Why do we even have a suggestions forum?

All decisions come down to staff (usually one) regardless of support. This being the case I don't believe the discussion and banter on suggestions really influences the people who make decisions. The only real purpose I see to the suggestions forum is to discuss suggestions that have previously been denied (DNS list) which is pretty much prohibited. This is sounding like a suggestion but it's aimed to be feedback.

Why does the staff care about people discussing DNS topics?
And
What is the purpose of the suggestion forum being public?

I honestly view the forum as nothing more than a post count booster.

Edit: For the sake of productive feedback I'll try to list some examples of situations that could be handled better. I will add links next time I'm at a computer
- Recent "ban" of staking services
----http://www.sythe.org/showthread.php?t=1430495
----http://www.sythe.org/showthread.php?t=1435865

- Simba rank (I don't care if it happens or not, the endless posts on the thread just seem unnecessary)
----http://sythe.org/showthread.php?t=1430591

- Jack Goff has a thread revolving around a sticky that constantly receives posts like "yeah I can see how that would help...support" (How is a post like that different from "support"?)
----http://sythe.org/showthread.php?t=1437199
Not trying to pick on users so I'm leaving names out
"Yeah I support. Wonder why it hasn't been added before."
"I support this. Not a huge account seller and haven't middle-manned, but all of the points made in this thread make sense."
Don't get me wrong, great idea but bad approach. Jack Goff doesn't need the communities opinion and frankly no one does. A pm would suffice and would probably receive more attention without the useless spam.

These threads are just some very recent examples off the top of my head. But these type of things have been going on forever.

I'd also like to apologize for the extreme indirectness and disorganization of this thread- it was really late.

 

I'll try to answer your questions since it's been a few days and I see no one's posted any replies.

-Why does the staff care about people discussing DNS topics?

DNS topics have all been brought up in the past and have been rejected for at least reason, most are rejected for being impractical, like a list of "scammer" paypal emails. Anyone can change their paypal email, so such a list would be useless. These suggestions tend to be brought up over and over, so a list was created to (hopefully) reduce the number of such threads.

-What is the purpose of the suggestion forum being public?

You may disagree, but it's to gauge user response. I personally heavily weigh user support in my decision to support a suggestion being implemented. There was a suggestion to require gold shop titles to have the word "from" tagged onto prices listed in the title IF they were the lowest price offered by that seller but were implied to be the average price. Quite a few people thought it would be a good idea so I supported it.

-Edit: For the sake of productive feedback I'll try to list some examples of situations that could be handled better. I will add links next time I'm at a computer
- Recent "ban" of staking services
----http://www.sythe.org/showthread.php?t=1430495
----http://www.sythe.org/showthread.php?t=1435865

I'm guessing what happened is that the first thread was closed because of a pretty legitimate reason, but the 2nd thread was allowed because there's a lot of controversy over the issue and again, these things are made public to gauge opinion. I could be wrong.

- Simba rank (I don't care if it happens or not, the endless posts on the thread just seem unnecessary)
----http://sythe.org/showthread.php?t=1430591

It's gotten quite a few posts from members (including staff) on both sides so again, I guess it's being left open for more opinions to come in.

- Jack Goff has a thread revolving around a sticky that constantly receives posts like "yeah I can see how that would help...support" (How is a post like that different from "support"?)
----http://sythe.org/showthread.php?t=1437199
Not trying to pick on users so I'm leaving names out
"Yeah I support. Wonder why it hasn't been added before."
"I support this. Not a huge account seller and haven't middle-manned, but all of the points made in this thread make sense."
Don't get me wrong, great idea but bad approach. Jack Goff doesn't need the communities opinion and frankly no one does. A pm would suffice and would probably receive more attention without the useless spam.

I'd say that "Yeah I support. Wonder why it hasn't been added before." is spam but "I support this. Not a huge account seller and haven't middle-manned, but all of the points made in this thread make sense." isn't. The justification being that in the second case, a legitimate reason is made to justify the support. You're welcome to report any posts you think are spam.

And no need to apologize, you made some really good points