"player directory" so half baked, why even bother?

The player directory feature up there at the top is pretty much useless for anything -except- looking impressive to someone likely to never use it.its as if someone looked at the pen & paper games one and decided the solutions to: "huh.. Most of these people haven't logged in for years & probably don't have active email accounts attached" was simply"AHA! We just wont show when "x-y time" availability ials great and all, but with time zone vagaries and internet play... Less so" was best solved by"AHA, we wont even ask availability either, -players- can join games that appeal to them @#$%& the gm that wants to find a good/the right group... It look better to have a gm spam 20different games or run one shots for a never ending stream of distracted multitaskers who have never even bothered to skim the rulebook" enough already guys, and remember.. Any argument against improving it that starts with "but we have x many players on the existing list and most wouldn't update to changes" reinforces the uselessness... Just admit it and remove it. If a player does a search for games, they don't have to filter through every game ever created for that system... Likewise if they search for games at xPM and/or on Y day of the week... Want to find a player for [game system]? List your game & pray, or start spamming.

Looks like you've definitely identified a feature you'd like to see improved - instead of removing it as a feature could you list some examples you think would remedy the problems you're addressing?

*cough* <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/918140/proper-player-search-tool-for-gms" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/918140/proper-player-search-tool-for-gms</a> *cough* <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/911555/could-a-campaign-post-etiquette-be-established#post-914273" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/911555/could-a-campaign-post-etiquette-be-established#post-914273</a> on that second post, take special note of the one six posts below it and 20 below that combined with the content and source itself. "our primary priority was to help people have an easier time finding games". however!... Thi is not a new thing that's suddenly being brought to light. I -did- make a suggestion to improve features un this very thread though remove the entirely useless nomfeature that gives the illusion of functionality to the huge number of players that will never use it so the players are more likely to give thought to the gm-centric game health need to find the right players instead of just spamming one shots and hoping enough of the signups 1show up, 2know enough of the rules to participate without disruption for existing players, and 3 keep multitasking down to a point where they are actually there to play instead of being afk too often to participate. given the absolute triviality of a sort by last online date check & display of that or "prior to dd/Mm/yy note for dead profiles it lends weight to the idea that the P&pgames style huge list of dead profiles is considered somehow valuable.and any solution limiting it to active accounts (thereby pruning all the dead ones) would be considered untenable to a large chunk of the decision making people.

I absolutely agree that this is a feature that could use work. Please review the agreed-to Code of Conduct , however, in regards to allowable discussion tone on our forums.

Nolan T. J. said: I absolutely agree that this is a feature that could use work. Thank you, I've seen the subject come up several times in the past (beyond just the two recent links I dug out on my phone) and with the recent focus on making it easier for players to find games, the anemic (to be kind;) functionality there to help a GM actively ensure those games start out & remain healthy with the right players for the group beyond simply clicking the lfm checkbox & hoping for the best I'd been getting more than a little frustrated wondering if that dichotomy was desired since there had been a lot of pink comments in threads about improving the lfg function for players, but not one (that I could remember) about tools for gm's to find interested or group/game compatible players. I'd go as far as to say that the subject of the threat is the flip side of the same "easier to find games" coin since a frustrated gm with the wrong/not enough compatible players to maintain a game reduces the number of available games as they burn out on spamming the forum/lfg tool while running ailing games limping along waiting for the last straw helps no one. It's good to see a pink name post on this side of that particular coin.

Don't sugar coat it, how do you really feel? Maybe tell us what you would like to see in this feature.

From my own experiences sending out tentative emails to folks recruiting for players. I chose to contact players out of the players directory instead of advertising the game. I wrote 15 people and had six replies inside of 12 hours. I am of the opinion it is up to the player to list time zone, times available, what they want in a game, etc, etc, than to expect Roll20 to develop something more. Entries with no information got skipped; sorry, if you want to be contacted as a potential player then give a GM some idea about who you are and what you are interested in doing. And I did not start at page 1 and work my way down: I did the opposite and started with the newest and worked my way back. I wrote to 15 like I said, and have a list of another 38 names. It would be nice to see some indication, if possible, to tell if a user is still active or not. It may not be the best system but I've dealt with far worse. The usual return on emails has usually been 10%. So to get a 33% return in 12 hours was excellent in my opinion.

Add a few required features to be put onto the Player Directory Timezone: Free Days: Experience: Add a "Last Online" feature and a game history feature too so they can be checked out. add a few filters in there too, so if you are looking for people with little experience but lots of free time you can find them. BAM Player Directory usefull.

Maybe also give each game type a different section, so you can more easily diferentiate someone who has a lot of experiance in D&D and no experiance in WoD from someone who GMs WoD but wouldn't mind trying D&D.