Remove Player Search Function

[Leosion]

Hello,

I have an idea that would help get rid of spamming.

Get rid of the Player Search function.

It has seemingly no use, and any use it does have is outweighed by the incredible spamming done by both bots and player characters (to spam invite for free companies). That is clearly how bots are constantly spamming gil sales private messages.

Do us all a solid and get rid of it please.

[AskaRay]

I use this all the time
Please don't remove it.

[Tokochan]

I've used it as well >_o
When I've had new friends play I looked them up through that.. especially when they were on trial and I couldn't whisper them to see where they were.
I've used it to look up people I've partied with as well to see if they were on my server out of curiosity..
Just because you don't use it doesn't mean other people don't.. I see what you mean with the negatives but there is a reason why it's there.

[Ichimaru-san]

I've used it as well >_o
When I've had new friends play I looked them up through that.. especially when they were on trial and I couldn't whisper them to see where they were.
I've used it to look up people I've partied with as well to see if they were on my server out of curiosity..
Just because you don't use it doesn't mean other people don't.. I see what you mean with the negatives but there is a reason why it's there.

Alright how about if they just limited player search to people who pay a subscription then? Would that not help cut down rmt activity at least a little? I assume many rmt use a free trial account right? I know quite a large amount of them are stolen from players but still.

[File2ish]

Trial users already have limited use of the chat. RMT generally are paid subscriptions.

[Mrydeen]

Please no, people use this function to assist other crafters / gatherers, invite ppl to LS, and FC and even to see if someone u know is online...
Its a vital feature

[Amiaze]

Alright how about if they just limited player search to people who pay a subscription then?

That might not be such a good idea, either. While it's better than removing the function altogether (which, I'm sorry, is a terrible idea), let's look at the extreme sides. Sure, RMT messages would largely be cut down...but what about players who are new, don't have a subscription yet, and want to add people? I know I've done shouts or given raises to people and then teleported away, and then that person would either click on my name in the chat box or search me out later. I would also do the same. If that person went into a duty, I'd just have to write their name down and search them out later since my chat log only goes back so far.

I really think the best thing to do is to either set yourself to "busy" or add another tab just for tells, and silence that tab. That's what I did. I check it every now and again to see if legitimate players have sent me anything, which isn't a hassle to me. And it means I don't see any RMT messages in my chatbox or hear the sound for them at all.

[Canadane]

Alright how about if they just limited player search to people who pay a subscription then?

It's already more restricted than that. You can only find players through the search (ingame) that are currently online.
Unless I've overlooked some offline player search, the only way to do that is via the Lodestone, and you cannot send real messages that way.

[Ichimaru-san]

Well I would just like there to be a guaranteed way to deal with rmt besides setting yourself to busy or creating a chat tab for tells and turning off the notification sound effects. I realize that may never happen as it would probably screw other legitimate players over and I would not want that to happen, but there has to be a way right? I have not seen so much illicit activity in a subscription based mmo before usually you would expect that from one that uses a free to play model.