I know all your information.....

[NERDmanWhippy]

I noticed while tryin to find an Acct of a fellow lurker/Lurkette that there is an email address, An Aim name, a Birthdate, an ICQ contact, A homepage (if any), but no Social security number or BNet Acct name.....I just thought it silly that we are all here with a game in common, but no way to find that out other than to come right out and ask for their account.....

J


*NERDmanWhippy

[--Pete]

Hi,

no Social security number

And quite rightly. Only a fool gives out financial information on a public board. The SSN should be guarded as strongly as a PIN and tighter than a credit card number.

no . . . BNet Acct name

Would you like the ones I was using last year, the ones I'm using this year or those that I might be using when 1.10 goes public (assuming we all live that long)? b.net account names, for many of us, are transitory items. Too much of a hassle to keep up.

--Pete

[MMAgCh]

Hi,

no Social security number

And quite rightly.  Only a fool gives out financial information on a public board.  The SSN should be guarded as strongly as a PIN and tighter than a credit card number.

I think he was joking here. Then again, maybe he wasn't.

no . . . BNet Acct name

Would you like the ones I was using last year, the ones I'm using this year or those that I might be using when 1.10 goes public (assuming we all live that long)?  b.net account names,  for many of us, are transitory items.  Too much of a hassle to keep up.

I don't see a problem with adding an Accounts field to member profiles. If you feel you're not up to the task of keeping it up-to-date, just leave it empty. Everybody else can fill it in if they wish. The Basin uses this feature and it seems to work just fine.

[Kartoffelsalat]

If you'rer looking for an account name, check the Roll Calls in the Pandemonium Fortress.

just thought it silly that we are all here with a game in common, but no way to find that out other than to come right out and ask for their account.....

Asking for the account name seems reasonable to me. If they wish you to know it, they'll tell you. If they don't they won't.

As for Social Security Numbers, I think it would be absurd to post them, or to tell them to anyone, especially considering the amounts of identity theft that have occured recently. Besides, I cannot think of a single reason anybody would need to know it.

[gekko]

As for Social Security Numbers, I think it would be absurd to post them, or to tell them to anyone, especially considering the amounts of identity theft that have occured recently.  Besides, I cannot think of a single reason anybody would need to know it.

*cough cough*

*blink*

Are you and Pete serious? Of course he wasn't serious about the SSN being available to everyone on an open forum.

In fact, I thought it was a reasonably clever way of showing how the account name is "as hard to get ahold of" as a social insurance number. While this is obviously untrue, it gets the message across quite nicely.

As for the actual issue, the idea has its merrits but I don't think it's really worth the trouble. As Pete said, most players have many changing account names and it'd be tough to keep it updated. As well, I'd imagine Kartoff is also right as far as most lurkers are concerned -- we prefer a bit tighter control over who can find us online.

On that note, I don't suppose blizzard is going to let us save our block list on battle.net from now on? THAT would be an update worth downloading.

gekko

[Archon_Wing]

There's a possbility that the forum handle of people could be similar to the name of at least one of their accounts. o_0

I suppose a field for that would be fine, but if you're gonna play with someone, I'd think you'd just ask them anyways? :P

[Occhidiangela]

That seems an easier way to pass it on, for those who want to do so, than to put in a profile, though one could always put some bnet account names in one's profile as well.

[Kartoffelsalat]

Are you and Pete serious? Of course he wasn't serious about the SSN being available to everyone on an open forum.

Yes, I actually was serious. But only because I'm really bad at telling when people are trying to make a point like that. It makes much more sense now that you pointed that out to me. :P

[--Pete]

Hi,

Well, the Internet gods did, anyway.

Are you and Pete serious? Of course he wasn't serious about the SSN being available to everyone on an open forum.

Really? And how can you tell where the serious and the humorous parts of his post begin and end? Body language? Inflection? Too unreal to be true (and who decides)?

So yeah, I was taken and missed the joke.

--Pete

[gekko]

Really?  And how can you tell where the serious and the humorous parts of his post begin and end?  Body language?  Inflection?  Too unreal to be true (and who decides)?

You're absolutely right -- without body language and inflection, it becomes very difficult to tell when a person is joking and when they are serious.

Obviously, the only solution is to assume every typed word is 100% serious.

I'm reminded of a paper written by John Swift concerning the famine crisis in Ireland. The paper suggested that since the famine was such a problem, poor mothers should begin selling their babies to be eaten, thereby solving two problems in one (overpopulation and lack of food/money) for poor families.

Now, I read this paper -- it was not read to me, nor did I have the pleasure of hearing the author explain his meaning.

Obviously, the only solution is to assume every written word was 100% serious. Mr. Swift absolutely believed that eating poor children was an excellent solution to Ireland's problem.

The written language is not perfect. It can be difficult to know when someone is serious and when they are joking. Maybe, however, we should sometimes use a bit of common sense and not simply assume every word is the literal truth.

gekko

[Bolty]

Actually, it's very easy to add this as a custom profile field. Those who want to fill it out can, and those who don't, don't have to. I think it's a good idea...

-Bolty

[Obi2Kenobi]

Thanks, Bolty. I just filled it out. :) Now I have more room in my sig. (I have an imaginary max amount of lines of 4. If I think of something real good, it will go up to 5, but no higher. :) )

[NERDmanWhippy]

The SSN comment was infact a joke...lol dont take me that serious ;)

J

[gekko]

A suggestion to you, NERDman -- take the time to write in proper english for your posts in the future. This includes grammer, punctuation, and some spacing to make the entire post slightly more legible.

Here at the Lounge, as in real life, people can more easily understand you, and will take you more seriously, if they can fully understand you. And since, as Pete pointed out, we are unable to hear your inflections or see your body language, only a clear and well-written post can convey your meaning well.

gekko