[Question] Seeing cloaked members.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

I can now see cloaked members on the board--have the settings been adjusted so that Senators alone can do this (well, I already assumed mod staff had the ability to do so), or has the cloaking feature effectively been eliminated?

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

I can now see cloaked members on the board--have the settings been adjusted so that Senators alone can do this (well, I already assumed mod staff had the ability to do so), or has the cloaking feature effectively been eliminated?

Would those happen to be the users whose names show up in italics?

[Sea Skimmer]

Yup that would be them.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

I received this PM from a plebe, which I am reposting here:

What?! How many people can see cloaked users? I always assumed the mods could, but I'd appreciate it if that privilige was restricted to them. What's the point of using it when you've got 50 some users able to see you? And mainly active users, at that.

Please push for this to be eliminated for the Senators, if you would.

Even though I think it's reasonable for senators to be able to see cloaked users, he deserves his voice to be heard.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

"Why exactly do senators need the ability to see cloaked users? Are they mods? Do they need to know if someone prefers to stay hidden? no."

Another anonymous comment. My own reply is that I just find it somewhat useful to follow posting patterns on the board, and to know whether or not someone is on the board right there and then so that I can PM them in real-time and expect a quick response.

[RedImperator]

This is undoubtedly Yet Another Permissions Foulup. I'm sure it will be corrected as soon as possible; in the old software, even mods couldn't see cloaked users.

[Surlethe]

I've received a PM or two from people who are concerned about some 50-odd members seeing them. I don't really see why we need to have Senators able to see cloaked members, though it's not a big deal either way.

[RedImperator]

I've received a PM or two from people who are concerned about some 50-odd members seeing them. I don't really see why we need to have Senators able to see cloaked members, though it's not a big deal either way.

Some people are just more comfortable being cloaked, for whatever reason. There really is no reason for the entire Senate to be able to see cloaked members; as I said, in the old software, even moderators couldn't see cloaked members. There was, as far as I know, no plan to let Senators see cloaked members; it just happened that way when we went to version 3.

That said, the board upgrade disrupted permissions all over the board, and Mike still has a lot of clean-up work to do. People have to be patient; we will fix the problem, but we might not be able to fix it right away. If moderators had to wait for more than a week for the right to move threads into Parting Shots, users are going to have to wait for the cloaks to be fixed. You've got basically one guy trying to fix all of the technical problems from the switchover and hey--turns out, SDN isn't actually his paying job.

[AdmiralKanos]

The new permissions system is much more flexible than the old one, but it is also more complicated. However, I think I am becoming more comfortable with it.

Senators should no longer be able to see cloaked members. Somebody please confirm that this is the case.

[Surlethe]

Confirmed - I am cloaked, and I can't see myself in this forum.

Edit- Confirmed in the general board. No italicized users.

[Dalton]

Can we actually ban people from certain forums now? I think we have a lot more permissions than we thought...