Improved game search filters

One of the most important aspects of a tabletop roleplaying game experience is finding the right group for you in the first place, so I think any refinements to the search system would be a welcome addition for many.  As is, searching through the game ads can be extremely time consuming just in terms of scrolling through a bunch of completely irrelevant results.  A couple additions in particular seem like they could do a lot of good immediately, especially since pretty much all of these already have a variable in the system (you just can't search by that variable): 1)  As is there's a flood of ads for players looking for a DM... something you're probably not interested in if you're a player looking for a DM yourself.  As such, I suggest that searchers be able to check whether they are looking for a DM, or for players. 2)  Search by number of player slots.  After all, some people would prefer a more intimate game of 4 players or less to a larger group of 8 people or more, or vice versa.  You could also more easily locate things like West Marches-style games or RP groups (that aren't actually games) by searching for large numbers of player slots. 3)  A check for homebrew worlds or campaigns, as opposed to published settings or modules, could also be useful. 4)  A check for one-shots vs not. 5)  The ability to sort by newest ads, or possibly even the ability to exclude listings that you have already viewed (as in, clicked on, not things that have just previously popped up in a search).

+1

I'd like to add a few suggestions to this list as well: Sort by new: This has been suggested a few times already (&nbsp; <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/3663902/games-so" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/3663902/games-so</a>... <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/4606956/slug%7D" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/4606956/slug%7D</a> ) and it still hasn't been implemented. Being able to see only the new games would vastly help players find games which haven't been filled already. Sort by time range: &nbsp;"Games that start between 5pm to 10pm" would be a useful search query, as seeing games that start 2am doesn't really help anyone except for rare cases. I know there's already a "Starting at approximately" search option but that's too restrictive. Application end date: Letting DMs set and show a date where they no longer accept applications informs players better and removes any and all vagueness from the listing.

There also needs to either be a cookie that saves certain options, or default - why should anyone keep having to pick (insert only language one will ever speak/write) every time? I'm never going to play a text based game, but I can't select voice and video/voice games, I'd have to search for them one at a time, or include text games.

I believe that improving the ability for people to find games is one of the features that has the most potential to really grow the community.&nbsp; I keep running into people who say something to the effect of that they want to play more on Roll20 but just sort of gave up on finding more games due to the frustration of trying to use the current search feature on anything remotely like a regular basis, not to mention having to scroll through lots of players-looking-for-DMs ads whenever you search for a game being something of a running joke among some RP groups.&nbsp; I really hope the devs take notice of this and make a few alterations to the search function.&nbsp; Roll20 is a great platform and it is a shame to see people passing on it simply for lack of an ability to find a table that suits them in an efficient manner.

In the hopes that it draws attention from the Roll20 people: Let us filter out ads that are looking for DMs. Additionally, it would be helpful if Roll20 added a block list feature to our profiles, because there are definitely problem people on this site. Some further settings could set Roll20 to mark when an ad is DMed by or has among its players someone on your block list, or just not show those ads at all. And I would also like a "Not Interested" toggle to hide particular ads from future searches.

I would like to see added to the advanced search field an option that allows an additional searchable game format. We can search for visual and voice, and text only; please add search for&nbsp; Play by post.&nbsp; Even though Play by post might be considered a subgroup of text, it would more accurately describe the time slot people can play. Instead of every day at 7pm eastern, a pbp would be 1x per week etc. Pbp games still use almost all roll20 resources, people just post in an asynchronous manner.

Also, excluding systems you don't want to see from your search would be another good change to the game search.

I don't see that this was ever closed out or responded to by the devs. Really feeling the need for this given how flooded the listings are with Living World/West Marches games that never leave the LFG searches because they never fill up.

+1.&nbsp; Game Search and the LFG forum need a lot of love.&nbsp;

Haven said: Also, excluding systems you don't want to see from your search would be another good change to the game search. Exactly! This is key. I want to see any games EXCEPT D&amp;D and I don't want to have to manually select every game system in the multi-select control except D&amp;D.

I think one off the strongest improvements we the community could make, would be to stop posting in LFM when we are in fact LFG. I notice that when posting "your game" it does ask us to not post if we are a player seeking a game, but only if we are a game/GM seeking players. " Note: The LFG system should only be used by Game Masters to list individual, specific games that will be played -- if you are just looking for a group in general without a specific game in mind, try the forums or update your public profile to list yourself in the Player Directory." And that if you are a player seeking a group you go post in the forums for that, not in the Game Listings. And yet when we go looking for a game , we have to manually filter through a huge swath of not actually game posts of people looking for a GM.I would suggest we'd all have an easier time finding a game, if it were not for us ignoring the requested organizational scheme and posting not games to the games list. Maybe of we met them half way on this it would seem more like a good idea to put in more effort on this system, if we were actually trying to efficiently utilize it in the first place instead. Just say'n, when we disrespect their very reasonable, in our own best interest ask, what part of that seems to lead to their listening to our ask? Do unto others, i'd suggest we demonstrate, we do not want our ask to be listened to, by the example of not listening to their ask. Oh but they also should change LFG to LFM. If you got a game, you are looking for members in it. Looking for a group is not explicitly saying you got a game going, it just means you wanna get in a group. And LFG can also mean looking for game to some people, so bit ambiguous even with their very clear in bold ask. LFM would be a more specific and so unambigious title for this.

At the very least, if this isn't a priority, allow us to access an API to create our own search and filter functionality?

any and all suggestions that are to improve &amp; facilitate LFG meaning: Connect the Potential customers/users, to the Games!&nbsp; The best way to build the user base, build the community, accomplish the mission of the VTT improve game-group connecting, game-finding +1

So for now, I had a friend make me a quick and dirty userscript to help with this. You'd need tampermonkey or greasemonkey installed in your web browser to use it, but here it is: <a href="https://pastebin.com/AQ5a1kuE" rel="nofollow">https://pastebin.com/AQ5a1kuE</a> Some problems with this approach: You must add things you're tired of seeing manually to the userscript as there's no UI added to the web page If Roll20 changes the layout of listings the script could break Will not change the number of pages to click through, just remove results from the page You probably don't want to filter 5E by default like this boilerplate script does by default so, probably remove that line for your own use. Anyway as a rough solution, if someone makes something better, or builds on this, I'd love to know, but I'll use this myself for now. Happy searching. You can filter systems, users, or specific listings.