On Balmung at least it seems there are a number of players who bot gathering, and it's getting completely out of hand. There's one particular FC of them who used to be just three people, but changed names and is now growing, and I have never seen a person of this FC who I felt was playing legitimately. But not all of the botters are in this FC.

They pull up the timed nodes such as adamantite at the exact same time, in the exact same spot, right on top of each other. They follow the same path to the node and use the same exact actions. They never change gear, glamour, or appearances, in fact, they use the generic appearances you get when you choose a race. When not at timed nodes they are at ephemeral nodes, gathering 24/7.

Today I witnessed three of them going to the gold ore node, not on a mount, but running. They followed the same paths and turns and sprinted at the exact same time.