Privacy from third party sites

[Jamini]

You know people on here saying cheating is ok is a lot like people review bombing Shadow of the Erdtree, same energy.

Just git gud.

Cheating generally involves modifying inputs.

Checking your logs (which is all parsing really does. It's actually completely possible to do it by hand! Output the contents of your battle log to a file and review it line by line and timestamp by timestamp.) Is no more cheating than making an excel sheet to calculate your finances irl.

Running a parsing program is technically against ToS, but having or checking a parse made by another is not in any way problematic.

[DPZ2]

Running a parsing program is technically against ToS, but having or checking a parse made by another is not in any way problematic.

Until someone tries to use those parses as a means of denigrating another player as part of an argument in, for example, these forums.

Then, public access to parses that require an opt-out becomes problematic.

Easy fix: fflogs anonymizes players without an account on their platform.

[Somnolence]

Running a parsing program is technically against ToS, but having or checking a parse made by another is not in any way problematic.

It is possible to copy paste the output of battle log to another program, which would be 100% legal.

As for all the log hiding stuff, I have not seen a single static that does not ask for logs when recruiting. Even more casual ones ask for them, not for nice number but to see what you cleared, when and if you are using your buttons in somewhat sensible manner. Only those that are ultra casual and accept people new to raiding don't.

For better or worse its just the way it is so if you are hiding logs you will have to PF as statics will assume you are bad and ignore you since there usually other candidates to choose from. Its exactly the same how companies don't even invite for interview if your CV is lacking.

[Its_Kazzy_D]

I don't know why people keep bringing up "well if you want to join a static it looks bad to hide logs". Most people will unhide them if they're looking to join a static? It's such a nonsense argument made for the sake of arguing.

[KisaiTenshi]

An uncomfortable truth, technically correct.

I hold the following opinion on this context of cheating - if I act like a turd and raise a stink by flagrantly displaying parses or 3rd party tools, and/or disrupting the experience of others, I deserve to be flushed.

Exactly. I don't care if people are using these things until they use it to disrupt my enjoyment of the game.
- Cheating competitive portions of the game (Eg week 1 clears, savage/extreme/ultimate raids)
- Using it to denigrate other players, either online or offline
- Taking a cavalier attitude toward TOS violations

It is possible to copy paste the output of battle log to another program, which would be 100% legal.

Nobody is doing that, and you're being dishonest suggesting it. How that third party tool works is by hacking the game client to read the memory for "accurate" numbers. It's not different from any other cheat tool.

The game DOES have a combat log, but that tool is not reading it.

And it can' t because that would require data mining the game to understand the log format, also a TOS violation.

Clearly SE COULD let players parse the combat log if they would release a document on how to read it. But I don't see that forthcoming any more than any other integration.

[Azureskies01]

Running a parsing program is technically against ToS, but having or checking a parse made by another is not in any way problematic.

Fruit of the poisonous tree, by the way of which the information was obtained it is in fact problematic.