Party Finder Misuse - Social/General Finder Needed

[Trixxy]

The annoying thing is that you can't do anything else while sitting in a PF, trying to sell something or recruit people.

I don't see how people can simply go "it works just fine!!" if we constantly have to decide between looking for an actual party to run content with or trying to advertise ourselves for things that are just as important to us.

Thinking in a straight line, don't do it.

[CYoung187]

The annoying thing is that you can't do anything else while sitting in a PF, trying to sell something or recruit people.

I don't see how people can simply go "it works just fine!!" if we constantly have to decide between looking for an actual party to run content with or trying to advertise ourselves for things that are just as important to us.

Thinking in a straight line, don't do it.

There is a reason you advertise stuff on PF, you very well know it is because that is where everyone looks. People will always advertise where there is the most exposure. What good is having another advertising board that people rarely ever go to? It will all just go back to shouts or PF.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

Firstly, there's no such thing as an auction house. Second, PF is the only way I can sell the use of my rare dyes towards someone who wants their gear in those colors. You can't use the marketboard for untradeable items.

[LineageRazor]

OP's complaint is pretty much valid. Party Finder is meant to, you know, find parties. Advertisers have no intention of forming a party, and aren't engaging in any kind of activity that requries a party. They're just as happy to sell you their product or get you into their Free Company out of party as in. They are using Party Finder as an advertising bulletin board, which was very likely never its intent.

I never go to the Party Finder with intent of looking for sales. I doubt that anyone does. When I want to buy something, I go to the marketboards. Ads in the Party Finder clutter and obscure the listings of the things I'm actually interested in.

That said, there ARE things that need to be advertised for which the Marketboards are of no use. For instance, if you want to sell Metallic Gold Dye, the only way to do so is indirectly, by dying an item for a customer. If you just drop a Gold Dyed loincloth on the marketboards for ten times the cost of a regular loincloth, chances are no one will ever look closely enough to see that it is dyed Gold. Free Company adverts, too, are not something you can post on the marketboards. Right now, the only outlets for this kind of advertising are Party Finder or /shouts - and, honestly, /shouts are quite possibly even more annoying than the Party Finder.

Perhaps a good solution would be to enhance Party Finder's filtering options, so if you want to look for an actual party you can hide all the clutter - and then, severely punish any advertiser who tries to "cheat" the system by disguising their advert as an actual party.

TITAN EX PONY FARM!!!
Selling all 4-star crafts! No, I'm not really doing Titan, stop asking, jeez some people. Just buy my stuff, okay?

[Kaze3434]

OP's complaint is pretty much valid. pretty bad ideas here

going to say it again, but party finder is for a person(or group of people) to get together and do X thing. what that X is is up to them. as for the "I never go to the Party Finder with intent of looking for sales" part, a good portion of the crafting friends i know sell on both the market board and use party finder. also, really? punish people for using PF "wrong"? who gets to decide how i use it besides myself?(and SE, but thats another thing entirely).

[LineageRazor]

going to say it again, but party finder is for a person(or group of people) to get together and do X thing. what that X is is up to them. as for the "I never go to the Party Finder with intent of looking for sales" part, a good portion of the crafting friends i know sell on both the market board and use party finder. also, really? punish people for using PF "wrong"? who gets to decide how i use it besides myself?(and SE, but thats another thing entirely).

Your friends use Party Finder, because that is the best currently available option. Part of the purpose of this thread is to suggest SE create a BETTER option, one that provides a clear venue for shoppers versus party finders. And yes, if people continue to use Party Finder incorrectly even AFTER SE provides this alternative, they should be punished:

SE: We have now added an advertising board! Users, you are warned not to use Party Finder to Advertise any longer.
Seller: Pff, screw you, SE, I'm gonna advertise on your new board AND continue spamming Party Finder, cuz I get more exposure that way! So suck it!
SE: *BANHAMMER*

On that note, the FFXIV PF does have filters. So maybe a separate system isn't really necessary.

I haven't played around with the PF filters much, but if they really are that verstile then perhaps no change is needed. If they are NOT that versatile, though - well, making them so fits within the scope of this discussion.

[Risvertasashi]

I haven't played around with the PF filters much, but if they really are that verstile then perhaps no change is needed. If they are NOT that versatile, though - well, making them so fits within the scope of this discussion.

There's not really categories for Static LFM/LF Static, Crafting, Hunts, and so on. Those all fall under 'refer to comment'... so they could definitely use some additions to make them better suited to these other uses.

[Kaze3434]

SE: We have now added an advertising board! Users, you are warned not to use Party Finder to Advertise any longer.
Seller: Pff, screw you, SE, I'm gonna advertise on your new board AND continue spamming Party Finder, cuz I get more exposure that way! So suck it!
SE: *BANHAMMER*

besides how inconceivable that sounds, should that happen, its pretty obvious that a ban would be the last thing to happen, if at all, and not first so "great" example. as for my friends using party finder to find buyers, majority of them do it mainly because people sometimes get the mats themselves. i know if i had the mats for something that costs 3 mil on server and i can find someone to make it for 700k or lower(not real numbers) i am going to do that.

[Sapphic]

Your friends use Party Finder, because that is the best currently available option. Part of the purpose of this thread is to suggest SE create a BETTER option, one that provides a clear venue for shoppers versus party finders. And yes, if people continue to use Party Finder incorrectly even AFTER SE provides this alternative, they should be punished:

Plus making it that it doesn't stop you doing anything else like PF does would make it more desirable to use. Pyt up your 4star crafting advertisement on the bulletin board and go and join a party for some huntage.

[cirby]

going to say it again, but party finder is for a person(or group of people) to get together and do X thing.

No, it's for people to get together and create parties to DO CONTENT, not for people who just want to sell their crafted gear and drops for slightly more money than they think they can get through the regular channels.

They're also doing even dumber things.

For example, one of the Party Finder advertising jerks had his character running some sort of script, and was "online" pretty much 24/7. When you joined, you'd get an ad with a message to leave mail for him. He disappeared after people started to complain about it.

As others have mentioned, some of the worst cases are people putting up Party Finder listings that claim to be for actual groups (like FATE farming or hard-level content), but when you join up, it's just an item seller.