Dragon Directory

[angelicdragonpuppy]

Before anyone panics, this would be a completely optional account setting!

 

Lately I've been looking for metalfail bloodswaps, and it's been a rather discouraging hunt. Even offering metallics from the same pairings for their more common kindred hasn't shown me much success, even though I know there are people out there with the pairings I want... and people who I assume would be happy to do a bloodswap or even gift me a child for free, if the fact that they've been throwing the fails into the AP is any indication!

 

So I was thinking and thought that perhaps a dragon search function would be useful. It'd be extremely helpful for people trying to build massive lineages, even-gens especially, and as mentioned at the top it would be a completely optional feature with the default set to off.

 

I imagine the search terms would include:

- Generation

- Breeds Present

- Inbred Status

- Lineage Type (?)

- Related to Selected Dragon (?)

 

In this way I could, say, search to see if anyone out there has a 4th gen Harvest from a Gold x Harvest checker, and if I found such a dragon, I could request a bloodswap. From what I've seen from trading, requesting, and breeding throughout the forums, most people are more than happy to help other lineage builders out, and hopefully this would make it much easier for collaboration to happen. I imagine some pestering for rare breedings might happen, but again, that's why it's an optional function. I'd say perhaps one could even check which dragons they did or didn't want searchable, but that might be getting too complicated on an already complicated idea, haha.

[LibbyLishly]

YES. I would use this. I have no idea what kind of complicated coding would be involved in creating such an option, but it's one that I would appreciate. For the most part, my lineages aren't particularly enormous, but I'm hoping to get them there eventually.

 

Love the headline, too. Stave off the freak-outs.

[Syphoneira]

OMG, I wish we could have something like this ON OUR SCROLLS to help us find mates!

 

 

[HeatherMarie]

As long as it's opt-IN, I'll support it. Definitely won't turn mine on... Although, it's unclear in the OP, is it an all-or-nothing? Like, if I don't want my dragons searchable in this directory, does that mean I can't search the directory either? (I can see that being a good thing *or* a bad thing)

 

Also, how helpful would this really be when we have no in-cave messaging system? "Search directory.... OH, found a great possibility!...... Now what? I can't contact this person...." etc. It would only be useful for people who show their scrollname and their scrollname is the same as their forumname. Unless you are thinking of the directory *having* a way to get ahold of someone.... But I didn't see that.

[angelicdragonpuppy]

Perhaps it would just return dragons that have usernames shown. There'd still probably be some people who don't have the same scroll name and forum name, but hopefully they'd be in the minority. Plus, it seems like more and more people are requesting some sort of easier way to get in contact with other players, while I've also seen a fair amount of people name dragons on their scroll saying things like "forum name is ____"

 

Honestly though, even if only 20% of returned dragons were things where I could get in contact with the owner, that'd still be a big improvement over how things are right now!

 

I imagine the directory would be usable regardless of whether or not you had the option personally turned on (just as you can still see other's usernames on the scrolls if they've turned it on, even if you have the option turned off).

 

 

[Crocodile]

I would like this idea to search within your own scroll to find mates and such. But it isn't very realistic that you would find exactly what you're looking for. I'm not sure, but I think a fair amount of dragcave users don't have forum accounts. Even if they did, their scroll name and forum name may not match. Even then, they may not be active on the forums, etc.

Also, depending on what you're looking for, there are probably tons of dragons matching your search. Then you would have to weed through them, trying to find someone you can contact...I don't know. I'd still appreciate an in-scroll search system though.

 

[Syphoneira]

Actually, earlier somebody mentioned in a PM that there were about 200,000 members, but probably most are inactive or on hiatus at some point, as there certainly don't seem to be that many showing up in the forums, never mind the Cave.

 

So at least for older sprites, unless the search was restricted to active scrolls of forum members, there could be 10s of thousands of matches among all scrolls, mostly on inactive ones, and with many of those still active not even on the forums.

 

Once you think about it, this sounds rather complex, although, of course, it may not be so in reality, says the complete programming illiterate.

 

But this would obviously be a very difficult and time-consuming search for the person conducting it.

 

 

But if something like that could be done for mate searches on your own scroll, that would save FOREVER in time and hassle!

 

 

[whitebaron]

@Syphoneira: That count is probably very wrong. (there are userids a lot higher) But if it were opt-in only, it would not matter that there are more total users and probably less active ones... As everyone wanting to be found had to be active in the first place.

 

I still see a lot of trouble with this, because what would you do after finding user752136 with scrollname mrexample123 and them not having a forums account and no way to send in-cave?

 

I think this should best be done off-site, on a fansite, where you have to register and contact possibilities are a must. Problem with this: The API does not contain the breed info, which I absolutely do not understand why.

 

 

[danicast]

I still see a lot of trouble with this, because what would you do after finding user752136 with scrollname mrexample123 and them not having a forums account and no way to send in-cave?

 

I think this should best be done off-site, on a fansite, where you have to register and contact possibilities are a must. Problem with this: The API does not contain the breed info, which I absolutely do not understand why.

I'm against this idea. I agreed that the forum or a fansite is a place for this. Plus, this can easily lead to harassment. I think that if a person have a dragon that wants to swap, it will post in the trade posts at the forum. I'm strongly against any idea that can possibly make people try to enforce a trade.

[LibbyLishly]

I'm against this idea. I agreed that the forum or a fansite is a place for this. Plus, this can easily lead to harassment. I think that if a person have a dragon that wants to swap, it will post in the trade posts at the forum. I'm strongly against any idea that can possibly make people try to enforce a trade.

This definitely wouldn't force anyone to trade in the form proposed by ADP. From what I'm getting here, it's an opt-in system for people who want to either help other people with their lineages by making their dragons searchable, or people who have projects that would benefit from such a search, or both. Trading harassment is already against the rules.

 

I have plenty of dragons I'm willing to breed for other users, but I never know what someone will be interested in. Rather than posting a pretty egg in the forums hoping for a swap, and thus letting it take up valuable space on my scroll when it's doubtful I'll get so much as a mint offered, I generally just chuck it to the AP or don't breed at all.

 

The difficulty with fansites is that they tend to not have a significant amount of traffic - I'm already on a fansite where we have a few dedicated members who would breed anything for another member, but the field is very limited. The benefit of ADP's idea is that you'd be able to interact with a much wider spread of users with who you otherwise may never have had a chance to trade.

 

A thought on the users who go inactive: perhaps the setting would switch back to 'opted-out' after a certain period of inactivity, much like the names? That way a search wouldn't return quite so many unusable results. You could even potentially select exactly which dragons you want to make searchable.

 

I do agree that we may have a problem with linking scrolls to forum accounts, unless entering your forum name is a requirement to opt-in, and thus have the forum name displayed next to the dragon (perhaps rather than the scroll name). Just brainstorming here.

Edited August 25, 2013 by LibbyLishly

[Syphoneira]

This definitely wouldn't force anyone to trade in the form proposed by ADP. From what I'm getting here, it's an opt-in system for people who want to either help other people with their lineages by making their dragons searchable, or people who have projects that would benefit from such a search, or both. Trading harassment is already against the rules.

 

I have plenty of dragons I'm willing to breed for other users, but I never know what someone will be interested in. Rather than posting a pretty egg in the forums hoping for a swap, and thus letting it take up valuable space on my scroll when it's doubtful I'll get so much as a mint offered, I generally just chuck it to the AP or don't breed at all.

 

The difficulty with fansites is that they tend to not have a significant amount of traffic - I'm already on a fansite where we have a few dedicated members who would breed anything for another member, but the field is very limited. The benefit of ADP's idea is that you'd be able to interact with a much wider spread of users with who you otherwise may never have had a chance to trade.

 

A thought on the users who go inactive: perhaps the setting would switch back to 'opted-out' after a certain period of inactivity, much like the names? That way a search wouldn't return quite so many unusable results. You could even potentially select exactly which dragons you want to make searchable.

 

I do agree that we may have a problem with linking scrolls to forum accounts, unless entering your forum name is a requirement to opt-in, and thus have the forum name displayed next to the dragon (perhaps rather than the scroll name). Just brainstorming here.

 

 

 

 

Now THAT makes sense!

 

I'll bet that would work!

 

 

 

whitebaron:

 

 

'@Syphoneira: That count is probably very wrong. (there are userids a lot higher) But if it were opt-in only, it would not matter that there are more total users and probably less active ones... As everyone wanting to be found had to be active in the first place. ...'

 

 

 

Good points.

 

And I seem to recall there being around/over (at least, just remember being surprised at the numbers, which I *think* I recall as being much higher, but I have SUCH a cruddy memory!) a quarter million users listed way back when, around the time when I seem to recall TJ starting to clean off any empty scrolls after ?several months? of disuse and there can't have been that many scrolls burnt, (I hope, lol) to have taken it down that much, especially since we used to get quite a number of new people coming in.