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[Denied]Make a list of online staff available in game (alternately, allied teams)


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Basically what the title says. I think there should be a way to view online staff members.  This way when someone is in global spamming "ARE THERE ANY DEVS ON PLS HALP I CANT FIND SHINIES" instead of

 

  1. telling them to try contacting staff via forums, IRC, or TS cuz its easier (which is dumb imo, community managers are meant to manage the community and should be easiest to contact in game)
  2. ignoring them
  3. waiting for a staff member to notice and help them (which can happen quickly, or take a very, very long time

You would have option 4. Telling them to click menu > online staff (or whatever).  This would bring up a list of staff members (could be configured to include only CMs who aren't global, bug, or support mods as their job is *not* to be in game community support) similar to that of your friend list or team roster (red heads = online).  These would be clickable and allow for players to whisper staff directly.  If possible a staff member should be able to 'set afk' or be automatically put as 'offline' if no activity for x minutes.  The /dnd command could possibly also be configured to make a staff member 'appear offline' but I have no clue about how easy that would be to implement. This will prevent (hopefully) people from thinking that they are being ignored by staff members.

 

Here is a sample image

 

3mOYJ.png

 

It is arranged in a similar style to the team menu, with online members, in order of rank, being displayed first and followed by offline members.  This image does not have high level staff members (ie Desu) excluded/hidden from the list.

 

[spoiler]Yes I know it isn't a very good job in MS Paint, and I forgot that there should be a whole slew of SGMS and GMs above Darkshade but below Archinix, and that alphabetically Emlee is before Kyu, but I hope that the image gets the idea across.[/spoiler]

 

Pros:

  • Improves ease and quality of in-game communication between staff and players
  • Reduces spam (somewhat) in chat

Cons:

  • Could result in spamming of online staff members
  • Some staff members (ie those who aren't responsible for community management) would not want/need people to know they are online (This could presumably be dealt with by hiding the status of all staff members of rank ___ and above)

 

A second way such a thing would be implemented seems harder, and involves a few other things to implement as well, but would consist of 'allied teams'. Basically a team leader could 'request ally' another team, which said team's leader (or officers, or members depending on permissions). If a team is allied its roster and online members would be visible to the other team (from the 'team' GUI). By default the 'GM' team would be allied with every team.  In this situation CM's would be required to be on the GM team.

 

Pros:

  • Improves ease and quality of in-game communication between staff and players
  • Reduces spam (somewhat) in chat
  • Adds another interesting (and imo important) feature to the current 'team' setup

Cons:

  • Harder to implement
  • Would presumably be a cap on how many teams you can 'ally' with, making it harder to program so that team GM did not have an ally cap, and presumably would not have the option to view the rosters of other teams (unless they wanted to, but that would be a lot of other tabs to click through)
  • Would require CM's to join the GM team, something they might not want
  • Would require members to be in a team in order to view online staff (unless a workaround was implemented)

 

TL;DR - I think it would be interesting and helpful to have a way to see what staff members are online and able to help players.  This is my idea on how such a thing could be accomplished

 

PS - I searched, and the terms 'staff' 'availability' 'free' and 'online' (as well as combinations of those) didn't turn up anything similar to this, I'm sorry if I missed something >.>

 

 

EDIT: Literally right after I login

 

3mPj3.png

Edited by Dannnno
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support great idea

 

i myself have had to ask global many times if theres any CM on,usually there is and they'll message you but sometimes theres just no one

 

edit: and the second idea im 50/50 on but the original idea would be very convenient especially for people who need a trade mediator

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It's a good idea in theory, but what about the spam EVERY staff member is now guaranteed to get? People will overuse and abuse this feature. As soon as you make an account, you can whisper someone. People will just make accounts and whisper bomb every online staff member.

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It's a good idea in theory, but what about the spam EVERY staff member is now guaranteed to get? People will overuse and abuse this feature. As soon as you make an account, you can whisper someone. People will just make accounts and whisper bomb every online staff member.

 

while thats possible, if people really wanted to do that they'd do it every time a staff member is online and says something. And a staff member can always turn on /dnd if they wish. Theoretically they'll have global on so you could ask on global and at least know that they are out there somewhere.

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It's a good idea in theory, but what about the spam EVERY staff member is now guaranteed to get? People will overuse and abuse this feature. As soon as you make an account, you can whisper someone. People will just make accounts and whisper bomb every online staff member.

 

what about a cool down on how often you can message them? or you can only message them once until they respond then you can respond again and so on

 

or they could choose something like an "appear offline" option for when they just dont feel like helping(being bothered) or are afk

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I like this idea, I usually have Global open but I still miss when someone is looking for a CM.

 

Firstly, I wouldn't like having to leave my team because of this.

 

Secondly, I think adding an option for us to "hide" from the online list could work. As well as adding a 30 second time limit so we are able to avoid getting spammed.

 

This is only my thoughts/opinion, though.

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You could also make a mail system, in which they could go through many at a time, and sort through spam with ease.  Also like if they're spammed they can still reach people who need help and are missed because the messaging system we have in place, somebody could just spam messages and a players message would be missed.

 

 

All in game, to have a quick solution. May be hard to implement.

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You could also make a mail system, in which they could go through many at a time, and sort through spam with ease.  Also like if they're spammed they can still reach people who need help and are missed because the messaging system we have in place, somebody could just spam messages and a players message would be missed.

 

 

All in game, to have a quick solution. May be hard to implement.

 

a mail system at least is planned

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I just use teamspeak to see who may be in-game.

I guess this would be more convenient though.

I support it.

 

A lot of people don't use teamspeak, anyway, and it doesn't guarantee that they are in-game.

 

My way is flawed ._.

merp.

 

yeah this works, and is often how I check, but I don't think that you should have to go out of game to find this information, and you definitely shouldn't have to download an entirely separate program (my same reasoning for temp/user created channels, or for temp 'parties')

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It was brought to my attention that Bug/Support mods are not required/intended to be 'in-game' helpers like most CMs, and could also be excluded. This extends to global mods as well. Updating OP with that

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The idea is good. Keep this in mind though:

Firstly, I wouldn't like having to leave my team because of this.

Secondly, I think adding an option for us to "hide" from the online list could work. As well as adding a 30 second time limit so we are able to avoid getting spammed.

I swear I saw this (or something similar) suggested before and it got a reply saying it wouldn't happen so CM/GM etc have privacy and what not.
But with Archinix's points, I don't see it being a problem.

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The idea is good. Keep this in mind though:

I swear I saw this (or something similar) suggested before and it got a reply saying it wouldn't happen so CM/GM etc have privacy and what not.
But with Archinix's points, I don't see it being a problem.

 

yeah I thought I had seen something like that before as well but I couldn't find it.  And imo the 'privacy' point is kinda bullshit, CMs are CMs cuz they are supposed to help the community. If they aren't prepared to help the community then no need for them to be CMs, but thats just my point of view.

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