Option to privatize or opt-out of lodestone displaying character. Show your support!

[Kes13a]

Imagine thinking you can be stalked in XIV. Yikes

imagine thinking you cant be.

[Senn]

No, it isn't always the case. But for the most part it is, and what's dismissed is the accountability. While the person being harassed/stalked is definitely the victim, they refuse to look at certain truths about how they got into that situation in the first place. People hate to hear the truth unless it benefits them. It's just how it is.

It's not our job to finger wave at them and patronize them for their mistakes. I'm sure these victims of harassment and stalking will self reflect as they hide their lodestone page, and spend money on a name change and possibly a server transfer. No need to rub salt in the wound.

All of this can be said about the victim trying to evade their stalker. Like the terminator, they will continue to pursue the victim, so why give them another means to do so? This is a common issue in legislation, and idiot lawmakers often fail to see how proposed/passed bills can often benefit the criminal more than it does the general public. I'm not saying you're an idiot, and I don't oppose protecting victims from these jerks. Your heart is in the right place.

How would the harasser keep pursuing them if the victim privates their lodestone and changes their name and server? The harasser is already making alts and different accounts to bypass the blacklist - they are essentially "hiding" their lodestone so to speak.

Remember how some players who have been banned or faced some kind of disciplinary action from the devs were caught while streaming? The reason why people will do these kind of things on their mains is the same reason why a criminal who gets a slap on the wrist will continue to commit crimes. It's because the action they face for their trespasses is of no consequence to them. Toxic players in FFXIV know they can be arseholes because they know that SE won't do what is necessary to rid the game of them. Even in your OP, it was mentioned that the cheaters of Omega Ultimate are being harassed, which means they were not permanently banned. So what exactly is going to stop the next band of cheaters when SE releases the next Ultimate encounter? Toxic players don't even need to create an alt, or start a free trial to commit their atrocities, and genuine, wholesome, and honest players shouldn't need to make their lodestone private, create an alt, or otherwise start all over again to avoid them. That is the point I am trying to get across.

Let the GMs handle it. You aren't their parent, guardian, family member, or anything. It's for the GMs to investigate this case and come to a decision based on whether or not the ToS has been violated.

[VerdeLuck]

It would be nice to make more private in Lodestone or find a way to move a character to a new lodestone entry while still keeping it the same everything else. There are times when weridos like to track someone and the fact is once they get your lodestone that's it, they have that character's info forever, you have to either deal with it till they get bored or make a new character and start from scratch, which both suck as options.

[Midareyukki]

Imagine thinking you can be stalked in XIV. Yikes

I'm just going to ask you to please be more familiarized with the Koike Incident.

That's a Google Docs glossary for terms used by the Japanese fanbase. Among them (just use CTRL + F) you should find a reference to the "Koike Incident". Where a female player was harassed and stalked in-game.

It was so bad that Foxclon had to make an official statement on it in the middle of a livestream.

And that's not even getting into the several cases on Reddit and on these OF's, both in English and otherwise, of people bringing awareness to cases of stalking.

And I know how you tend to be. You'll likely say that I'm trash and my input doesn't matter, but I don't care and I don't mind. Just please be mindful, because these things do happen.

[caffe_macchiato]

There’s nothing we can do. The community already widely embraces mandatory data collection via FFLogs. It’s opt-out, but your profile is cataloged by default and the opt-out process is a bit obtuse. Most people are enrolled without consent. And many FFXIV players LOVE this system. They would cry if FFLogs became opt-in. And they have, in this forum and elsewhere. So why would we restrict the Lodestone if the FFXIV community has chosen, by and large, to embrace a public presence for their characters?

[Senn]

There’s nothing we can do. The community already widely embraces mandatory data collection via FFLogs. It’s opt-out, but your profile is cataloged by default and the opt-out process is a bit obtuse. Most people are enrolled without consent. And many FFXIV players LOVE this system. They would cry if FFLogs became opt-in. And they have, in this forum and elsewhere. So why would we restrict the Lodestone if the FFXIV community has chosen, by and large, to embrace a public presence for their characters?

What is it you want? If you support an option to opt-out of lodestone publically displaying your character, please consider leaving a like on my original post. Show your support and perhaps change will come.

Edit: I reached my post limit, so I'll respond here

It sounds like the difference between opt-in and opt-out, which makes a large difference.
In Overwatch, for example, people were being harassed over their most played characters. Blizzard released a patch to let people opt-out of having their info shown. This instantly created a stigma around players who did this as being terrible players with something to hide.
This was changed to an opt-in system to remove the stigma, because it went from "only people who are bad at the game or harassed private their profile" to "only people who want to expose their profile", and it made a night and day difference.
Currently things like FFlogs and Lodestone are opt-out. you have to specifically hide and private things, even though some things cannot be privated. It would be better if everything on it, even the character info, was private by default and you needed to consent to have it made public to other players.

Sure, I can get behind this. Perhaps it would be better if it was private by default.

Who's job is it then? If you care about someone then it isn't about who's job it is, it's providing them a courtesy by making them aware of their own mistakes. And no, they will not self-reflect and correct if they are coddled. This is not how the human brain works. They will in fact do the exact opposite.

No one is coddling anyone. It's not your job, stop trying to mother people. I'm not trying to be rude but it's very condescending to act like you are doing them a courtesy. Maybe they made some mistakes, or maybe they weren't at fault at all. You don't know their story.

you say that the harasser making their lodestone private won't protect them.

Yes, the harasser making their lodestone private will not protect them from being reported. If they are reported and are determined to have violated the ToS, action will be taken on their account regardless of if their lodestone is privated. This is exactly what I am saying. GMs do not need your lodestone to be visible to find you.

If this is how you feel, then let them do their job. If this is how you feel, then what is the point of this thread? Please understand that I am on your side, and I don't want harassment and stalking taking place in any form on this game, or any other, or any other platform. I want the offenders punished, and made an example of to let others would be arseholes know what awaits them should they decide to violate the ToS instead of allowing others to maintain an enjoyable experience while online.

Again, the point of this thread is to prevent stalking and harassment by giving the victims an option to hide their lodestone profile. Particularly against toxic people who will continue to make alt characters, create new accounts, and trial accounts to stalk and harass.

There are plenty of MMOs without a lodestone-like feature. This seems like a uniquely FFXIV thing.

[Kyrj]

IDC how it sounds. If you gain unfair advantages in the game and you are publicly shamed for it, I don't believe you should be able to escape that. Maybe it will encourage people to do mechanics more genuinely.

Its also like if there was an infamous harasser / exploiter, why should we lose track of them?

Alright Batman, calm down.

[VerdeLuck]

What is it you want? If you support an option to opt-out of lodestone publically displaying your character, please consider leaving a like on my original post. Show your support and perhaps change will come.

It sounds like the difference between opt-in and opt-out, which makes a large difference.
In Overwatch, for example, people were being harassed over their most played characters. Blizzard released a patch to let people opt-out of having their info shown. This instantly created a stigma around players who did this as being terrible players with something to hide.
This was changed to an opt-in system to remove the stigma, because it went from "only people who are bad at the game or harassed private their profile" to "only people who want to expose their profile", and it made a night and day difference.
Currently things like FFlogs and Lodestone are opt-out. you have to specifically hide and private things, even though some things cannot be privated. It would be better if everything on it, even the character info, was private by default and you needed to consent to have it made public to other players.

[Gemina]

It's not our job to finger wave at them and patronize them for their mistakes. I'm sure these victims of harassment and stalking will self reflect as they hide their lodestone page, and spend money on a name change and possibly a server transfer. No need to rub salt in the wound.

Who's job is it then? If you care about someone then it isn't about who's job it is, it's providing them a courtesy by making them aware of their own mistakes. And no, they will not self-reflect and correct if they are coddled. This is not how the human brain works. They will in fact do the exact opposite.

How would the harasser keep pursuing them if the victim privates their lodestone and changes their name and server? The harasser is already making alts and different accounts to bypass the blacklist - they are essentially "hiding" their lodestone so to speak.

Listen to what you're saying here. The victim has to make their lodestone private, change their name, change their server. And in the worse cases, they might have to start all over again. All the while you give the harasser the ability to do the same thing with their own account(s). If you cannot see what is wrong here, then I do not know how to explain it further. You need to realize that in one breath you're saying that a player making their lodestone private will protect them, and then when you argue in the next breath you say that the harasser making their lodestone private won't protect them.

Let the GMs handle it. You aren't their parent, guardian, family member, or anything. It's for the GMs to investigate this case and come to a decision based on whether or not the ToS has been violated.

If this is how you feel, then let them do their job. If this is how you feel, then what is the point of this thread? Please understand that I am on your side, and I don't want harassment and stalking taking place in any form on this game, or any other, or any other platform. I want the offenders punished, and made an example of to let others would be arseholes know what awaits them should they decide to violate the ToS instead of allowing others to maintain an enjoyable experience while online.

[Hanaya]

A forum take that I 100% agree with! I've heard a lot of stories of players getting stalked in game for long periods of time, with support not doing anything to actually prevent the behavior. I understand that some players could utilize this for negative reasons, but unless support takes a more active role in preventing stalking/harassment of players, then it's not right that the only way to fix the issue is literally deleting your characters, because changing your name/world/etc does nothing when they can just check your lodestone.