Character name can't be hidden.

[Seriha]

Others brought up being stalked, but anyone who's been on the receiving end of that can likely respect having a greater control of what information about themselves, be it real or that of digital avatar, is out there when it comes to offering peace of mind.

Sadly, I lost a friend to the game when she chanced upon meeting the wrong guy. They kind of hit it off at first, but he got clingy. She eventually blew him off, but he'd have nothing of it. Such began a smear campaign of personal harassment from him, his mules (often deleted and recreated), and whatever buddies he could cajole into giving her crap. He had search comments set up, which at the time, I guess wasn't a bannable offense when including a player's name. He'd go to whatever zone she was in as a higher level job and thin out the EXP camps she and her party was participating in (Highest she got was to 58) and occasionally MPKing if it was an option. She'd called the GM on him multiple times. Hell, I even called for her after trying to moderate and him being snappy at me, but all we got was the canned response to just blacklist him. Eventually she just lost the will to log in, and soon after canceled. I tried to get her back after it seemed like he quit, but the damage had been done.

As is, I've received the occasional unsolicited trash talk on my old server simply because I'm one of those kooks who feel RDM + Melee shouldn't be a solo toy. Some might sit here saying they have nothing to hide, people should grow a thicker skin, or whatever, but I see it more as a preventative measure for keeping those with lesser restraint and morals from gaining an avenue to attack people from. I'll never rule out the possibility of accounts themselves being at risk, as such could create a trail of breadcrumbs leading to a blog, linkshell forum, or wherever that someone more tech savvy might be able to extract such info from less secure sources. Could've been a simple old PM to a friend, "Hey, I'm going out of town. Could you log me in for Dynamis if X drops? blahblah" It's happened, and lords no phbb and such has vulnerabilities.

Overall, I'm fine with the mandatory linking of a character for further forum use, but said character's information should have the option of being blocked to all but administrators. And if people can emulate this effect just by picking a mule, there's no point not to.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

Others brought up being stalked, but anyone who's been on the receiving end of that can likely respect having a greater control of what information about themselves, be it real or that of digital avatar, is out there when it comes to offering peace of mind.

None of this has anything to do with any information about yourself.

[Runespider]

I don't understand the arguing about this.

The bad points of forced account linking: Quite a lot of people don't like it.

The good points of forced account linking: is?

You can say it doesn't matter or they are only virtual details that belong to square and that's all fine but ultimately if the positives are non-existent and the negatives are upsetting people why would anyone argue for it?

[Greatguardian]

Positive #1: Knowing what server Hordecore is on.

Positive #2: Accountability. Even if people side-step it with mules. Better than nothing.

Positive #3: No more sock TearValerin BS.

[wildsprite]

unfortunately you will always have people argue for something even if it is ultimately negative, I'm not for or against it, but I do understand the negatives and think SE should rethink this idea, ultimately though we all know they wont, they feel it is the best for their system and will till it comes back to bite em in the behind

[Greatguardian]

Honestly, I don't really see what the big deal is. In-game harassment over forum posts? Yeah. It happens. But not to/from who you think it does. If anything that I've actually seen happen personally, the BG posters here get a lot more random flak from people than anything else since we already post with our in-game names.

But in the end, who cares? Blacklist is awesome. Aside from that, what real life info is going to be garnered from your in-game name anyways? If you have something set up that poorly in the first place, fix it now because anyone on your server or in your linkshell could be paying you a visit already if that's what worries you.

[Dallas]

Aside from that, what real life info is going to be garnered from your in-game name anyways?

Most people don't deserve to know our fake lives either.

[RAIST]

how about those who don't have a mule, and aren't comfortable with publishing their info (for whatever reason)? We should have the option whether to display job levels and such, just like with every other forum out there. I usually use the same name (or a variation of it) simply so people who know me can find me when I move to something new.

We already have the capability to show all the information about ourselves we want with our signatures, and most are not showing any of it. What I'm more concerned about is where it will lead. Just how much info will they be forcing us to post eventually?

[Raxiaz]

Personally, I'd like the following information to be displayed:

1. Job levels.
2. Craft levels.
3. Mission status.
4. Quest status.

Make it easier to find people for grouping for certain missions/quests, and for crafting purposes. A lot more convenient than just sitting in Port Jeuno for an hour hitting the same macro (if you're smart) or space bar + up arrow, enter... :/

This is assuming of course SE is smart and creates a search feature for these profiles fitting the criteria. But I doubt that will happen. I'm still for this because it does create accountability. Like I said before, I would say nothing on here that I wouldn't say on FFXI. Vice-versa applies too.

To the poster with a stalked friend, it's unfortunate to hear of your loss due to a stupid retard. But that was an entirely different thing - and I won't begin to speculate - but forum posts and relationship troubles are two entirely different things.

All against this need to remember what they were taught in kindergarten. I'm sorry that you've had all this time to forget of liability whilst using the Internet. But it was bound to happen - and it's going to happen on a much grander scale one day, I can assure you.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

Speaking of which.