Indeed. This is argument at hand though. Gloating is not a bannable offense by itself. Don't you think that it's odd that suddenly because it's involving a parser (a third party program) that you could suddenly get banned?The gloating is what caused someone to bother reporting you (in that if you didn't gloat, they wouldn't take offense to it) and is usually why people will get caught doing something they shouldn't. The GMs potential actions however is a direct result of you having the parser. It's the primary focus of why they can take action against you. If parsers were officially accepted, they wouldn't be able to do the same thing so easily. That's my point on the matter. Parsers are why severe actions could take place, they just typically aren't the reason someone felt the need to report you (it was your bad behavior that generally does that).
You do realize that games like WoW, use ilvl as well right? Yet, the more important thing, which is what I think most can agree with, is actual DPS output. Why would people rely on ilvl when actual numbers are better examples of potential? Not a bad thing on its own, but people have always used it when they can to do even the simplest content in any MMORPG. People want things to be fast and easy. They'll expect unreasonable requirements to do things. I've seen it firsthand... in all content and in nearly every similar type of MMORPG I've played or heard of. Heck, we see it everytime new content is released. People mocking others or expecting them to know CT fights on first day release. We always always encounter players being stupid to show off in some way, or to make things unreasonable for others. It's not TOO bad here, due to circumstance, but there's not much reason to simply add another thing for others to despise their peers over.
Unless this is your first MMORPG or you haven't been around the genre for more than several years, it's surprising you wouldn't have seen it yourself... unless you were one of those people or oblivious to it. Edit: Err wait... misunderstood that misuse comment.
Forums are forums. There's a lot less personal responsibility involved, because it is not the game itself. For example, I can claim I use bots in this game here and nothing will happen to me in-game. It might cause a temp ban from the forums though, depending on what's going on. These are not governed by the GMs you will encounter in-game. Do it in-game, in the same manner I said.