they said though that new system was that it is being upheld and not even explaining why. The person had to push far to begin with for the GM to even admit why the suspension even happened, having no choice but to give a vague explanation after months the suspension happened due to sharp memory on where, when, and how it happened. At first they wanted tell this person nothing. I just see it as them not willing to admit wrongful actions taken, like they will lose their job or something so they go over the top to defend any action taken place. Does anyone know anyone that actually had something reversed, ever?

Keep in mind the idea of punishing people is making sure they know what they did wrong so they do not do this again. In my view if you cannot do this, the person did nothing wrong, I got no idea why SE seems to really struggle here, it is like watching someone struggle to invent the wheel in 2018.

edit:

This is what you're most likely going to receive from them. Regarding the ban appeal. The moderation here is really not good, to put it nicely.

We escalated the Account Action Review Request to the appropriate team to review the account in detail. After a thorough investigation they found the action to be appropriate. Since the account was found violating our terms of service we are not able to assist with reversing the account action. We apologize for the inconvenience but we will be closing this ticket now as we are not able to help further.

Thank you,
SQUARE ENIX Support Center

The mail didn't state that I shouldn't share this info, so don't even go there, mods. -.-


PS: /r/s*postXIV is a better sub than /r/ffxiv honestly. Great community btw.

this is the exact message the person I was commenting on got, all they seem to do is copy/paste and not do a true investigation because it sees they can't admit a wrong action. Does not even explain why