What I find sad is that people (commenting elsewhere) are still stating that giving a full name is perfectly safe and could never lead to phone numbers, etc., being found. And yet here we have proof that not only was it possible but that it was obviously of enough concern for Blizzard to remove it from their forums shortly afterwards!

It was Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear and served him right. Here's the story

From what I just read on the Blizzard forums, Blizzard's attitude is that access to people's names still does not give anyone the right to look up personal information, and if they do and post the results on Blizzard's forum, they will be banned from Blizzard's forum.
Well, that's just fine and dandy then, isn't it? Because obviously, noone would dream of doing something they don't have a right to do, and they will certainly constrain their activities to Blizzard's own little realm of the internet, and a forum ban is such a harsh punishment.
How much easier will this change make it for guys like this? And does anyone really think that the threat of a possible forum ban will make the slightest bit of difference?

With the current state of our political system here in the UK, I'm seriously expecting a question about this to come up at Prime Minister's Questions. Come to think of it, we'll probably find out then that David Cameron is a level 70 female Night Elf ...

And its only a ban from the FORUM, not the GAME?
Well if this change happens, he won't be able to hide it...

While I was only mildly interested in blizzard's next games, this just ensured that i wouldn't buy one of their games in the future unless they come to their senses. To me, this is just as bad as the UbiDRM idea, for different reasons.
Internet anonymity is a right, and I have absolutely no intention of jeopardizing it just to play a game, no matter how good it is.
Also, banning the use of nicknames just because some morons hide behind them to insult other people is really stupid.
If we extend the same reasoning to everything else, we should also forbid the use of knives since they can be used to kill...

............ crappy...........
The base I'm on already put out a memo, no more posting from US service members on Blizzard boards.... I wonder if some of the other bases are putting out the same info.....

That is actually excellent. If Blizzard can be made aware of this, that's the sort of thing that carries weight. If only a prominent gaming site could interview some officer about it.

I think it is worth mentioning that Googling nicknames can reveal the same info as a real name in some cases. I have found the same info available for some especially annoying trolls . . . right down to their parents addresses and images I had rather not have seen.
I DO NOT agree that revealing real names is a good idea but . . .
if you use a nickname for a long time, on face book, twitter, etc. . . . your personal info may be at risk as well so . . . be aware . . . =)

While I don't really understand guys masquerading as girls online, I can easily see why some girls find it easier to pretend they're guys.

Having a girl character isn't quite the same as masquerading as a girl.
I've done it sometimes, either because i wanted to play a specific class and I didn't like the looks of the male avatar, or because I wanted an easy way to remember later that the character was an alt without making it obvious.
As for girls trying to pass as guys, I can certainly see why as well. It's the sensible thing to do as long as you're not sure that the person you play with isn't a teen obsessed with sex.
Frankly, in my opinion, the Internet is (or should be) a gender-neutral place and people shouldn't get hung up on issues of real-life sex. Why should you care what gender the person you're playing with is? Most of the time it doesn't make any difference anyway.

I was a girl in Ultima online on my thief character. It made it easier for me to get closer to people. As a girl character, guys were extra nice to me, gave me stuff, believed all sorts of crap and I made a killing looting their homes. The same goes for my female Hunter on WoW - I got help a lot quicker.

I know, that's not what I meant. I mean guys who, when asked about it, will claim to be a girl, like the "Chinese girl" Red_Avatar talked about who was really a British guy. An avatar is just an avatar, even in a game. Hell, Aliasalpha has a hot girl as his avatar here on the forum, but he doesn't pretend that he is her.

On the subject of gender, what I really find funny are the guys who play female characters, but go way out of their way to make sure that you know they're actually male. How many times have I joined a group only to have the female faerie wizard immediately blurt out to five complete strangers "Just so you know I'm really a guy, I just like looking at a girl's butt so I play girls, so don't think I'm a girl or gay or something okay? BTW I work in construction."
Overcompensating much? I think that if you're that worried that people might mistake your gender, you should be more careful about the choices you make during character creation.
I make use of both male and female characters and avatars, and I don't particularly care if people get my gender wrong. I don't even bother to correct them. I'm just text associated with a random picture, after all. Of course, people seem to interpret that as enigmatic behavior, and after a while they start to pry.