wow_ladies! By now many of you know that Blizzard Did A Dumb yesterday and announced upcoming changes the the forums, which actually all sound great except for the minor detail that your real name is going to be attached to all posts in the forums.*recordscratch.wav*
The post about this yesterday by the wonderful
fledglingoflove has reached over 1200 comments, making it nearly 3x as big as our second most-commented post ever. Clearly we all have something to say about this, and the mods think it wise to keep this info close to the top of the page as possible since wow_ladies moves pretty fast. Please contain your comments on RealID to either this post or the one yesterday by fledglingoflove. Duplicate posts will be deleted in order to provide a more fluid browsing experience for everyone.NOTE: These changes are NOT retroactive and will occur once the Cataclysm forums are live. This feature will go live earlier for players of Starcraft II.
VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: PLEASE DO NOT LINK TO BLUE POSTER BASHIOK'S PERSONAL INFORMATION. WOW_LADIES DOES NOT WISH TO BE PART OF THE PROBLEM
ALSO PLEASE NOTE THAT A NEW MASTER POST IS UP! JOIN THE ONGOING DISCUSSION HERE
LINKS AND INFORMATION:
- The post by Neth on the official forums (went up yesterday, as of 8:41 EST this morning it now has 1020 pages).
- Yesterday's post by fledglingoflove!
- The link that makes it all clear, found by sophiaserpentia: Blizzard and Facebook's friendly social networking deal launches with 'StarCraft II'
- The original RealID post on battle.net
- From WoW.com: Addon Security Flaw Exposes Real ID
- From irregularheart we have an interesting timeline of Blizzard & Activision
- via sunriset via dativesingular, we may have some formal venue of complaining for UK-based players, as the disclosure of private details may violate the Data Protection Act in the UK. See here and here. Note: this may not be applicable, as some have pointed out that by posting to the forums, you are effectively agreeing to the ToS/having your name displayed, but it's worth a read.
- via ringoshiba via spartonian, we have ScienceBlogs.com's post titled "The interesting experiment is already getting interesting" - check out the articles linked within
- FACTS ON STALKING, very useful statistics for use in getting the word out, thank you muchly popehippo
- More stats on stalking, including the abjectly terrifying one that 1 in 12 women are impacted by stalking in the US, many thanks to ne_jyam for the link
- also from ne_jyam we have an article that posits that Korean Real Name law may be driving Blizzard policy. Good find!
- THIS POST is about the scariest I have seen yet, thanks to lady_sesstra (written by iscari0t & linked over here in worldofwarcraft)
- sophiaserpentia also dug up a HUGE compendium of news links - fearing this post is getting a bit long, I stuck them HERE
- popehippo posted this to ontd_political over heremayhemwench has linked us to a poll she found!
Will Blues have their info posted? Our sources say YES-
via
reservoir- @wolvzor on Twitter: "After a talk with Blizzard phone reps, turns out BLUES will NOT have real names posted in the forums due to "Security Concerns." #Blizzard & a WoW.com post on the rumor-vs
EU CM Wryxian (via
fledglingoflove) :So you're selectively ignoring what we're saying and jumping to conclusions? Well, in that case, let me restate because I thought it was already clear from the previous times we answered this question and from the original message ("With this change, you’ll see blue posters (i.e. Blizzard employees) posting by their real first and last names on our forums as well."). We will be posting in the new style forums, and because choosing to post in the new forums means that you display your real name, we too will display our real name. [Source]
US CM Nethaera (via
sophiaserpentia):Just to set the record straight here, our original statement stands and all Blizzard Employees will be using their real names in posts as we announced. This has not changed and as always, should this change, we will be sure to post about it.
Keep in mind, on our end, we have had our names credited within the manual and games for some time. This has not changed and has been available information. Also keep in mind that this does not excuse any forms of bullying or fearmongering that is being perpetrated by select individuals who oppose this change. [Source]
I think we can consider this matter closed, but I'm going to keep this info up for now as I have a feeling this rumor will persist.
How to contact Blizz:
Snail mail address:
Blizzard Entertainment
P.O. Box 18979
Irvine, CA 92612
Information from their ESRB policy:
If you have any questions or wish to file a complaint, please feel free to e-mail us at privacy@blizzard.com, call us at (949) 955-1382, or send a letter addressed to Blizzard Entertainment Privacy Policy, Attention: Privacy Policy Administrator, at 16215 Alton Pkwy. Irvine CA 92618-3616.
Blizzard, through its parent company, is a licensee of the ESRB's Privacy Online Program. If you believe that we have not responded to your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactory addressed, please contact ESRB directly at http://www.esrb.org/privacy/contact.j
ESRB Privacy Online
Attn: Director, Privacy Online
317 Madison Avenue, 22 Floor
New York, NY 10017
privacy@esrb.org
For those of you on Twitter,
wow_ladies members are using #WoWFail, #Blizzardfail, and #realidUSEFUL BLOG POSTS
- From pewter: Real ID Saga Part One: Silencing Voices
- From tankspot.com via goddessofstars: RealID -- Unethical and Dangerous
- necroskull's take on the REALID issues over at gnomeswithkazoos.blogspot.com
- Over at Empowered Fire we have another take on the issue, thanks riotlounge & metaneira
- Righteous Orbs chimes in with their post "Seriously Not Okay", thank you spunos
- Also from spunos, we have The Elitist Jerks thread on the subject, which not only condemns the new policy but in fact suspends the EJ no-whining policy for that post only
- bex kindly linked us to Fark.com's coverage of the RealID fiasco
- From irregularheart we have a whole host of links-
- From CourierPostOnline.com's blogs section -More RealID Woes – Personal Info Posted on WoW Forums
- examiner.com's Chicago Video Game Examiner goes for understatement with their article "Blizzard's Real ID is less than well received"
- again from examiner.com we have the article "World of Warcraft Players WoWed by Blizzard's REALID announcement"
- and finally, crazygamernews.com reports "Blizzard’s Real ID Removes Anonymity From Their Forums"
- From CourierPostOnline.com's blogs section -More RealID Woes – Personal Info Posted on WoW Forums
- HO SNAP here's the BBC's article! (thanks for the heads up, dativesingular!)
- p4intthestars notes that we've hit the mainstream press in the US as well, with USA Today reporting in
- From hellmode.com we have Why Read ID is a Really Bad Idea via pintsizeninja via Felicia Day's twitter acct, written by our own centuries
- Shakesville's take on RealID
- via flamingkitties we have A MetaFilter post on while this whole thing is a giant cluster
- noelove brings an MTV news article to the table (no, really)
- The Wall Street Journal has reported on this one, many thanks to nerglish and milo1047 who brought this to our attention
- nerglish linked me to a Forbes article, though notes that as it's an AP article it duplicates... something... already on this list
(keep tossing these to me please, and be patient - I'm consistently about 100 notifs behind in my inbox)
ETA #1:
The most arrogant blue post ever written, holy shit, thank you
reservoirETA #2 "If you really do read all posts in this thread and others, like we are doing, then you will see some examples of what I was meaning by "scare-mongering". There are posts from some people who are either confused by the changes or generally uncertain, and they are getting understandably scared and then posting in a way that scares other people in the process." Thank you
phoenix_singing, for digging this 'clarification' of 'scare-mongering' up for usWhat can you do?
what9000 has written a compelling argument for canceling your account (if only briefly). Did you cancel your account over this? Join the conversation here! Want a badge for your troubles? Thank popehippo for creating THISFor those of you in a petition-signing mood,
noelove has brought this to our attention.