[Suggestion] Regarding public sheets functionality

I have a suggestion about sheets viewability and uploading characters to the Library.

I believe Character Library is intended to be a storage where players publish their sheets for others to use. However, I've yet to see anyone using it in this way (although someone probably does), and most of the time when it comes up it is in the context of letting fellow players view your sheet.

It always sat a little wrong with me, and with the recent surge in AI data scrapping I'd really like an ability to avoid making the sheets fully public. Plus, when you upload to the library, it technically implies that you are okay with others using your character - which might be a bit weird?

I propose the following:
- Leave Library as is, keep its public sheet functionality so it can be used as intended.
- Add a way for a player to allow sheet viewership to other players. This can be something like "Allow [Player Names] to view this sheet" or "Allow all players from [Game Name] view this sheet". It can even be tied to the game the sheet is submitted to.

I just really don't like my sheets being in the library anymore, but without making them public it's harder to cooperate with other players.
Anyway, thanks for reading! It's just a suggestion, and it probably can take a while, but maybe still worth considering? :V

I would like to see a three-way setting. Public, Private, and Visible to people in the Game. With visible to the people we are playing with as the default setting (a default which the player can change?).

+1 for "Visible to people in the Game" feature and to have that as the default.

I personally would rather the default remain private, and it's up to the player to enable whatever levels of exposure are implemented. I know some games like Paranoia assume the character sheet is secret, and I know that some players in other games write secrets on their sheets that they wouldn't want other players to know. In the interest of maintaining a player's privacy, it should be their active choice to display what they want others to see.

The GM should still see everything, the way it is now for private or public character sheets.

What about an option where the player can set their sheet to Public, Private, or Visible in Game. But also give the GM the ability to force that option?

I would prefer the default to be private, mostly because it is a common thing with file uploads and site profiles. And it's probably better to teach new players how to make sheets public rather than them never learning about this setting because there is rarely a reason to ask them to make their sheet private?
A customizable default is fine too, probably?

As for GM forcing a specific option, I'm impartial. GMs already can edit player sheets (which I personally don't like, but it's a different topic), so it's a natural progression that they would be able to edit sheet settings too.

(Honestly, I think I just want sheets to be like Google Files, where you can give edit and viewership permissions to specific people and groups. XD But if that's not an option, then tying it to a game is probably the second best.)

I would think the most common use-case would be the default.

If people rarely need to change it to Private then they probably want it to be Visible to the Group and it should be that way?

A prompt during character creation to ask them?

To combat the AI worries, maybe we can also have an option for Only Visible to Site Members, so people have to sign up before they can see them?

I would agree if it wasn't about privacy. Maybe it's just me, but if I were a new user and made a sheet, I wouldn't expect it to be public by default. Profile, yes, but not a sheet.
I think this is another pretty good option! Just straight up ask, no surprises. Or make the sheet viewability button really obnoxious, so you can't miss it while filling the sheet. XD
I doubt it'll help. It's very easy to sign up, and we have bots registering and posting on the forum every other week. A scrapper doesn't even need to post, and therefore is harder to detect. :'D Although more privacy options is good regardless.

Just to clarify, I don't mean allowing them to change the settings on a specific sheet. Just enforcing it as a game-wide rule. Same result mostly, but still different in essence. Just making it visible while in the game and having it revert to the player setting when they leave, whereas if they actually changed the sheet setting it would continue to apply after the player left.

Ah, makes sense! Although it'd probably require a bit more coding than sheet visibility by itself...