The problem though is that as I’ve explained on the previous forum, people would call out my alts, that was not fun, I didn’t like that,
Even if they made up a rule banning people from calling out alts, the fact is that some people selfishly think they are above the rules and common human decency, I don’t think I’m above the rules personally but there will always be those that do it,
So I remain strongly on the side of maximum privacy, I am frustrated with this idea that taking away people’s anonymity will somehow result in less anti-social behavior, you are always going to get jerks unfortunately,
The fact is that I may concede that anonymity and identity shielding makes it difficult for people to hold people responsible for what they say online, it also has the positive affect of protecting people’s privacy.
I would much sooner a system in place that stops anonymous users from misusing that privilege to control and abuse people, in the case of this forum, the fact is, that Blizzard reads all of it,
Did you know there are many eSafety recommendations that say to children to only use their first name to protect them from potential predators and whatnot,
And also for those that called me homophobic in the past, consider this, that some people might be afraid to express their sexuality or be ‘outed’ to their families and friends so the online space may give LGBTQ+ a safe space to explore their identities,
Whether you think I am right or wrong, I don’t just argue this case for my own selfish reasons, but to freely express ideas without risking retaliation or real life consequences in my opinion, is a good thing and something we should protect.
Now obviously, I do accept there are risks and potential harms for people for people that want to be anonymous and alt hop, so I am not saying those in the account-wide ignore cap are necessarily wrong, but I am saying there needs to be a balance!
What I would like to see, is the misuse of anonymity and identity shielding should be restricted but without removing the benefits. I don’t have the solution to that though, but the way I see it, it shouldn’t really matter who is posting what if they are not breaking the rules, are you really going to hold one particularly poster with such contempt?
Besides, they might eventually come out and admit it was them, especially if someone you have interacted with outside of WoW, so it’s not like they can hide forever if they’ve become close to you or something like that. But I guess I’ve never actually been that close to a forum user…maybe only once.
Blizzard, make this happen so we can put this nonsense behind us.