Fallout Studios Forums

Now I freely admit I am as belligerent as they come. I have never hid from my own opinion. Excusing the moderator strike which is a cockup of epic proportions. I have almost universally always flown my true colours. I want to know why people want to hide that they've been online, or hide where they have visited? Now I'm an admin it doens't matter, I can even see hidden admins so hidden members are not a problem.

On at the moderators, why should we ever hide? Lets be honest we should all be here as active members of the community who want to further Fallout Studios, I cannot wrap my head aorund hiding, I certainly cannot understand moderating from hidden, its cowardly.

Now I bet one or two people will be offended by the topic, tragic, but can someone please explain why want to hide from what is frankly one of the nicest online communities I've ever encountered.

Are there ever moderators on hidden mode?

I have no clue as to this either.

I've seen at least one and since I made this topic another has said to me that they have used the mode, if only briefly.

I don't think I've used hidden mode on this board before. I use it in MSN but thats generally to avoid people sometimes...

Scope, on 9 Feb 2009, 9:22, said:

Pretty much. Though on the forum I don't have any reason to stay hidden.

Now if I could only work out how to do it on Facebook...
Edited by RaiDK, 09 February 2009 - 08:22.

I never use hidden, don't see the point and I really cannot think how this topic could offend anyone at all. The internet is in general, anonymous, all the people we talk to, its quite unlikely we will never meet any of them, and if we do it will be for a very short time. I could understand hidden if like on facebook / MSN you are constantly getting spammed with rubbish but that cannot happen on a forum, unless your an avid reader of SYD and then its your choice.

Why not? Or better; why do you care if a user wishes to remain anonymous for whatever reason?

-Rorschach

yer why don't people fly their flags look at me im open and honest as i can be and its gotten me a 33% warn level because people think im offensive lol well grow up and accept reality and try not to live in ur picture perfect dream land XD

Major Fuckup, on 9 Feb 2009, 13:16, said:

No you are pretty much just offensive a lot of the time.
And if people are offended I would say it's more of a maturity issue on your behalf than theirs.

As far as the topic goes, I have never used Hidden mode but I could understand a user possibly wanting to hide from others so they don't get abuse or hounded with messages as soon as someone sees them online.
it's the same principal as using Appear Offline on a messenger program so that you can talk to others but they can't talk to you.

Although I think I caught Nooka out with that one once

I see being visible as rather good in a person. Someone who hides and skulks does strike me as

a) Not moderator material (something I am always on the look out for)
b) Ashamed of their own presence here

I'm all for privacy, but in the case of this forum I really don't see how hiding when you're around really helps. All we (the public) know is that within the last 15 minutes you visited this site, since you can log in from anywhere it shows nothing other than you want to put your face around.

I used to use hidden mode on a forum where I was pretty much the only active member, since I thought me being visible allows people to spy on me and strike when I'm not there (I was a moderator on that forum).

But on most at least somewhat active forums, I don't bother with hidden mode.

I'm online here a lot. Not hidden, but I don't post a lot.

I actually think I'm in as anonymous right now.

Odd, never set myself up for that. D=

-Rorschach

Didn't know the feature existed until now. I don't really see the point in it, unless you're having a problem with another member and wish to avoid them (which never really happens, thanks to the moderators ).

Only on certain occasion, like, for example, if you want to check something on the forum really quickly but don't want to get bombarded with messages from the people who watch the 'people who are active' list.

I think I've used it by accident once or twice, and while I was suspended as there was no point for the public to see me online if I couldn't post.

Foxhound, on 9 Feb 2009, 18:04, said:

Aren't we the popular one?

I actually had no idea there was a "hide yourself" feature on the forums... where is it?

Ghostrider, on 10 Feb 2009, 16:03, said:

It's an option when you log in.

It's good for when you quickly want to check the Forums without People noticing that you're there, because that usualy results in some writing PM's and spamming you full.

There are alot of Reasons why someone would want to remain hidden, Reasons no one shall probably know about, else it would make no sense to " hide ".

- E.V.E.

Oh and I tend to use hidden when I use a university comp (in the rare cases).

maturity issue i LOL at your misconception and whats the point behind the hiding your self any way you are all read anonymous and can remain that way

Dauth, on 9 Feb 2009, 17:41, said:

To be frank I can't see any point in signing in as hidden - so what if you're seen to be online? You may get a few PMs - so ignore them until you are ready to answer. You may get pestered by somebody on the forums - but it's not real time communication and they have to respect that you will choose to reply when you're ready.

Oh, and on a related topic - hidden moderation (hence the bold above). There have been several threads recently that have been locked without any reasoning at all. Fair enough, there was probably a good reason behind it, but if you're moderating that surely requires honesty if you perform your duties - not locking and jumping off elsewhere. If moderation is performed in a public area, it'd be nice to see some reasoning behind it, or even just being told that the thread has been locked, as has happened until recently. Just a minor gripe - but one wonders why this is happening - as a moderator surely you must be confident/honest enough to show that you're doing your duties in a public area? Note I am not saying that every moderator action has to be written down, but ones that the public can see normally should be noted - it seems only right.

AJ, on 11 Feb 2009, 16:35, said:

I haven't noticed these, whilst this is not the place, feel free to PM me the ones in particular and I/we will look into it. A locked topic should come with a reason.

Back to issue at hand. I have only ever logged on as invisible during the strike and personally don't see the point as no one here every bothers to bother me /feeling left out

I don't even know how to be "hidden", I assume by simply not signing in or something?

There's an option to sign in as hidden when you log in. However, with most people likely to have their login saved with cookies and whatnot, I guess that most people don't see the login page enough to actually remember this feature.