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

[Hanaya]

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?

sorry double post bc I just saw this, but as a dedicated excel user I think fflogs should be opt-in. I use it because I want to track my progress, and be able to see my improvement, but I don't care about other people's parses. I think making it opt-in would be great, because then people who want to see their parses can have them up, and people who don't care about it/don't want anyone to see theirs don't have to go through the effort of linking their lodestone just so they can hide their logs.

[angienessyo]

Completely agree with this. This was a problem even before the cheating where people would get stalked by exes in game. And even the players that cheated in Ultimate don't deserve to be harassed and stalked to the point they feel they have to delete their characters.

[Canadane]

If anything I would prefer people having less privatable information on their profile.
We game in a society.

[rainichan]

50/50... especially considering some very concerning reports recently (if you know, you know, I'll just say Lamia and some will probably already know). Good for that kind of info, but it most certainly is a double-edged sword because of harassers and people who get throwaway accounts solely to continue to harass. If they'd update the blacklist function to actually BE a blacklist and upped how many people you could add to it, I think it would makes things a lot less terrible than they are now.

...

Not quoting you for what you said, but I know what series you're a fan of, I can't believe there's more of us! There's gotta be at least 10 of us now out in the wild!

[SassyAssassin]

Yes please. Often there are real life people who don’t even play the game who obsess with you and every aspect of your life.

[Bobby66]

This is not a matter of what honest players should have to do. This is reality, people get harassed and stalked in game the reason why is irrelevant the focus should be that it happens. That being said as a community are we really going to say that the inconvenience of having to hide a profile or the fact it would give bad actors a way out outweighs the possibility that such a feature could very well provide release from a stalker?

Even if it is one case I would say that cost is worth.

[Zebraoracle]

This case is a red herring that is distracting from the very real issue of stalking and harassment that can and does happen in this game, forcing people who have done nothing wrong to quit the game or create an entirely new account.

Even so, if anyone does something that goes against the ToS, whatever that may be, it should be on SE to enforce that, and ban them. Not on players to take up vigilante justice. If SE themselves decide that banning isn't justified for whatever they did wrong, then other players shouldn't be able to force that player to essentially ban themselves.

Absolutely this. It is not the players' job to witch hunt people, YoshiP himself has said he doesn't want players witch hunted, so why is it suddenly okay?

[ForteNightshade]

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?

There's a reason we have laws against vigilantism. It isn't up to any one of us to police people for cheating, harassment or anything. File a report if you suspect something and let the GMs handle it. Letting the masses witch hunt almost always leads to wrongly accusations, over exaggerations and harassment far worse than someone using a zoom hack. Don't blame me. Look up J-Pop and K-Pop fandoms to see just insane and fanatic people can get with publicly shaming. Better even, Yoshida himself said he won't answer any more questions regarding plugins because people wouldn't stop harassing and report bombing streamers.

[Corrupted]

Part of the reason why I'm against it is kinda selfish and only concerns me, but I still keep tabs on a former "friend" and their new friends "two other" that change names as much as they drink fantasia...

Long story with unnecessary details aside, being tricked & hurt by them along with the crowd they started to attract was enough for me to start keeping track of who they were and if they happen to show up on the same world again, I'd have a heads up about who they were.

Not much care for the others, but the main "friend" was manipulative and freakishly different after their first move 2 years ago so I fell for this new person not knowing it was them all along. They pulled the same problems after seeming completely different and moved again...

That terrifies me a bit so having the option is both a curse and a blessing. I can change names and block out my info, but so can they on top of sounding and acting like a completely different person.
I know this isn't as dangerous as actual stalking and/or tracks back to real life, but this is my reason and why I said earlier it's selfish.
So again, on the fence for this.

Not quoting you for what you said, but I know what series you're a fan of, I can't believe there's more of us! There's gotta be at least 10 of us now out in the wild!

I like how you kept it vague, leaving it a mystery is nice although I doubt it's that hard to figure out

[Solarra]

I support this 100%

I think it would give peace of mind to anyone who has been in the position of being stalked for whatever reason. Paying for a server transfer and name change does nothing to prevent you from being found. I have seen far too many cases where people have been harassed in-game for extended periods, despite going through the official channels and trying to get support.

Since Square will have all account information, I don't think the argument that this will protect bad-actors holds water.
As to FFLogs, it's a third party site and Square have no control over it. However, I don't think we should just accept things as they are simply because FFLogs exists. It would be nice if FFLogs would seriously consider making their site opt-in though.