Instant Messaging Icons Disabled

[Ashley]

As another provisional safety measure in response to the recent harrassment issues, the administration had decided to disable the display of MSNIM/YIM/AIM/ICQ icons. This means that members (and guests, our primary concern) will no longer be able to see what other members screen-names are. If you would like to get in contact with a member, we suggest you do so via PM or ask for their screenname personally.

Again I would caution all members to use discretion when providing your screen names or other personal information, even to seemingly innocent members. Also, save any uncomfortable conversations and contact the staff immediately if you feel threatened, pressured, or intimidated by anyone seeking your personal information in this way.

[shooraijin]

Qualification here: you can still get IM information by viewing a person's profile, actually (and this is only open to members, not guests).

The IM icons by a person's name in a thread display, however, don't show. Those were showing up for guests, and shouldn't have.

[Savior_Sora]

*cries* You guys are so great!! Not one forum have I been to where admins are worries about their members. You guys are just that great XD. This is a great thing to do along with the harrassment thread. GJ!!

[Fsiphskilm]

At least now I'll kn

[shooraijin]

It is not disabled, no.

[Fsiphskilm]

Oh... I have

[Ashley]

You could put them in your signature, if you'd like.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

wow... this is getting out of hand, to go this far...

[JediSonic]

Yeah it sucks that trolls would cause this to happen

Mods, dont you think its a little bit unreasonable to disable the AIM icon feature? I mean, its up to the individual member whether they put up their IM screen name or not... all you've really done here is make the process less convenient for everyone (including trolls, which is good). Maybe you could just put a disclaimer on the IM field of your profile so that members are warned about the dangers of supplying the name before they do.

Everyone please understand that i have the utmost respect and gratitude to the mods of CAA for their work in keeping the site safe but... it just doesnt seem like this latest development is really solving the problem. AIM users can BLOCK said trolls with the click of a button anyway, so whats the big deal?

[shooraijin]

The problem is that the AIM icon in thread views, as well as any other IM client they used (i.e., the ones that used to appear on the left) were available to everyone, -including- guests (that might also include people who were banned for that exact sort of harrassment).

Because guests could see the IM information in threads, that's not going to be re-enabled. Now, you have to view their profile to get their screen name/sign on information, which only registered users can do. IMHO, this isn't much more of a hoop to jump through.

[Ashley]

No it's not much more hassle, and we didn't think by doing this one thing all would be made safe again. However, it is a step in the right direction, and cuts down by even a little the amount of abuse. Also, now you can know that if they got your screenname here they have to be a member here, and if you can get their username you can report them to us rather than saying "well some guy said he got my address from CAA but I don't think he's registered". We can't do anything about cases like that; with members we can pursue and ban if necessary.

[JediSonic]

oops... I didnt realise we could still see it in the profile sorry.

I still say anyone with average knoledge of AIM functions shouldnt be having a lot of trouble with this though.