Battle.net Update: Upcoming Changes to the Official Forums

Originally Posted by Grudger

Did no one read the whole post? It specifically says that when you post on the forums your post will show your real name, it will NOT show your character names unless you specifically tell it to. You can post on the official forums and still prevent anyone from connecting you with your characters.

it doesn't matter... I don't want my actual name out there in public.

You thought dudes white knighting for wimmenz was bad before, just wait. When the person you're responding to is actually named Stephanie Jenkins it'll go nuts!

I'm banned from the official forums anyways, but if you ask me this really won't stop people from trolling if'n they really want to. I mean sure, instead of being Lolforumtrol, a level one troll, you'll be Greg Johnson. It's not like everyone knows which of the many, many Greg Johnsons in the world you actually are. And for many of the people who post on level ones, who are concealing their identity to avoid irrelevant armory reference in a debate, they'll STILL be able to conceal their character if they so choose.

So yeah, not really that beneficial if'n you ask me.

http://grownupgeek.com/man-killed-ov...ge-board-fight

There's some scary people out there. I'd rather my real name wasn't being transmitted to anyone who cares to read a forum without my say so. And yes I have a possibly unique and at least very rare real name. I'd be surprised if there are two of us in my home country at least.

Solution... (I hope) I'll be changing my name in my contact details. Sure, the mailman might be smirking as I have to sign under 'Zortan the Mighty' for any Blizz purchases but at least some psycho won't be able to google me, and will have to make a little effort to stalk me.

Originally Posted by Ansible

For all the people who are scared of their first and last name being made public, go Google your name. There are over 6 billion people in the world.

YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY PERSON IN THE WORLD WITH THAT NAME.

If I google my first and last name, about half of the results are about me and the other half about one of my deceased uncle who had the same first and last name.

Oh man, why'd I have to have such a weird name?

I never troll or flame, nor did I ever feel like it was anything more than a mildly annoying inconvenience to accidentally click a troll thread, read it, facepalm, and go to a different topic.

It's ok, though; if they really decide to go through with this, I'll can go and delete every single last one of my WoW forums posts. That would take forever, but it's infinitely better than some psycho knowing my name. Do not want.

I absolutely love it. If you have a problem with strangers over the internet knowing who you are, oh well. Most people are able to facebook stalk you anyways.

This idea is nothing short of insane. I'm a woman living in a small country and I have a unique firstname lastname combo. Playing a computer game still carries a certain stigma for adults, not to mention that I don't feel particularly safe knowing any random person who vaguely knows me from WoW can google me and find out where I work etc.

This better not apply to posts already made.

Originally Posted by Zebraz

It's good news for Wow fan sites, i'm positive that a large number of people including myself will stop using official forums and look some where else to voice their opinions.
Call me paranoid but i never ever reveal my real identity to anyone on the Internet unless i absolutely have to, the moment i log in with Zebraz i am no longer Mr<My name>. Works fine for me.

That's not paranoia. That's a desire for privacy.

On the internet, that's MORE than reasonable because people can access the wow forums without posting, and they will probably be able to for the next DECADE or so.

I will not be posting on the wow forums if this change goes through either.

This also snuffs my hopes that they will add an invisible mode to RealID, or the ability to turn off the sharing of your full name to everyone one of your realID friend's friends.

Some dude is gonna find out that hot fem Draenei he's been hitting on is actually Claude Themalfachuk.

OT: It'll keep trolling down cause the anonymity will be reduced a bit. No more lvl 1 alt named Youmadbrah piloted by some 13 year old talking shit on the forums.

So basically what Blizzard is saying, is that rather than making a greater effort to moderate the forums themselves, they're going to take away peoples' privacy and hope for the best.

I don't post on the Blizzard forums myself, but I swear to god this company's decision-making process never ceases to amaze me.

I am not a troll or flame starter, in fact I seldom post on the official forums at all, but I am one who is against this change. Ever heard of deep web searches? With just a first and last name somebody paying for a professional deep web search can get every piece of information that exists about you on the internet. Even things that are hidden from google crawlers is available to a deep search. I have two facebook accounts, one professional and one for my friends. The second uses a nickname to avoid this very problem. Believe it or not there are some employers who would be prejudiced to find out how avidly you play WoW. Applying to EA Games? Think they will like the fact that you spend hundreds of dollars on their prime competitor? Any job with access to a computer, there is at least a chance they won't like the fact that you spend(or even used to spend) hours online playing a game.

People have lost jobs because their Amazon book reviews showed up on a deep search. What's not to say something similar COULD happen? The fact of the matter is, the less places online your real information shows up publicly, the safer you are. Pure and simple.

Originally Posted by Smoopie

What private information? You can't do very much with a First and Last name.....tinfoil hat more please

I was gonna say the same thing.

Seriously, how much of a panic do you guys get into when applying for a job or being introduced to new people. Do you change your names every time a rejection letter comes through the door? Are you known to your friends as Boltmatic? Are you stalking your postman to make sure he's not "invading your privacy"? Are you freaking out everytime a salesman calls you Mr BlankityBlank the second you pick the phone up? Are you slapping your friends when they yell your name from across the street? How many of you have 100+ friends on Facebook or Twitter that you have never met in your entire life? Are there members of your own family that you can really trust with your name?

Jesus.

So posting on the Blizzard forum now reveals your whole online activity if you ever apply to a job.
"You have so much time to play a game? Goodbye."

will no longer ever ever ever post on wow forums. I'm annoyed but at least my RL friends that i share my RealID with know me anyways... I don't need my name out there for the rest of the world.

This is a very bad idea IMO. I would think that RP'ers will have a fit over this. It just seems really strange everyone knowing my FULL name. Whats worse is people can then do a facebook/mysppace search and see what you look like, maybe even your phone number and address. What about the females players that want to remain anonymous?

This is a bit too much like "big brother" for me.

Everyone's first and last name is out there on the internet in some capacity anyway, it's not like they're displaying your address, phone number, credit card or SS number. Heck, the people that send endless junk mail to me via the post office have more information than will be on the forums. I think everyone just needs to chill and stop making the first reaction to any kind of change as panic or "omg imma quit wow". I mean after all, aren't a third of the posts on the official forums regarding people "hiding behind alts"? lol

Hey Matthew, whats your last name, if you're not afraid...

I like this. Less trolls and internet super heroes.

Wow, I can just scroll through the responses and point out who has ZERO clue about security, data protection/privacy, etc.

"You can't do anything with just a name". I'm actually in tears of laughter that someone wrote this and believes it.

I'm done with the official forums. I've never trolled there once, only tried to help people. But if you think I'm going to hand out my name to a bunch of petty and vindictive strangers who could be anything from sweet old grandmothers to raving mad serial killers, you are as high as a paper kite.

And for the record, no you can't find me online. You couldn't pay me enough money to post some of the information people put out there freely.

But keep living in your pretty little world where we are all safe and nothing bad ever happens. Can I come visit?

I can't describe how amused I am at how many people complain about privacy......LOL. You have no idea how much about you is just floating out there waiting for someone to find it. Believe it or not, you don't have as much privacy online as you think.

But the reality is that:
-Most people who have or can gain access to your info don't want it or even care about it.
-Online communication is so commonplace that it should be treated like face to face as far as basic information available and behavior. I mean, we talk to friends and family online, we have business meetings, conference calls, stay in touch with people, meet strangers, etc. We do this all online so much more, stop acting like this is something that wasn't bound to happen somewhere online.
-This isn't the age of the dangerous internet like in the 90s, most people online really don't care who you are enough to help or hinder you, stop acting like the world is out to get you.
-AS far as people talking about future employers not hiring you because of WoW......ROFL. Are you serious? I'm in college for business and I can tell you it won't prevent you from getting hired, unless you slack on your job because of it. We are living in a an age, where if possible boss in under 30, its becoming acceptable to text message them instead of calling, because that's the standard. What if the future boss is under 25, I was told by someone who goes over resumes and helps people find jobs to actually send a text or even send a message via Facebook. What we think about how people see things like hobbies and networking are vastly different than even 5 years ago.
-As for any extreme case of stalking people try to list.....don't care, statistically irrelevant. We could also talk about how knowing a real name could prevent harassment or even help locate dangerous people faster (pedos and serial stalkers come to mind).

Really, people need to start thinking before they act and think about the general rules and not the exceptions when deciding how good something is. This is a huge improvement that helps FAR FAR more than it hurts. But people will whine about how stupid on unsafe this change will be, but will open a door to a stranger or answer a phone call that they can't see on the caller id.

I really don't see how this makes it any less safe, going to a bar or club seems more dangerous than this. AS for privacy, like I said, it really isn't as private as you think online, so that's a non issue and a moot point to tear anything down about real ID just yet.