Hello all.
As a former member of Vagrants Requiem, and a new member of Seraphim and Aes Sedai Tower, I would like to begin by saying that I think of both Elinas and Hugus as good friends of mine in FFXIV and have enjoyed playing with them on Besaid. I'm making this post from a semi-outside perspective of my own based purely on what I've read and heard regarding this situation.
First of all, Hugus, is this topic really necessary? It's one thing if you think that Elinas is botting, and even though you've brought up the fact that you think that he does, you insist that this topic is about Elinas' "condoning" of such exploits and third party programs.
Nowhere in the above conversation does Elinas say that he thinks it's alright or encourages people to abuse G10 fishing spots or third party programs. He only states that even if people were to abuse these things that he doesn't think it would be wise of SE to ban people based on it, regardless of what is stated in in ToU (or whatever it's called). He never, ever said that it's okay for people to take advantage of exploits because they won't get caught.
When Elinas said "i dont care", it doesn't at all sound to me like "I don't care about the ToU, cheat all you want", but rather "Regardless of what the ToU says, I don't think SE could go through with banning people when their ingame population is already so very low." Then again, that's just my spin on the conversation and may not be at all what Elinas meant but it is how I interpreted it.
So you say this topic is about making people aware, but it honestly does come across as you just trying to drag Elinas' name through the mud based off what seems like a pretty silly disagreement that got taken WAY out of hand. I'm not saying that's what the intent of this topic is, but that is what's happening and I think it needs to stop.
Elinas. I'm not going to pretend like I know everything about you because I don't. And I certainly don't follow you around ingame and aside from the couple of times that you have crafted items for me, I have never seen you craft. So could you bot? Yes, no, maybe? I certainly don't know, and I certainly hope not.
My beef with you is about your reaction to all of this. From what I understand (and correct me if I'm wrong), you had a little spat with Hugus and after he dropped his pearl, some other members voiced some rather negative opinions towards you as well. And what do you do? You break the entire shell, you bring down our entire site (with loads of useful info and links on it) and then shut down the vent server as well.
Like ...really? REALLY? I come home from work and find that I no longer have a LS with no reason as to why. What was all of this talk about when I joined saying that Vagrants Requiem was all about the community and having fun and taking it easy? There's a disagreement in the shell and you just suddenly decide you want to have nothing to do with these people rather than trying to talk it out? You just suddenly decide to break the shell that so many people joined thinking that they had found a nice, friendly refuge? Same goes for you, Hugus. Was dropping your pearl really necessary based off this argument?
Because of your reaction to all of this, not only does it indeed make you look suspicious and not caring in the face of your accusations, but it is the reason why this topic exists in the first place. It's the reason why I actually have to respond to this silly thing in order to speak to the both of you at the same time and tell you how stupid I think it is!
The two of you used to poke fun and have a good time not only ingame, but on the VR forums as well and this is what it has come to? Really?
To summarize this all:
Hugus and any other former VR members who may be reading this, I do not think that Elinas encourages exploits in FFXIV and I think the creation of this topic serves nothing more than to invite drama amongst us and bring down Elinas without justified reason. I will not pretend to know if Elinas bots or not, but he is innocent until proven guilty in my book.
And Elinas, your reaction to this situation was just as harsh as the accusations brought down upon you and I do not think that it shows good leadership qualities on your part, especially considering the mission statement of VR that we were supposed to follow.
Call me an optimist or a dreamer, but I'd like to see this topic brought down and I'd like to see the both of you talk this out without one of you dropping pearl or breaking the shell. This entire situation is silly.
That is all, and I look forward to playing with the both of you ingame. Take care.