Looks like the request for better safety features is gaining some traction.

[Theodric]

Given how the lodestone works, we'd probably need the site as a whole to be upgraded in order to implement the desired privacy settings.

On the other hand, those who are committed to stalking players are just going to resort to third party platforms in an effort to tilt their targets which moves it from somewhere that Square Enix can take action to a platform where they cannot.

[Steelbreaker25]

I certainly hope this incentivizes some improvements. I've never had to personally deal with any issues related to stalking, but if it helps, then it's worth it.

[Arzalis]

Given how the lodestone works, we'd probably need the site as a whole to be upgraded in order to implement the desired privacy settings.

On the other hand, those who are committed to stalking players are just going to resort to third party platforms in an effort to tilt their targets which moves it from somewhere that Square Enix can take action to a platform where they cannot.

In general, those other platforms (ex: Discord) have better tools to help mitigate harassment. FFXIV is definitely the weakest link in that chain. SE can't do anything other about platforms, but they can do something about theirs.

[Awha]

I have always found the loadstone functionalty werid I guess it makes sense since it also allows someone to keep tabs on scammers but outside of that never understood the logic behind it.

[Sove92]

- People on your blacklist can join PFs under another person, even if you're in the party. You just won't see anything they're saying.

And this is a problem because? It's not your party. Your blacklisting choices should not affect third parties.

I have always found the loadstone functionalty werid I guess it makes sense since it also allows someone to keep tabs on scammers but outside of that never understood the logic behind it.

That's the other side of the coin. The permanent nature of Lodestone IDs can also be used to keep track of bad actors who keep changing their name to avoid social consequences.

The game has flaws in its ability to protect stalking victims, but you also shouldn't throw the whole baby out with the bathwater. Blacklisting someone should remove you from their friend list and you should always appear offline to them. There should also be /anon to remove you from player search for everyone, just like there is in XI.

[CrafterPrimal]

The redditor that started the thread that article references hasn't posted any evidence of the stalking they or their friends claim to be undergoing, so at this moment the claims are unverified gossip. If people weren't around when there was that fiasco earlier this year, we had a GM go rogue for a bit and start taking down RP adverts in partyfinder. But that was quickly determined to be a sole confused GM and not a policy change by simply having people corroborate screenshots of the conversations.

There's a lot of social features that could use some tweaks and upgrades, but this article feels lazy and doesn't even give the counterpoint of the lodestone ID's commonly being used to track scammer name changes.

[Awha]

And this is a problem because? It's not your party. Your blacklisting choices should not affect third parties.

That's the other side of the coin. The permanent nature of Lodestone IDs can also be used to keep track of bad actors who keep changing their name to avoid social consequences.

The game has flaws in its ability to protect stalking victims, but you also shouldn't throw the whole baby out with the bathwater. Blacklisting someone should remove you from their friend list and you should always appear offline to them. There should also be /anon to remove you from player search for everyone, just like there is in XI.

As mentioned I do get that aspect but I can also see the other side of the coin and how it could be troublesome. I have used lodestone to find an old friend it was fairly easy so for someone going through stalker issues it really is not that to find someone. Sure one could always report but in truth I have always found that if someone choosds to ignore a person they should ignore all characters under that account. I get that might be difficult to do and would not be an absolut fix but at the very least it would require the stalker to use friends which then can also be ignored and once ignored they would need to buy a brand new account to interact with you. Sure yhe stalker will still find ya but they would have to go that extra mile for a brief interaction since once they interact witb you again on a different account a quick ignore will solve that.

[Lium]

You have to take everything posted on Reddit with an enormous grain of salt. Not saying there’s not some truth to it, but things are often greatly exaggerated over there.

I posted in that thread before it went to IGN basically saying I was confused by the post. Because so many over there have been allegedly banned just for emoting at someone and no one likes to talk in dungeon pugs for fear of getting banned because of how heavy handed SE is about player behavior.

Now you can apparently get away with stalking with no consequence???

Yeah no.

Again not saying there’s not some truth to it, but Reddit always makes things sound bigger than they actually are.

And the reason IGN picked up on it is because FFXIV is the “it” game right now, and because of what’s going on in WoW.

[Vonleo]

Better blacklist AND changing the one sided deleting of people off your friends. It is so dumb how you delete someone off your friends list and it doesn't do the same for the person you deleted you just stay on there friends list like nothing has changed.

[GeminiReed]

Unfortunately I think the jank blacklist/unfriending being one sided will stay until something lights a fire under him again since the last time it was brought up he kinda shrugged it off with a "well, if someone sees they've been unfriended their feelings might be hurt!" remark.

Bilateral unfriending can still protect the fragile egos of the unfriendee, just mark the unfriender as offline. A better approach would be to mark them as (Unable to Retrieve). But that would require work so they're going to need a better excuse (spaghetti code, please understand)