FL players online webpage

[eyvind]

I found the online players list, complete with ship type, to be very useful on occasion and I have often missed it in more recent days. I can imagine that it was abused, but I don't believe that removing resources with legitimate uses is the right way to prevent the illegitimate uses.

A few nights ago I was organizing an impromptu event and was in need of a Mover. The ALG player faction was unavailable, so I had to find an independent player in-game. I messaged a few people that might have had Movers, based on their names and locations, but didn't get lucky. Two hours later --after the event was over -- I found out that there had, in fact, been two Movers roaming around during the event and one of those players said he would have loved to participate. Had the online-player list been still around, that player might have had a more enjoyable evening and the event might have been more fun over-all.

There have also been cases, quite often to be fair, when I am looking for someone with a certain ship or ship class for any of a dozen reasons, though never for any malicious reason or for any purpose that could possibly harm gameplay.

Someone will undoubtedly think that the potential for abuse is graver than the potential for improvement of the community and server, and I suppose this is where the major point of disagreement would be. If there is a significant risk that people will abuse information, the problem does not lie with the information but with something much more fundamental. This issue of trust and maturity is one that strongly influences every other aspect of the community and will not go away as a result of restrictions and limitations. Restrictions and limitations never nurture trust and it is not possible to force maturity or decency. If you want to fix a problem like that, you need to look deeper than the gates you can close.

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<span style="font-family:Agency FB">Good Morning!</span>