There are 18 scenes listed. The first two are open scenes, but I’m not in them. The next two are private scenes than I’m in. Finally there are 14 scenes I can’t be a part of.
Some questions:
Why are the scenes I’m actually in not the top scenes?
Why are there any scenes listed in the default use of the command that I can’t actually be a part of?
Suggestions:
scenes should just list scenes I’m either already a part of or could be a part of (Open scenes).
The default listing for scenes (without a /modifier) should not list things I can’t be a part of.
scenes/active should be how I say “show me all living scenes, whether I’m part or not”.
The first scenes that are listed should be the ones I’m actually in with the signed-in character.
The next scenes listed should be ones I’m in with other alts.
The final scenes listed should be the open scenes.
The web site is similarly confusing with the choices of what scenes to display by default, though at least there the order is more sensible: it opens with the scenes my signed-in character is actually involved in, then moves to open scenes. (My other characters are freely intermixed with scenes I’m not able to be a part of, however, so it’s not perfect.) It’s “good enough” but could be better by moving my other characters up in the list, separating them out from the scenes I can’t be a part of at all.
What does need work, however, is information presentation. Here’s a snapshot from that list:
In this image, I’ve taken a piece of the screen like someone might get the impression of by quickly scanning over it. Note that the screen display is so wide that the actual information about the scene outside of participants is not in scope. The horizontal spacing is epic!
This is screaming to be narrowed so that the dates, times, scene types, etc. are within casual scanning range of the title and membership. But that’s not the only problem. Also a problem is that the pairing of members with the title block is hard to decipher without scrolling to the top of the scene list. There is no border or boundary that shows that the membership list is paired with the title bar above it. It needs more visual cues, either by having a shared visible boundary between the pairs, or by wider separation between entries.
For the client command, there are different variants. The default display shows all activity on the game, similar to what one might look at in a +where list.
You may prefer scenes/mine to show just the scenes you’re participating in, or scenes/open to show only scenes that are open to all or which you’ve been invited to.
I know about the /whatever things. I just think that it’s a really strange decision to give me 14 scenes I can’t join and 4 I can as the default view. I can’t even conceive of a situation where getting my screen spammed with scenes I can’t join (and burying the lede of scenes I have joined or can join if the list is long enough) is a useful view.
The default view should be the scenes that I, as a player, have access to. The current display should be something like scenes/active should someone want that display (though, as I said, I can’t even begin to conceive of a use for that). And there should be upward pressure on scenes involving my alts: they should be at the top of the list, under the scenes for the signed-in character.
I’m open to reasons why the current display makes sense for most people, but … I’m pretty sure there aren’t any such reasons.
Well, as I explained, the default ‘scenes’ list is “what’s going on in the game”. Therefore, it lists all scenes that are ongoing, regardless of whether or not they’re open to you. The list is segmented into open/my and private to highlight the ones that are available to you, but the intention is very much to show everything. Again, this is comparable to the old +where displays which would show where everyone on the game was, even if they were in private rooms.
Now it’s perfectly fine to have a preference for which of the many scene views should be the default, but you’re being kind of oddly aggressive with the assertion that there can be no possible reasons why folks prefer the other ones.
If it bothers you to type out the scenes/open view, you can always create a personal shortcut for it.
I do agree that the scenes you’re in should float to the top of the my/open list, though, as they do on web. You also brought up a valid point about the horizontal spacing on the scenes list. My laptop display is pretty narrow so I hadn’t noticed that. Thanks for the suggestions.
In the default CSS the icons butt up pretty close to the title bar so I think it’s pretty clear what goes with what, but certainly that’s something that each game can tweak with custom CSS.
