Yesterday I saw the announcement on mmo-champion of the intention to reveal the real names of people who post of the official wow forums. I then wrote a post on Dalaran. Why? As I glanced around the internet I saw a number of people take up this Real ID subject, and even as I perused various blogs I didn't really think about posting my own views on it.
Until this morning. The thread on the official forums is growing every second, approaching 24K responses and growing. I guess it's time to see if Blizzard actually listens to their customer and appreciates the feedback from its playerbase.
But a blog post here and there will do nothing. And, I am afraid, neither will a few thousand dissenting replies on the official forums. Only by making this a mainstream issue will our voices be heard. In Canada and the US privacy is of paramount importance. We cannot assume, just because somebody who has a Facebook page that that person WANTS to make their identity know to the whole world without their consent. But by forcing us to post on their official forums with our real names, they have given us the ultimatum: Post or Don't Post.
Here are a list of email address of prominent news outlets in the US. Powerful media players who, if they see this as an issue, will take it up with furvor.
newswatch@foxnews.com, oreilly@foxnews.com, jer@foxnews.com, americasnewsroom@foxnews.com, netaudr@abc.com, evening@cbsnews.com, earlyshow@cbs.com, info@cnbc.com, comments@foxnews.com, hardball@msnbc.com, today@nbc.com, newshour@pbs.org, ombudsman@npr.org, wsjcontact@dowjones.com, letters@washpost.com, letters@time.com, fair@fair.org
For names, addresses, and other email addresses of high powered media outlets, see the post on the official forums by Striderx, the page keeps changing so I'll copy it here:
ABC News 147 Columbus Ave., New York, NY 10023 Phone: 212-456-7777
General e-mail: netaudr@abc.com
Nightline: nightline@abcnews.com
20/20: 2020@abc.com
CBS News 524 W. 57 St., New York, NY 10019 Phone: 212-975-4321 Fax: 212-975-1893 Email forms for all CBS news programs CBS Evening News: evening@cbsnews.com
The Early Show: earlyshow@cbs.com
60 Minutes II: 60m@cbsnews.com 48 Hours: 48hours@cbsnews.com
Face The Nation: ftn@cbsnews.com CNBC 900 Sylvan Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632 Phone: (201) 735-2622 Fax: (201) 583-5453 Email: info@cnbc.com
CNN One CNN Center, Box 105366, Atlanta, GA 30303-5366 Phone: 404-827-1500 Fax: 404-827-1784 Email forms for all CNN news programs
Fox News Channel 1211 Ave. of the Americas, New York, NY 10036 Phone: (212) 301-3000 Fax: (212) 301-4229 comments@foxnews.com
List of Email addresses for all Fox News Channel programs Special Report with Bret Baier: Special@foxnews.com FOX Report with Shepard Smith: Foxreport@foxnews.com The O'Reilly Factor: Oreilly@foxnews.com Hannity: Hannity@foxnews.com, On the Record with Greta: Ontherecord@foxnews.com Glenn Beck: GlennBeck@foxnews.com
MSNBC/NBC 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10112 Phone: (212) 664-4444 Fax: (212) 664-4426 List of Email addresses for all MSNBC/NBC news programs Dateline NBC: dateline@nbcuni.com Hardball with Chris Matthews: hardball@msnbc.com MSNBC Reports with Joe Scarborough: joe@msnbc.com NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams: nightly@nbc.com
NBC News Today: today@nbc.com PBS 2100 Crystal Drive, Arlington VA 22202 Phone: 703-739-5000 Fax: 703-739-5777
The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer: newshour@pbs.org National Radio Programs National Public Radio 635 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20001-3753 Phone: 202-513-2000 Fax: 202-513-3329 E-mail: Alicia Shephard, Ombudsman ombudsman@npr.org
List of Email addresses for all NPR news programs The Rush Limbaugh Show 1270 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020 Phone (on air): 800-282-2882 Fax: 212-445-3963 E-mail: ElRushbo@eibnet.com
Sean Hannity Show Phone (on air): 800-941-7326 Sean Hannity:212-613-3800 James Grisham, Producer: 212-613-3832 E-mail: Phil Boyce, Program Director phil.boyce@citcomm.com
National Newspapers The Los Angeles Times 202 West First Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 Phone: 800-528-4637 or 213-237-5000 Fax: 213-237-4712 L.A. Times Contact Information by Department Letters to the Editor: letters@latimes.com Readers' Representative: readers.rep@latimes.com
The New York Times 620 8th Ave., New York, NY 10018 Phone: 212-556-1234 D.C. Bureau phone: 202-862-0300 Fax: 212-556-3690 Letters to the Editor (for publication): letters@nytimes.com Write to the news editors: news-tips@nytimes.com Corrections: senioreditor@nytimes.com New York Times Contact Information by Department How to Contact New York Times Reporters and Editors USA Today 7950 Jones Branch Dr., McLean, VA 22108 Phone: 703-854-3400 Fax: 703-854-2078 Letters to the Editor: editor@usatoday.com
Give feedback to USA Today The Wall Street Journal 1211 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036 Phone: 212-416-2000 Fax: 212-416-2658 Letters to the Editor: wsj.ltrs@wsj.com Comment on News Articles: wsjcontact@dowjones.com
The Washington Post 1150 15th St., NW, Washington, DC 20071 Phone: 202-334-6000 Fax: 202-334-5075 Letters to the Editor: letters@washpost.com Ombudsman: ombudsman@washpost.com Contact Washington Post Writers and Editors Magazines
Newsweek 251 W 57th Street, New York, NY 10019 Phone: 212-445-4000 Fax: 212-445-5068 Letters to the Editor: letters@newsweek.com Time Time & Life Bldg., Rockefeller Center, 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020 Phone: 212-522-1212 Fax: 212-522-0003 Letters to the Editor letters@time.com U.S. News & World Report 1050 Thomas Jefferson St., NW, Washington, DC 20007 Phone: 202-955-2000 Fax: 202-955-2049 Letters to the Editor letters@usnews.com News Services / Wires Associated Press 450 West 33rd St., New York, NY 10001 Phone: 212-621-1500 Fax: 212-621-1723
General Questions and Comments: info@ap.org Partial Contact Information for the Associated Press by Department and Bureau Reuters Three Times Square, New York, NY 10036 Telephone: 646-223-4000 Reuters Editorial Feedback United Press International 1133 19th Street, NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20036 Telephone: 202-898-8000 FAX: 202-898-8048
Comments and Tips: tips@upi.com FAIR wants to hear about your media activism. Please send copies of your letters to journalists to FAIR 104 W. 27th St. 10th Floor New York, NY 10001 fair@fair.org
Just copy paste the top part and send to all the media. Maybe this will change Blizzards mind =)
I will not take the time to post the reasons why this is a bad idea, I believe this has been covered around the blogosphere with great intelligence and detail. What I am here to do is to encourage people to stand up for themselves. To make this a REAL ISSUE for Activision Blizzard and Facebook. They need to see that this will not be a one week rant by the community, but a concerted effort to make them retract their ideas and implementation plans.
It will not be easy, for certain there are contractual agreements between Activision and Facebook for their mutual profit. But just because a contract exists between two companies to make more money does not mean that the voice of the people cannot be heard in order to either make laws to prohibit such an action or to apply the necessary social pressure to dissuade them from furthering their contractual designs.
Being in business I know this: This decision is money-based, period. If you actually believe it is for the benefit of a more mature and sensible interaction between developers and gamers you are wrong. How do I know? Because they have entered into a contractual partnership with another corporation, that's how. Any time agreements are made between companies it is NOT for the benifit of just one, it's for the mutual profit that results in divulging identities.
Speak up now, don't let this issue die. I love to play this game, it's a refuge for me and my family. I don't want to quit, but if they don't listen I must consider the option. I believe in privacy, it's important to me, to you, and to many others in this world who only wish to live in a fantasy world a few hours a week. We're not asking much, but this, for once, a slippery slope that I will not slide down for long.
I hope other bloggers will join in the charge to never let this issue die. I am sure this is what the powers that be want from us, to soften our voices and lessen our dissent. I shall NEVER stand quiet on this point. Never again!
2 comments:
BBC has picked up the issue already. That's a good start!
http://thenoisyrogue.wordpress.com/2010/07/07/the-real-id-goes-news-network-viral/
@ Larisa: I've been doing a lot of reading on this and I have seen a few who don't think it's a big deal and that the rest of us are a bunch of fearmongers. But very few.
The most difficut obstacle will be the agreements made between Blizzard and Facebook, because neither wants to lose the money from this that they both plan to make. That said I am still going to promote active measures on the issue and hope that the community continues to speak up for as long as possible.
Thanks for the link, it is a good start!
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