Two quick updates from the official Final Fantasy XIV Twitter feed!  First, the promised forum update has arrived, and now players can begin linking their character data to Lodestone forum accounts.  Details on this along with the original Lodestone post can be found after the jump.

Also, Square Enix has activated their very own link shortening service (sqex.to), which they will use for all future tweets.

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The following adjustments and additions have been made to the forum along with the maintenance performed on Jun. 28th.

Function enabling players to link the character data they have selected to their forum profile has been implemented.

Characters on the service account associated with the Square Enix ID that is being used to log into the forums will now be displayed in forum profiles.

The following information will be displayed in the forum profiles:
Character Name
World Name
Class and Rank (You can choose up to 3 Classes)

* These information cannot be removed from your profile.

* For the first time logging into the forums after the maintenance, the forum profile menu will be displayed. Please select that character you wish to link to your forum profiles.
* You cannot use the forum service until the character data is linked.
* Character data link will be checked periodically. In case you delete the character that is linked to your forum profiles, it will be the same as character not being selected. The next time you log into the forums, the forum profile menu will appear and you must select the character you wish to link to your forum profiles.

An issue wherein an option "Automatically parse links in text" is not present on "Post New Thread" window has been addressed.