This idea has been running through my head for some time, and I've given it considerable thought. I'd need some help if we determine it's a worthwhile pursuit.
I was trying to come up with a method to give the Messengers more exposure, and to drive explorers to our website, while also trying to somehow help the "Messengers" fill a role withing the davern. It occured we could become sort of a "missing persons" bureau. Let me give you a scenario...
In MOUL, "Fred" and "Barney" would hang out and became good friends. When the cavern closed, they lost track of each other. Fred perused the forums, but Barney did not.
When the cavern recently re-opened, Fred signed up immediately, as did Barney. Unfortunately for Fred, Barney signed up under a different name. The two wanted to reconnect, but were unable to find each other in-cavern, as they were in different timezones, belonged to different hoods, etc.
Hence comes my idea, a registry/database that explorers could voluntarily enter information to include current and former names, hoods, associations etc., and make it easily searchable. The idea would be the registry would exist here on our website. Leonardo and I have discussed this, and found that most memberlists (such as we have here) don't have the type of search features that would make this friendly. (e.g., type in "Barney" in the search and it would pull up his old name, current name, hood, KI number, and whatever else.) Information would be voluntarily entered by those who wished to register.
This is a nice feature we could have. Back in the MOUL and UU days there was a website called KI Directory or somethign like that, that did exactly what Theremin is suggesting, I don't think it exists anymore.
However, I can enable more exposed filters for the List (search for user name, search in KI and avatar field) the only thing is I can't assure you it will have a nice interface XD
That might be worth a try Leo, we won't know until we do it. I'll still try to coordinate with Dekar, maybe he's already working on something similar.
My main thought is I want it to be readily available to the public, so you can access it without having to sign up, or become a member, or anything like that. I'm not sure if that's feasible or not.
I like this idea a lot! There have been several posts in the forums of people seeking their old friends and a lot of people keeping their old Ki's in their signatures, so If this is something that might be sought, I'll lend what help I can.
I do in fact maintain the moul forums Ki list (although I'm backlogged the last few days. Busy work stuff) And If you want to spitball some more Ideas, I'll be happy to help of give input.
excellent Dekar, thanks!
It sounds like our first task will be to find some way for explorers to do most of the data entry themselves, some interface that takes little or no input from us. And we still need some sort of database tool that will allow us to input the various data and have it cross-referenced and searchable. Anyone have any ideas or recommendations on that?
If you want to keep it here on our website we have two ways:
- Use our users system and our UsersList, almost like it is right now.
- Create a new content type for the website, accessible from the public like the News Items, and create a view similar to the UsersList
I wouldn't recommend a mixed solution, which could bring some problems of duplicated entries.
Hey Theremin,
Just got home from a camping thing and Thought you might want to know im takin care of updating the moul forums ki list this afternoon, so If you would like a copy or like to talk about usage or whatnot, let me know.
Thanks Dekar, yeah, if you could send me a copy that would be great. I haven't had a chance to work on it much, but am going to try some databases to achieve what I'm looking for.
It is a good idea Theremin. I recommend that you work with messenger Dekar on this because he is maintaining the Ki list on the MOUL forums.
Kalypso: #85553