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

[Seraphor]

I'm also 50/50. I will admit that the OP makes a strong case for it, but I also can't shake the feeling that such a feature would also promote illicit activity. It's a double edged sword. Somewhere in the middle is the concrete thought I have that believes if you play the game as intended, the less likely you are to be harassed. Making yourself stand out in any way also increases the likelihood of being harassed and stalked.

Even with the option, there still is not a method that works 100% to avoid being harassed. Having to make yourself private on lodestone, changing your name, switching servers etc. are all things that inconvenience the player much in the same way a person will change their phone number or email address to lose the trail of someone they don't want following them around. It also makes thing inconvenient for those of friendly intent if they want to show their support.

Like I said, it's a double edged sword and it's better to just play the game along with being very selective with those you allow into your social circle.

Making your profile private might be slightly inconvenient, but it's 100% less inconvenient than having to delete your account and start again from scratch...

I'm still not quite sure how this could promote illicit activity. If you report someone, SE would still be able to see who's account that report is linked to, even if they changed their name and settings.

[Senn]

I'm also 50/50. I will admit that the OP makes a strong case for it, but I also can't shake the feeling that such a feature would also promote illicit activity. It's a double edged sword. Somewhere in the middle is the concrete thought I have that believes if you play the game as intended, the less likely you are to be harassed. Making yourself stand out in any way also increases the likelihood of being harassed and stalked.

Even with the option, there still is not a method that works 100% to avoid being harassed. Having to make yourself private on lodestone, changing your name, switching servers etc. are all things that inconvenience the player much in the same way a person will change their phone number or email address to lose the trail of someone they don't want following them around. It also makes thing inconvenient for those of friendly intent if they want to show their support.

Like I said, it's a double edged sword and it's better to just play the game along with being very selective with those you allow into your social circle.

Sure, it would be better to not make enemies in the game, but some people are crazy and irrational. Like a vindictive ex that wants to drag you through the mud and ruin your social life. Relationships sometime fall apar, it's just life. Sometimes people take it way too far. I've noticed a lot of women in particular being stalked and harassed by an ex and they can't escape it, even with a name change or server transfer. It's not fair that the victim has to abandon their account - all those years of achievements, mounts, glamour, and other sentimental reasons. And it can happen to men too, I just notice it a lot more with women. Heck, sometimes the woman in this scenario was never even in a relationship with the guy, but he won't take no for an answer. Even if she blacklists him, he'll just use an alt, make a new account, or create a trial account. Victims of stalking and harassment need a way out without throwing out their entire character.

Give us the option to privatize or opt-out of lodestone. There are plenty of MMOs that don't even have a lodestone-like feature, and they function just fine.

I think you can already hide alts on the forum. You can click on them in the settings and the character plates go brown or gray. The one marked with a star is the forum face and can't be grayed out.

I thought you could still see other people's alt accounts on their forum profile though? Do I have that wrong?

[Gemina]

Making your profile private might be slightly inconvenient, but it's 100% less inconvenient than having to delete your account and start again from scratch...

I'm still not quite sure how this could promote illicit activity. If you report someone, SE would still be able to see who's account that report is linked to, even if they changed their name and settings.

It's 100% more convenient to not have to do it in the first place. That's the point. And if a good person can make themselves a shadow to avoid a troublesome individual(s), the same benefit is granted to a toxic person who wants to evade the trouble they've caused. Zoom out and put more thought into what you're proposing or supporting.

Sure, it would be better to not make enemies in the game, but some people are crazy and irrational. Like a vindictive ex that wants to drag you through the mud and ruin your social life. Relationships sometime fall apar, it's just life.

Ever hear or read the saying, "Birds of a feather"? You're right, some people are crazy and irrational. Those people tend to surround themselves with others who are crazy and irrational. Hopefully you see where I am going with this.

[Senn]

Ever hear or read the saying, "Birds of a feather"? You're right, some people are crazy and irrational. Those people tend to surround themselves with others who are crazy and irrational. Hopefully you see where I am going with this.

Yes you're right, but that's not always the case.

It's 100% more convenient to not have to do it in the first place. That's the point. And if a good person can make themselves a shadow to avoid a troublesome individual(s), the same benefit is granted to a toxic person who wants to evade the trouble they've caused. Zoom out and put more thought into what you're proposing or supporting.

If your concern is that toxic people can abuse the system by "disappearing", well... they are already doing that. A toxic person can already stalk and harass someone by making an alt, making a new account, or free trial account. They are already hiding themselves. What difference does it make if they private their lodestone? Which, by the way, they can still be reported and banned even if they do private their lodestone. This might even be better in the long run because if people choose to be toxic on their main account and not on an alt, they can get banned and lose their stuff - which probably means they're less likely to do that kinda thing on their main.

If your goal is to be toxic and harass/stalk someone, why would you do it on your main account? Like, why would you risk a ban on your main character?

Toxic people are gonna toxic. The victims of their harassment and stalking are sitting ducks with no way out of the situation.

[Gemina]

Yes you're right, but that's not always the case.

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.

If your concern is that toxic people can abuse the system by "disappearing", well... they are already doing that. A toxic person can already stalk and harass someone by making an alt, making a new account, or free trial account. They are already hiding themselves. What difference does it make if they private their lodestone? Which, by the way, they can still be reported and banned even if they do private their lodestone. This might even be better in the long run because if people choose to be toxic on their main account and not on an alt, they can get banned and lose their stuff - which probably means they're less likely to do that kinda thing on their main.

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.

If your goal is to be toxic and harass/stalk someone, why would you do it on your main account? Like, why would you risk a ban on your main character?

Toxic people are gonna toxic. The victims of their harassment and stalking are sitting ducks with no way out of the situation.

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.

[Seraphor]

It's 100% more convenient to not have to do it in the first place. That's the point. And if a good person can make themselves a shadow to avoid a troublesome individual(s), the same benefit is granted to a toxic person who wants to evade the trouble they've caused. Zoom out and put more thought into what you're proposing or supporting.

I don't think you seem to understand what is being suggested.

1. If someone is being harassed, they cannot control it. Another, separate individual is committing the harassment. "Just don't get harassed" isn't a viable solution, and victim blaming is not a flattering look.
2. An individual cannot evade moderation by hiding their profile, or changing their privacy setting. While you or I may not be able to track them, SE definitely can. That is the whole point. SE should be dealing with these things, not lay players. We're trying to avoid vigilante justice here.

[Rilifane]

I don't think you seem to understand what is being suggested.

1. If someone is being harassed, they cannot control it. Another, separate individual is committing the harassment. "Just don't get harassed" isn't a viable solution, and victim blaming is not a flattering look.
2. An individual cannot evade moderation by hiding their profile, or changing their privacy setting. While you or I may not be able to track them, SE definitely can. That is the whole point. SE should be dealing with these things, not lay players. We're trying to avoid vigilante justice here.

Exactly.
I'm 100% on board with people being able to protect themselves from harassment. If someone is harassing someone else, SE can track them without problems the moment they got reported, no amount of name changes, server changes etc. will change that, the account that was used to harass someone can and will get tracked.
You can't protect yourself against harassment by "just don't get harrassed lol" or "just don't surround yourself with crazy people" - that's not how it works. You don't just get harassed because you're doing uwu emoting while half naked in Limsa and flirting with sweaty people that want to bone a cat girl. You can get harassed for all kinds of reasons and it's often enough something you played absolutely no part in because if someone wants to be an asshole, they don't need you to give them a reason or permission first. They'll do it.

And it's quite frankly ridiculous that the blacklist feature is as bad as it is, that someone can teleport to you after a divorce, that it took them 4 expansions to look at the fact that deleting people from your friendlist won't remove you from theirs and that a payed name change doesn't do anything because you can still easily be tracked.
Players should be able to protect themselves from people they don't want to interact with but that keep trying to interact with them.
Reporting will enable SE to track the perpetrator without problems, regardless of name and server changes. They can't hide unless they're using a throwaway account but in that case, opt-out option will change even less in favour of the perpetrators.

[Denji]

I don't think you seem to understand what is being suggested.

1. If someone is being harassed, they cannot control it. Another, separate individual is committing the harassment. "Just don't get harassed" isn't a viable solution, and victim blaming is not a flattering look.
2. An individual cannot evade moderation by hiding their profile, or changing their privacy setting. While you or I may not be able to track them, SE definitely can. That is the whole point. SE should be dealing with these things, not lay players. We're trying to avoid vigilante justice here.

It's basically impossible to get the blacklist function to even work and when it does work it only blacklists that specific alt yet when you report anything the first thing you see is "Have you considered blacklisting this person?"

[Reinha]

I thought you could still see other people's alt accounts on their forum profile though? Do I have that wrong?

I'm not sure about alt accounts but I have other characters on the same account that aren't visible on my forum profile. Although if someone had saved an alt's lodestone page back when I had them visible they would still be able to track them.

[Senn]

I'm not sure about alt accounts but I have other characters on the same account that aren't visible on my forum profile. Although if someone had saved an alt's lodestone page back when I had them visible they would still be able to track them.

Oh wow, I had no idea. I went to check your page and don't see any of your alts, so I guess it must be true. There's an option to make it not visible??? Where is that, I don't even see it. Gonna make a correction to my post.