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

[LillianSaire]

I like the term dismiss best. Seems less evil sounding.

Member titles/groups, sorting by join date, seeing join date and purple prettiness are all good. (Yes, I still don't like black and white.)

On the member list and listed as banned sounds AWESOME. But if another option is to simple force a quit or to delete(a non-banned member) from the list then the word dismiss works best.

A way to limit what a specific non member can do, like not post for a time period but still see and vote, or just be banned from a sub, would also rock.

We need a guild spotlight on a page that people see. A new guild each day (for a daily chance page), weekly spot in a community announcement, or on a decently popular page, new guild each refresh. I would like it to not be based around most members or most popularity votes(AKA most members), but if it will change that would be a staple of rotating 'admin picks' would be used for the new guild spotlight per page refresh.  

[Pilotslover]

Pacifisticuffs -

I didn't know it did that.

Huh ... interesting.  

[WindowOpener]

pacifisticuffs

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.

Ohhh, I see.

There are definitely times when guilds have problems with individuals that naturally make them reach for any available banhammer. And there are many guilds that conduct 'spring cleaning' periodically to keep their memberlist representing as fairly as possible those who actually participate in the guild. But those are two totally different situations. It'd be great if different tools existed for each. smile  

[shall she sail seas]

1. are you captain/vc/crew or member?
I'm a captain, vc and member.

2. why do you use the member list?
To keep track of who has recently joined/left the guild, to see how many posts members have, to prepare for contests, to promote/demote/ban members when necessary,

3. what information are you looking for specifically?
Post number, user names.

4. how often do you use the list?
Every other day, if I'm not busy. I have my entire member list copy+pasted onto an Excel spreadsheet and work off that instead.

5. what one change to the member list would make you happy and make you use it more?
Ability to re-arrange the order of usernames based on join date, number of posts, date of last activity, usernames in alphabetical order, userIDs, amount of gold donated to the guild, etc.


I highly suggest developers to take a look at other forum software like SMF or phpBB2. In terms of member list management design, I think they're perfect. Their other features are also worth taking long hard look at. Why you guys haven't already implemented similar features with your own Gaian flair REALLY baffles me.  

[WindowOpener]

NomNomNominal

4. how often do you use the list?
Every other day, if I'm not busy. I have my entire member list copy+pasted onto an Excel spreadsheet and work off that instead.

I don't know how many people do this, or something like it (replicating their lists somewhere else), but it might be much easier for them if we could generate a print version of the member list?

I know Gaia hasn't rushed to adopt this kind of tool in other areas, though, and perhaps the size of some lists makes it unfeasible. Just throwing it out there. ^^  

[shall she sail seas]

WindowOpener

NomNomNominal

4. how often do you use the list?
Every other day, if I'm not busy. I have my entire member list copy+pasted onto an Excel spreadsheet and work off that instead.

I don't know how many people do this, or something like it (replicating their lists somewhere else), but it might be much easier for them if we could generate a print version of the member list?

I know Gaia hasn't rushed to adopt this kind of tool in other areas, though, and perhaps the size of some lists makes it unfeasible. Just throwing it out there. ^^

Actually, a print version isn't necessary. Here's something you could try out yourself:

1. Go to the member list right now.
   
2. Copy the entire list starting from the little wing image on the top left of the list until you reach the last post number of the last member.
   
3. Open Excel
   
4. Paste the entire thing.
   
5. Format stuff like column width, merges, etc. as necessary.
   
6. And you're done. Ta-da~!

My own spreadsheet shows member count, post count, join dates, tidbit facts members mentioned about themselves, etc. The best thing about Excel is that you can rearrange EVERYTHING in ascending/descending order.  

[WindowOpener]

NomNomNominal

WindowOpener

NomNomNominal

4. how often do you use the list?
Every other day, if I'm not busy. I have my entire member list copy+pasted onto an Excel spreadsheet and work off that instead.

I don't know how many people do this, or something like it (replicating their lists somewhere else), but it might be much easier for them if we could generate a print version of the member list?

I know Gaia hasn't rushed to adopt this kind of tool in other areas, though, and perhaps the size of some lists makes it unfeasible. Just throwing it out there. ^^

Actually, a print version isn't necessary. Here's something you could try out yourself:

1. Go to the member list right now.
   
2. Copy the entire list starting from the little wing image on the top left of the list until you reach the last post number of the last member.
   
3. Open Excel
   
4. Paste the entire thing.
   
5. Format stuff like column width, merges, etc. as necessary.
   
6. And you're done. Ta-da~!

My own spreadsheet shows member count, post count, join dates, tidbit facts members mentioned about themselves, etc. The best thing about Excel is that you can rearrange EVERYTHING in ascending/descending order.

Ooh, nifty. I'm an Excel n00b so I've never tried this before. whee  

[shall she sail seas]

WindowOpener

NomNomNominal

WindowOpener

NomNomNominal

4. how often do you use the list?
Every other day, if I'm not busy. I have my entire member list copy+pasted onto an Excel spreadsheet and work off that instead.

I don't know how many people do this, or something like it (replicating their lists somewhere else), but it might be much easier for them if we could generate a print version of the member list?

I know Gaia hasn't rushed to adopt this kind of tool in other areas, though, and perhaps the size of some lists makes it unfeasible. Just throwing it out there. ^^

Actually, a print version isn't necessary. Here's something you could try out yourself:

1. Go to the member list right now.
   
2. Copy the entire list starting from the little wing image on the top left of the list until you reach the last post number of the last member.
   
3. Open Excel
   
4. Paste the entire thing.
   
5. Format stuff like column width, merges, etc. as necessary.
   
6. And you're done. Ta-da~!

My own spreadsheet shows member count, post count, join dates, tidbit facts members mentioned about themselves, etc. The best thing about Excel is that you can rearrange EVERYTHING in ascending/descending order.

Ooh, nifty. I'm an Excel n00b so I've never tried this before. whee

lol. You get pretty experienced with it if you've ever worked for an business consulting firm that uses ANCIENT software. gonk

Some other ideas for using the Excel spreadsheet that might have potential for being incorporated into an actual member list makeover:

• Because Excel has an infinite number of rows and columns, you could keep track of members participating in multiple guild events/contests taking place simultaneously.
  
• You could make a timeline of activity within the guild, by logging total post count on a regular basis. (Make a graph out of it too!)
  
• Break it down, and you could even figure out the activity of individual members through time.
  
• Make multiple groups that so that members could belong as many as needed (Ex. Andy is in the "music" and "literature" groups, Billy is in "music" only, Carmen is in "literature" and "origami").
  
• You can copy/paste usernames very quickly if you ever send newsletters or notices to members (Tab through them, if your list of names is organised horizontally. Arrow down if it's vertical. Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V.)

And no, I haven't done all of the above. That's just way too meticulous even for me.  

[WindowOpener]

NomNomNominal

• You could make a timeline of activity within the guild, by logging total post count on a regular basis. (Make a graph out of it too!)
  
• Break it down, and you could even figure out the activity of individual members through time.
  

eek That would be insane. If you can do it in the Marketplace with tens of thousands of items...  

[LillianSaire]

With guild mass PMs, groups, or different sets of members to PM for different things, especially if a member could be in multiple groups, would be SUPER DUPER AWESOME EPIC.

That is all.

EDIT: There is a guild spotlight on Gaia's home page, but barely noticeable and it should be Leon, not Moria.  

[shall she sail seas]

WindowOpener

NomNomNominal

• You could make a timeline of activity within the guild, by logging total post count on a regular basis. (Make a graph out of it too!)
  
• Break it down, and you could even figure out the activity of individual members through time.
  

eek That would be insane. If you can do it in the Marketplace with tens of thousands of items...

Very doable actually... even with my ancient and small-potato programming skills (OMG Pascal! Turing! gonk ). The issue is more about data volume but if they can do it in the marketplace, I don't see why they can't just tweak some stuff and present the same visual format applied to guild memberships.

...

And THAT would be something that your regular SMF doesn't have.  

[IC510]

1.. are you captain/vc/crew or member?

2. why do you use the member list?

To see which members have posted / donated.

3. what information are you looking for specifically?

The users with the most / least posts and donations.

4. how often do you use the list?

Once or twice a month.

5. what one change to the member list would make you happy and make you use it more?

The ability to order the list for post count, donations etc..  

[Vyudali]

1.. are you captain/vc/crew or member?
Captain
2. why do you use the member list?
Well, i dont really use it, unless i see a drop of number of members so i check to see who quit or got banned. Or to see who is inactive and hasnt contributed to the guild at all.
3. what information are you looking for specifically?
To see who hasnt contributed(posted/donated) to the guild at all....thats about it, other than that it isnt very useful...
4. how often do you use the list?
Not very much....like i said it isnt very useful for much...
5. what one change to the member list would make you happy and make you use it more?
Show more info on the member...EX.

Join Date
Last Post(when was the last post the user submitted)
Online/Offline status- the reason is because some members are online every day but never post anything, so that could be a good thing to have to help you see if they are active. Especially if they arent on your friends list...
If they were ever Banned
Reason for Joining(there was a trolling incident and i wanted to see if their reason for joining was obvious, or was a reason not to let him join(i wasnt the one who let him join), and because some members dont join for the right reasons)

Also:
A special Banning thing that could let you Ban the person and still be on the member list and show that the user was Banned....and that you can Un-Ban the person if you are willing to give them another chance.

A score card thing. If they broke rules and you could mark them for it. When they have enough marks, then you can ban them. You can keep track of bad apples that way.

Some kind of symbol that shows if they are in danger of being banned...because they havent posted anything or broke rules. Then a PM could be sent, showing it in ADMIN form to show more authority....all this would be really useful...  

[mamarita]

I am Captain/Vice/Crew/Member

2. I use the memberlist for promotions, finding if people are still on Gaia, all different reasons.

3. I look for post count

4. I use the list at least 1x a week

5. I would like to see the member list put in order of join date to the guild. (This doesn't include the Crew, of course).
- 2nd choice is regular member post count
- 3rd choice is last time member posted in the guild  

[Zef]

1.. are you captain/vc/crew or member?

Captain.

2. why do you use the member list?

To check their donations/post count/ Promote members/ Check for Activity.

3. what information are you looking for specifically?

Post Count, Promotions.

4. how often do you use the list?

Very Often. Probably 2-3 times a week.

5. what one change to the member list would make you happy and make you use it more?

-If they are Online/offline bar would be great.
2- List in order from when you joined? It would be great.