[1eyedjack]

Pls consider this a request to provide a facility to hide your BBO master point ranking online.

[uday]

1eyedjack, on 2014-January-26, 15:52, said:

Pls consider this a request to provide a facility to hide your BBO master point ranking online.

We do occasionally remove the award symbol for specific usernames.

Why, if i may?

[1eyedjack]

Variety of reasons. There may be others, but to kick off:

1) The desired outcome can be achieved without software change by creating multiple user logon IDs. It may be that users will create multiple IDs anyway, even if you provide this facility. But on balance I reckon it is a bad thing to encourage and anything that you can do to remove the incentive is good. Some of your revenue is generated by advertising. Advertisers generally like to have assurances regarding the size of the target population and I would expect them to be partly turned off by incentives to inflate the numbers. I expect that most users would prefer to keep their own alternate IDs to a minimum, if their desired configuration is provided by options available on one ID. Apart from anything else, the transfer of BB$ from one ID account to another is problematic.

2) It would remove the administrative burden of users having to apply to you individually to have it turned off (however "occasional") and provides the user with the opportunity to turn it back on again at a later time without again applying to you. Furthermore, the numbers who would want to do so may be more than indicated by the occasional measured instance: There may be several who would prefer to but have not requested it (either because they do not feel strongly enough, or because they were unaware that they had that option, or they have found a workaround by using alternate IDs).

3) It would more closely mirror the face to face game, where generally (subject to exceptions) you do not have a right to know the skill level or achievements of your opponents unless you happen to know them.

4) It would be consistent with BBO policy of allowing users to self-assess their ability as "Private". That policy is itself controversial, judging by occasional posts in these forums bemoaning it, but one which I applaud, and probably for the same reasons that BBO instigated it. For as long as you support it (and long may you do so) this proposal would further it.

5) At the end of the day it should be a personal choice whether an individual chooses to lord it over others, blow his own trumpet, crow in public or however you to choose to describe it. Perhaps it is a cultural thing. At the risk of approbrium my personal observation is that as a nation (for example) americans are more prone to being "in yer face" about their achievements than (for example) brits, and simply cannot comprehend the possibility of modesty in others.

[barmar]

If we had lots of users requesting to hide their masterpoint levels, we would probably consider it. But since it comes up so infrequently (practically never), it's probably not worth adding as a user option, and we'll stick to doing it manually upon request.

Our assumption is that most players are proud to show off their achievements. Why would they want to hide it? Why would they create multiple IDs just so that they don't accumulate too many points on any one of them? The only thing I can think of is if you want opponents to underestimate your ability. But if that's the purpose, hiding your level won't do it -- you need it to show up with a low number.

[1eyedjack]

barmar, on 2014-January-27, 01:18, said:

If we had lots of users requesting to hide their masterpoint levels, we would probably consider it. But since it comes up so infrequently (practically never), it's probably not worth adding as a user option, and we'll stick to doing it manually upon request.

Yes I rather expected this response. No harm in putting my preference on record. At the risk of repetition, it is possible that the infrequency of the request may stem in part from the ease of creating multiple IDs, and might not therefore be a fair assessment of its popularity.

barmar, on 2014-January-27, 01:18, said:

Our assumption is that most players are proud to show off their achievements. Why would they want to hide it? Why would they create multiple IDs just so that they don't accumulate too many points on any one of them? The only thing I can think of is if you want opponents to underestimate your ability. But if that's the purpose, hiding your level won't do it -- you need it to show up with a low number.

To those for whom the concept of modesty is alien and incomprehensible I doubt that there is anything that I could say that would cast enlightenment.
If there can be no reason to hide it, how is this consistent with the facility provided to add "private" to your profile? (This is not a request to remove it).