Character name can't be hidden.

From what I know from the last time I used the LS community eternal beta site, it only allowed you to keep crafts hidden.

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Originally Posted by Darkshade

It probably isn't even required anyway.

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But it IS required, as stated in the official announcement...

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Originally Posted by Runespider

I don't post on XIAH because of that, I'm sure many others don't. There are also quite a lot of anon accounts on there.

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You can just simply make a forum account on FFXIAH/XIVpro and post without ever linking a character. I wouldn't be surprised if you can still post here on just a separate Square Enix account that doesn't have any characters linked unless you have to have a active XI or XIV subscription to be a forum member.

Again I understand some of you for whatever reasons have problems with the anonymity of these forums future but I'm just not feeling it.

Sorry if I'm offending anyone.

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Originally Posted by Elexia

From what I know from the last time I used the LS community eternal beta site, it only allowed you to keep crafts hidden.

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You can actually block out most of your profile from public viewing so it looks like this one:

http://fanzone.playonline.com/lscom/...QEGTY3eU2M0-3D

I haven't logged into that site since I unlinked from everything ages ago, so I don't know just how much you can hide for certain now, but if you browse shells while not logged in, you will find a lot of profiles that hide all but name, race/gender, the last job levels they were on and their current nation ranks. IDK if any of that can be made private or not now.

The bigger point is just how far they go with publishing details about your account. Will they start showing more info without giving you an opt-out option? It would make more sense for your character data to show on the LS site, as that is there to facilitate people getting together, but they give you options to keep it private.

This site is more a support forum than a social one, and displaying characta data doesn't really serve a purpose here. Outside of stating things like x ability on y job or set bonus from a certain set is not working properly--they don't need to know what job/level you are on when generating a support ticket unless it is crucial to the issue, in which case you are providing that info in your report. So, why are they making it mandatory to link and display ANY of your info on your profile?

THAT is the issue at the heart of this action--it shouldn't be mandatory unless it is necessary for the site to fulfill it's role.

I think that's a big problem with people's understanding of the Official Forums as a whole, though.

This site is a social one. General Discussion is meant for ... Discussion. This is not a "Everything here goes to the Devs, it's feedback time!" site. It is a social site that the Community Team also browses and occasionally posts in. Yes, there are other forums that serve the same purpose. BG, ZAM, FFXIAH, KI. That's fine. But, comparatively, the Support sections of this site are significantly smaller than the Social sections.

It's been abundantly clear for a while now that the Job subsections are meant to allow players to discuss their jobs with one another. Unfortunately, a lot of people seem to think that the PUP forum or the DRG forum or the DRK forum is the place to rant about changes they need in PUP, DRG, and DRK. It's not. Those subsections aren't there for player suggestions. They're there for discussion.

Heck, even GD is primarily for discussion. Does stuff get taken from here? Yeah. Do the Com Reps read GD? Yeah. But I can assure you that these forums have as much of a social purpose as anything else.

But it is heavily marketed as more a support forum by SE--more specifically a way for SE and players to exchange ideas.

you call a GM, they direct you here to file a report--and not the support portal like they used to.

There is only one link that takes you directly to the original support portal--little button down in the lower left. If you drill down to view licenes aggreements those are run thorugh the acttual support portal, otherwise POL is covered with hyperlink text/images that direct you here. It has more the appearance of being here as a means for the players to get information from SE, and send feedback/requests to SE instead of using the actual Support Center--hence more inclined to be seen as a support forum than a social one.

There is no reason for support and social discussion to be mutually exclusive.

Yes, Technical issues are directed here. Support issues are directed here. Feedback is taken from here. But it is still a social forum. The amount of social content handily outweighs the amount of support content on a post-by-post basis.

Is this the official support forum? Yes. Does that mean it does not also function as an official social forum? No. It serves as both. This update may only be relevant to the social functions of the forum, but that does not mean it is irrelevant to the forums as a whole.

Both of you are arguing points which are valid and I don't know what you two hope to gain from it.

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Originally Posted by Raxiaz

Both of you are arguing points which are valid and I don't know what you two hope to gain from it.

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Closure that wont come.

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Originally Posted by Greatguardian

There is no reason for support and social discussion to be mutually exclusive.

Yes, Technical issues are directed here. Support issues are directed here. Feedback is taken from here. But it is still a social forum. The amount of social content handily outweighs the amount of support content on a post-by-post basis.

Is this the official support forum? Yes. Does that mean it does not also function as an official social forum? No. It serves as both. This update may only be relevant to the social functions of the forum, but that does not mean it is irrelevant to the forums as a whole.

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The point is it was primarily marketed as a communication conduit between SE and the players--the players have molded it into a more social environment, while it has continued to be presented by SE to be more for a support role than a social one. The forum guidelines are even crafted to keep posts restricted strictly to FFXI related content,and give them the right to remove any and all personal, social, political, religious, etc. content from the threads.

I remember recently reading an article abut how Americans (and potentially other nationalities, but the person could only speak about Americans from personal experience) are more obsessed about "winning" an argument than learning anything productive from it.

Would certainly explain a lot of the internet, including the phenomena we are currently witnessing in this thread. >.>

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Originally Posted by RAIST

The point is it was primarily marketed as a communication conduit between SE and the players--the players have molded it into a more social environment, while it has continued to be presented by SE to be more for a support role than a social one. The forum guidelines are even crafted to keep posts restricted strictly to FFXI related content,and give them the right to remove any and all personal, social, political, religious, etc. content from the threads.

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While the guidelines do allow them to remove non-FFXI related material, that isn't to say that SE didn't specifically design parts of the forum to function as a social base in the context of FFXI. Server forums, Job forums, and the General Discussion forum are all primarily social mechanisms by design. Personally, I think the only reason we really see "Suggestion threads" being directed to GD is because it's easier than making a separate section for them.

The only explicitly endorsed "Feedback/Suggestion" threads are the Dev Tags. The rest of GD is merely a social discussion base. I would assert that it was the players who took the Feedback portion of the site a step further and attempted to turn GD into a direct line to the Developer's office rather than a forum for the social discussion of FFXI-related business.

What this boils down to is simply that the forums, by design, are not intended to be a purely support-based structure. Would public account linking be beneficial in a support structure? Not really. Would it be beneficial in a social structure? I believe it would be, and I believe that the web development team feels the same way.

lol i am waiting for the first mule to come out called troll XD

I understand precisely what's going on. Both of you are trying to come off as if what each of you has to contribute to the discussion is more valuable, to promote some sense of self-worth, perhaps. When in reality, you're both right, and simply are talking in circles now.

Not that I can blame you. I just fell in to that same trap myself. But it's no reason to be so defensive about it.

Oh man. I'm no longer anonymous!

I am still anonymous.

Just wanted to say goodbye to the people who stop posting now :D!

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Just wanted to say goodbye to the people who stop posting now

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Mule, np.

I wouldn't of bought one for this, screw giving them more money for such an underhand tactic but since I already had one and Square are incompetent (forcing it and letting you use level 1 mules? XD) business as usual I guess.

So everyone freaked out for no reason.

Color me shocked.

Some forums let people do this (not forced), and they don't use mules.

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So everyone freaked out for no reason.

Color me shocked.

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People complained cause they didn't like it, you can't rely on a company being imcompetent when they say they are going to force you to do something so there was some worry.

If they had simply made it optional to show it many that were against it would of had no problem with it anyway and this topic would not of existed, as it is they annoyed people for no reason and accomplished nothing.

I think they accomplished something.

It just took a while for me to notice.

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I think they accomplished something.

It just took a while for me to notice.

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oh?

125610351389

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Originally Posted by Runespider

oh?

125610351389

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Yah, Look closely you'll see it :o

I would like to know why it lets you set up to 3 jobs to display, but then displays one you didn't set >.<

i wouldn't have any issue with this system if it would just get my "main job" right... how do i set that?


edit: also.. i am like 99% sure i play on Carbuncle... not curbuncle.......

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Originally Posted by Doombringer

i wouldn't have any issue with this system if it would just get my "main job" right... how do i set that?


edit: also.. i am like 99% sure i play on Carbuncle... not curbuncle.......

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Curbuncle... That made me lol :D

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Originally Posted by Neika

I would like to know why it lets you set up to 3 jobs to display, but then displays one you didn't set >.<

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This is an SE implementation, don't forget. they never tell you everything.

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Originally Posted by katz

lol, I try to post personal data, but don't say who I'm talking to.

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Do me next!

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Originally Posted by Byrth

Do me next!

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I'd say me too but it'd probably take all of 30 seconds for someone to find me :D

i think the point in this was to get thos with out valid ffxi accounts off the site

I'm rather glad they implemented it, its to bad people can use mules to hide still though. Making people put out their real character name/server would probably reduce the amount of stupid on the forums.

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Originally Posted by katz

But Byrth I already know you, whats the point in teling you your data

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If you know me in game, you should have an advantage. Try to figure out my last name and zip code.

I'm guessing they simply wanted a way to see what kind of numbers are using the forum per server maybe, I can see no other reason.

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I'm rather glad they implemented it, its to bad people can use mules to hide still though. Making people put out their real character name/server would probably reduce the amount of stupid on the forums.

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Your post is proof that isn't the case.

Well, it seems like they pick whichever is first sorted on your list to display in your profile box, rather than the ones you picked to display on your character info. I picked whm / blm / drg to display.

It's showing nin over there.
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The order of jobs for me to pick is nin sam drg smn sch blu bst brd blm whm pld rdm. My jobs are visible on ffxiah, so I don't care that people can see them here too, it saves any stalkers about 2 seconds of work!

i just removed everything but red mage... let's see what happens now.

i mean sure i guess it's not a HUGE deal.. but if you're gonna "encourage" us to reveal our secret identities... they could at least make it accurate.


and i have no idea how i'm suppose to turn that "u" into an "a".....

Curbuncle wtf

exactly.......

it makes me feel stupid.. like obviously I didn't miss-spell that... but i still have to wear it around...

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Good job hiding behind a mule. Too afraid of being called out in-game?

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Of course I'm hiding behind a mule, did you not read the rest of this thread? That's exactly what i'm doing and yes why should anything I say on a forum have an impact in my gaming time?

If I call you a retarded brain dead monkey on the forum feel free to argue with me here or in PM, ill gladly oblige but my game time is seperate. I keep my arguments on the forums, not that I have many but still.

Though I'm sure someone will harass me just to prove me wrong, the only time forum activity has affected my game activity is when people send me tells in game asking if there is anything they could help test / they want to test something and would like to ask me about it. I like that, though there are some times when I don't have anything to offer, so I'm not exactly bothered by it. =p

Btw, good luck figuring out who I am now! Stealth mode activate!