I'd be interested to know the "opt-in" as well. It could be something as simple as making a post.

After RealID came out, I felt a little foolish for being so upset about it. Like I had made a big deal out of something that had just been intended to be useful. However, I'm now beginning to wonder if some of that concern wasn't well founded. It just seems like Blizzard is hellbent on making their systems a pay to play version of facebook.

I really hope I'm wrong, but at this point I'm afraid to trust Blizzard any more than I have to.

As for search engines and data mining... there are companies that already do statistical analysis to blogs to try and match them to real people they have in their databases. When I spoke with them they were using sites like LiveJournal, so I'm sure they would be very keen on doing the same sort of thing with any forum that lists a full name. In fact, it's a lot less work for them.

- Souca -

P.S. Wonder if Salman Rushdie plays wow...