Right to privacy

1st Official Post

    I don't want to discuss too much the pre-cursor thread that lead to this post. Because I don't want this post nuked as well. I really want to have this discussion in a civil manner. Because at the end of the day, I am human and would love to gather insights from others on this.

    The jist of it is this -- Reddit user contacts returning player with the following text over Reddit:

    P28autU.png

    I want to indicate the player in question that received it is not myself. It was shared in a guild's discord chat.


    I think most would agree these tactics are pretty shameless. But the Reddit account had many posts on it. In calling out this user, the Reddit account was shown. Issues of privacy arose. Do you feel the user in question's privacy should be protected by not posting their full Reddit username?

    My view is simply this. The Guild Wars 1 community is very small. Whether here or on Reddit. If someone is stupid enough to use a "similar-ish" username on both sites. There is more evidence than just the usernames -- And acts in such a way that is shameless, can they really be surprised when their indiscretion is uncovered?

    Appreciate any thoughts :)

    Edited once, last by Hairy Knight (May 21, 2024 at 8:37 AM).

    Just post it what does it matter. Beside similar usernames don’t mean much.
    Lastly every single “trader” on this forum took advantage of people or is doing so as we speak to build their pixel army.
    Check whose spamming everyday in kamadan WTB q7/8, prenerf, mausoleum weapons …

    You’ll see many names from here.

    Quote from Speed Clear Ele

    Just post it what does it matter. Beside similar usernames don’t mean much.

    I did post it on another thread. Half the thread was nuked in the ensuing tussle.

    But I understand the conversation was completely off-topic in a price check thread. Hence why I wanted to have this conversation in a different place. The name and other evidence has been purposefully omitted here so we can have this discussion without moderator intervention. But the person in question has been identified, admitted to it via PM so there's no uncertainty in this particular case.

    My question loops back to. This person's Reddit account, goes back years and years and is littered with personal information. When this person contacted me, they claimed I was at fault for breaching their privacy on here in such a public way.

    Edited once, last by Hairy Knight (May 21, 2024 at 1:18 PM).

    Quote from Hairy Knight
    Quote from Speed Clear Ele

    Just post it what does it matter. Beside similar usernames don’t mean much.

    I did post it on another thread. Half the thread was nuked in the ensuing tussle.

    But I understand the conversation was completely off-topic in a price check thread. Hence why I wanted to have this conversation in a different place. The name and other evidence has been purposefully omitted here so we can have this discussion without moderator intervention. But the person in question has been identified, admitted to it via PM so there's no uncertainty in this particular case.

    My question loops back to. This person's Reddit account, goes back years and years and is littered with personal information. When this person contacted me, they claimed I was at fault for breaching their privacy on here in such a public way.

    Any privacy in regard to a public setting is surrendered by the person.

    There is no privacy in such a situation, they've surrendered their rights, at least according the Supreme Court.

    IGN Rogue Monks Bane

    Quote from Koogler

    "But I want to privately scam!"

    Name and shame, protect returning players from potentially being ripped off.

    While I agree to a certain extent, returning players should shoulder some responsibility as well. Take time to learn the current market and proceed accordingly.

    When I came back a few years ago, I did not do that, as a result I sold a good many items cheaper than what they were worth. I have/had to take ownership of those mistakes.

    Thankfully, I kept back a number of items that wont see the light of day , unless in a setting of guild mates.

    When I see returning players in game looking for PC's , I encourage them to come here to ask those questions.

    IGN Rogue Monks Bane

    As soon as i can, i advise players who return to the game to be wary of this kind of person, to find out beforehand, etc., by giving the link to Legacy, see Kamadan trade chat. Even if the latter benefits speculators more than anything else. But most people who get ripped off don't know about these sites, or are looking for a guild, etc.

    In short, if they don't know about the sites and the people who could advise them on their return, adding the names won't be very effective.

    There’s a reason why there was mod intervention when this users Reddit information was shown, and also why it was removed.. There is no reason to post players private information on a public forum like that. With the amount of account breaches we have seen on this game, why help the crooks by posting players private info? Sure info is public and out there, but you might as well be giving them a map to that information. The player base is small in this game so we should be considerate of that. Have some common curtesy and think about if the roles were reversed. I know I would hate for any information of mine to be publicly posted like that.

    Off topic: In regards to this users message, I see nothing wrong with asking if players have certain rare items or minis. 100% other players are out there doing the same thing, via messaging on here, in Kama, etc. What’s the harm in trying to get the first opportunity on buying said rare items before other players can? I can see how his message could have been misinterpreted though.
    Whether he was being sincere or shameless as you put it, it’s all assumptions at that point unless there is clear evidence that the user is blatantly ripping people off.

    I still don’t think that justifies posting potential private information about said user. Everyone should have a “right to privacy” in some regard but not really sure about the rules on this site, seems like they do have some rules about it since it was removed by mods.


    Agreed! It goes both ways, I would assume people are smart enough to get second or even third opinions on price checks and to do research before quickly selling or buying anything. But we have all seen posts and heard of instances where they just didn’t happen and players got the short end of the stick :(

    Quote from Darksim

    There’s a reason why there was mod intervention when this users Reddit information was shown, and also why it was removed.. There is no reason to post players private information on a public forum like that. With the amount of account breaches we have seen on this game, why help the crooks by posting players private info? Sure info is public and out there, but you might as well be giving them a map to that information. The player base is small in this game so we should be considerate of that. Have some common curtesy and think about if the roles were reversed. I know I would hate for any information of mine to be publicly posted like that.

    Off topic: In regards to this users message, I see nothing wrong with asking if players have certain rare items or minis. 100% other players are out there doing the same thing, via messaging on here, in Kama, etc. What’s the harm in trying to get the first opportunity on buying said rare items before other players can? I can see how his message could have been misinterpreted though.
    Whether he was being sincere or shameless as you put it, it’s all assumptions at that point unless there is clear evidence that the user is blatantly ripping people off.

    I still don’t think that justifies posting potential private information about said user. Everyone should have a “right to privacy” in some regard but not really sure about the rules on this site, seems like they do have some rules about it since it was removed by mods.

    What's key in this is this phrase - "I can pay several arms for any of these if you have!!" - and who is being targeted by these message/s: returning players.

    The combination of the two is tacit acknowledgement by the prospective buyer of an attempt to scam.

    This person will plausibly know that the items they list as examples, such q7/q8 weapons, Asian minis etc, are worth considerably more than "several arms" and are focussing on individuals who won't immediately be aware of current market prices - returning players - and hoping to catch them unawares (yes, I'm fully aware this sort of thing will be going on regularly in Spamadan regardless).

    If this person had said, "I'm interested in X items and these are currently the approx going rates for them but get some additional opinions on eg this website and then we can potentially talk" then fair enough.

    We also need to be mindful of not victim blaming either, "they should have checked" etc. The GW community has a collective responsibility to call out and try and prevent unscrupulous player behaviour.

    I don't mean for this reply to come across as impolite because you've entered the discussion in good faith, but respectfully I think you're taking it far too easy on them.


    You are correct somewhat and they probably could have worded it better and again it’s a huge assumption which way they were taking it (bad wording or trying to rip a player off etc). Still don’t think it justifies posting private information about them and spreading possible false information on assumptions alone. We really don’t know how they meant their message. Beleive it or not, not everyone is out to scam players (doesn’t mean you or anyone else should let their guard down by any means). Everyone, the buyer and seller, should be doing their due diligence and researching accordingly so they do not get burned on trade deals.

    Not really sure how much personal information is on this players Reddit account, if any. But the fact remains.. I don’t agree that possible personal information, no matter the situation, should have been shared like it was.

    Edited once, last by Darksim (May 30, 2024 at 2:24 AM).

    Again politely, I didn't say it could have been worded better. I believe it was worded exactly as intended, them hoping to hand over just "several" arms for some particularly high-end items.

    The proof is not just in their choice of language, but in whom they are targeting with those messages, returning players, and the manner of the approach, ie a direct message hidden from any public challenge by knowledgeable players. When you combine these elements, their intention is clear and obvious.

    If they listed those items in the WTB thread and said they were willing to pay "several arms" for any of them, they'd be laughed off the forum (as they well know)!

    I've zero sympathy for them, get the torches and pitchforks out.

    Quote from Koogler
    Quote from Darksim


    You are correct somewhat and they probably could have worded it better and again it’s a huge assumption which way they were taking it (bad wording or trying to rip a player off etc). Still don’t think it justifies posting private information about them and spreading possible false information on assumptions alone. We really don’t know how they meant their message. Beleive it or not, not everyone is out to scam players (doesn’t mean you or anyone else should let their guard down by any means). Everyone, the buyer and seller, should be doing their due diligence and researching accordingly so they do not get burned on trade deals.

    Not really sure how much personal information is on this players Reddit account, if any. But the fact remains.. I don’t agree that possible personal information, no matter the situation, should have been shared like it was.

    Again politely, I didn't say it could have been worded better. I believe it was worded exactly as intended, them hoping to hand over just "several" arms for some particularly high-end items.

    The proof is not just in their choice of language, but in whom they are targeting with those messages, returning players, and the manner of the approach, ie a direct message hidden from any public challenge by knowledgeable players. When you combine these elements, their intention is clear and obvious.

    If they listed those items in the WTB thread and said they were willing to pay "several arms" for any of them, they'd be laughed off the forum (as they well know)!

    I've zero sympathy for them, get the torches and pitchforks out.

    Several arms is subjective.. it can mean 1750a or 3000a... Which is enough to buy any q7/8 weapon(s) there is on the market, according to how auctions have been going lately.

    As I and others have said on here, there are many players who are spamming WTB q7/8, prenerf etc all the time. Some of those players are known players on this forum, does that mean they are trying to rip people off? What happens in kama when people respond to their "WTB q7/8" messages? Do you think they talk in all chat about their deals? Do they stop and say, wait wait wait... before we move further, lets post about this to a public forum so people dont assume one of us is scamming the other? No, its private messages just like this reddit message was. Do we even know that the player was a new, returning player? Or was it a player who was posting about other q8's they had for sale? Maybe we should get all the information/back story about it first before we go assuming things.

    From what I have read so far, it is all assumptions at this point and really we are just giving this player a bad rep based on false accusations. Meanwhile, other players are allowed to spam similar messages and its all okay? Yeah...no.. get that double standard outta here.

    There was nothing subjective in the language when read in conjunction with the other elements I mentioned like, "I see you're an old school returning player" (it's in black and white above ffs mate).

    We're not talking about other players, we're analysing the particular actions of this one to reach an (obvious) conclusion. Your post is just you getting lost in your own post. GL finding your way out.

    Edit: just got a private message lol, I thought it came across like you had some skin in the game. "They" *cough*...

    Edited once, last by Koogler (May 30, 2024 at 3:59 AM).

    • Official Post

    Closing this now as this discussion has gone well past it's original intention. I understand that there may be times when discussing the activities of certain users may be in the interests of the community, but this has just become a witch hunt and that is not something we condone.

    For the record, one thing I should make clear is that the original thread was not purged solely because of the requests made by the user in question. By the time I gotten to the thread (cosyfiep was the one who initially decided to remove the screenshot) the discussion had devolved to the point where leaving it was not a viable course of action. As such, my deletion of those posts should not be considered to be a decision to take anyone's side or a criticism or endorsement of anyone's conduct.