I was wondering if the Who’s online link could show where a person is as well as their online time or idle time like it does if you’re on a client.
Also, a ‘mail’ button on a person’s profile to send that person a mail?
And I thought Luck showed on sheet, but not on the profile on the portal for yourself, or am I loco?
I was about to just add the mail button and luck to GH’s profiles, but figured it might be something others have wanted.
This also reminded me that the ability to spend luck in a scene from the portal would be handy.
I was wondering if the Who’s online link could show where a person is as well as their online time or idle time like it does if you’re on a client.
Online/idle time has different meaning on the web, because people don’t really hang out on and issue commands to web pages the same way they do in a MU client. And I don’t think it would look right to have online times for the in-game people but not the web people. So I’m inclined to leave it as-is but I’m certainly open to further discussion.
Also, a ‘mail’ button on a person’s profile to send that person a mail?
Can you help me understand the use case here? When would you be on someone’s profile in order to send them mail, versus going to the mail screen?
And I thought Luck showed on sheet, but not on the profile on the portal for yourself, or am I loco?
Luck points show up on your profile at the bottom of your FS3 sheet.
This also reminded me that the ability to spend luck in a scene from the portal would be handy.
10/4 and agreed on the idle time on the portal. I’ll remind the requester, too, that the color-coding on the Who’s Online list also somewhat speaks to this (in the sense that people that are on but idle show up in the gray).
Side-question: How hard would it be to add into the MUSH who the people only active on the portal? It might be nice to see those two aligned.
When would you be on someone’s profile in order to send them mail, versus going to the mail screen?
I think it’s more a convenience thing. Like, if I click on your profile here, on the forum, there’s a “message” button. Most social platforms have a “send message” button from someone’s profile.
Luck points show up on your profile at the bottom of your FS3 sheet.
On the portal? I think that’s what he meant - that they’re not visible on the portal.
Re: spending luck on the portal - add to the list of things I check on before I suggest.
Technically not hard. But the feedback I’ve gotten so far is that the folks on the MU client are mostly interested in other folks on the MU client. The fact that I have a web portal browser tab open doesn’t really mean much to them, since I’m not really there. So that’s why it’s not there.
That’s true, but profile here has a very different meaning from the character profile - which is more like an enhanced character sheet. “Send a mail from your character sheet” doesn’t really ring for me on a UX level. “Send Mail” doesn’t quite fit with the other profile action buttons (Edit, View Profile History, etc.) And going to Profile → Scroll Way Down → Click Send Mail versus just clicking Mail → Send Mail seems more awkward to me.
But I’m curious to hear what other folks think as well.
Oh sorry - it’s on my test game because it’s in the next patch. I forgot that hasn’t been released yet
10/4 on the why who. Could it be doable with something like a status that shows them “POR” or something? Grayed out, maybe?
As the portal is getting more traction as the only way some people play, it’d be nice to be able to see them online from the game. Just in a reciprocity way.
As for the mail from profile thing…
I linked the requester to the thread. I can kinda see where it makes sense as mentioned above (standard in most social platforms), but it’s not a thing I feel strongly enough about to defend the ask.
Ok; so I’m the OR (original requester). Maybe I can clear some things up. The who idea is basically because if you’re on the portal you can see who’s green, yellow or gray, but those colors don’t really mean much other then a vague generalization. And I feel for the color-blind people. Mean while, client-side I can ‘where’ to see where those bodies are, or ‘who’ to get an idea of the last time they entered something into the game. Maybe that’s clear as mud; sorry. I understand on the portal it would be something different (login/last server request?) and since they don’t have a ‘body’ on the game you also probably couldn’t show that (unless you extrapolated from a scene they were in?)
The mail button idea just came from looking up someone’s profile, noticing something (maybe how long they’d been away? I forget) and wanting to send them correspondence. It made having to open a new window, going to mail, forgetting my own name, you know. Instant gratification. Just an idea.
(Re: Luck) Yeah, on the portal is where I meant. I was skimming my profile (when logged in as me, not that I think that matters anymore) and I couldn’t find my luck anywhere. And maybe instead of numbers, numbers AND that nifty slider bar so people can see how close they are to reaching the cap so they can maximize their potential if that’s what they’re into.
I absolutely love the portal extension to Ares. The only thing that weirds me out is when I’m slinging mud at someone, who I’m SURE isn’t there, only to find out that they’ve been there the whole time and I have to bake an apology pie. Need to put a BELL or something on those ghostly Portal Peoples.
Thanks for chiming in HitKitten. I’ll think about the mail thing further.
I think you hit it on the head there, though - someone who’s not logged into the game doesn’t have a room location. They can’t roam around the grid, so they don’t really need to know where people are, just what scenes are going on (which is the active scenes page).
Incidentally, the colored who icons have been tested for color-blind usability. You can still differentiate between the three colors with all the major forms of color-blindness. But it’s great of you to think about them! Many folks do not consider it.
I’m not sure where you’re referring to specifically. I assume it’s in channels? But even there… even if someone’s not online now, they’ll still see the convo when they get back. It’s more like a Discord or Slack chat where the chat always persists.
I am actually 100% in alignment on this. I have a few players who play entirely from the portal during the day and I feel weird not knowing if they’re there-or-not (since I’m on from the client while at work). It feels like added hassle if I need to then open a browser window, check the ‘Who’s Online’ to see if the person I’m replying to is still present or not… when maybe I could just check ‘WHO’ and see that they are (with, as KB suggested, a ‘POR’ tag as opposed to the OOC/IC/AFK that we already use).
So here’s my perspective – and this isn’t meant as shutting down the idea, just rambling about how I see it.
How does knowing that I have a web browser tab open in my phone because I’m reading logs and checking mail change your behavior? Personally, I don’t think it should.
MUSHers are used to “you’ll respond quickly if you’re online” being the default expectation because that’s always been the norm. But that’s not the norm on web - or even in chat apps like discord and slack, which is more the model I’m going for with the portal. If you’re using the portal, you’re most likely doing so from that mindset, where the expectation is “I’ll respond when I have a chance.”
So my concern is that by showing “web people” on the WHO list in the MU client view sets up this expectation that they are online and available in the same way that people logged into a MU client are. And that’s just not the case more often than not. Web people could be playing a scene, sure, but they could also be reading logs, doing jobs, checking mail, or just have a browser tab from three days ago they forgot to close It’s a different kind of experience.
I totally get that people on the portal aren’t “live.” I think most people get that. I don’t expect people on other social sites to respond to my PMs immediately, where they’re online or not.
As it is, though, I think more and more people just go to the portal and click to see who’s online rather than trust the who on the MUSH, since it’s not actually representative of who’s online.
Relatedly, I kind of wish people who were in a scene via portal showed up in the room list. Clearly marked as portal, somehow, but… if I’m doing a scene from the portal I can easily see who’s in the scene whether they’re using a client or the portal. If I’m in my client, I’d have to look at the whole huge scene list to see who’s in it, rather than use the less-spammy glance or look at the room. (I guess something like a scene/who would also do it though…)
It is, overall, kind of annoying to feel half-blind from the client side as far as who might or might not be around. And we know plenty of people who are on clientwise idle for considerable periods, so I think we could probably handle the idea that people on the portal might also not be actively there right now.
Glance does actually work on all participants in the scene. I can list other participants in the room description as well. It actually did once upon a time but I guess it broke.
But that’s exactly my point about use cases. Even if I close the tab, that doesn’t mean I’m “gone” from potentially RPing. I could check back in again in 5 minutes. Or 30. My phone might have timed out because phone browsers suck. It doesn’t have the same implication that being connected via a MU client does.
With web apps, async communication is the norm. That’s why channels have backscroll, why pages can now be delivered offline and cause notifications, etc.
IDK about everyone else, but I personally don’t expect that anyone on the client is actively present these days, either. Even if I was just chatting to them. Almost everyone I M* with M*s from work, or with kids present, or with other responsibilities, and I am super used to them just popping out mid-channel-conversation.
I generally agree with the folks who see little difference between portal availability and client availability. I see pretty much no distinction in my expectations of channel chat or paging ability or RP pose time according to how they’re connecting.
It’s a different kind of experience.