SO I remembered that I had a question that a game master could not resolve (level eligibility) but where I did write him a list of what I had accomplished to that date…
So HERE are the stats that Blizz HAD for me (back then):
197: days visited
2d: read time
1h: recent read time
472: topics viewed
7.8k: posts read
10: hearts given
1: bookmark
105: topics created
286: posts crreated
119: hearts received
NOW my character is totally wiped out, all those accomplishments down the drain. Everything zeroed.
WHY??
Did you change character name or realm? If so, the forums don’t understand that and your new identity is not connected to your old identity at all.
Yeah I did switch realms… but I’m on the same account/character. So everything I contributed here gets wiped out because of that? THAT is seriously outrageous. And SUX.
It’s still there, but not accessible. If you create a new character on the old realm using that old name, it will pass the test when the forum asks the database “does this character exist” and you’ll be able to reclaim your old forum identify by selecting that new “old” toon.
Oh wow… that sounds like an interesting work around, thanks for 'splaining it. Guess I should give it a whirl. BUT this really is a major failure.
Well, I did as you suggest, went to “change character” here, it doesn’t even give me the option, just this toon on AP. I hope it’s just lag, so will try again later (meanwhile the game crashed my computer a short bit ago!).
Oh, I do see my bank alt listed twice, I moved that toon over as well. It no longer exists on my original realm. Even weirder.
Logged out of my account, the double of my bank alt is gone, BUT I do not see that Brightbrown I created on my old realm.
It’s simply an incomplete integration between the WoW systems (and their complicated idea of identity) and a third-party forum software system. The forum software (which is widely used) usually has a much simpler and static idea of who you are, and that works well with Blizzard games with a similar simple idea of identity. For instance, in games like Overwatch or HOTS, your identity is your account, not the character you chose to play last match, and the forum software is cool with that.
WoW has historically considered your character as your identity, and you can have 50 of those per license, and you can change who they are and where they live but still be considered the same character… but the forum software hasn’t been modified to understand that.
I know making the forums more character savvy is on Blizzard’s to-do list, but they don’t own the software outright (I don’t think) so they’re limited in how much they can change stuff, and working with a third party developer always slows stuff down.
The oddities and lag in the forum character list is another effect of the poor integration of the game databases and the forums. It usually just takes time, but sometimes you actually have to log out of the forums and back in to get the forums to see an accurate character list. (Yes, the forums work so poorly with the game back end that “turn it off and back on” is a legit fix action.)
Oh well, thanks for trying, unless I did something wrong, doesn’t seem like it worked. NOW I figured it out, it doesn’t list ANY of my lower level toons, I have 2 1s and a 7 on my original realm (the other 1 and 7 were created long ago), none are listed in “change character.” AND I am NOT about to go level that other toon just for here…
Ah, yeah, I guess there’s also a minimum level for forum eligible chars. Crap. The workaround is more trouble that expected.
Anyway, there’s your answer plus more than you ever wanted to know about the WoW forums’ seamy underbelly. Good luck. I hope they get it figured out and you’ll be able to reclaim your history (connected to whomever the character is at thst point).
Thanks again for the help!