Is it really necessary to stand on top of the quest giver?

I would vote for this as well

For the standard UI, the command is Alt+O and the there is a drop down menu under display animation.

To me the rude and inconsiderate ones are the people that want to control how everyone else plays instead of just changing their own settings so they can see what they want. I don't use a large mount, but I absolutely don't remember to turn it off whenever I am around any merchant or quest npc. The mounts give too many important stats and I tend to forget to turn it back on once it is off.

I use the wings for appearance mount and keep the stat mount as my mount. Wings aren't so bad, however, if asked (like a guide events) to dismount, I keep that button on my hotbars, as well as my disc mount for faster ground movement when flying isn't allowed (like in cities and some instances).

I have one of the smallest flying discs on my main, which is a very unobtrusive mount. I put it back into appearance to not have the phoenix blocking everything for me. The phoenix is a nice looking mount but annoying to use.

I think people are "suggesting" that you turn off mounts to ease your frustration and problem, not "telling" you what to do. I learned long ago at work, it is much easier to change a process or thing in order to handle a reoccurring problem than to try and change each and every person one by one by one with new people showing up that would need to be taught/trained how to do things. Especially when people do not have to comply with your wishes.

I'm not saying that people shouldn't be mindful or courteous of others. I'm saying that they aren't forced to be and no amount of annoyance on our part will transform them into "mount turning off people". Additionally, it is no more difficult for us to toggle a mount macro on and off than it is for them to toggle their mount on and off at our behest.

As far as zoning (or logging) in AFK, that is encouraged by the game because zoning/logging in often takes a longggggg time and it is a natural "take a break" point. For these circumstances, the player would also have to remember to turn off their mount before zoning in each time. You are talking about a lot of people learning a bunch of habits. It is very unlikely to happen. The zone in/afk problem could be fixed by not having things right where you zone in. If people land on a quest giver or other needed thing when they zone in, that is a design flaw that could be corrected by moving either the zone in point or the things located at the zone in. If someone simply camped at that spot and logged in afk, I'm not sure what could be done about that.

I would extend this to say that it would be great if mounts, mercenaries, pets, and fluff pets would go invisible (not have to be re-summoned, just invisible) near the NPCs and crafting stations.

When you enter a guild hall you are still mounted but your mount is invisible, they should be able to employ the same mechanisms for the zone in areas and within a certain radius of quest npcs, bankers/merchants, and travel bells.

Cyrrena

12 years of complaints vs. taking control of what you see on your own screen. Come on guys.

When they give us a universal macro page so that when I make a macro like that I can share it easily with all my toons then I will do the happy dance and use that gladly!!

Easy fix, actually.
As cities are places of consolidation and organization, meaning: NOT wilderness; as places of structure, foundation, and principle, where one works towards removing aspects of wilderness from it. i.e. paved roads with curbs, manicured lawns, trimmed hedges, etc.

So the fix is in all CITY environments, implement the coding present in Guild Halls: NO MOUNT DISPLAY.
(and yes, this would also mean the uppity guards Qeynos, Freeport, & Neriak would have to *walk* their patrols)

Thus, a place of organization is established out of the wilderness; then once outside the city gates one is more than welcome to don their brontosaurus vanity mount, and feel as important as they want.

I have no desire to "control" other people, but having a bit of common courtesy wouldn't hurt anyone! Unfortunately, people seem to forget such societial niceties on the internet.

The old craft instances retain this as well.

It's not just mounts. There was a guy with his merc standing directly on top of Growf afk for 2 hours with not just merc, but pack pony and a deity pet in tow as well. I have mounts turned off, but that doesn't help in this situation.

Well I'm glad to see I'm not the only one annoyed by this.

Some interesting discussion for sure.

I agree with the sentiment - I'm not out to control anyone, but yes common courtesy should be taught and adhered to in all public venues.

That said, the mechanic I would like to see implemented is once you activate an NPC (click it for what ever reason ) including crafting stations make the pets/mercs/mounts invis - you don't need them crafting anyway and if it is a quest npc, once you have it you'd be on your way anyway

In the meantime, as pointed out I have my mount off/on macros on one toon and they're working fine. I am running out of hot slots though I could really use another hot bar LOL

I would like to see a macro export/import or some other means of sharing my macros across toons - I have 5 accounts and on and off play 26 toons among those accts. It's a full time job to update all the toons with new macros LOL.

Anyway, thanks all for the discussion

The mercs are programmed to disband after a period of inactivity, so it wouldn't stay logged in for two hours afk.

I think both of those ideas are good suggestions. I expect the majority of players don't even remember that their mounts are visible to others. I don't think it even occurred to me that people could see it in the crafting area until a couple of years ago when someone asked me where I got my mount.

I would still like the merc to be active, even if she is invis. I have gotten addicted to my coercer merc mana flowing as I craft.

Good point and I never thought of using that LOL - Thanks for the idea - I have a few toons that sometimes run low!

I usually just suspend my merc when crafting - like the dailies - I'm cheap and don't want to keep paying their salary for standing around LOL

Now you made me google search for coercer mercs.

I just made a comment about those with ridiculous mounts hiding quest givers and work benches. How about if they put in a part of the program that makes mounts disappear if you are within a certain distance from either a quest giver or a work bench area like they do when you are indoors? I have lots of pretty mounts. But inside the "work" areas, I choose the disc because it's not obtrusive like some of the others. It's called manners.

There is a way to do that? I was not aware. I will look for it. It's a crying shame we have to take the responsibility for someone else's arrogance and bad manners.

No, it's not really "problem solved". WE shouldn't have to make it so we cannot see something because someone else believes himself/herself to be the center of the universe.

Me likes that idea a LOT.