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#17208: "Better Privacy: Hide Game History, Online Status, and only Mutual Friends"
What is this report about?
BGA website
What happened ? Please select from below
Suggestion: in my opinion, the following would greatly improve the website
Detailed description
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• Please explain your suggestion precisely and concisely so that it's as easy as possible to understand what you mean.
Please make a feature to hide game history to others. Also please make a feature to hide online status to appear as offline. Also please make friend invites, do not allow someone to be a one-sided friend.
• What is your browser?
Chrome
Report history
27. May 2025 11:46 • Countes-Olivia-Manny • This suggestion has not been analyzed by delopers yet:
How many votes are needed for this suggestion to be implemented?
27. May 2025 13:33 • Homesick89 • This suggestion has not been analyzed by delopers yet:
Came here the same day as the first comment but not related, how many likes do you need anymore?
8. Jun 2025 4:02 • headkace • This suggestion has not been analyzed by delopers yet:
Hide game history?!? Is that serious? That's a great big NO. Serious players of serious games want to review the games of their tough opponents. And they're not worried about the vice-versa either.
This is also one of the key ways for middle ranked players to advance. You study the games of the masters.
Online status, friends: nobody cares. If game history goes, I'll probably quit this place.
This is also one of the key ways for middle ranked players to advance. You study the games of the masters.
Online status, friends: nobody cares. If game history goes, I'll probably quit this place.
9. Jun 2025 3:26 • jess_ • This suggestion has not been analyzed by delopers yet:
I agree with headkace, I am strongly against hiding game history.
9. Jun 2025 5:40 • pee_dee_cee • This suggestion has not been analyzed by delopers yet:
Agree with headkace and jess_, I am strongly against hiding game histories.
The replay system is excellent for learning from better players and losing this feature would be a big loss to the site.
The replay system is excellent for learning from better players and losing this feature would be a big loss to the site.
10. Jun 2025 17:27 • mikkashar • This suggestion has not been analyzed by delopers yet:
The report history for this request appears to've been truncated. Also the things requested here, while all privacy related, have very different implementation requirements & ramifications. Perhaps this should be separated into different bugs?
Mutual friends only was implemented long before 2025-05-27 (earliest comment currently visible). See boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=23290
Hiding online status has other single-topic bug reports, including boardgamearena.com/bug?id=81191. I suggest using that report for online status setting and/or visibility.
Hiding completed games seems of limited use. Completed games do give some past timing history, but they don't allow direct interaction with the players, which appears to be the overall focus of this request. Hiding completed games makes a lot of useful information including game play & strategy learning opportunities, game popularity, and examples for recognizing patterns, diagnosing problems, & supporting bug reports.
Not asked for in this request, but IMO more useful in preventing harassment, would be allowing an individual to hide their list of current active games and/or open tables.
-- Letting people hide their playertables page (boardgamearena.com/playertables?player=[ID]) might be useful, but (especially with the reputation history missing) also means a current or prospective opponent can't gauge whether their opponent is playing more games than they can keep up, or hasn't made any moves at all in an extended period. Being able to look at someone's current tables is also useful when someone has a question about an active game, be it game play, UI, metagame, or bugs.
-- Letting people hide all their open tables seems counter-productive for game matching. Making friends-only or group-only tables visible only to people who can join them would be reasonable, IMO. But there are currently bugs with group tables not always respecting that requirement (possibly related to other issues respecting game options & restrictions), and there are requests (ex: boardgamearena.com/bug?id=23285) for better finding group-restricted games that might combine well with limiting visibility of restricted tables.
Mutual friends only was implemented long before 2025-05-27 (earliest comment currently visible). See boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=23290
Hiding online status has other single-topic bug reports, including boardgamearena.com/bug?id=81191. I suggest using that report for online status setting and/or visibility.
Hiding completed games seems of limited use. Completed games do give some past timing history, but they don't allow direct interaction with the players, which appears to be the overall focus of this request. Hiding completed games makes a lot of useful information including game play & strategy learning opportunities, game popularity, and examples for recognizing patterns, diagnosing problems, & supporting bug reports.
Not asked for in this request, but IMO more useful in preventing harassment, would be allowing an individual to hide their list of current active games and/or open tables.
-- Letting people hide their playertables page (boardgamearena.com/playertables?player=[ID]) might be useful, but (especially with the reputation history missing) also means a current or prospective opponent can't gauge whether their opponent is playing more games than they can keep up, or hasn't made any moves at all in an extended period. Being able to look at someone's current tables is also useful when someone has a question about an active game, be it game play, UI, metagame, or bugs.
-- Letting people hide all their open tables seems counter-productive for game matching. Making friends-only or group-only tables visible only to people who can join them would be reasonable, IMO. But there are currently bugs with group tables not always respecting that requirement (possibly related to other issues respecting game options & restrictions), and there are requests (ex: boardgamearena.com/bug?id=23285) for better finding group-restricted games that might combine well with limiting visibility of restricted tables.
19. Jun 2025 13:22 • unwill • This suggestion has not been analyzed by delopers yet:
The problem with game history is that is also shows how many hours ago, I mean is that really necessary ?
19. Jun 2025 14:44 • bern22 • This suggestion has not been analyzed by delopers yet:
J'ai eu 2 bugs à la suite, 2 parties qui m'ont coutées 60 pts de pénalité et des karmas, F5 n'a rien résolu, ce n'est pas de ma faute surtout qu'aux 2 parties je gagnais alors quel intéret j'aurai eu de partir en cours , je suis très déçue par BGA, comme le dernier part avec qui j'ai joué ,il a eu le même problème, quand BGA est responsable, vous pourriez remettre les pts perdus,
Cordialement
Cordialement
20. Jun 2025 22:40 • ReltzSev • This suggestion has not been analyzed by delopers yet:
Came here to say that they put out a survey instead of looking at these highly upvoted issues with no official response which I find pretty sad. But while I'm here I'll pitch in my 2c:
I think the simple ask of privacy makes for a very complex solution especially in a space that is looking to be open and connect players. Personally I like the openness of data because I've thought about making a bot that can notify me on other platforms like discord when I have an available move (I'm just not that big at e-mails especially how much spam I get) and the openness of data would allow for others to discover and utilize that bot without having to go through more steps, like friending the bot.
On the other hand I haven't experienced harassment or felt attacked in anyway on BGA, perhaps because I mostly place exclusively with friends. But just wanted to state a form of opposition that others might not have considered.
I think the simple ask of privacy makes for a very complex solution especially in a space that is looking to be open and connect players. Personally I like the openness of data because I've thought about making a bot that can notify me on other platforms like discord when I have an available move (I'm just not that big at e-mails especially how much spam I get) and the openness of data would allow for others to discover and utilize that bot without having to go through more steps, like friending the bot.
On the other hand I haven't experienced harassment or felt attacked in anyway on BGA, perhaps because I mostly place exclusively with friends. But just wanted to state a form of opposition that others might not have considered.
10. Jul 2025 10:34 • JohnnyMnemonic7z • This suggestion has not been analyzed by delopers yet:
I don't even understand how people here can oppose a feature just because they don't need it. It's simply a feature that some people need in specific situations, as evidenced by the number of votes. The only reason I can think of to reject this privacy option is if you want to monitor someone and don't want them to be able to avoid you.
16. Jul 2025 18:13 • DJB is da GOAT • This suggestion has not been analyzed by delopers yet:
BGA does not allow down votes, so you can't just look at the number. I am personally very strongly against game history as I don't really see the benefit and as some players mentioned help others find the strategies used by higher players. Online status I don't really mind either way, and obviously one-sided friends at the time was a huge problem.
20. Jul 2025 20:04 • KSpooky • This suggestion has not been analyzed by delopers yet:
@JohnnyMnemonic7z - If you allow players to hide their game history, then:
- you may not be able to watch replays of some top-ranked players for a given game
- you may have issues reporting a bug, if you have that option on
So, it is not only about not being interested into using that feature yourself, it also has some consequences. Having information when exactly the game took place helps other to recognize what replay the have already watched, or may help to find a specific game. Why would you even want to hide it in a first place? Because you feel ashamed about yourself how long you stayed last night? Or you promised someone else you will do something, but eventually you spend that time on BGA? Well, conduct yourself better, then you won't have to hide anything ;)
Better privacy for your status (online/offline), friends, etc. its fine. But game history should remain public.
- you may not be able to watch replays of some top-ranked players for a given game
- you may have issues reporting a bug, if you have that option on
So, it is not only about not being interested into using that feature yourself, it also has some consequences. Having information when exactly the game took place helps other to recognize what replay the have already watched, or may help to find a specific game. Why would you even want to hide it in a first place? Because you feel ashamed about yourself how long you stayed last night? Or you promised someone else you will do something, but eventually you spend that time on BGA? Well, conduct yourself better, then you won't have to hide anything ;)
Better privacy for your status (online/offline), friends, etc. its fine. But game history should remain public.
25. Jul 2025 3:10 • Lawyer • This suggestion has not been analyzed by delopers yet:
I accidentally voted "yes". I thought by clicking the "vote" button I would be able to vote "no". Too bad you can't undo your vote.
Add something to this report
Please add here anything that seems relevant to reproduce this bug or understand your suggestion:
- Another table ID / move ID
- Did F5 solve the problem?
- Did the problem appears several time? Everytime? Randomly?
- If you have a screenshot of this bug (good practice), you can use Imgur.com to upload it and copy/paste the link here.
