Subgroups - Groups within a Group

[olympe]

Since tagging doesn't seem to become a thing anytime soon, it would be neat if we could create groups within a group. For example, I have this group for a holiday checker project. And, even though it was quite easy to label the generations, using some oddly-named pygmies, I'd really like to be able to create subgroups - not just for generation, but also for other arbitrary things like "has offspring on my scroll" and "breed for trading only", to name but two.

 

Subgroups would work within a group just like groups work on your scroll - if you open the group, you can decide to only show the group members that belong to a certain subgroup. However, subgroups would not show on your main scroll. 

Edited December 15, 2018 by olympe

[Astreya]

That sounds like a great idea. I totally second that!

[HeatherMarie]

Sure, why not? I've actually just created three new groups for messies, because going through my big main messies group to find the pygmies/two-heads/drakes is a huge pain. Creating a 'subgroup' seems much better then crowding the groups list with tons of unnecessary stuff.

[olympe]

Part of the reason for my suggestion was exactly that crowding you mentioned. It's like a desktop cluttered with countless documents. Personally, I put my documents in folders and subfolders grouped by purpose (work, hobby, random stuff, DC...)

[Confused Cat]

I would not like having to create the same subgroups (e.g. generation number, has mate, Z code, word code, ...) in every single group that it applies to. I already have all those groups, I just need a way to combine them to only show dragons that are in two (or more) groups.

 

Of course if this feature existed I would not have to use it, but since we never get all the features we want - and especially not several similar ones - I'm afraid this would prevent us from getting a feature to filter for dragons that belong to more than one group as I suggested here.

 

(Is that what you mean by "tagging", @olympe? I'm not sure what's the difference between groups and tags, except that when a website calls its categories "tags" instead of "groups", you can usually filter by more than one tag at once.)

 

I realize I'm probably not the average user (12000+ dragons, 100+ groups), but if we only get one way of searching for all dragons that are (example) "checker" + "holiday" + "has mate", then please don't let it be this one that requires me to create dozens or hundreds of subgroups and put (literally) thousands of dragons in all the applicable (sub)groups AGAIN.

 

If we get this or nothing, then of course I support it.

[olympe]

@Confused Cat: Yes, that's pretty much my understanding of things. Tags, as far as I understand this, come with filter systems so you can filter for several different tags at once. Groups, however, don't, but let you sort the dragons within. And, to be quite open, I've been campaigning for tags over tabs (which is almost the same as groups) since the suggestions came up. But if we can't have the best way, I'd rather have something as close as possible to it.

[UnicornMaiden]

I would really like to have subgroups. I'm working on a couple spiral lineages, and I've gotten offspring that are the wrong breed or whose gender didn't influence correctly. I want to keep those in a group as part of the "family" but also have them separate from the dragons in the spiral.

[Zephyr_Drake]

I would adore either subgroups, tags, or ideally both. I have groups for the normal things, such as specific lineage projects, holidays and CB's, I also have groups that could function better as tags such as "Born on scroll" and "Born off scroll" to indicate if I bred it or not, and tagging dragons bred by a few people I get lots of eggs from would also be handy. Generation and family subgroups would also be very nice to have. Support!

[Ruby Eyes]

On 12/16/2018 at 11:50 AM, olympe said:

Tags, as far as I understand this, come with filter systems so you can filter for several different tags at once.

And milk comes from the supermarket, eh?

Tags don't come with ANYTHING, just like groups don't come with anything. It all has to be added/programmed.

A tag is nothing but a label that you attach to something, it doesn't have ANY function of its own. A tag tells you something's price, or it gets attached to your big toe if you don't pay attention in the traffic. That still doesn't get anything filtered.

 

TJ could add that filtering system to DC's groups just like you expect it from other sites' "tagging" system. We just have to hash out what we want it to look like and hope he has some time and muse to actually do it.

 

So ... I would like to use subgroups within groups, mostly for the same reasons you mentioned ("has offspring on my scroll", "breed for swaps", "same project but the other gender combo").

Plus, it would reduce the number of code groups for me (codes I collect for various reasons: specific formats, words, names, z-codes, offspring from codes ...) as well as the number of groups I keep entirely for Encyclopedia reasons, for other people's unlocking pleasure (currently 8, but they keep multiplying, too).

 

I also would like the ability to filter through groups - including subgroups. Also including negatives, e.g.

"I want members of group [Holidays] and group [Codes] and within there subgroup [Names] but excluding members of group [offspring on my scroll]"

 

To accomplish this, I imagine an "Advanced Search" button at the top of the /dragons/ page. Clicking it expands it to a list of your own groups with a [+] and a [-] next to each - maingroups only at first.

[+] means "include members of this group"

[-] means "exclude members of this group"

When you select a group with either [+] or [-], the chosen option gets replaced by an [x] (so you can remove a filter if you changed your mind).

Naturally, if you pick the opposite option (like [+] if you previously selected [-]), the other option ([-]) gets deselected automagically.

If your group has subgroups and you used [+] to select it, it expands and displays these subgroups with a [+] and a [-] next to each, for you to select if you like.

Removing a main group would also remove any subgroup filters of that group.

Selecting with [+] and [-] and deselecting groups would adjust the dragon listing as applicable.

Closing the "Advanced Search" box would remove/clear all filters.

 

And now the nonplusultra:

Using the "available for Breeding" filter applied on the Advanced Search results would keep the selected filters even for the breeding screen! (With the same box at the top, prefilled with all your selections.)

 

Ah, I should stop dreaming ...

[JavaTigress]

I don't see why not!

 

More tools to use are always a good thing! THOUGH I might have to figure out WHAT to use them for, myself. At said, as I don't have any problem iwth adding to the groups system as it exists.

[GhostMouse]

I would prefer tags and still hope that we will get them someday, but I support this because it would make organizing my dragons easier than it is now.

[olympe]

11 hours ago, Ruby Eyes said:

And milk comes from the supermarket, eh?

Tags don't come with ANYTHING, just like groups don't come with anything. It all has to be added/programmed.

Who cares where milk comes from?

 

And let me rephrase my former statement: Tagging systems usually come with filtering features, or they'd be practically worthless. Which is why, yes, these features get programmed into a working tagging system. Seriously, do we need to discuss semantics now?

[HeatherMarie]

Bump?

 

I was about to post this in Unreasonable Demands, but then remembered there was a Suggestions thread somewhere. This is what I was about to post:

I don't think this is really that unreasonable, but I really really want the ability to make sub-groups within our groups. It would just make everything so much easier, especially for larger groups. For instance, I currently have 6 different name-related groups, including one for codes and one for silly names and one for personal special names.... It would be awesome to just make one big super-group 'Names' and then have 'Names' consist of all the more specific groups, so I could still see/open/filter one specific group at a time but also I could see the supergroup with *all* my name-related groups/dragons. 

 

While I know there is a lot of talk about tags/tabs/groups, personally I see them as pretty different in practice. Tags would not necessarily accomplish what I'm looking for, at least not in the way I'm picturing. And I don't think it's an either/or, but we *do* actually have Groups so an expansion/addition to the Groups feature is probably more realistic at this point than a whole separate tagging system. 

[UnicornMaiden]

Still support. I make groups for different breeding projects, and it would be so much easier to keep things organized if I could make subgroups for the different generations.

[Chaosdawn]

Support! I would use groups more if I could have subgroups.

[Jazeki]

Support! Some of my groups (especially my SAltkin, Thuwed, and secret groups for trading) are getting to be quite large. I'd love to see this or tags put in place.