This has annoyed me and many others for a long time, ever since this was added to the official forums. Many people simply refuse to post here, of those that do some just pay for an alt. Myself included. There are tens of thousands of people playing FFXI and a few handful that post here regularly.
In a time when people can't just let things go and think they have the right to argue with you everywhere else because of something said on a forum somewhere, having an official forum for a product we pay for force us to display our game characters is a stupid decision.
There is no valid reason for us to be forced to display an active character to post on a forum our sub pays for. I have no issue with having to link an active character to the account to be able to post, but we should not be forced to publicly display it to all.
I'm personally not going to pay $1 a month anymore just to post here.