What are the largest issues plaguing XIV currently?

[Iscah]

Likewise, I'd rather allow for satirical posts, trolling or otherwise, than censor certain posters "on sight". If they haven't done anything bad enough to be banned according to a reasonable evaluation of the TOA, then why should they be censored? I, for one, enjoy the occasional Titan-man/fist/bro post, and the discussion they prompt are more often pertinent than not, even if for seemingly the wrong reasons.

The thing is, it's not "occasional". It fills up the forum. He starts multiple threads pushing his agenda-of-the-day and bumps others. It clogs up the forum and the discussion revolves around him.

Just now, multiple old threads bumped by him. At least one was previously bumped by his previous account, and another was started by him. He stirs up old arguments and negative threads that ran their course and went quiet years ago. He's digging them up systematically and it keeps the forum boiling in a stream of complaint threads - and instead of these multiple discussions on the same theme taking place one-by-one over time, now they're all bumped up together. It looks like everyone is complaining at once, and it drowns out the actual current discussions.

It's disruptive posting and an active human moderator can see that, where a "no single post is offensive" approach leaves him free to carry on.

And where the discussion is interesting despite the trolly start? It's still just... it's not someone asking a genuine question that you can have a conversation about. The respondents are genuine and that's where something interesting can happen - but the original post is still insincere and trying to start an argument.

[Shurrikhan]

The thing is, it's not "occasional". It fills up the forum. He starts multiple threads pushing his agenda-of-the-day and bumps others. It clogs up the forum and the discussion revolves around him.

Then, ignore him?

If someone is so clearly cut and dried as to obviously be a troll in every post, we can't say we aren't knowingly complicit in allowing his disruption when we respond to him. He's either so painfully obvious as to need to be effectively banned, and we're half the problem, or he really is a mixed bag as, sure enough, hasn't broken the rules.

He's allowed the same posts per day per account as everyone else. If he, triple-account as he may be, singlehandedly has that huge an impact, it's either because people are more than willing to "be baited", forum activity is just that little (at which point we should probably ask... why do so few people see any reason to use the forums?), or this place's infrastructure (and people's usage habits) are far too channeled towards and around New Posts.

The respondents are genuine and that's where something interesting can happen

And, with your suggested censorship, there would be no such response, genuine or otherwise, all while giving all necessary excuse for the CMs to silently purge unofficial community leaders or the most trusted and informed job spokesmen and shut down threads that would otherwise be too detailed, concrete, or constructive to blame the playerbase for not properly communicating. That may seem a "slippery slope", and yet we've already seen the latter since late ARR. (Thread contains sizeable constructive value. Certain posts are removed, including from people no one remembers speaking out of line. People ask why they were removed. The thread is shut down. Yoshida then blames the community for being unclear or silent when some of the very things those threads detailed would be poor implementation are then released.)

Given how we've been treated thus far, that's therefore not a slope I want to start down except perhaps by the most tentative and explicit steps.

On the other hand, I can easily see tremendous advantage coming from improved forum features. Just think of how much good a curated thread does (where the OP comes back daily to quote in brief each of the most-liked suggestions and "big questions" so they're immediately visible from the first page). Think of how much good that does to keep discussion on track. We could have that for every lengthy thread, almost automatically.

[Iscah]

Then, ignore him?

10 of the 20 posts on the front page are either started or bumped by one person. Another two are by someone widely assumed to be another account of the same person. It's hard to ignore and harder to see actual current discussions.

The examples you talk about of a single organised thread being unfairly deleted (while being a genuine issue) are the opposite of what this person is doing.

[Shurrikhan]

The examples you talk about of a single organised thread being unfairly deleted (while being a genuine issue) are the opposite of what this person is doing.

I never said he was getting threads deleted.

I said your suggested changes to the rules such that those who are currently "obviously" trolls but haven't yet broken the ToA can be permanently and completely censored (which is, in effect, a ban) opens a huge can of worms capable of creating or exacerbating other issues on these forums.

Moreover the Ragingtitanmanfisthorsebro issue can be better served via a simple player-by-player forum blacklist and surrounding functionality: their posts and threads are initially hidden and do not, for those who've blacklisted that poster, bump threads. Voila. No need to forfeit our ability to appeal bans, or question others' removal, from having made the ToA requirements exceptionally "non-exhaustive".

By all means, IP check banned players or carry over scrutiny to find and deal with ban evasion, but I don't want to see the ToA suddenly broadened in clause or enforcement.

[Iscah]

I never said he was getting threads deleted.

I said your suggested changes to the rules such that those who are currently "obviously" trolls but haven't yet broken the ToA can be permanently and completely censored (which is, in effect, a ban) opens a huge can of worms capable of creating or exacerbating other issues on these forums.

Moreover the Ragingtitanmanfisthorsebro issue can be better served via a simple player-by-player forum blacklist and surrounding functionality: their posts and threads are initially hidden, for those who've blacklisted that poster, bump threads. Voila. No need to forfeit our ability to appeal bans, or question others' removal, from having made the ToA requirements exceptionally "non-exhaustive".

I never said he was getting threads deleted either. You talked about the problem with moderation in general being that they delete threads.

And no, a player-by-player blacklist just mean he keeps dragging new posters in with each post.

I'm not saying to censor him "before" he does anything. He comes in and immediately starts behaving like he did the previous time - the same character, same writing style, same pattern of behaviour. He has been banned from the forum for that behaviour, he comes back and resumes the same behaviour, and instead of getting re-banned for evading the first ban he's just allowed to carry on.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

I never said he was getting threads deleted either. You talked about the problem with moderation in general being that they delete threads.

And no, a player-by-player blacklist just mean he keeps dragging new posters in with each post.

I'm not saying to censor him "before" he does anything. He comes in and immediately starts behaving like he did the previous time - the same character, same writing style, same pattern of behaviour. He has been banned from the forum for that behaviour, he comes back and resumes the same behaviour, and instead of getting re-banned for evading the first ban he's just allowed to carry on.

Pretty much this. You could consider it ban evasion, blacklist evasion (which also can net you a ban in game, why not on the forums?!)

[LaughingBanana]

Then, ignore him? .

It's like a trash stinking up the corridor next to your room.

I mean yeah, you can ignore it and you can still function, but it's there, it's stinky, and it's annoying your living space. It would be much better if that stinky trash is to be put in the trash bin where it belongs.

[Haruka_R]

Then, ignore him?

You can't ignore shit that keeps popping up on the first page. And ignoring him does not prevent you from seeing his name and thread pop up.