I no longer play, but was recently asked to return. I mulled over everything, but couldn't get myself psyched up enough to really "go back in". I walked away 8ish years ago, and while I am incredibly greatful for the journey FFXI provided, it's also something, at least for me, that is better left as nastalgia.
That said, I have some confessions to make.
1) I once trolled the forums with a GEO/BLU supertank "exploit" video where I started singing "in a hurry and dont know why" while standing still getting my *** beat. The tanking was real, but there was no real trick or exploit involved whatsoever. It was just meant in fun and pretty obviously so. Barrier / wilt / cocoon is stupidly strong in places like reisenjima where other augments are also contributing from the zone, to the point where VT enemies will hit for zero with a decent DT set. That's not the interesting part. The interesting part is some *** finagled his way into our discord HELL BENT on "getting details on the exploit". I gave him a little friendly banter, which upset him greatly, and when I told him it was "just a goof", he pushed even harder because he was then even MORE convinced I was just covering up some secret spell interaction. Takes all kinds, I suppose. I'm sorry.
2) I had recordings of drops for every item from the lilith fight except the body. These were long-winded sessions where I'd go in solo, take off all my gear prior to entry, re-equip, and wait until the last minute, and then kill. I could not get the body to drop because it was the last few days of my final subscription and could only sqeeze a few fights in, so I couldn't see it to fruition. The idea, or hope for the troll, was that everyone would be AFK in the lilith fight solo on the easiest setting to increase odds of "thier own drops" by waiting until the final seconds of the fight. The additional hope was that, outside, we would get visual confirmation via a sea of naked people who cannot get in because there is a slot limit and everyone is taking the maximum half-hour on easy-mode setting. The old troll soul within me still regrets not seeing that through ^^. While I did not technically commit the sin, I was trying to... and for that I'm sorry.
3) Back in the day, Colibri camps were a thing. They reflect spells, but they do so by first "storing" them. They can store up to 3 at the same time, and a fourth would overwrite the first.
If you brought a BST and a BLM, you could AOE nuke the colibri with your strongest spells twice, then aoe sleep it, and charm it and release it to "reset hate". Upon releasing the colibri, it would retain the spells in it's memory. If you do this to enough colibri in a colibri camp (easy do to since charm is involved and you can pull them away), you can essentially create the most gorgeous party-slaughtering deathtraps. They will dump all three spells rapid fire to any unfortunate group that pulls them. Nin tanks were big back then, so shadows getting wiped 3 times in a row pretty much guaranteed a death, with the benefit of very often it ending with the support getting "slept" through it all. It was a pretty normal way for us to end the evening in FFXI back then. I'm sorry.
4) Butter crystals. I once convinced a day-one player that he could obtain butter crystals from butter elementals in the plains, and I'd be willing to pay top gil for as many butter crystals as he could get so I could skill up my cooking (homage to the old ffxi cookie video). I didn't think much of it until many hours later he messaged me, frustrated and at wits end, after camping for hours all he was able to obtain were water crystals, which unfortunately I just wasn't interested in buying. I'm sorry.
Thank you for hearing an old man's FFXI confessions.