Status Messages? But don't kill me for this :P

If you support this idea, please add this to your signature:

[url=http://forum.tip.it/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=792473&start=0][img=http://i41.tinypic.com/9sbign.jpg][/url]

As those of you with Facebook/MySpace/etc. know, you can have a status message that tells everyone who looks at your profile what you are doing/thinking at that moment (or at least the last time you updated your status :P ). I'm thinking this would be a pretty good idea for TIF too.

Take a look to your left (or right, depending on where you set it). There's obviously a profile screen. If you're looking at mine, you'll see Zaaps1, my rank, and a strange crossbow-wielding squirrel. Now I'm thinking somewhere in that area is where the status would go. Maybe it should be like facebook, where the status is a continuation of your name? So for me it would say:

Zaaps1

is making a TIF suggestion atm.

Dragon Slayer

[image of squirrel of death]

Or maybe the name is separate and the status would go later, ex:

Zaaps1

Dragon Slayer

Zaaps1 is making a TIF suggestion atm.

Or maybe even in the info section below. But the whole point is to tell people what you are doing at that present moment. So it has to be somewhere near the top and it has to be NOTICEABLE. I mean, how many of you look at what people have written for their "Location" on every single post you've read? Not many. It just needs to be noticeable, which is really the only requirement

TIF already customized the profile panel. Just look at the RSN part of it. I don't think this'll make much more work than that, but then again what do I know?

Users should be able to change it easily by going to their User Control Panel.

I'm not sure it is needed, as there is little point for such a function. :? Same goes for Facebook in my view. :P

Why?

I can tell you why not:

1. 
    
   [*:1sdw1ofe]It isn't a problem, therefore ain't broke don't fix.
    
   [*:1sdw1ofe]It wouldn't add much as a feature...
    
   [*:1sdw1ofe]Which isn't to say that it would be a small feature to code if we used anything more advanced than a custom profile field.
    
   [*:1sdw1ofe]Such a mod would not likely be easily upgradeable/reversible.
    
   [*:1sdw1ofe]There are other immediate solutions like just using your signature.

Why?

 

 

 

I can tell you why not:

 

1. 
    
   [*:2zw128o0]It isn't a problem, therefore ain't broke don't fix.
    
   [*:2zw128o0]It wouldn't add much as a feature...
    
   [*:2zw128o0]Which isn't to say that it would be a small feature to code if we used anything more advanced than a custom profile field.
    
   [*:2zw128o0]Such a mod would not likely be easily upgradeable/reversible.
    
   [*:2zw128o0]There are other immediate solutions like just using your signature.

True, there isn't a problem that needs fixing. But why then is there a Blogscape forum? It's essentially the same thing. You post a topic to tell all viewers what you're up to. A status is just the same thing, except boiled down to 50 or so characters. Also, this forum is not called "Forum Problem Solutions", which would imply that all suggestions must fix a problem, but "Forum Updates and Suggestions". You cannot deny that Facebook and similar social networking sites are immensely popular and draw many people to it. Who's to say that adding the most popular features of these sites will won't help Tip.It grow as well? So even if you don't like Facebook and don't think it's necessary, you can't say that it doesn't have a huge audience, and you can't say that selective borrowing (and I stress, SELECTIVE) will not add to Tip.It as a community.

Question then remains if we WANT this growth. Do we only want people who are genuinely interested in this site, or people who just like it for the tools and add no real benefit to the community? That's a question we must face, but imo it has no place in the basic suggestion that this is atm.

On pen and paper, a status message really does not seem like much. Oh yeah I can have 1 sentence to share with everyone!!!!! Yeah, doesn't sound very exciting does it? I felt the same way when I started Facebook. But once you get to use it often and see what everyone else's statuses are, it's an extremely fun, useful, and great networking tool. It's one of those things that are a lot more fun when you actually DO them than when you simply PLAN them. Think of sports. "Sweet, I get to run around and try to kick a rubber ball into some net, I can see myself spending the rest of my life on this." But once you start playing the game, it really picks up. I believe it's the same concept.

Again, I know nothing about coding of these forums. But I will tell you my basic reasoning and then someone who is more experienced can correct/support this. There is a RSN info spot, is there not? What's the difference between the RSN spot and all the other ones. It's hyperlinked to the highscores. That leads me to believe that you can add basic BBCode to info in the profile panel, such as links, underlining, color, and so forth. Of course, some of these are obviously not going to be a good idea (images, videos, and lists, for example) but others are plausible (color and font size, although not extreme font size and a consistent color). Therefore, you should be able to add color and a bit-bigger-than-normal font to a normal profile panel slot. Once more, I assert that I have no technical experience to support this. This is all my speculation.

Not easily upgradeable/reverseable? Why would you need to upgrade it though? I mean, when's the last time the profile was upgraded? Generally, it does not need upgrades. It is very reverseable. Other than complaints, which follow anything (and therefore cannot be used against this), I can't think of any bad effects that would happen if you decided to delete this.

The text in the signature is an option. However remember the main goals of this. You want something SHORT, NOTICEABLE, and HAS NO INTERFERENCE. The sig text goes on for 250 (or something like that) characters, and many people use it for purposes other than a status-like message. Take mine for example, which is just about full of text. The sig is also not very noticeable. I can tell you that rarely do people click on the links in my sig. Obviously, the text you put in your sig is not noticeable. It is overshadowed by your picture sig, or the expectance of one.

Why not script a piece of code that retrieves your facebook/twitter information?

Why not script a piece of code that retrieves your facebook/twitter information?

That might get difficult, since you have to look at the code of a basic facebook profile and extract the code for the status. Also, I imagine many people would like to keep gaming and rl separate. No point in telling TIF who your prom date is, right?

This would be a useful (to a lot of people) addition and people would use it, even if there's not public outcry for it.

Just add another custom field, perhaps label it 'Status:' and have it display above or below your avatar/rank. Have the text limit be 100 or so characters. Then maybe add a link next to the off/online pic to 'Edit Status' or put it in the menubar next to the new messages or the UCP link.

Lots of people would rather put random stuff there and actually have a designated place for it than put other things in their location and clan fields... I know a fair amount of people have their gender in their location thing, and if you wanted you could put that in the status instead and have location free to write something else in.

Honestly, I had been thinking about this just yesterday, and how it would be cool if Tif had such a thing.

I had a lot more written but then IE died and I don't remember what I wrote.

Why not script a piece of code that retrieves your facebook/twitter information?

 

That might get difficult, since you have to look at the code of a basic facebook profile and extract the code for the status. Also, I imagine many people would like to keep gaming and rl separate. No point in telling TIF who your prom date is, right?

Since I don't have time to read your long reply ATM I'll just respond to this for now:

Nobody outside of the facebook development team (Or whatever it's called, I don't know) has access to the actual code of facebook/Twitter. To implement such code you actually do just retrieve the information- Download the user's facebook profile page and then extract the status from it.

Why not script a piece of code that retrieves your facebook/twitter information?

 

That might get difficult, since you have to look at the code of a basic facebook profile and extract the code for the status. Also, I imagine many people would like to keep gaming and rl separate. No point in telling TIF who your prom date is, right?

 

Since I don't have time to read your long reply ATM I'll just respond to this for now:

 

Nobody outside of the facebook development team (Or whatever it's called, I don't know) has access to the actual code of facebook/Twitter. To implement such code you actually do just retrieve the information- Download the user's facebook profile page and then extract the status from it.

Wow, I just noticed how long that reply was. Sorry, that tends to happen to me when I'm responding to my suggestions #-o

I figured it was something like that.

well imo, this is screaming "abuse me"

And on top of that...i dont really care about what someone else is doing on facebook/rs. If i did, i'd ask them.

well imo, this is screaming "abuse me"

 

 

 

 

 

And on top of that...i dont really care about what someone else is doing on facebook/rs. If i did, i'd ask them.

I could use all of your arguments against blogs as well.

Blogs hold capability to be abused. They don't have to contain information about you. Then can be used to manipulate audiences, among many other things. Again, I'll say that a status message is simply a blog boiled down to 50 characters.

Also, if I don't care about what people do, why would I bother visiting their blog? Isn't the point of a blog to share what is going on with you? Wouldn't a status just be a miniature blog? If you really cared about what someone was doing, why wouldn't you just ask them instead of visiting their blog?

Furthermore, if you have a lot of friends who like to stay updated with each other, it's much easier to have all your friends view one message than have to send the same message 20 times, am I right?

Also, I'll be honest that sharing RS experiences isn't the only use of the status. It's not the only use of the Facebook status either. For example, many of my friends have Hamas missile counters, which update each time Hamas fires a rocket into Israel. But REGARDLESS of what is on the status, it's ALWAYS something that the person has on his or her mind, or something that he or she cares about.

Speaking from my perspective, it's another thing that could be abused by people (swearing in etc), plus I don't think many people are going to bother looking at a status message. The only thing that would really matter on a forum is whether the person is online or offline, other information can be found in the Online list, which shows if they are posting, or which forum they are browsing.

Tip.it is not Facebook/Myspace, and what you are doing can be kept to your blogs so that if someone is interested, they can view it. Otherwise it's needless. :?

Speaking from my perspective, it's another thing that could be abused by people (swearing in etc), plus I don't think many people are going to bother looking at a status message. The only thing that would really matter on a forum is whether the person is online or offline, other information can be found in the Online list, which shows if they are posting, or which forum they are browsing.

 

 

 

Tip.it is not Facebook/Myspace, and what you are doing can be kept to your blogs so that if someone is interested, they can view it. Otherwise it's needless. :?

People will not increase swearing just because there are status messages. They can do that already in their location, etc. spaces. If someone decides to but something like that in their status message, you can bet they probably would've put the same in their profile sidebar or in a few posts they make. I think that the abuse rate will honestly be pretty low. If the TIF and Facebook community are about the same, then rarely will you see anything more than "FML, WTF, OMFG" and the like. But of course these two are not the same, but that fact simply works in TIF's favor.

But if you really want to make sure only the mature get the option, make it based off post count. Personally, I don't think this is needed. But remember restrictions are always an option.

Yes, Tip.It is NOT a social networking site. That is why I stressed earlier than SELECTIVE borrowing can improve Tip.It. Of course I do not suggest adding any application features or chats (although there is already a chat). That would be, imo, too much and not work the effort. But a simple blue, larger-than-normal text by your username probably would take about as long as it took to add the RSN option. Once again, SELECTIVE borrowing. Take what is good out of Facebook, but leave what is bad or overdone. Take Statuses, but reject Poking, for example. This way, TIF would not become just another social networking site, but a unique Runescape Forum with a higher level of interaction in the community.

Once again, if Status messages are so popular, used, and helpful on Facebook, how do you know that it won't benefit TIF as well?

On the blogs. I've said that Status are miniblogs. That is true. But how many blogs are there in blogscape? I'm not going to bother to count, but based off the pages in that forum I would estimate a few thousand. Only those in the first 3-5 pages are probably active, but that still leaves a lot. Also, there are blogs deeper than that which are still active, but just not maintained. There are also people who do not want to spend the effort to maintain a blog, but still want to share what they are doing (such as myself). How then, can you figure out which users are the ones that interest you then you have hundreds of blogs to look past and some which are not obvious to you? It would take much long than logically necessary. That's where the status comes in. You'll just be browsing through a General Discussion thread and boom, "Zaaps1 is currenting going for 99 attack, 94/99, 5m xp left". "Hmm that sounds interesting, does he have a blog?" I hope you see what I'm getting at since that explanation was a little vague tbh...

EDIT: Darn, looks like another long reply. Soz :-#

I see what you are getting at, however I don't believe it would be as succesful as you predict, and still don't see it being needed or wanted by many. Either way its existence would not bother me, but I just don't see it being needed or useful in the way you describe.

I don't see why people can't just add these messages to their signatures, if it's one line of text. That's where people add these things already.

I think they will be useful. Here's why:

1) It has already benefited other sites who have used it

2) It has many practical uses

3) It has many "fun" uses

4) It's one of those things that can't hurt to try, especially given the low effort needed.

Why the signature isn't the same:

1) It's just that, a SIGNATURE. By definition, it's something you put at the end of your message. So by the time they're finished reading a reply, then they get to know who you are? That doesn't make sense to me. Remember that a status is a mini-blog, and let's those who read it get to know what you are thinking at that moment and what kind of person you are like.

2) Honestly speaking, things aren't very noticeable in your signature.

------a) How many people do you see actually put a "status-like" message in their signature? Not many.

------B) How many people do you see put images and drop results in their signature? A lot. The expectancy of an image there or a list of stats (or list of suggestions supported, in some cases) takes dominance. If you looked in my sig and saw: "Currently going for 99 attack", you would think "Ok, moving on now...". Why? Because the way the signature has developed (evolutionarily, you might say) has made such statements out-of-place. What is in place? Image signatures, stat signatures, drop results, and links to topics. The simple fact that status messages do not belong in the signature answers your question. I am not saying that you CAN'T put these things in your signature, they it's so unexpected that no one will think anything of it if you do put it there, which defeats the purpose. They don't belong in the sig. I didn't decide that, Facebook didn't decide that, the TIF staff didn't decide that. The RuneScape (and the Gaming Community as a whole, you could say) decided that. So we much work around that. People have decided over time that suits are appropriate for formal events. T-shirts are out-of-place. That doesn't mean you CAN'T wear a T-shirt to a formal event, it just means that it's very out-of-place. You didn't decide that, the makers of the T-shirt didn't decide that, the party host didn't decide that. The Global Community decided that. Therefore you must work around that.

-----c) Furthermore, it's not noticeable in the sig. It's at the very end of your post, at which point most people will give it a quick glance and move on with their lives.

"1) It has already benefited other sites who have used it"

How so?

"2) It has many practical uses"

How so?

"3) It has many "fun" uses"

How so?

"4) It's one of those things that can't hurt to try, especially given the low effort needed."

It can't hurt to try, but why add it in the first place if it won't be used by many people. :?

"1) It has already benefited other sites who have used it"

Facebook has status messages. They provide a quick and easy way for people to see what their friends are up to in the world, if they're mad about something or need help with their homework. People can then comment on the statuses, usually with something dumb but on occasion useful info.

[hide=An Example]Recently a friend on fb's status was 'I hate spanish..' or something to that effect. It's because the she doesn't like the teacher. So to be really unhelpful, we started speaking in german and how those of us who are taking german think it's the best and that she should take it. someone else replied in spanish to the effect of 'what's going on' because they couldn't read german. Of course on Tif these sorts of things would occur in PMs if at all, or as off topic bits in posts.[/hide]

"2) It has many practical uses"

You can ask for help with a quest, state you're on RS right now, in world ##, and you're training slayer. You can offer something you're selling or to trade your skills (offer assisstance). Or you can use it as a status to say '3k XP to 50 slayer' or whatnot.

"3) It has many "fun" uses"

See example above. You can also just write dumb things in it, like 'I'm bored' 'I like pie' 'Your mom' etc. which is probably the extent that these would be abused... which is that when people can't think of a good status they'll put something pointless in.

Oftentimes you get a laugh when you read friends' statuses... (statusi? :roll: )

"4) It's one of those things that can't hurt to try, especially given the low effort needed."

All you have to do is add another custom field in the profile. They've already done that with the RSN, RSN2, and Clan fields, so it can't hurt.

And no one really frequents the forum u&s and so if people would support/use it, they don't really know about it... I think that's been brought up in different discussions here as well.

Exactly what Hawk said, and I'd like to add a few more.

"1) It has already benefited other sites who have used it"

 

How so?

 

 

 

"2) It has many practical uses"

 

How so?

 

 

 

"3) It has many "fun" uses"

 

How so?

 

 

 

"4) It's one of those things that can't hurt to try, especially given the low effort needed."

 

It can't hurt to try, but why add it in the first place if it won't be used by many people. :?

1) I'll say this again, SELECTIVELY borrow from Facebook. My logic goes like this, but let's establish some basic facts: 1) Facebook is very successful, 2) Facebook has status messages, 3) Almost everyone who has a Facebook uses his or her status.

If Facebook is very successful, and one of its features are statuses, how are you so sure that adding these statuses will not benefit TIF? Of course, Statuses are not the sole reason for success, but since they are so popular, they must be one of the most popular things to do on Facebook, correct? Why else would almost everyone maintain their status? If they are so popular, how can you say that they won't be popular on TIF? If they are popular on TIF, how can you say they aren't beneficial?

Isn't the whole point of a Forum to interact with people who share the same interest? A status is just another tool to do that, and a very effective one at that.

2) Yes, do restate what Hawk said, "You can ask for help with a quest, state you're on RS right now, in world ##, and you're training slayer. You can offer something you're selling or to trade your skills (offer assisstance). Or you can use it as a status to say '3k XP to 50 slayer' or whatnot." It goes much farther than H&A and is much more concise than a blog.

Also, you can use it to tell people about yourself before they read your post. I'll reference the Hamas missile counter again. Many of my Jewish friends have a Hamas missile counter. It shows their support for Israel.

Essentially, the possibilities are endless.

3) They are very fun. Think of the location info slot. Many people put witty comments there, am I right? Now with the status, those possibilities are endless.

In response to Hawk's point about abuses in this section, I'll restate that I have faith in the TIF community that abuses will be low, if any. I quote myself: "People will not increase swearing just because there are status messages. They can do that already in their location, etc. spaces. If someone decides to but something like that in their status message, you can bet they probably would've put the same in their profile sidebar or in a few posts they make. I think that the abuse rate will honestly be pretty low. If the TIF and Facebook community are about the same, then rarely will you see anything more than "FML, WTF, OMFG" and the like. But of course these two are not the same, but that fact simply works in TIF's favor."

4) I'll restate what I've established on point 1, they are very popular elsewhere, so logically they would be popular on TIF. You can't say they won't be used. Almost everyone on Facebook uses their status. I'm not joking. If I pick any random page from my friend's list on Facebook, I can guarantee that he or she has a status. Statuses automatically clear after about a week too, so that will prove that those statuses are fairly recent as well.

Btw, if the word "status" comes from Latin, then the plural would be "stati", but I'm not sure if it is from Latin or somewhere else.

So I think our next step is to get support from the general community.

Since I'm bored, I'll make a support sig! :roll:

[url=http://forum.tip.it/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=792473&start=0][img=http://i41.tinypic.com/9sbign.jpg][/url]

Not much but it does the job.

So I think our next step is to get support from the general community.

 

Since I'm bored, I'll make a support sig! :roll:

 

 

 

 

[url=http://forum.tip.it/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=792473&start=0][img=http://i41.tinypic.com/9sbign.jpg][/url]

 

Not much but it does the job.

Awesome, thanks!

Look I'll put it this way: No amount of user support will get an idea that we neither need or will benefit greatly from implemented. This is not RS Bugs & Suggestions. I can't imagine that any of the coders here would want to, or have time to write it anyway.

1) Need? No perhaps not. But did we "need" to separate and converge the Archive of Wisdom and its subforums all of those times?

2) If you can tell me how TIF won't greatly benefit, then you might have a valid point. You can't just state that without backing it up. I state that it WILL benefit. I've backed it up on most of my posts on the first page.

3) And I've said before, it really shouldn't take that long if my understanding is correct. How hard can it be? Add another profile option, except close to the name, and in colored font. I've made a logical argument that it IS easy, so you can't state that it's overly time consuming without an argument to prove that it WILL take a long time. Back up your statements, and sorry to sound like your (former?) English teacher.

1) Need? No perhaps not. But did we "need" to separate and converge the Archive of Wisdom and its subforums all of those times?

 

 

 

2) If you can tell me how TIF won't greatly benefit, then you might have a valid point. You can't just state that without backing it up. I state that it WILL benefit. I've backed it up on most of my posts on the first page.

 

 

 

3) And I've said before, it really shouldn't take that long if my understanding is correct. How hard can it be? Add another profile option, except close to the name, and in colored font. I've made a logical argument that it IS easy, so you can't state that it's overly time consuming without an argument to prove that it WILL take a long time. Back up your statements, and sorry to sound like your (former?) English teacher.

I think the point he is trying to make is that this is a forum, not facebook. Most people don't browse the forum to know exactly what others are doing, they browse it for different reasons.

Now what is the point of someone taking several hours to make this mod when a very small percent of the users will use it?

So correct me if I'm wrong, but the 2 points you made are:

1) TIF should not be another copy of Facebook

2) No one will use this

BOTH of which I have addressed and have said otherwise. I'll quote myself from literally like 3 posts back:

I'll say this again, SELECTIVELY borrow from Facebook. My logic goes like this, but let's establish some basic facts: 1) Facebook is very successful, 2) Facebook has status messages, 3) Almost everyone who has a Facebook uses his or her status.

 

 

 

If Facebook is very successful, and one of its features are statuses, how are you so sure that adding these statuses will not benefit TIF? Of course, Statuses are not the sole reason for success, but since they are so popular, they must be one of the most popular things to do on Facebook, correct? Why else would almost everyone maintain their status? If they are so popular, how can you say that they won't be popular on TIF? If they are popular on TIF, how can you say they aren't beneficial?

 

 

 

Isn't the whole point of a Forum to interact with people who share the same interest? A status is just another tool to do that, and a very effective one at that.

I'll restate what I've established on point 1, they are very popular elsewhere, so logically they would be popular on TIF. You can't say they won't be used. Almost everyone on Facebook uses their status. I'm not joking. If I pick any random page from my friend's list on Facebook, I can guarantee that he or she has a status. Statuses automatically clear after about a week too, so that will prove that those statuses are fairly recent as well.

In addition, your assumption that this will take several hours is probably false. I've stated, using logic, how easy this update should be. Now I don't know anything about programming this, and unless you know this topic throughly to give me an accurate time estimate, you're going to have to prove my logic wrong before you say that this update will take a long time.