Friend/Privacy Management

[n00bonicPlague]

Regardless of whatever name system we end up with, I think the friendship system is lacking in options for customization and even privacy control. I think it would be a good idea if we could add customizable categories like "Sparring Partners", "Friends from SC:L", and "Real Life Friends" and then be able to control what each of these groups can see and what methods they can use to get in contact with us.

For example, I could choose to hide most of my profile info and my online status from strangers, as well as prevent them from IMing me, PMing me, whispering me, and inviting me to games. However, one of my friend groups could see my achievements and when I'm online as well as be able to IM me and invite me to games. Still another group would be able to see more info, but not necessarily when I'm online, and would also be limited to messaging me in another form.

Another key default group would be Contacts. This would be a place that you could add people to without sending a friend request, just so you could keep their username in a list that's easy to get to. Once added to your contacts, you wouldn't be added to theirs unless they themselves added you, and they would never know that you added them to yours. If you request a friendship with someone, they would automatically be placed here until they approved that friend request. Friendship requests would only be able to be refreshed every 30 days or so, so as to cut back on spammed requests.

Something that we currently have needs to be improved upon: availability status. Currently there is online, away, and busy. Busy needs to be changed so that it blocks incoming IM chats and whatnot. I've heard of countless cases where people have been playing ladder games and their friends have been just chatting away like nobody's business, annoying the heck out of people playing a game. Set it so that once the player changes their status from busy all of the messages that have been waiting for them show up, which they can then respond to.

I think that this would be a good thing for Bnet2, especially for pro gamers and popular amateurs, who need to be able to maintain some level of privacy and so they don't get flooded out by fan mail, spam, harassment, and generally unwanted attention. Upon initial creation of an account, users would be prompted to set all of this ahead of time, but would always be able to go back and change it.

[Norfindel]

Yes, Busy state blocking incoming messages is a must.
More privacy options would be good, also, but as it's now, you can add people without using nor revealing the e-mail, which should be good enough for the time being.

[Dauntless]

Hehe, inspired by our chat in the last thread, right?

Well, I totally agree. We just have to wait and see what Blizzard does.

[Twilice]

I specially agree with the grouping, there was a time I had lots of players on my friend list (before identifiers were taken out) Some were from sites, some I played ladder with. And some of them were my beta testers. But the problem is that I didn't know who was who.

[SlickR]

Great post and I totally agree.
This is what I'm talking when i say bnet 2.0 sucks for me. There is so little options, features, customizations and generally freedom and user-friendliness to do whatever and however you want.

Current bnet 2.0 is restricting, lacking and without any depth!

[silencbank]

There WILL be a way to block all incoming messages and toasts when SC2 goes live:

Q. Are there plans for a "Do Not Disturb" option that prevents incoming messages from showing?
A. Yes. You will have options when StarCraft II officially launches to turn off incoming messages and prevent toasts while playing the game. This may not be available in the beta prior to release.

The dev chat twitter from 4/30 here: http://forums.battle.net/thread.html...Id=24630604051 has the official quote.

As far as someone saying they do not know which person is which in their friends, I can swear I remember there being a way to add a "note" for each friend saying whatever you wanted to say. It has been awhile since I was in beta of course like the rest of us (and I can not find a single thing that supports it) but I remember adding a note to Arkalis saying that he was my tournament match in the first round. I could have been high or dreaming or something, but either way I remember it.

[JohnUcrazy]

I agree with the groupings idea. This reminds me of AIM (AOL Instant Message). Basically, you can customize your buddy's list to whatever you want. Such as Recent Contacts, "Friends I sort of know", "Real life friends", "Practice Partners", and "people I should stay away from". Well, you get my point. If Blizzard was so into the instant messaging idea from the beginning, I am surprised they never implemented this!

The DND would be a nice touch. Hopefully, it doesn't stay on the whole time, so you don't miss out on important messages. Having it on only during games would make more sense?

[mikill]

I agree, noobonic plague gold star for you! However the showcase achievement thing is more of a parental issue than a privacy one. I think kids under 16 should not be alowed to put personnal info/achievements/etc up on b.net for security, there are a lot of "idiots" out there.

[n00bonicPlague]

Glad to see an overall positive response. Hopefully Blizzard does do something like this. I mean heck, if you wanna make Bnet2 the next best thing in social exposure, you might as well follow the general pattern that the most popular social sites have for years. Those sites have got it figured out, and Blizzard would do well to learn from them and follow their lead, while still maintaining some personal Blizzard touch.

[Hoywolf]

Blizzard still has a lot of time left, plus have you looked at their job opportunities? They are looking for a lot of people to handle their battle.net, I'm sure it will get better, even World of Warcraft is linking up to battle.net so more features are on the way!