Character name can't be hidden.

What is the reason for this? If it's to try to make people play nice by linking their Forum name to their character all that will happen is that people will select a level 1 mule.

I read no where that the character linking was manditory.

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Originally Posted by Tsukino_Kaji

I read no where that the character linking was manditory.

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It is.

Personally I think people shouldn't try to hide who they are on the game with this being the official forum, though I can understand people's feelings on this.

I am planning on using my level one mule named Tragic lol.

I've already seen people from this forum trash talk on the user profile page of another site when the person here had used their in game name here. For some people displaying their in game name would be a real problem.

I would bet on this being an attempt at preventing sock puppetry or increasing accountability thinking people won't risk their in game reputations. Which I also think would be silly, since moderation alone should be handling problem posts/posters and if it isn't they need to have a look at their moderation itself.

I suppose one could choose to not use the forums anymore if they don't display anything if you don't link one, if it's a problem and you can't use a mule. But what real tangible benefit is forcing the use this feature anyway?

I'll be concerned myself if they displayed all my character names or otherwise prevent me from using a mule as my linked character. I was always under the impression this sort of thing would be optional if only for privacy reasons. I've been cyberstalked before so Ive been made a bit paranoid of connecting any of my screen names even when no real life info is attached. That person got information about me god knows how so I figure the fewer connections the better @.@

My current understanding of what I read in the announcement is just one character linked and displayed, so a mule should work.

I made a slight comment in Port Jeuno /sh today, and Kimble I think it was asked if I was the same Raxiaz from the official forums. Or maybe it was Khajit. I get messed up with K's.

I have no problem with this linkage business. There's nothing I would say here that I wouldn't say in-game, and vice-versa.

People will use level 1 mules, waste of time completely. What a stupid idea.

If this is to try stop trolling, people don't care about trolling forums. Most of the worst trolls I knew from other sites openly stated who they were and reveled in the notoriety of it.

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Originally Posted by Runespider

People will use level 1 mules, waste of time completely. What a stupid idea.

If this is to try stop trolling, people don't care about trolling forums. Most of the worst trolls I knew from other sites openly stated who they were and reveled in the notoriety of it.

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It's not a waste of time. If you want people to see your information, you'll know it's real, because it won't be level one jobs. And anyone on your server is going to recognize you anyway. Frankly I'm suprised that this wasn't available from the start.

It's going to be sad if this stops people posting, quite a few will indeed stop using these forums if this is forced on your main character. It will be even more of a problem for JP players I would think.

I cant think of a single FFXI forum that forces you to associate and publicly show your ingame account to post, it's pretty stupid. Hell I'd be scared to say anything bad about the GMs or customer service after they add this..

I have nothing to be a shamed about when it comes to having my chacter linked.

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Originally Posted by Tsukino_Kaji

I read no where that the character linking was manditory.

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We would like to announce a new function enabling players to link character data to their forum profiles. This feature will go live as part of the FINAL FANTASY XI Forum maintenance scheduled for June 29, 2011.

At present, players are required to use a Square Enix ID when logging into the forums. Characters on the PlayOnline ID associated with this Square Enix ID will now be displayed in forum profiles. Players with more than one character registered to their account may select which character to link.

After logging into the forums following the maintenance, players will be taken to the Profile Settings screen and asked to choose an active character. Forum posts cannot be made until a character has been selected.

Forum profiles will now display the following:
・Character name
・World name
・Up to three jobs and levels of a player's choosing
* The above information cannot be hidden.

Players will retain forum handles.

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Highlighted the bit you obviously missed.

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Originally Posted by Atomic_Skull

What is the reason for this? If it's to try to make people play nice by linking their Forum name to their character all that will happen is that people will select a level 1 mule.

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^ This.

I'm not one of those nuts who prattle on about 'privacy' when systems like WOW's Armory or LoTRO'S MyLoTRO were introduced, however there are some good reasons why people may not want to identify their in-game selves on forums, forcing this is pointless, for the simple reason you note.

I stand on this is silly side of the topic. At the very least you should have the option of keeping your info private. Most forums have an option of what kind of information you display to people not on your friends list. I believe the linkshell community has this option.

Character info is not personal info. Perhaps people should take it upon themselves to be more acountable about what they say and/or how they act on the forum.

Relevant:

http://www.thenoobcomic.com/index.php?pos=378

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Originally Posted by Tsukino_Kaji

Character info is not personal info. Perhaps people should take it upon themselves to be more acountable about what they say and/or how they act on the forum.

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It is when it could possibly lead back to your IRL info. which it could if someone has a blog or webpage somwhere with their real name along with their character's name and server.

Thankfully many years on 4chan have taught me the importance of never ever EVER putting your IRL info on the internet. That's why I refuse to use social networking sites. It's just asking for trouble.

Already with the implications people not all for it are ashamed or have something to hide or want to not be accountable. Cute. I thought we might at least make it to a 3rd page 1st.

Accountability by linking two imaginary names together is laughable at best.

lolreputation. The biggest trolls are proud of what they already get away with here (and in game to) and most make no attempt to hide their in game name.

Edit:

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Originally Posted by Atomic_Skull

It is when it could possibly lead back to your IRL info. which it could if someone has a blog or webpage somwhere with their real name along with their character's name and server.

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Yeah this right here is why I completely understand not wanting to use this feature. Its nice for those of us who do, but it shouldn't be forced. Also why I don't use my RL name or in my game name *anywhere* that I don't have to.

Several years of being stalked taught me not to do that...

My Game name is the same as my Forum name so yah, Doesn't effect me much. However, it is kind of silly.

At the same time, to me it just seems like this will stop some people from making an ass of themselves because now their anonymity is gone. (sure won't work on everyone because of mules etc as described here)

Unless you're embarrassed by your own posts or ashamed of yourself on these forums, I don't see a problem. I've never hid my in-game name, and i have yet to receive 1 single in-game negative tell since i began posting on forums. I have received a few positive ones though, So that shouldn't be an issue.

Most people are smart enough to not randomly send harassing tells to people in game what with harassment being again the ToS

I for one welcome the inpending accountability if not for anything more then the entertainment value that will insue.

Anyone opposed to this clearly has something to hide.

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Originally Posted by Tagrineth

Anyone opposed to this clearly has something to hide.

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Truth.

Superfluous text.

Ultimately this move will either be useless cause people will use a mule or it will stop people posting, both are stupid and pointless but at least someone is getting paid to implement this useless feature I guess.

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Originally Posted by Runespider

Ultimately this move will either be useless cause people will use a mule or it will stop people posting, both are stupid and pointless but at least someone is getting paid to implement this useless feature I guess.

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I won't be using a mule or stop posting >_>

If people are so afraid of what they say on these forums that they need to be completely anonymous because they're afraid of any consequences? they shouldn't be posting to begin with.

Really, Unless you consistently make yourself look like an idiot i don't see why people care if they know your in-game name or not... Even then I don't think very many people go around harassing people in game over forum posts. I haven't met anyone like that yet...

That kind of action is also against the ToS (as it being a form of harassment). Same as in here if you do it you can get your post deleted.

If knowing in-game name on a forum was going to have any real drastic impact on your game-play,

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Originally Posted by Tagrineth

Anyone opposed to this clearly has something to hide.

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I've got bigger plans in mind.

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Originally Posted by Tsukino_Kaji

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Originally Posted by Tagrineth

Anyone opposed to this clearly has something to hide.

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Truth.

Superfluous text.

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More like blatant trolling or a failed attempt at sarcasm.

FFXIAH has been doing this for years now, and it really has no direct impact on your gaming experience. People really do not care about posts on the forum that much. Hell only a very small portion of the FFXI Community even uses forums.

I don't think this will cause as much of a problem as people think is all.

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I won't be using a mule or stop posting >_>

If people are so afraid of what they say on these forums that they need to be completely anonymous because they're afraid of any consequences? they shouldn't be posting to begin with.

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Not everyone is the same, I know many posters enjoy being linked to their posts on a forum but that's not everyone. Some people just want to be able to play the game in peace but yet still have a place to express their opinions.

Remember that post a while back about fixing 100pdt pets and all the mouth breathers saying they were going to bother the person that made the topic? Sure it's only a game but many of us play the game as a source of relaxation and want to just play the game without having to worry about being bothered, good or bad from posts made on a forum.

For people that like the link and that already make it obvious who they are for the "fame?" or something this is a non-issue, for people that just want to state their opinions and have their game time totally seperate it will stop them posting. Unless you think that group of people have nothing worthwhile to contribute to this forum and them stopping posting is no loss?

The main thing I don't get is just what the point of it is, if it's purely being done to stop trolls they don't understand trolls at all. The worst ones revel in the fame of it and usually use their ingame name to post with in the first place anyway...hell they probably troll port jeuno as bad as they do here.

What I can see happening is this being applied to eu/us players and jp being exempt, many of them go bat crazy if you as much as examine them still let alone this.

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Originally Posted by Runespider

Not everyone is the same, I know many posters enjoy being linked to their posts on a forum but that's not everyone. Some people just want to be able to play the game in peace but yet still have a place to express their opinions.

Remember that post a while back about fixing 100pdt pets and all the mouth breathers saying they were going to bother the person that made the topic? Sure it's only a game but many of us play the game as a source of relaxation and want to just play the game without having to worry about being bothered, good or bad from posts made on a forum.

For people that like the link and that already make it obvious who they are for the "fame?" or something this is a non-issue, for people that just want to state their opinions and have their game time totally seperate it will stop them posting. Unless you think that group of people have nothing worthwhile to contribute to this forum and them stopping posting is no loss?

The main thing I don't get is just what the point of it is, if it's purely being done to stop trolls they don't understand trolls at all. The worst ones revel in the fame of it and usually use their ingame name to post with in the first place anyway...hell they probably troll port jeuno as bad as they do here.

What I can see happening is this being applied to eu/us players and jp being exempt, many of them go bat crazy if you as much as examine them still let alone this.

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Hmmm, You make some fine arguments i admit, I you say them in a coherent manner.

But I think that 1 example you described is literally the only one i can think of in the last ~4 years of foruming i've done. So its a very rare occasion. However i can also bet most of those people who said they were going to do something didn't.

While i agree this entire thing is pointless, I'm not against that idea, I'm just saying its not going to make the world stop. FFXIAH has been doing this for quite some time as is. The people who don't try to hide their name aren't always after "Fame", They simply take responsibility for their actions, good or bad.

Just because a person does not try to hide who they are doesn't mean they're after glory or are cocky or whatever. They simply do not fear their own actions. I personally trust what i say enough to not care rather people know or recognize me in-game from a forum post. Because i try my best to not make myself look like an idiot over and over (though i do fail sometimes).

I'm just trying to say while this change is pointless, i see it having very little negative impact on 99% of the users here. Anyone who's been foruming for more than a week knows what happens on a forum generally stays on a Forum, especially considering harassing someone in -game is against the ToS and most people who post on the forums care enough to not get their accounts banned.

And again i know its only 1 person, But i've been forumming for a long time and have yet to receive a single negative tell because of something i posted (and I'm not a very nice guy sometimes).

Well ultimately this will stop some people posting.

I don't like to be forced to do something I see no value in and don't like the idea of, I don't post on FFXIAH for the same reason...and that's not as bad as what this will be.

If there was a reason for it maybe you could accept it but there is none I can see. Why push people away from using the service for no reason, typical Square move sadly though.

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Originally Posted by Tagrineth

Anyone opposed to this clearly has something to hide.

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Unoriginal, and as always wrong.

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Originally Posted by Kraggy

Unoriginal, and as always wrong.

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Originality is overrated.

And why is it wrong?

Oh no, you're going to be identified... on an FFXI message board... by your FFXI account... such a dastardly and horrible concept. how dare they take away your anonymity on this... community-specific exclusive forum. I mean it's not like every single person posting here doesn't have an FFXI account (active or inactive, w/e).

If you don't want your forum posts to be linked to your character's name, that means you either A. deliberately post dumb *** on the forum to rile people up and thus don't want that linked to your character (something to hide), or B. live some freaky double-life of.. I don't even know where I'm going with this but in any case, it's pretty much A.

The folks who would troll, they generally like their fame that comes with it. They don't have a reason to hide. They want to push just far enough to have their fun without getting banned and all but brag at how much they get away with. It is truly amazing how much one person can drive a userbase crazy without actually breaking a rule. I can't see there being an impact on that sort of personality. It is the more timid members, or people like me (and I realize my situation is such a tiny statistic) not the aggressive or troll posters who would be shying away from this feature. They aren't embarrassed by those posts, they are proud. So accountability my foot guys.


Ffxiah allows you to use a 2nd account to put the mule on and has options to hide your character stats. You just use the mule account for posting and so long as that the only account you post from, you aren't sock puppeting so site staff is ok with it.

If we can use a mule (so far looks like we can) then so long as they don't display my entire character roster I won't have a problem but I can understand people being concerned about their privacy because of what I went through which also causes the comments saying people have something to hide or are ashamed etc to bother me.

I never did anything wrong and I've learned learned to keep my display names on websites separate and never connect them by saying things like "I'm <name here> over at <website>" as well as never divulge any real life information to anyone who isn't site staff and absolutely required. For example I won't use hulu+ because they display your real life name on your profile where any stranger can click you and see it (you can get away with a fake name on the free hulu, but I'm not giving them my money while they have that policy). Hulu used to display your address also.

I understand how paranoid this all may seem and I'm not saying this feature will cause that sorta thing. I know SE isn't showing anything directly personally identifiable I just want you to understand why I'm uneasy giving even a tiny part of an inch in the direction of any online identities I may have. Before I used to have the same user name everywhere, shared my instant messenger IDs and email in my forum contact details etc. Now, its a safety measure to me just like not using the same password everywhere. One of my 1st posts here was asking to have a separate forum password from my game password.



Going offtopic here but someone mentioned social networking. Advertisers used to have to pay good money for that kind of information and stalkers had to work for it. Now its all there being given away to anyone that can view twitter or facebook. You can literally see some people telling the world where they are at and what they are doing daily sometimes with multiple updates per hour. Who needs surveillance, just check their twitter page...Most people are simply not concerned with their online privacy lately.

Privacy toggle sils vous plait.

Been stalked, have had friends stalked, and basically don't wish any of that on anyone. Even as just a stepping stone for in-game harassment, the best I've ever seen the GMs put out was to blacklist the offender, who'd then just make a new mule to page spam or follow you around if persistent enough, and of course just get told the same if you made another call about it.

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Originally Posted by Karbuncle

FFXIAH has been doing this for years now, and it really has no direct impact on your gaming experience. People really do not care about posts on the forum that much. Hell only a very small portion of the FFXI Community even uses forums.

I don't think this will cause as much of a problem as people think is all.

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Actually, we think either the information displayed on FFXIAH or the LS site likely made people stronger targets for hacking years back. I only displayed my info in two places back before I lost all my AH-able BLM gears--FFXIAH and SE's LS site. I had the Admins dump my info from their site and pulled everything off of SE's while they tried to restore my account. It's also why I stopped browsing on my computer, just the laptop.

I don't even like the fact we have to link our game accounts and use those credential to post on the forum in the first place. It opens up an attack vector for people to gather partial login information again, just like what was happening with the ad banners on other sites a while back. Now they will make us display a portion of that character information as well, which may just make some players more attractive targets--especially those who don't have a low level alternate to link.

People will just use level 1 mules to link themselves on the forum if all they intend to do is troll, the same thing happens on the WoW forums. People hide behind their level 1 alts to troll the forums all day long.

Everyone who thinks this is a good idea needs to put their home address on an index card and affix it to every dollar they give to a homeless person.

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Originally Posted by RAIST

Actually, we think either the information displayed on FFXIAH or the LS site likely made people stronger targets for hacking years back. I only displayed my info in two places back before I lost all my AH-able BLM gears--FFXIAH and SE's LS site. I had the Admins dump my info from their site and pulled everything off of SE's while they tried to restore my account. It's also why I stopped browsing on my computer, just the laptop.

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Then I think you're thinking wrong. I really must ask for proof that Linking your FFXI Account to FFXIAH makes you more likely to be hacked. I'm really don't know much about hacking, but to my latest understanding the RMT weren't "Chosing" who they hack. Their hacking involved placing a virus on a computer and using it to get information (for the most part...), When RMT did hacks years back they just virus'd a bunch of FFXI websites and hoped to get hits, they just blindly try to hack people, they can't "Target" individuals, thats now how their program worked.

Unless of course you go around handing out all your computers information/IP Address wherever you go.

The only reason people get hacked is because they don't protect themselves. it has 0 to do with how "known" their character is. Back when RMT were hacking they hacked without caring who they were hacking. They hacked who they could (basically anyone without protection). Of course I won't deny if you piss off the wrong people your account specifically could be targeted, but at the same time, I've only witnessed this a few times, and its always been over something in game.

Players who own a Token, use protective tools like NoScript, Addblock, etc to browse safely on forums will have very very little to worry about, as it will be too much trouble for the average hacker to bother with. with a Token you're really only in danger of a real-time hack, which only happens if you absolutely take no precautions when browsing the internet.

And really, If you don't own a Token and use common internet virus protection programs, you have no right to complain about the "insecurities" these will (not) bring. Because you're not even taking basic steps to protect your account.

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Originally Posted by Dallas

Everyone who thinks this is a good idea needs to put their home address on an index card and affix it to every dollar they give to a homeless person.

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I'm sorry but that is the most misused horrible comparison i have ever seen used on a forum. This "Update" is more akin to handing them a Dollar saying "From Dave". Your FFXIAH isn't anything remotely related to the level of personal information as a home address, more like your name, Your first name.

Your Playonline ID would be like giving them your Home Address, and your Password would be the keys to the house.

You're at no greater risk of being hacked from linking your account to here at all. Want to know why? Every time you log in you enter your SE ID/Password, These are linked to your accounts. If they wanted to hack you, guess what? They already have the information they need.

Point tally: I knew 2 homeless guys (one was killed last year), I still haven't wanted to know anyone who posts on FFXI forums.

Let's not keep in touch.

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Originally Posted by Dallas

Point tally: I knew 2 homeless guys (one was killed last year), I still haven't wanted to know anyone who posts on FFXI forums.

Let's not keep in touch.

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I can see why you might be worried if people know your in game name. You're incredibly arrogant and your posts make no sense.

Well, it was highly suspicious that only my BLM gears were stolen when I logged out on WHM, and my FFXIAH profile hadn't been updated to reflect that change the next moring and my toon had been moved. They didn't touch my SH +1 and such...it was all still in my mogsafe....with my other 6 HQ staves and such, which had been swiped. Didn't even take the Royal Cloak that was in my inventory, but they took my black cloak that was in the safe also. It had the appearence of them seeing specific gear they wanted and that's all they took. Whether they saw that before hand, or just when they logged on during the 6 hours I was logged off can be debated. Regardless....showing that info can simply lead to more problems than it may help. Thankfully, this sytem won't be going so far to show gears and such, but it might evolve into that eventually--who knows. I'm simply not confortable with having no say in showing any of my character's information. It's also why I contacted the admins and had them purge my info from the data base after I unlinked from the LS site. Eventually, old data got restored when the site had a meltdown and they had to extract old data to recover it so it has ancient stats showing.