Can we talk about the elephant in the room - Permanent Bans from the Official Forums

[Ilan]

Whats sad is that there must be a handful of trolls going around clicking "report" in order to get people banned for ridiculous things. I say trolls because I dont think its possible for anyone to be that much of a total snowflake. (lol anyone who legit feels threatened by "popotoes" should seek professional help)

Reported Yes that was a joke.

When i read some of the reasons why people got banned and for how long they got banned, many others in this forum have to be very lucky that they didn't get banned yet, me included.

[Vstarstruck]

Probably. I've had one deleted before for quoting a post with a bad word but they delete my post and not the one I quoted.

Their forum moderation leaves something to be desired.

Yeah I saw a lot of posts deleted here because of that:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ion-and-a-rant.
Why can't they edit the posts taking out the quote in the posts that are fine?

Also I find it really weird how that thread died just because 8? or so posts got removed. It is like people forgot it existed.

Greetings, everyone!

I had previously noted that we are working on improving the process for requesting a review or appeal of an account action. I am happy to note that we have implemented a process that should make this more efficient for customers looking to have this done.

We worked to create a form for requesting a review or appeal of an account action for a game service account or forum account, and you can access it here.

• Please note that this will require you to log into the account in question.
• If it is the Square Enix ID that has been terminated, then you would need to contact the Support Center for the review.
• You can also find a Knowledge Base article with the link and details on the Support Center, since that will be easier to find in the future than digging around for this forum post.

There are a few things to note about these reviews:

1. The review or appeal will not provide additional details about the account action unless it was determined to be issued improperly.
2. The account action review can only be conducted once per account action. Additional reviews for the same account action, without new, mitigating details, will be provided the results of the prior review.
3. If the account action was the result of an account compromise, please submit the request for Game Data Recovery instead.
4. If the account action is a result of a billing issue, please contact the Support Center to obtain assistance.

I hope this new form and process makes it easier to raise your concerns about account actions, as well as get better answers and responses about the reviews.

LGM Enkrateia

Greetings, everyone!

I understand that the process for appealing an account action is somewhat vague, and this is something that we are certainly working on improving. However, there are currently 2 options for appealing any account action:

1. Contact a GM in game to explain why you feel the account action is unjustified.
2. Contact the Support Center (NA)/Support Center (EU) to explain why you feel the account action is unjustified.

These requests are escalated along with the additional information you provide to ensure the account action was issued correctly. As a general rule of thumb, however, account actions will only be reviewed once unless there is determined to be some sort of exceptional circumstance.

As I mentioned before, we are working on improving this process to make it more streamlined for customers.

LGM Enkrateia

Also please note what needs "improving" is realizing something went wrong and wrong action was taken. It feels like you never reverse actions taken, even when it is very clear it was unfair.

[Rockette]

O.O

Well, this is unexpected yet welcomed.

Thank you for the reply, and link to appeal process.

[Lilseph]

Snip

Enkrateia, good morning.

Regarding the time people have to appeal their bans, is there a limit for it? Since it's a newly implemented system, can old banned accounts use it to see their accounts reviewed?

Additionally, speaking as an ex-GM/forum mod from a different game: is there any plans to address the criteria that your team is using to ban accounts? Some seem to be too exaggerated considering they aren't too severe, but the 3-strike rule doesn't seem to be too flexible combined with the first point I just remarked.

Instead of banning accounts right off the bat, you should also consider the implementation of a warn system or, to put it simple, a "slap on the wrist" action. Delete/edit a post, send said user a notification with mentioned warning. Applying 10 days ban for something that can be addressed in a different manner is damaging for community, as you disable these people from participating in the feedback process or bugs/exploit reports.

The team should aim to have a healthy community. Users here aren't just mere numbers that you delete/ban and call it a day. They are part of your game and the community you've formed. So I hope I could see positive changes on this subject.

[Stormfur]

It's my understanding that previous actions result in "marks" on your account - and those never expire. Would using this new system allow GMs to remove marks against an account if they feel there was a misunderstanding?

[Kyu-Momo]

Agreed. It always irked me when yoshi would mention "well, post in the official forums!" in the letter from the producer and I'm just thinking: So.... in other words I should tempt the high chance to get banned the moment I say something that the dozens of delicate snowflakes don't like? How about no thanks! waste of time since reddit exists with much less risk of getting banned and let's be real here, it's not like the devs even read the English forums anyway, so...

[pinder2009]

My understanding is that SE outsources their forum moderation to a third party. Obviously a poor choice and its long past time that SE switches to an in house team that can be directly supervised and can actually work with the in game GMs.

[Enkrateia]

Greetings!

It seems there were a few questions that were asked that I can provide a bit more information about.

Why do posts get deleted sometimes? Is it because we may have quoted a bad post?

This can be a very complicated question, especially since I cannot get into specifics about actual, past moderation actions. However, in general, the most common reasons this is done without an account action being issued are:

• The post quotes a post that was considered a violation. This removes the violation from the forums completely.
• On a related note, the post may be continuing a discussion that was removed due to being a violation. This removes confusion of posts seeming to discuss topics out of nowhere and can prevent violations from continuing.
• The post or thread was in violation of the rules and found by a Game Master before other players reported it. In certain cases, this is a preventative measure by the Game Master who knows they would be required to issue an account action if it was otherwise reported.
• In the case of a large scale moderation action, the post may not have contributed to the discussion. Normally we would overlook these, but will remove them if we're already doing a lot of work to help clean up a thread.

This is not every reason that this may occur, but it does cover the most common reasons. When these types of actions are done en masse, we usually lock the thread and try to communicate the moderation action; however, this is not always possible for isolated moderation. Any moderation action that is counted against an account would be accompanied with an email notification about the violation.

Regarding the time people have to appeal their bans, is there a limit for it? Since it's a newly implemented system, can old banned accounts use it to see their accounts reviewed?

While there is no time limit on being able to request an appeal or review, it is better to do it sooner than later. While account actions are documented, understanding context and the ability to further investigate are hampered by time.

It's my understanding that previous actions result in "marks" on your account - and those never expire. Would using this new system allow GMs to remove marks against an account if they feel there was a misunderstanding?

Account actions that are found to have been incorrectly issued would remove the infraction from the account when considering future account actions. However, this decision would be made by the Account Administrator (who the reviews and appeals are escalated to), not a Game Master.

I hope this provides a bit of additional context and information.

LGM Enkrateia

[AhmeraMae]

My understanding is that SE outsources their forum moderation to a third party. Obviously a poor choice and its long past time that SE switches to an in house team that can be directly supervised and can actually work with the in game GMs.

That rumor is still around, eh?

• The post or thread was in violation of the rules and found by a Game Master before other players reported it. In certain cases, this is a preventative measure by the Game Master who knows they would be required to issue an account action if it was otherwise reported.
• In the case of a large scale moderation action, the post may not have contributed to the discussion. Normally we would overlook these, but will remove them if we're already doing a lot of work to help clean up a thread.

[ExKage]

My understanding is that SE outsources their forum moderation to a third party. Obviously a poor choice and its long past time that SE switches to an in house team that can be directly supervised and can actually work with the in game GMs.

GMs do also moderate the forums.

The GMs do also moderate the forums. With most of the moderation they do, they are actually not very visible, but they do occasionally post replies to threads when it's appropriate. They actually draw my attention to topics that I respond to most of the time that I do that.

LGM Enkrateia