Friend endlessly stalked and harassed by another player on many characters

[Stylus-]

Someone I know is being harassed often, and when they ask the harasser to stop, the person doesn't reply, disappears, deletes the character and makes a new one later with a different name to do the same thing.
So blacklisting doesn't work in this case, and they haven't been able to get screenshots effective enough for the harasser to be punished

They considered switching regions to get away from this, but transferring and name changing doesn't help as the lodestone page keeps the same URL ID, so the stalker is able to see where they go to and what their new name is.

What can they do aside from quitting the game? And why does blacklisting not hide a player's entire account?

[ovIm]

There is no need for screenshots here. When your friend receives a message like that, just immediately open a support request and complain to a GM with all evidence already collected. In the form you use to contact the GM, your friend will be able to write down what they have been sent, and GM's can verify that on their end.
After a couple of DM's, GM's should end up doing more drastic measures if the harasses continues to try and evade punishment.

[Kaurhz]

Best you can do is open a support ticket until SE elects to actually do more..

Saying that, your friend can also login to the lodestone and just privatize their details, so when they next change name and/or server then it shouldn't be as easy to find, even with the Lodestone ID, since they'll just get an access denied error,

[Stylus-]

Thank you for the suggestions

[Jeeqbit]

They recently added some features to fight this in 7.0:

- Blacklisting is now account-wide (blacklists all their other characters, not sure if it persists after they delete the character or not, I suppose that could be a potential oversight?).

- You can now hide your lodestone information so only certain details can be seen, or so only certain people can see details (such as friends only). Thus allowing you to transfer.

- I believe external websites that track information (ie. damage) about you have opted to respect this privacy feature, but in case they haven't, you should make sure they hide your data as well by specifically registering and configuring it.

- There are features to expel people from FC houses.

- If you contact a GM, they can apply an in-game restraining order to them which, if breached, can result in a more severe penalty. If it is the same overall account doing it, then it should be possible for the GM to still track their account across characters.

[Collin_Sky]

Stop reacting. It's that simple. Posting stuff like this on the forums is literally feeding the problem. Bullies stop bullying when their victims don't react.

[Picothea]

Bullies stop bullying when their victims don't react.

Not necessarily, but it's worth a shot. It's common advice to stop reacting to bullies, but unfortunately some of the deeply pathetic ones (likely ones who would repeatedly make new characters/accounts to harass 1 person all day) have no real point where they choose to stop until someone forces them to, and may use more drastic measures to get your attention. If the harasser has a dumb personal reason for committing the harassment, they may be especially dedicated.

[Collin_Sky]

Not necessarily, but it's worth a shot. It's common advice to stop reacting to bullies, but unfortunately some of the deeply pathetic ones (likely ones who would repeatedly make new characters/accounts to harass 1 person all day) have no real point where they choose to stop until someone forces them to, and may use more drastic measures to get your attention. If the harasser has a dumb personal reason for committing the harassment, they may be especially dedicated.

Eventually they will stop. Even someone so obsessed will stop once they no longer receive whatever pleasure they get from it.

[ArchlordPie]

Bullies stop bullying when their victims don't react.

This is garbage advice. Ignoring bullies only causes them to escalate whatever it is they're doing.

Bullies do not stop unless the cost of continuing to bully exceeds what they believe it to be worth. Their target either needs to become so inaccessible that bullying them is not worth the effort (this is what blacklisting, etc. is supposed to accomplish), or their target needs to successfully fight back to the point where bullying results in a negative enough outcome for the bully that they, again, decide it's not worth the effort.

[sindriiisgaming]

This is garbage advice. Ignoring bullies only causes them to escalate whatever it is they're doing.

Bullies do not stop unless the cost of continuing to bully exceeds what they believe it to be worth. Their target either needs to become so inaccessible that bullying them is not worth the effort (this is what blacklisting, etc. is supposed to accomplish), or their target needs to successfully fight back to the point where bullying results in a negative enough outcome for the bully that they, again, decide it's not worth the effort.

With all due respect, sir. This is not garbage advise.
It's an online game. There is only so far they can escalate things before they have to take it out the game. And that's when they'll either punch up or give up. But I also recommend stopping reaction to this person. It will remove a lot of power which might remove some of the motivation

I'd like to ask op how they are able to verify there claim about the stalker having multiple accounts? What proof does ops friend have? They do not speak with you when you ask they simply run away. So how can you confirm any of thjs?

It is not suspicious that people target you and untagged you if you notice them. It happens to me in limsa all the time