Suspended for Otter Nonsense

[Joven]

*Taking any other actions that are deemed inappropriate by Square Enix in our sole discretion.

This part of the ToS is particularly worrisome to me with how vague and open to misuse it is. It's literally a blank check for the mods to use for whatever reason they feel like and anything can fall under that umbrella if someone wants it to.

[Ursa_Vonfiebryd]

First off, I wouldn't worry too much about a permaban. In forums at least, those happen so rarely they are basically a myth. At worse, they would ban the email or login you created for the site--which doesn't stop you from making another if you so desire (even if you lose access to old posts). The much lauded 'IP' ban is really for things like game accounts or extreme cases (like explicit imagery that would constitute violation in a clearly legal nature) so for people scared of getting a pemanent ban, I wouldn't really worry about that tbh.

With that said, for forums that don't assign mods from the user base, generally the policing is done by the site that hosts the forums. So... A third-party. As someone already pointed out, the forums rules are separate from the FFXIV ToS because the forum host is usually not directly connected to the developer--yeah word can get back because these are the 'official' forums but usually the governing is left to the content host. It sounds like the site relies heavily on scripts to police, rather than active people which isn't really a surprise. With the huge amount of posting that goes on, thats a lot of time for any living person to troll thru the posts. Does it mean there's more room for abuse? Certainly, as mods will react to 'flagged' content rather than posted comments but it also means that bans are generally a slap in the wrist. Sorry it got out of hand for some of you, but please don't fear the reaper. This place would be so boring without you. ❤

[Gula]

First off, I wouldn't worry too much about a permaban. In forums at least, those happen so rarely they are basically a myth.

No, no they are not a myth. I know several people who tried to be active, slipped up because they're used to an audience of thicker skin, aaand poof. There's no fanfare when you're banned, nothing indicating it to other users outside a lack of badges. I would worry about it.

[Lilseph]

^ Actually, permabans are extremely common here. They have a 3-strike rule where no matter how little or big the infraction is, it counts toward your way to get permanently banned. These people are completely silenced and they will rarely come back here to say it. As far as I know, you will need to create another account, subscribe to the game, level a character and then you can post again. There was both in Reddit and I think GameFaqs some threads dedicated to players that were affected by this.

[Lynesse]

Snip.

We need more people like you around here!

[Joven]

Eh I don't know. My rule of thumb is it's ok to have disagreements, but if your post comes across as intentionally petty/condescending/inflammatory, then you have a higher chance of getting suspended. It helps not to use profanity, either. If you don't do any of these things, you're not going to be suspended. Some people may find this too stifling though.

I don't really think the moderators are hugely biased. All we can do as forum users is to manage our own behavior.

Otter pictures don't really seem like it should be cause for a suspension, but I suppose that could be considered spam. It seems like posting pictures in topics is ok as long as it's related to the topic at hand. However, otters were so out of left field lol

The otters came from Otter Space, not Left Field. (Couldn't help myself. Sorry/not sorry)

Back on topic: you can manage your behavior all you want, but that won't stop someone that disagrees with you from reporting you out of spite. If the mods really only look at reports and not the situation at large then it would lead to seemingly unfair suspensions or bans. That's why having some kind of active warning system in place would allow people to course correct more frequently. If a mod could drop you a PM about your behavior (suspected or otherwise) then a lot of people would pay more attention to their actions.

As I've said, this is my first suspension on here since I started posting in 2013 and I felt like what I was posting was in line with previous posts I've made, so I was confused as to the reaction.

[Insertcoins]

First off, I wouldn't worry too much about a permaban. In forums at least, those happen so rarely they are basically a myth. At worse, they would ban the email or login you created for the site--which doesn't stop you from making another if you so desire (even if you lose access to old posts). The much lauded 'IP' ban is really for things like game accounts or extreme cases (like explicit imagery that would constitute violation in a clearly legal nature) so for people scared of getting a pemanent ban, I wouldn't really worry about that tbh.

With that said, for forums that don't assign mods from the user base, generally the policing is done by the site that hosts the forums. So... A third-party. As someone already pointed out, the forums rules are separate from the FFXIV ToS because the forum host is usually not directly connected to the developer--yeah word can get back because these are the 'official' forums but usually the governing is left to the content host. It sounds like the site relies heavily on scripts to police, rather than active people which isn't really a surprise. With the huge amount of posting that goes on, thats a lot of time for any living person to troll thru the posts. Does it mean there's more room for abuse? Certainly, as mods will react to 'flagged' content rather than posted comments but it also means that bans are generally a slap in the wrist. Sorry it got out of hand for some of you, but please don't fear the reaper. This place would be so boring without you. ❤

LOL Permabans are NOT a myth. They are REAL and are given out freely to the point old timers are only on reddit and discords cause they can't post here.

[Zeonx]

LOL Permabans are NOT a myth. They are REAL and are given out freely to the point old timers are only on reddit and discords cause they can't post here.

I agree most of the good players from FFXI are on reddit discords and they are old players, they seen some of their friends get banned after coming from FFXI and left the forums because of the way things are with people who get worked up over certain words.

So they ditched the forums, it happened the same way it did with Allakhzam forums, people in those forums used to thumbs down topics to hide your comments so they could be seen over yours even if you had good points so they decided to move to FFXIah forums which actually killed allakhzam forums off you give players powers just like the report button here then people realize GM's aren't the problem its players who have itchy fingers ready to ban you for certain words at any given moment.

why people just leave.

I am sure some still exist on forums but im sure they are very careful

[Joven]

Talking about abusing the report system and perma-bans reminded me of a user on here that I came across about two years ago. I encountered them in a crazy post they started about giving summoners animations similar to Pokémon trainers throwing a Poké-ball when they summoned their Egi. Every reply was hostile, calling them an idiot, saying they were going to report them and hoped they got banned.

I commented that I've never seen so much hostility towards anybody on these forums before and was told that the OP had a 'history of spreading negativity'. I made a point to go through some of the OP's post history and none of their posts were negative in any way. Silly and pointless yes, but not negative. They were never rude, insulting or used any profanity or derogatory language. It seemed like people were only mad at them because of all the silly threads they started. I replied later that if they didn't want those types of threads on the forums then they should just ignore them and that they themselves were the ones perpetuating the negativity. Some of the posters actually turned on me, calling me an idiot for 'defending a troll' and essentially proving my point.

Due to all the, in my opinion, unwarranted hostility from a group of users towards this person they eventually earned a perma-ban. I think this is a good example of the report feature being abused just because someone wasn't liked.

I would rather have a dozen pointlessly silly threads than a dozen threads pointlessly covering the same topics all the time.

[Wynn_Storm]

I also got temporary banned for posting the otter pictures.

They stated it was off-topic.

Which baffles me that they would ban so many people over that, instead of the OP who was trash talking his FC in not one but two threads and used the whole cancer/autism thing as a cover up.

The mods on this forum are a complete joke.