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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.