Why Are the FFXIV Forums So Bad?

[Orinori]

What do you want people to say when this is clearly bait? Fresh character posting like a certain you-know-who. I don't like to witch hunt but they're not even trying to hide it at this point and you're sitting there lapping it up.

They're aware that they don't need to bait with outlandish topics when simply posting something about positivity/negativity/anything about the forums is such easy bait that most forumers find irresistible.

What makes it worse is the fact that this behavior is apparently acceptable to most of you as long as the sentiments provided by the OP align with your own.

I'm really not baiting, though in hindsight I didn't mean to have the rude vibe the OP had, I was more or less in a joking manner trying to explain the demeanor and how ridiculous it is given the assumed average age of forum users.

I was actually genuinely curious why the forums just seem like an entirely different atmosphere and why this exact thing you're demonstrating here happens. There has been a ton of super interesting and helpful answers, basically summing up to lack of moderation and anonymity combined with a lack of punishment being tied to SE account.