As I continue to work on (usually 2 -3 hrs a week) on my own project and other people also work towards replacing mainn's site I wanted to discuss privacy expectations when it comes to posting decks.

To me there should be 3 levels of privacy:

1. Private posted non tournament deck - Never used in a tourney marked as private. Default setting for a newly created deck. So the level of privacy to me is that: 1. No one but the user can see the deck unless the site security is compromised. Granted it should be clear that for debugging purposes and system related tasks that folks with root and admin access could see the deck. But I would feel that taking advantage of admin rights to see someone's secret deck would be an ethics violation, however if you are truly working on something that would be the end of existence if someone found out... don't post the deck online at all. Unless FFG builds something themselves, nobody but you will be responsible for your deck's security.

2. Private - used in a tourney:

OK so I feel that any deck in a tourney has some public obligation:

1. The House/Agenda and Player should be able to be displayed in tournament reports.

2. The deck can be used for statistics purposes. This means if you are the only player using Targ some information will be available. However I feel that any site that does take statistics especailly from decks marked private should provide a notice stating what data is being collected, and how it is being used. But do remember, the deck has been used in a tourney so its not a secret anymore, anyone with a photographic memory can remember what cards got used. I also feel that a TO has every right to collect deck lists, if you don't want your deck being used in this manner don't play it at a tourney. This probably is the most controversial one.

3. - Public Decks: The deck list and stats are available to everyone, but hey marking it public was done with full knowledge that people can see and print it out.

Any Thoughts?

Those sound good, but who decides what a deck's status is? If it is the user exclusively, than someone can simply choose #1 if they really feel a need to be secretive, even if the deck was used in a tournament. Ideally, a TO would be able to says what players and decks were used in a tournament, but since there's presumably no compulsory duty for players to post decks in the system, it means a tournament report of deck statistics would be incomplete or inaccurate. I guess a TO could require decks to be inputted into the database to solve that problem, but decks would need to be locked, even from the user, to keep them after-the-fact faithful to the deck that was played at the tournament.

The way I would do it is simply to let the user make the decision. The website is not responsible for any decision making. In other words, it's purely the user's choice. The site deals with problems that it creates for itself instead of holding the weight of the world.

Problems a site creates for itself... For example, published deck duplication. Ultimately, a good site says "yes you can". But if a deck is already published, duplication by another user is spammy. You allow them to do it, but you counter the duplication with a note about everyone who published the deck. Or, you don't. This is a privacy issue, maybe. It has some colleration with the number of people in online community. Or, if you decide that spammy is okay (it's more anonymous), then we can all publish the champion 2010 deck as "My casual deck". . . The classification of a deck is basically Name of the Deck, User, and contents.

The contents of the deck are unique. The Name of the Deck is also unique among other names. And it's completely unacceptable to have a single user publish the same deck multiple times with different names, and other head spinning, mediocre scenarios. By the way, I'm glad to hear you spend more time on this than me. I hope you the best with the development and ideas. I'm actually stepping backm from deck builder a little and thinking about incorporating old AGoT CCG cards, because people seem just as concerned (or more) about seeing them online as they are about the deck sharing. Also because I have very little motivation and have moved on from my AGoT overnight addiction to collecting miniature porcelain figurines of baby angels.

1. The User would determine if his deck is private or public.

2. If a TO wants deck lists, then players must provide them so the following can happen:

a.) Hopefuly the user has an account and prints the deck which will include the deck id. The TO just has to then store the deck id and the deck then becomes "private" but in a TO. This means the name, house, agenda and user would be public but the contents would only be used in non identifying aggregate data. (Individual card rankings based on matches, % of houses with the win, etc.)

b.) The user has no account and gave it to you on tissue paper. This would mean that the TO and others would have to enter the deck in if they want to post it and use it. My feeling on this would be to use the provided email, create an account and put the deck in it. And then set it to private but in a tourney. Granted, this scenario more than likely just the deck house and agenda would be posted.

c.) User emails the TO a OCTGN deck, which is importable into the system.

d.) The user steals the deck list back, and so my recommendation here is put her in as Jon Doe.