What is parsing?

[Risvertasashi]

I have hope that Yoshi P will think of something genius again that will bring the best of both worlds about this conundrum so that both learners and progression groups can reap its benefits.

I was hesitant to ask this question first for its sensitive issue, but I am glad that people here are still wholesome ♥

This thread's already descending into dark places so I hope my post won't be lost, but I'll try to explain it all - some have already answered but a few points could be more complete, so.

1. These days there is really only 1 parser, but under SE's policies, we can discuss them in the general sense but naming the specific app/how to get it/etc is a no-no. It's most basic function is to measure damage and other statistics of other party members, but in truth these days it is more of a "mod platform" and people make many tools to enhance gameplay/information available. For example, you can look at the buffs and debuffs a person had, and the healing and damage they received leading up to a death. Or it can be used for noncombat stuff like collating and aggregating marketboard data, UI things like providing job gauge alternates, and so on.

2. There's also others that aren't really built around combat at all, for example if you acquire a stalker and the blacklist isn't cutting it and the GMs won't take action (a story that, alas, isn't so uncommon), there's a blacklist upgrade available. There's also clothing, graphical and hairstyle mods and so on. For example if you see a reddit screenshot of a pose or outfit not in game, that's probably mods at work.

3. All of these are forbidden. So the safest way the play is to not use any of them. But in practice, you have to talk about it in game for SE to care/take notice, most of the time. And the way the TOS is worded - and Yoshi-P himself noted during a live letter - technically even Discord is against the FF14 TOS. But obviously SE isn't going to ban everyone using Discord. So we're forever stuck in this weird grey area.

4. Back to parsing specifically - there's a fair few people here on the forums frothing at the mouth and dreaming of the day that SE takes more active enforcement. But it's not going to happen - it's so necessary that the raid community would largely die off without it, as the game lacks in-game feedback about performance and fights are designed around tight DPS checks, among other things. There's been many suggestions to improve the status quo, such as limited authorization of addons or adding better in-game feedback tools, but SE has continually refused to budge.

5. But lastly, it's worth noting that SE has lately started to, in very limited circumstances, accept evidence from outside the game. Namely when a streamer or reddit community harasses other players, or pictures of nude mods are found. So, even showing that oneself uses a mod or addon outside the game is not completely safe.

I hope this is a fairly a comprehensive answer?