Character name can't be hidden.

[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.

[Raxiaz]

It probably isn't even required anyway.

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

[Darkshade]

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.

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.

[RAIST]

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

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.

[Greatguardian]

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.

[RAIST]

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.

[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.

[Raxiaz]

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

[Tsukino_Kaji]

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

Closure that wont come.

[RAIST]

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.

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.