How About An "Incognito" Player Status?

[Niwashi]

You still cant prevent everything

Nobody claimed it would prevent everything. That's no reason not to prevent the part that it can.
Less hassle and harassment is better than more, even if you can't absolutely guarantee there will never be any.

[Alleo]

You call someone "Captain Obvious" , talk about lazy people and quote the OP with that and so on. "lmao" or "lol" is also something that comes of as aggressive or really sarcastic. It may not be your intention but yes you do come over as slightly aggressive.

Here is one quote:

The point if you gave such status it wouldn't make a nice impression for new players.

If you did not mean the player search with this sentence than I am sorry for misunderstanding you, but since it was only some posts after the OPs post and the OP only talked about player search there I am still not sure what exactly is bad for new players? You said that busy status is okay so why would the new status leave a bad impression on new players? At this time nobody posted some other ideas like the "not online" one. So what did you mean with leaving a bad impression?

Also its kinda strange that busy status is fine with you, but not wanting to have others talk to you is bad? I mean busy status is way more restrictive than the Incognito status would be, since this would only stops you from being found in the search function, thus people need to see your character to talk to you.

And you might see it as bad suggestions but I did not have a problem with any of the suggestion that followed the OPs post. Even the one where you are shown as offline. Really the only reason I could think that this is bad for a FC is, if you talk about something that you dont want everyone to hear but really those could be posted in LS or per tell. I just dont see any downside and its okay that you might dislike some of them, but calling people lazy or captain obvious is not really how you show your point.

So if RMT will always find a way to come back wouldnt that mean that SE should do nothing at all? I mean if in the end they will find a way again why even try to throw stones in their way? I am just not sure what they would do after that. I mean we can report them if they send us a tell, they would only be able to sent a invite to the people near them, so most of the time it would greatly help. For you this might not be a great argument but it seems that for others it is. And just because it might not be something permanent against the RMT, does not make it a bad solution.

There will never be a solution that will stop everything. Thieves will always find a way into a house if they truly want to go in there (and have the skill and knowledge), does this mean we should just all leave our doors open and have no security measures because there could still be a way to get in?

I knew that the person was not punished because they already had a ban before and yet they were on after that. And they also dont really stop with their behavior. I mean the one situation where that person stalked our FC was after I reported them..they are also still telling lies to my former FC about another person in the FC (was told about this by my former Co-leader). So either the punishment was not harsh enough for them to stop or they did not get a punishment. There might be rule that says that those might get a ban but how exactly would they know that the player stalked another one? Maybe they just simply were there? I am quite sure that its not that easy for SE and before they punish someone that might be innocent they will probably wait and/or do nothing.

In the end I just dont really see how the original suggestion was bad. (Which you already were against it) Maybe some of the following suggestions are a little too much, but I just dont really understand why you are arguing so much against it. You are a solo player so you probably would not even notice the change. Its nothing that leaves a bad impression on new players, since busy already exists and that is no problem (I never cared about that as a new player). Really the only point which might be a little to much is the offline status but still this was only one suggestion in this thread..

I dont want to hate on you and your opinion, since its in your right to have it, but after reading through the thread again I just cant really understand why you are so against it. Even if it does not improve much as long as it helps some people its already good.

So to be on topic:

I believe that its good for:
- at least get away from the new group invites from RMT if you are not near them
- stops the random tells from FCs if you are a new player or maybe if you are without a FC and dont want to join one
- gives you the possibility to not be followed by "stalkers" since they cant see where you are.

It does not stop people from sending you tells if you are near them so new people would still be able to ask questions, you would be able to get group invites from friends (which you cant if you are busy), you would still be able to be social in the game just with a little bit more peace.

So in the end all I can see is positive things. Maybe it wont stop the RMT for a long time, maybe you could try to report someone that stalks you but really why is it bad to want things to be easier?

[Magic-Mal]

Oh and another thing about /busy that is bad is that in a duty, it will block out a ready check and leave the rest of your team confused as to why you won't answer. Had this happen yesterday when someone had /busy on. No way to tell if they were ready.

[Bloody]

Does it prevent u from being bitten again? etc.

You should compare it to smth more similiar.

Can you prevent being insulted in the first place? etc smth like that for example I used the word exaggerating because you compared the privacy settings of your psn account which contains your rl informations to ingame informations. A stalker can join linkshells (hunt ls etc.) which u are in to see the zone, he could make a alt to join your fc, a friend of the stalker shares a ls with u or saw u ingame. Just few examples how ppl can stalk even without using player search. Hell they can even ask in the areas if someone saw u. You shouldnt be forced into a status because of such people get rid of the complete problem and get them banned etc. This will prevent said stalker to stalk you or other players in future.

My biggest problem with your main argument in this thread is that it is basically saying "You can't prevent everything so why bother?"

There is no such thing as perfection, but it doesn't stop people from striving for it. There will be no perfect protection against harassment or RMT, but when there is something you can do to mitigate it, and it is potentially quite feasible, there is no reason not to do it. Like you, I don't agree with all of the suggestions regarding an incognito mode brought up in this discussion, but clearly there is a difference in opinion as to worthwhile actions.

On your second point in the post I quoted, I definitely agree that people shouldn't be forced into a status to avoid harassment, and reporting it will ultimately be a better solution. However, an incognito mode that reduces the ability of harassers to reach you is still a useful tool as it creates more space between the offender(s) and the victim(s). Incognito can help victims avoid offenders while GMs handle the situation (which is sometimes necessary, I've heard of people harassing right up to the moment of ban before, sadly).

In regards to your aggressiveness, I would say that the tone your writing projects comes off as very dismissive of other opinions, which generates negative responses and is why you are being "aggressive" in that sense. It isn't as straightforward as aggression (which is generally quite clear).

[Newmanxeno]

I love this idea.
P.S. How did you guys talk to that cat lady for so long?

[Cinno]

P.S. How did you guys talk to that cat lady for so long?

Because she's personally attacking everyones opinions over and over in an aggressive manner (and then claiming to not be agressive) and its human nature to defend yourself.

That and we're all trying to figure out why exactly she's so against an obvious improvement to a flawed system. But i'm over it now. I'm going to pretend any further posts from her dont exist. I suggest everyone else do the same. She can have her very vocal opinion. We just dont have to hear it anymore. She's not going to change her mind no matter what evidence we throw at her. I dont have the energy to waste on trying to explain things to her anymore. :3

[Zeonsilt]

Looking at the first post, it seems a lot of people want this feature.
Why not then. Sometimes people just want to relax and don't want to answer questions or politely decline friend invitations/activities.

Skype, Steam, various chat/messengers apps implemented that.

[Frowny]

I don't see the point. If you want to be left alone, go to /busy and move along. You have LS, FC etc. to talk to those you want to while /busy.

We have a way of dealing with at least FC Spam: the blacklist. Someone stalking? Blacklist. Yea they can follow, but you won't see anything they type. Not perfect but we DO have the means to more or less accomplish the same thing.

[Magic-Mal]

I love this idea.
P.S. How did you guys talk to that cat lady for so long?

Well I'm always down to try and come to an agreement in some way with anyone in the nicest manner I can . So I can go and go, any aggressiveness, name-calling, or stuff like that never gets me off. I'll continue to talk it out and try to meet an end. If the person still continues it anyway!

[Alleo]

I don't see the point. If you want to be left alone, go to /busy and move along. You have LS, FC etc. to talk to those you want to while /busy.

But busy is way more restrictive than just simply being not found in player search. (Which is the original suggestion from the OP) A blacklist has a maximum amount of people you can put there so if people that want to play without a FC and have to black list even such players will have a full list quite fast. Its true that with blacklist you might not see anything a stalker writes but that does not change the fact that they can stand near you, follow you maybe even see who you are with and so on. And they can stand near you and shout out bad things about you, while you have no chance to see this. Not being on the search function will at least stop it partly since they wont be able to see where you are anymore thus making it way harder or even near impossible to stalk you. At the same time if you are busy and your FC wants to do some group content you are unable to join them. Not every group content is in an instance so if you want to join them you will have to take the busy status away again.

And lets not forget all the new RMT invites. Those would be gone too. Even just for this, a new status would be nice.

IMO it's just another icon next to your name, so nothing game changing and yet it can at least make the game more peaceful for some or even a lot of players. You would only need to activate it with on click and you are mostly free from spam while with blacklist you will have to go active again and again and thanks to the new RMT method you also have to go around and decline the invites too..it may not be much work but why not have some new little features that will make it much more peaceful and comfortable for such people thus giving them more joy in the game? I mean this is in a way only bad for those that send out those spam invites or are trying to find someone for some reasons..So in a way it has no true downside imo. So even if it improves the situation only a little bit or just make something more easier why not have it ingame?