I agree with the OP that recently people haven't been as helpful as they used to be but that doesn't mean that they're jerks - its already been stated before, sometimes higher levels have things they need to do for their own friends or their linkshells. Maybe they don't have enough time for what would surely be a long long quest - maybe they've got to log for work or family.
In my opinion, sometimes people avoid helping not because they're selfish, but because the newer players have been just too demanding. Awhile back in Qufim, I threw a friend's PT a couple of cures and took a pug that linked to them: I got thanks from a couple of the party members, but the others asked me to *give* them food/gil, not to mention a long-term power-level.
My brother spent 5-6 hours helping someone he didn't even know get his kazam keys in one sitting, guess what he got? He got called a noob after the deed was done. For the next few days, he got /tells from the guy asking for gil/power leveling sessions because 'they were friends'.
As Tiffie said so nicely:
Quote:
And please remember that those who you are asking for help pay the same fee to play that you do as well. We don't always want to be doing things for other people. And I know there have been many weeks where all I did was log on, help people because they asked and logged off without once doing anything that I wanted or needed to do. We want to have some fun ourselves and try new things.
It isn't always that people don't want to help - some of us are afraid that if we *do* help, we open ourselves up to problems like the ones mentioned above. Who knows, maybe the disrespectful people the OP mentioned are those who got too much help - they take it for granted and **** on those who need it because they got help so easily, they don't understand the need to pay it forward.
The server is far from failing: there are many good people here, just like there are many people I'd consider jerks. Its just sometimes easier to see the bad than the good is all. My 2 cents.