Quote Originally Posted by All_Nonsense View Post
I think if the devs just perma-banned anyone with a parse listed on fflogs it would solve the problem instantly. They showed us on Friday that they are not afraid to rip off band-aids by taking out Mare to prevent another "red dot in ultimate" incident. It's time to take out the parsers too and finally get the game back on track
(I want to be clear: I do not condone or personally use any third party tools or plugins. What follows is just my own opinion based on personal research and understanding of the situation.)

Starting off, using that logic, you yourself would be banned. Just having a number on fflogs doesn't mean you personally used a parsing plugin or uploaded the log. Anyone in your party could have done so.

Also, it's not accurate to compare parsing plugins to mare. Players using mare weren't banned, the person who created and hosted it received a cease and desist. That likely happened for two main reasons: 1, it exposed minors to inappropriate content, and 2. it included monetized mods, which directly violates the tos since profiting off se's game assets isn't allowed.

There's also a misconception floating around in this thread that parsing "is just a number" with no value other than stroking egos. That's incorrect. Parsers provide detailed combat feedback which go far beyond what the "duty recorder" could do. And while yes, parsing plugins and uploading logs are against the tos, there's a clear difference: mare users openly advertised the mod in search info and talked about it daily, even to the point of dming other players, while players hosting parsing parties get banned simply for having "parse" in the pf listing. The dev behind the parsing plugin also didn't monetize their tool; it just reads the combat log. If it involved money making or exposing minors to explicit content, se would absolutely step in the same way, just as they did for the stalking plugin.

At the end of the day, I understand why people are upset about mare being removed, and that frustration is valid. But trying to justify it by calling for every single tool or plugin to be issued a cease and desist, without really understanding how they work or why some are more problematic than others, just doesn't make sense.