Hidden birthday not really hidden.

[GrnEyedDvl]

Affected version

2.3

If you enable the Today's Birthday in the Trophies and give out points for a members birthday, points are awarded and timestamped even if the member has "Show day and month" unchecked in their account settings. This makes that setting completely unusable if a single member does not want that shown.

A better option might be to use Anniversary instead of Birthday. An annual point award on the day they joined. Or do both and fix the Trophy to not process them if they have it hidden.

Spoiler

 

[Chris D]

This is really in the category of “just because you can, it doesn’t mean you should”.

While you can award trophy points on someone’s birthday, it’s not really designed for that use case.

The criteria is there because the criteria system is shared across different systems, e.g. notices.

So a better use case might be to wish a member a happy birthday by showing them a notice while it is their birthday.

The criteria is there for trophies by virtue of it being useful for other use cases.

Another reason why it doesn’t exactly make sense is that this trophy will only ever be awarded exactly once. It won’t be awarded for their next birthday.

So given all that, while you may have a point, the easiest solution here is to just not have this trophy at all.

 

[GrnEyedDvl]

The criteria is there for trophies by virtue of it being useful for other use cases.

Well, for one other case since you mentioned the notice. I would bet that the percentage of sites that use notices like that would be pretty small.

Just trying to figure out ways to make the trophy system more useful and this came up.

 

[Digital Doctor]

A better option might be to use Anniversary instead of Birthday.

much better idea.

 

[Chris D]

I can't believe that I didn't notice that.

I'm visiting all the XF forums I'm a member of and now removing my birthday, although a bit too late for some.

Seems like an egregious violation of privacy as it's not in the default Privacy Policy, and,

because XenForo ships(pped*) with it enabled(?), I'd suggest admins to update their Privacy Policy or delete the trophy immediately so it removes the birthdays across all members.

Edit*:
I checked the old 2.0 and 2.1 packages and the demo, but the birthday trophy was not in any fresh installation. I reverted a 2.1 forum database and found the trophy there. I do not remember adding it, but it is possible. It was trophy ID 10, while only 9 are included by default in anything newly downloaded (despite the version). An 11th trophy from an add-on makes me think the birthday trophy may have been included at some point. I no longer have the zip file for that license to confirm if I added it or if XenForo once included it and later removed it. I remember seeing "It's your birthday!" or something similar as a trophy. Maybe I imagined it, or maybe an old zip file on one of my drives will clear it up.

So, there's probably nothing to worry about. (I don't use trophies, but still going forum by forum and changing my birthday in case an admin does add it)

It isn’t included by default. OP added that trophy themselves and observed the behaviour.

 

[frm]

It isn’t included by default. OP added that trophy themselves and observed the behaviour.

Deleted the post as the phrase_id suggests it was added at some point after the install somehow, unbeknownst to me, but after inspection, only awarded a handful of times, and to those who showed the birthday month and day (no longer a live forum).

Nonetheless, it should be known (if not obvious by the report) that it's a violation of the default Privacy Policy (taking a shot that it's not GDPR [amongst other privacy laws] compliant as well) across all forums to have that as a trophy, so it shouldn't be made without an updated Privacy Policy. I've noticed some forums I'm a member of have the trophy, and unsure how they will handle it, seeing as XenForo timestamps it with the option disabled as reported.



TL'DR:

So given all that, while you may have a point, the easiest solution here is to just not have this trophy at all.

 

[GrnEyedDvl]

It isn’t included by default. OP added that trophy themselves and observed the behaviour.

This is 100% true, I added it as a test. Its definitely a potential landmine, which is why I mentioned it.

While you can award trophy points on someone’s birthday, it’s not really designed for that use case.

When a forum owner is looking at things they can do, we do not know the mindset that was going on in the minds of the people that wrote this particular piece of code. Nor should we be expected to think through every possible scenario.

The option is there, so I tried it.

Another reason why it doesn’t exactly make sense is that this trophy will only ever be awarded exactly once. It won’t be awarded for their next birthday.

That is a problem with the trophy system, which is another discussion.