[URGENT] ADD THE ABILITY TO HIDE CHARACTER NAMES FROM THE FORUMS

[Olivia0x25]

I don't know why this was changed, but Square Enix updated their forums where a character name is now REQUIRED to be shown in your forum posts.

Let me explain and show how this is a bad idea.


If someone decides they don't like you on the forums, they now get the information of knowing what data center you play on, what character you have, and can /tell or attack you in-game.


However it dives MUCH deeper than this.


While contacting live support to explain how this is an issue, I was able to tell them of an example of how easy it could be to harass someone, by googling a random person in one of the threads I started BY THEIR CHARACTER NAME

I was able to find out in two seconds:


1. Their character name.
2. Their datacenter they play on.
3. Their Free company.
4. Their FC Ward.
5. THEIR SOCIAL MEDIA
6. THEIR REAL NAME (attached to social media)
7. Their profession (onlyfans)
8. Their Hobbies (cosplaying)

Etc.


ALL of this information besides the first 4 was found out JUST BY GOOGLING THEIR CHARACTER NAME FROM THE FORUMS.


This is scary. This is awful. NO ONE SHOULD BE ABLE TO FIND OUT THIS INFORMATION!

And yes, it is partial fault of the user for using their ffxiv in-game character name on their social media, but the point is I would of never been able to find out this information, had I not been able to google their character name from a forum post.


DELICATE INFORMATION SHOULD NOT BE FORCED ON PUBLIC DISPLAY! EVEN IF IT AS SIMPLE AS CHARACTER NAMES!


This makes it TOO EASY to be a target of harassment.

I URGE square enix to change their forums, to add a privacy section on the forums to allow users to hide their character names, and any other information they do not wish to optionally, publicly share to everyone on the forums.

[Arrhin]

This information was (easily) available because that person has likely shared character information (name or otherwise) on their personal social media account, with that profile set as public and thus any search engine will find it, and likely link it. As for in game information (characters, character data, chat logs), that is the sole property of SE and they may do with it what they wish. There are even restrictions on what we as users may do with that information. We all agreed to this when we clicked "Yes" after reading the ToS. Everyone read it, right? They all read the ToS for Evil Social Media Corp (tm) too, right? Long story short, if one values privacy, keep social media profiles private (well, as private as one can...), use throwaway emails for any character social media accounts one may desire to have. The less information bad actors can link together, the more difficult one is to track online.

[Olivia0x25]

This information was (easily) available because that person has likely shared character information (name or otherwise) on their personal social media account, with that profile set as public and thus any search engine will find it, and likely link it. As for in game information (characters, character data, chat logs), that is the sole property of SE and they may do with it what they wish. There are even restrictions on what we as users may do with that information. We all agreed to this when we clicked "Yes" after reading the ToS. Everyone read it, right? They all read the ToS for Evil Social Media Corp (tm) too, right? Long story short, if one values privacy, keep social media profiles private (well, as private as one can...), use throwaway emails for any character social media accounts one may desire to have. The less information bad actors can link together, the more difficult one is to track online.

You're missing the point like... entirely.


I'm stating that if someone has an issue with someone on the forums, BECAUSE characters are listed on the forums forcefully. You have access to that information. Is it limited? Yes, but it's ALSO depending on stuff like social media. The problem isn't social media, the problem is any interaction on the forums can LEAD to harassment in-game and out-of-game just by simply DISPLAYING character information.


If I see someone on the forums post something, FOR JUST AN EXAMPLE, that they think all miqo'tes should be deleted from the game. I would now have the ability to find that user in-game and be able to /tell them and possibly harass them over their forum post as just an example. Now OBVIOUSLY I wouldn't do that, and that is FOR SURE against the ToS and would likely get me banned, but if the character name was hidden, I wouldn't of had that option to do that in the first place.

The fact that there is NO option to turn it off, gives the possibility for it to be a problem, as I've explained, and yes it can be fault due to user error, the fact of the matter is that I would of never been able to find out all that information by a user if I didn't know their character name to begin with. I should have the option to chose whether or not I want my character name displayed on my forum profile.