Don't allow blank searches in Social Panel's "Who" tab

[Hush_Puppy]

I was putzing around, waiting to reuse a healing shrine, and I thought, hey, why not look up someone? So I go to the Who tab, and accidentally clicked search before I could type anything out. Much to my surprise, a HUGE list of names showed up. I thought 'What the?!" Apparently you can look up players without even needing to type a name. NOW I know how people have been sending me Tells, right when I log in, without my saying a thing.

This has gotta stop. I know it's not a "high priority" thing, but the fact that people can do this, and then add you, send you a tell, send you a guild invite, without ever having talked to you is irritating! I'm sure I'm not the only one who wishes these people would stop harassing them. If I wanna join a guild, it sure isn't gonna be from a blind invite. Getting a tell from a stranger whom I talked to briefly is fine, within reason. But I've gotten guild and party invites while I'm soloing a quest, and that can be downright dangerous for your character!

Now don't get me wrong. I don't wanna get rid of tells, guild and party invites, ect. They have a purpose, which is quite useful. It's just the timing, the randomness, and the reason someone is doing them that get to me. I don't wanna turn off the option of recieving them. That's just not cool. I shouldn't HAVE to do that!

So what I'm suggesting to solve this, is to make it so you absolutely CAN'T blind search players! You can search names you know, or names you see, but not just hit enter without there being something ANYTHING in the box. If the player tries to blind search, they get an error message that tells them they must put a character down in the box to search. Simple, clean, effective.

[redspecter23]

You can set yourself to anonymous and you won't show up in the list, but even then if someone is standing beside you they will know you're on. Or they may know your name and just blindly send a tell to see if you're on anyway.

[varusso]

The /who panel is working as intended. turn on your anonymous and you will no longer show up. Yes its annoying that people do this, esp since the /who panel also shows them if the person they are pestering is already in a group, or if they have their LFG option turned on. Anonymous stops all that.

[coolpenguin410]

I was putzing around, waiting to reuse a healing shrine, and I thought, hey, why not look up someone? So I go to the Who tab, and accidentally clicked search before I could type anything out. Much to my surprise, a HUGE list of names showed up. I thought 'What the?!" Apparently you can look up players without even needing to type a name. NOW I know how people have been sending me Tells, right when I log in, without my saying a thing.

This has gotta stop. I know it's not a "high priority" thing, but the fact that people can do this, and then add you, send you a tell, send you a guild invite, without ever having talked to you is irritating! I'm sure I'm not the only one who wishes these people would stop harassing them. If I wanna join a guild, it sure isn't gonna be from a blind invite. Getting a tell from a stranger whom I talked to briefly is fine, within reason. But I've gotten guild and party invites while I'm soloing a quest, and that can be downright dangerous for your character!

Now don't get me wrong. I don't wanna get rid of tells, guild and party invites, ect. They have a purpose, which is quite useful. It's just the timing, the randomness, and the reason someone is doing them that get to me. I don't wanna turn off the option of recieving them. That's just not cool. I shouldn't HAVE to do that!

So what I'm suggesting to solve this, is to make it so you absolutely CAN'T blind search players! You can search names you know, or names you see, but not just hit enter without there being something ANYTHING in the box. If the player tries to blind search, they get an error message that tells them they must put a character down in the box to search. Simple, clean, effective.

No. I fail to see how blind tells are that annoying. Blind invites (party or guild), I can understand, but tells? No, they're rare enough and easily ignored.

The real problem with blind searching is that the list continues to update even when the window has been closed causing a small amount of lag. There really should be a way to shut that off.

[Crazyfruit]

You are playing a social game and angry that people want to socialize/get to know you?

/boggle.

You can always do something like name an alt Fwizjqirktl and play her whenever you don't want to deal with people. Or go anonymous like people said.

[Mark_G]

Being able to search all available characters I find to be quite useful. Looking for a rogue (or rogue splash) so you can do the optionals in Tear of Dhakhan? No problem...search the "Who" list, sort by class/level, and start sending tells to those folks who are available asking if they are interested. (Incidentally...I would NEVER send a blind party invite.) It is much more efficient than merely standing around with the LFM up waiting for the right class/level combo to join the group.

Anonymous works too...

[garlor]

what part of 'multiplayer' you can't understand?

[dodger72]

As was said previously....set yourself to anonymous if you don't want folks to know you are online. This will affect how you will not show on your friend's Friends List though....so keep that in mind.

If you choose to keep within your own guild, this option may be the best thing for you all around. If you go into a PUG though, also keep in mind that you are applying to the party as "Anonymous". Some folks do not accept anonymous folks because if they have to hide...they may not be worth having in your party due to a not-so-good rep....note, some folks are like this, not all.

One thing that I did when I first started playing this game (stress GAME), is I looked through all the options in the Social Panel....so I can use it to my advantage. Looks like you've been in game for a bit...you may want to explore all the positives and negatives that the social panel has to offer....just a thought.

If folks are bugging you constantly....ignore them or right-click squelch if it's overly much. This could have an adverse affect in the future of your play-time though, so keep that in mind.

Most of those blind guild invites are kids, who I blatantly ignore. Then again, I'm in a guild on Thelanis, so those are quite short-lived as it is. Blind tells? I laugh at unless it's from a friend or guildmate to get into a group, or for advice from a new player, which does happen from time-to-time on my capped toons. Meh....folks helped me out when I started, so I can share what I can regarding this game as I go along...seems to me to be the right thing to do. 99.99% of the time, if I just tell folks "in a quest atm" they back off with a quick "sorry" or "ok".

[karl_k0ch]

I like that list actually.

There is a number of players which I do not have on my friends list with every alt, but I know which guild they are in. As you can sort this blank list by Guild, this helps me to get in contact with other people I know.

[phalaeo]

what part of 'multiplayer' you can't understand?

The part where you log on as a Cleric and get 3-4 tells/invites off the bat, then one every 20 mins until you log out?

It's annoying to have to click Anon every time you log in, especially if you have as many Clerics as I do. They should make Anon a permanent option should players choose.

[MsEricka]

The /who list is not an issue.

You seeing it as an issue is an issue.

[Backley]

It's annoying to have to click Anon every time you log in, especially if you have as many Clerics as I do. They should make Anon a permanent option should players choose.

Anon is a permanent option on each character. If you set anon (via the check box, or /anon), you stay anon until that character turns it off.

I just wish there was an on-screen indicator that you are anon (on the main screen, or possibly on the Social->Groups window so you can tell you are anon when applying to groups).

[phalaeo]

The /who list is not an issue.

You seeing it as an issue is an issue.

So what you're saying is that nothing's an issue unless it affects you?

[sirdanile]

The /Who list used to be an issue...

It used to automatically search for everyone in the game on log in and pop it up there.... which since it auto updates caused some pretty massive lag on lower end machines and a noticeable drain of resources on the higher end.

So they fixed that auto search for everyone thing when the game went free to play.

[Autolycus]

The part where you log on as a Cleric and get 3-4 tells/invites off the bat, then one every 20 mins until you log out?

It's annoying to have to click Anon every time you log in, especially if you have as many Clerics as I do. They should make Anon a permanent option should players choose.

Phalaeo, maybe there's a glitch. I set my main Cleric to Anon probably a year and a half ago, and he stays that way until/unless I change the setting. It persists through logging for me.

[MsEricka]

So what you're saying is that nothing's an issue unless it affects you?

I love how people who want to argue try to make other people say things that they didn't by putting words in their mouth.

Let me be clearer for you.

The /who list isn't an issue because you can go anonymous if you don't want to be listed in it. Therefore if you have an issue with something that has no issue, then you have an issue and not the original issue's issue.

Get it? Good.

Also note, the whole issue about the issue is simply a silly issue.

[Talon_Moonshadow]

You have such an appropriate forum name.

[MoonRunner]

It seems the best solution would be to give us a choice between full anon or "unknown anon" meaning guild and friends can still see you. It would also be nice if I could make my LFG a permanent thing like anonomous. Sometimes when I get sick of the blind tells I change my LFG to read "Yes I will heal your shroud run if you first give me a LDS or +2 tome" That seems to stop the tells.

[karl_k0ch]

You can always do something like name an alt Fwizjqirktl and play her whenever you don't want to deal with people. Or go anonymous like people said.

Which crazy person would do such a thing?

Oh, and naming yourself Gvjirtzqwrtl won't prevent prevent other people from adding you to your f-list. You are rather enforcing it, actually. I think. Don't ask me why I come to this conclusion.

[Nospheratus]

Options -> Gameplay -> Decline all guild invites