PersonaNonGrata wrote on Nov 15
th, 2015 at 5:52am:
How does he get the data and why can't Turbine stop him?
Are the login servers secure?
Doubt Turbine would want it out there.
Turbine did stop him, in their own inimitable way. They made the game so boring he quit

As to not wanting it out there, well, it's complicated. A successful company wants it out there, seeing others are playing a game attracts people. Look at how many games build in the Steam API "hours played" feature.
It's only when a game starts to flag that those login numbers become a problem. And by that point, admitting your game is so bad you have to hide the numbers makes it even worse. It's like a stock getting de-listed on the NASDAQ, when it happens it's hard to get investor confidence back.
BTW, a server merge is a similar two edged sword, it sends a clear "this game is dying" message with better press coverage than your last expansion pack got. Yeah it can temporarily boost the concentration of players, but it's clearly a move of desperation and getting just about anything else to work is preferable.
We live in the Facebook age, trying to hide behind "vast and mysterious" doesn't work anymore, it just marks you as horribly out of touch.