how do *you* use the guild member list? please help devs.

[wesden]

Hi again,
I have received a lot of requests to re-format the guild member list. What I'd like to know is the typical use case for captains, VC's, crew and members:

1.. are you captain/vc/crew or member?
2. why do you use the member list?
3. what information are you looking for specifically?
4. how often do you use the list?
5. what one change to the member list would make you happy and make you use it more?

I promise your feedback does not go into a black hole - keep in mind I get PMs and feedback from a lot of users. We really look at the feedback when designing features!

Thanks for your help,
-d  

[Pilotslover]

1. are you captain/vc/crew or member?
Captain, VC, Crew and Member

2. why do you use the member list?
To find people with 0 posts to ban them

3. what information are you looking for specifically?
Umm ... see above. XD

4. how often do you use the list?
Not very because it's a mess and something of waste of time because it keeps reordering itself for some bizarre reason best known only to the person who designed the system in the first place.

5. what one change to the member list would make you happy and make you use it more?
ONE?!
It needs more then one but since you insist.
The ability to order the list by post count, donation amount, username etc.
(Join date comes a close second ... XD)  

[wesden]

Pilotslover

1. are you captain/vc/crew or member?
Captain, VC, Crew and Member

2. why do you use the member list?
To find people with 0 posts to ban them

3. what information are you looking for specifically?
Umm ... see above. XD

4. how often do you use the list?
Not very because it's a mess and something of waste of time because it keeps reordering itself for some bizarre reason best known only to the person who designed the system in the first place.

5. what one change to the member list would make you happy and make you use it more?
ONE?!
It needs more then one but since you insist.
The ability to order the list by post count, donation amount, username etc.
(Join date comes a close second ... XD)

for #2 & 5. - what about last post? would that help to ban users who aren't posting? or do you want # of posts?  

[WindowOpener]

1. Are you captain/vc/crew or member?
   All of the above!
   
   
2. Why do you use the member list?
   Usually because I'm curious about the stats available there. whee And if I'm new to a guild, to see who the leaders are.
   
   
3. What information are you looking for?
   If I'm there to see who the leaders are, then I'm looking for the rankings of Captain, Vice Captain and Crew. If I'm there because I'm curious, then post counts and guild donations (and if any other info happened to be available, like last post or guild activity, I'd probably stalk people based on that, too!).
   
   This is a tricky question only because I already know what I can find there, which is only a handful of things anyway. It's not a big enough feature for me to frequently go there looking for some specific detail that might or might not be buried there. ^^
   
   
4. How often do you use the list?
   Every time I join a guild, which is not that often, or when I hear of changes (like mamarita re-promoting a Crew member this week) or whenever it otherwise takes my fancy. ^^ So maybe once a week on average?
   
   
5. What one change to the member list would make you happy and [what one change would] make you use it more?
   As shown, I understand this to mean you would like me to suggest two changes. smile
   
   
   • A change that would make me happy would easily be options for arranging members by post count, join date, last activity, etc. It probably wouldn't make me use the list more, but it would definitely make things easier for those Crews who are antsy about members with 'insufficient' post counts.
     
     
   • A change that would make me use the list more is making it more full-featured. In other words, bringing some tools from the Moderator Panel over to the member list, like
     
     • inviting new members to the guild (why should only Crew be able to do that?); and
       
     • captains viewing the Crew activity log (or even individual Crew logs?).
     
     And in terms of possible future features, if specific Crew permissions became adjustable or mass PMs were introduced, both of those would fit just as logically on the member list as in the Mod Panel.
     
     
   • A change that would definitely increase the list's use amongst captains would be arranging members into Groups (without affecting their permissions). This would be a very versatile feature that would bring organisation and experimental benefits to many guild types. (It might also reduce the use of assigned Crew permissions for reasons other than moderating, eg. roleplaying, or 'honouring' past captains.)
     
     
   • A few other suggestions would be adjustments to the search engine (for example, a search for WindowOpener finds one result, but a search for 'window' finds none, which is less helpful if you can't quite remember a username's full or proper spelling). Other slight tweaks like arranging members alphabetically by default, and AJAX pagination (if that's even possible with tens of thousands of names) would be welcome.
     
     
   • And for organisation, I'd suggest a design change that lifts an idea from Facebook's friends page (link works if you're logged in to Facebook~). Names appear by default accompanied by some basic stats, but more information could be available via an 'expand' button. This could strike a balance between managing space and info.
     

I think there are about ten suggestions here actually. whee Hopefully at least some of them are useful for you guys to discuss now, and others might have to wait for another future release. ^^

But to answer the question exactly, my favourite feature would be arranging members by join date, last post, etc.  

[Pilotslover]

wesden_girl

Pilotslover

1. are you captain/vc/crew or member?
Captain, VC, Crew and Member

2. why do you use the member list?
To find people with 0 posts to ban them

3. what information are you looking for specifically?
Umm ... see above. XD

4. how often do you use the list?
Not very because it's a mess and something of waste of time because it keeps reordering itself for some bizarre reason best known only to the person who designed the system in the first place.

5. what one change to the member list would make you happy and make you use it more?
ONE?!
It needs more then one but since you insist.
The ability to order the list by post count, donation amount, username etc.
(Join date comes a close second ... XD)

for #2 & 5. - what about last post? would that help to ban users who aren't posting? or do you want # of posts?

If I'm honest both would be incredibly helpful. XD  

[MemoryDragon]

1. are you captain/vc/crew or member?
All of the above. Well, if you count my mule being a captain of one guild... xd

2. why do you use the member list?
To try and contact members, see post numbers, that kind of thing.

3. what information are you looking for specifically?
Post numbers, if a member is still even in the guild.

4. how often do you use the list?
Not very often, truthfully. It's a bit too messy at the moment to really do anything with. But for the crew, at least, it's easy and fun to have a bit of a posting contest to see who can have the most posts in the guild. xd

5. what one change to the member list would make you happy and make you use it more?
At the moment, I would just like them cleaner. I've gone through one of my guilds looking for a member (cause like Window has mentioned, if you get the name wrong you can't search for them) to find 10+ pages of the same names listed. The said member I was searching for (who was still part of the guild) wasn't even listed at all. I searched her correct screen name later to find she was listed as part of the guild. So really, just fixing them at this point would make me happy.

Being able to organize the list would be fairly useful as far as contacting and posts counts go. Still, I'd rather some spring cleaning happens before new features are put out.  

[MemoryDragon]

Oh, I just though of something else... Being able to see new members (aka, the newest member, or just those members that have joined in the past week) might be useful too. Since any crew can invite or approve membership, it would be nice to have all in one place.  

[WindowOpener]

I second that idea - it would be useful for a lot of purposes, like captains who want to see which Crew members are doing most of the accepting (although I'd just use it for snooping.. ^^).

And, because I can't resist playing with mockups...


*click*

It's not overly pretty but it's a sort of idea.  

[pacifisticuffs]

What about deleting members that aren't meeting post requirements? I know that previously you've only been able to ban inactive members, but is that a preference, or would you rather just remove them altogether from the Guild?

It seems to me that deleting them would be the cleaner and preferable option.

Window: kick a** mocks. There are some great ideas in here.  

[Pilotslover]

Pacifisticuffs -
I've always seen banning as that ... I doubt changing the name of it makes much difference. If deleting them would remove their posts then NO imagine the mess of old RP's for those of us who run RPing guilds.  

[churrlo]

1.. are you captain/vc/crew or member?
All of the above ^^

2. why do you use the member list?
I look to find members who are in the guild, see posts, donation amounts, ect.

3. what information are you looking for specifically?
Mostly post numbers.

4. how often do you use the list?
Not to often, its a bit disorganized for my tastes.

5. what one change to the member list would make you happy and make you use it more?
The option to sort by names alphabetically, posts, and donation amounts. This is a simple function I believe can be integrated which would extremely help moderators everywhere.  

[WindowOpener]

pacifisticuffs

What about deleting members that aren't meeting post requirements? I know that previously you've only been able to ban inactive members, but is that a preference, or would you rather just remove them altogether from the Guild?

It seems to me that deleting them would be the cleaner and preferable option.

Window: kick a** mocks. There are some great ideas in here.

Thanks!

Actually that question came up in some form often in the Captains' Guild. People would ask "How do I delete members without banning them?"

To people who are used to the current system, it seemed obvious that banning was in effect deleting members, albeit with a limitation on rejoining (a two-week barring from requesting to join I think? but still able to be invited again). But to new users the terms may seem very different.

If "deleting" was introduced alongside banning, I think the effect of banning might have to be altered, because as far as I can tell, deleting is pretty much the entire effect of a ban. Come to think of it, I can't think of a meaningful difference... XD What did you have in mind, pacifisticuffs?

Oh! But this reminds me of another suggestion that's been made before - the ability to ban members for specific time periods (days, weeks, etc.).  

[MemoryDragon]

@Window: I love the mock up. It looks great!

About the deleting... I agree with PL. If deleting involves removing all the user posts as well, that could get mess even in a debate based guild. But if it's just a difference in if a member could join the guild again at a later date, I think it would be great. Bans can be a more ultimate form of punishment, while 'deleting' can just be for if members simply aren't being active.

I'm sure there's many other ways that Gaians can come up with to distinguish the two, but those would be the two main ways I would use it.

A timed ban would be nice. I can picture it sort of like how the polls work now. You can list how long you want the poll to be up or just leave it blank to let it run forever.  

[Ezra-tan]

1. Crew/ Vice
2. To ban members, check post count, and check member status [member/NON-member]
3. There isn't any information that is incredibly useful in the memberlists, IMO. Post count isn't always that important, if ever.
4. Once or twice a week.
5. Adding more options for retrieving member information; for example Join date, recent posts, POST HISTORY WITHIN THE GUILD, online status, ban records. ALSO, since I have more than one idea, a warning system would be nice as well. In the member list section you could have the option of sending a warning to members; you fill out a form explaining why the warning is being given, and send it. The message would be received via the ADMIN. A "point" system could also be put in place to count the number of warnings a member has received, and all sent warnings are logged for future reference.  

[pacifisticuffs]

WindowOpener

If "deleting" was introduced alongside banning, I think the effect of banning might have to be altered, because as far as I can tell, deleting is pretty much the entire effect of a ban. Come to think of it, I can't think of a meaningful difference... XD What did you have in mind, pacifisticuffs?

Oh! But this reminds me of another suggestion that's been made before - the ability to ban members for specific time periods (days, weeks, etc.).

There are a few reasons I'd like to differentiate between the two. Our current ban system has a few shortcomings, namely that you can't define a length of the ban, and banned users no longer show up on your memberlist. You can search for their username and that will surface them, but they're otherwise gone.

To me, banning is something that would be done in response to an abusive member. If banned, he should be prohibited access to the guild completely, until the ban is lifted.

Deleting a member would simply be a way to clean up the memberlist and not imply some sort of punishment. It wouldn't delete that member's posts. They'd just be gone as though they had quit the guild.