Multiple names on forum for one player

[vurdijak]

How does everyone feel about players being able to have multiple aliases for posting on the forum boards?

Does this strike anyone as deceptive, or on the other hand, are there good reasons for allowing players to post under different names?

Does anyone know if this topic has been addressed before on this forum?

[aragog]

Well, actually I would prefer it if everyone would just post with the name of one char, but since it happens (rarely, sure, but it happens) that people forget that the information at the Forum is OOC, I can understand that some people see the necessity to post under different names.

poAragog

[Naga]

It sounds like a terrible waste of energy, and I can't imagine why one would want to go through the trouble for something so insignificant.

[vurdijak]

To Naga:

I understand this is already the case, as in it is already possible to post notes under different names. I was asking what others thought the positives and negatives of this feature are.

To Aragog:

Good point about keeping the OOC stuff to the boards, I hadnt thought about that one

[Sairina]

If people have a second char, I don't see why they shouldn't post under that name. Sometimes, that can prevent misunderstandings. When my second char had lost a custom item, I wrote here (under the name of Sairina), signing as po(secondchar), and the result was that Drake tried to give Sairina that custom item the next time I signed into the game with her... had I made a new account under the name of the second char, it would have been more clear I didn't mean Sairina's custom cloak. And anyway, I think people don't need to know who's playing who - does it really help anyone to know OOC that two chars are played by the same person?

[vurdijak]

I agree with you, that its better sometimes that players dont know which player is playing which character. Two forum names allows players to ask questions specific to their character without confusion, but then, there are other ways to ask. In other words, it is very possible to have one forum name and to get help for many different characters in the game without revealing who their player is.

What about immortals posting under different forum names? Does this happen, and if so, whats a good reason for an immortal not to post under their admin. name?

[Abharsair]

As long as forum users are tied to character names one can have a second user. Since the forum is moderated and we wizards know who the user is, I don't see much danger in regards to potential abuse.

[tessa]

To put it bluntly, I think one reason people may post under more than one account is because they simply don't want to let the whole world know who all they play. And given how bad it's been at times with people gossiping with each other about who plays who, or treating chars differently or accusing them of certain things due to knowing who their po is, I really can't blame some people for trying to conceal it.

[Olrane]

I understand the perspective of not wanting people to know what other characters you might play and wanting to have other forum names.

However, this is an OOC setting. No one says that you need to say anything about any of your characters here, either. You can simply say "my character" or "one of my characters" had a certain experience, if necessary. If you're really concerned, and it's a specific problem, I'm sure that the place to write anything would not be here, but in a mudmail or email to the playerarch or the wizard concerned with your specific problem.

Furthermore, any harassment, questioning, etc. that you might get from people who know your alts can also be addressed by the playerarch - it's his job to deal with the abuse of OOC information and harassment of players.

For those reasons, and for just the simplicity of one user per forum name (which allows us to get to know eachother as players here on the forum), I don't think any change is necessary.

[vurdijak]

I guess my original post was unclear. It is already the case that one user can have more than one forum name.

My original doubts about this practice are pretty much unfounded, as Abharsair has already stated that the forum is monitored in this regard and abuse is prevented.

So thanks for the answers on this.