The GM team is completely ineffective.

[Jojoya]

I've stopped reporting spammers and RMTers because nothing ever gets done.

When it comes to spammers, we're back to subjective opinion. The game's definition for spammer seems to be someone who fills the chat window completely with rapid repetition of a specific message so that others are unable to converse. Repeating the same message once every 5-10 minutes isn't going to be considered spam under that definition.

RMT activity is handled by the Special Task Force and not the GMs as a rule. The ad spambots do get banned on a weekly basis. But there's no way to stop RMT from making new accounts and characters to continue the spam.

Yes, me being frustrated with the terrible GM policies means I'm looking for reasons to be offended and outraged. You couldn't be further from the mark. So let me give you a bit of advice as well, since we're doing psychological evaluations of each other now.

Nothing's ever going to get done just by thinking about it hard enough. If you want something done, or changed, you have to push for it. Ignorance is not always bliss. I imagine your life is a very happy one.

What terrible policy are you referring to? That they don't immediately ban someone just on your personal say so?

Just because you want something to be done does not mean that it should be done.

Adding someone to a blacklist doesn't mean you're living in ignorance. You should know that with your personal extensive use of the blacklist to the point you don't have room to add this one character to it.

Learn which battles are worth fighting and which aren't. You may not agree with this other player and the message they're sharing but nothing you've said makes it sound like it's mean-spirited or damaging in any way, only that it could be annoying.

And yes, my life did improve immensely once I taught myself what battles are worth fighting and what can be safely ignored. I wouldn't say I'm very happy but I'm a lot happier than I was when I was obsessed with petty stuff and things that can't be changed. People will be people. Some will end up an annoyance depending on your personal preferences but they're rarely causing any actual harm to anyone.

Instead of investing your energy into trying to fight this particular battle, put the player on ignore and invest the energy into playing the game. Or don't and stay angry because you can't get others to see things your way. Your life, your choice.

in 5 years I have blacklisted maybe 3 between all 10 of my characters.1 for some serious griefing and the other 2 for really disgusting sexually explicit requests that also caused me to delete my Lalafel character.

Sorry you felt that you had to delete your character. With the improved blacklist coming in Dawntrail, hopefully no one will feel that's a necessary step ever again.

But your situation was very different from what the OP's situation is. The OP is way overreacting here and refuses to use a simple tool that would remove what's annoying them from their chat.

the title of this thread is a bit disingenuous since there are times when the gm's actually do their job. i had a weird stalker and reported racially disparaging comments, both users got deleted. maybe they just take action on more pressing issues rather than what this thread is really about: gm's inability to tackle a venue's advertisements taking up a good portion of pf. not saying that it might not be pressing to YOU, but maybe to gm's, they're just like ...yeah, ok, and....?

Venue ads might be spam or might not be. Are they annoying to those not interested in the venues? Sure, but they're also easily ignored if you're actively playing the game instead of using all your time to hang out in Limsa.

The OP's complaint doesn't seem to really be about venues, though. They seem to be about one particular player who has posted a message with a religious overtone in shout chat on multiple occasions (they had mentioned this is in a bit more detail in the other thread they mention was deleted by the moderators).

People tend to skim past the following statement in the Prohibited Activities policy:

Communication can take place in a variety of styles. As such, we do not prohibit specific words or sentences. Instead, we look at the whole picture in order to judge the intent and meaning of the communication, in conjunction with how the person on the receiving end perceived it, to determine whether or not the exchange falls under prohibited activities.

While discussion of topics that tend to prompt sensitive reactions are discouraged, they are not outright prohibited. What is prohibited is discriminatory speech that is intolerant of differing points of view or intended to begin arguments between players.

As an example, someone saying "Remember Jesus loves you, I hope you have a great day!" isn't prohibited. Unless other things were said to give it a different context, it comes across as friendly and caring. Regardless of your personal spiritual beliefs, there's not really anything offensive to be found in what the player said. The GMs have no reason to take action against that player.

If what they had said was "If you don't love Jesus, you're damned to Hell", that would be considered discriminatory and inflammatory. The GMs probably would choose to take action against the player at that point.

Are some players going to be sensitive to religious references for any number of reasons? Yes. But all they have to do is put that player on their blacklist, along with any other players that might choose to turn that into a discussion, and they won't have to listen to it anymore. Personal issue, simple solution.

So the OP reports the other player for putting a religious reference into shout chat, GMs review what's said against what's in the Prohibited Activties policy, finds it's not actually prohibited and so don't take action against the player. OP gets mad that the other player can continue to post a religious reference into shout chat and decides to try to get them silenced for "spam" or "nuisance behavior". They refuse to put the player on their blacklist because They Must Know! what the other player says so they can report it. Again, GMs review and don't find what the other player is doing to be prohibited under the policy. OP starts to rage and takes it to the forums, where they get very little sympathy because few people like someone trying to shut down another person's ability to express a non-discriminatory opinion.