Blizzard to display real names on forum

[Valentine]

http://kotaku.com/5580585/blizzard-forums-will-soon-display-your-real-name

Apparently, this has already started taking place through the "realID" lists, etc. But according to this, all posts done on Blizzard's forums will no longer display screen names, but they will display the actual name you give upon signing up.

Personally, I think they're sacrificing privacy to deal with a few trolls, and I don't think it's a great approach. As someone whose had an e-stalker of sorts, I'm really hesitant about displaying my actual name as it tells two things I don't tend to reveal on mass websites: my gender (feminine first name) and my surname which is rare and distinct.

Yay or nay?

[Donth8]

Nay. Are the trolls really bothering them that much?

Hopefully this won't become a standard for all forums.

[Valentine]

Evidently, there are a lot of butthurt users on WoW. I doubt real*fake* names are going to do anything but excite the /b/tards.

[Adminassassin]

I actually feel like this violates an Internet Privacy Law but maybe thats just wishful thinking. I think it's a horrible idea. Besides, if I don't know John Doe, is that gonna stop me from being a d*** to him anymore than if he was John123?

[Valentine]

I think the idea is that if your real name is online, your personal reputation would be at stake. Everything you've ever said and done on the internet under your name is a mouse click away for anyone to research. What I think would happen is the reverse of what they intended. Example: If you pissed me off, I'm looking up your Facebook, your Xanga, your phone number, your email, and anything else I feel like posting on 4chan. That's just stalker galore for any kind of weirdo.

BUT! That's beside the real point now! I have more news!

http://kotaku.com/5583405/blizzard-scraps-plans-to-display-real-names-in-forums

Blizzard scraps plans to display real names in forums!

[Adminassassin]

Well...um...there we go. Good....

[Terra]

It was a terrible idea and I'm glad to see it dropped.

And Admin, while I'm sure there are Internet Privacy laws in either of our countries, they're frequently abused by companies and our governments anyway. A Good example of this being the recent, god-awfully flawed Digital Economy Act in the UK passed in the dying days of the previous government to find people guilty of copyright infringement, by monitoring our internet activities. They don't care much for our privacy and personal freedoms, a lot of the people among them just want information on us. Maybe I'm being too strong but then, I do feel strongly about this stuff

[Valentine]

I'm amused at how fast this came and went. The issue caused such a huge uproar about how this would only further enable stalkers and trolls (I wasn't serious about my example. I wouldn't do that, but I know people who would). I'm glad to see this die so soon. I would never intentionally post with my real name like that for fear of /b/tards and stalkers.

I don't know that Internet privacy is something very well upheld. It's nearly impossible to have total anonymity on the internet these days. My biggest dislike are places like MySpace and Facebook. I've become a complete not-fan of being photographed, because people ignore that little thing called consent before uploading your image to their website. :S

[Terra]

I know what you mean when it comes to photos on Facebook. Doesn't happen to me very often though, I'm not the sort who has lots of pictures taken of myself to then be uploaded online by myself or others, so the consent issue is not a worry for me; but I know it has been for a few friends of mine.

As for general internet privacy, yeah it's pretty much impossible to have anonymity these days (We're living in a Digital Age as some say), Information flow is so much quicker and easier and social networking doesn't help much in terms of that with people posting their details online, although I'm very glad that's come along as it has as I'd have lost contact with a large number of friends (Social Issues) had it not been for Facebook. But even so. I really don't see the point of Twitter. Isn't it just a much more limited version of Facebook?

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