Character Availability!

[Warning]

Now, I understand this might not be "needed" or ever suggested by anyone before but there is a first time for everything. To best explain what I will go on about, see my album of characters.

The point: I think we should have a setting when we create albums (Or edit them) to mark a character as available or not and maybe a between option for "waiting for confirmation", "in standby" or the likes. When a roleplayer would check the characters (albums) of a potential partner, they would therefore know if a character is available to be requested or not in a roleplay. I do believe it would make things slightly better and it would be a fun and useful settings to have around anyway.

The arguments: First of all, I've noticed that changing my albums to let others know if a character is available or not, also changes the URL of the album (Because they get renamed along with the title of the albums). This part is kinda fine but it could also be avoided with my idea. Next, I noticed that when we upload an image, there is always lot of data that we can enter but what if one such option was availability? However, I think this should be seen in the albums and not on the pictures themselves since the first things people see now is albums (featuring the different images of a single character), I hope you see what I mean. We know for a fact that with the new rules, albums are used exclusively for character uploads in their respective albums which means that the albums are intended for character presentation anyway. Availability could be included to the album settings.

The conclusion: So yes... With this, while it might not have a use for everyone, having a kind of checkmark for availability on character albums, it would keep things tidy and clean and let people know what is free to take for fun. I also believe that this would not be too difficult to incorporate to the current system but I am no expert so I'll be letting our admins decide this one. For now, thanks for reading and I'll hope to hear more about it. (Whether you think the idea is good or not)

Edited July 29, 2023 by Sera
Rewording.

[Novaer]

I feel like I should copy and paste this response. But; 

This isn't possible under the IPS system as far as I am aware. The main issue is that IPS is built for communities - not for what we're using it for. We can try to meld it to suit our needs, and try and force it to do what we want, but ultimately it's not designed for this. This is why my brother in law, and I are creating a bespoke (Custom and Coded to serve our needs) from the ground up to replace what we're using. 

I am not sure if this could be useful to anyone/everyone or if it's very niché. I'd certainly be interested in hearing additional feedback and I will also forward this to our suggestions inbox of our development Trello. 

That said there are a few things of note for this:

• Whilst changing the title DOES indeed change the URL; it doesn't actually matter. For all the shit I give IPS their linking system is actually fairly good. (See example 1a, 1b and 1c, below)
• You could make it prominent in the description - I know its not ideal, lots of buttons pressed instead of one drop down that can display a label somewhere on the image. 
• Tags might work, setting the availability as a tag and then setting that tag as a prefix so it appears at the beginning of the tags. But given people's aversion to actually read stuff, there's no telling how effective this is. 

IPS's Linking System is actually very good, if the link to something changes it still directs to the correct content. The important thing in an EcchiDreams URL is the number, not the text. You can even completely make up whatever text you want. So for example (1a) this topic:

The following URL's will work:

1. https://ecchidreams.com/community/topic/6963-character-availability/
2. https://ecchidreams.com/community/topic/6963-foobar
3. https://ecchidreams.com/community/topic/6963-a-really-neat-suggestion

(Example 1b) The same thing happens with mention tags as well as profile URLS:

@Novaer - @Tripp - @Wolfie <-- All these mentions link to the same user as do all these links:

1. https://ecchidreams.com/dreamer/1-tema/
2. https://ecchidreams.com/dreamer/1-tripp
3. https://ecchidreams.com/dreamer/1-wolfie
4. https://ecchidreams.com/dreamer/1-foobar

(Example 1c) So the same thing happens with albums too. 

1. https://ecchidreams.com/gallery/album/2540-arish-reynard-free/
2. https://ecchidreams.com/gallery/album/2540-this-sexy-maid-fox/
3. https://ecchidreams.com/gallery/album/2540-foobar

As far as I know this works with just about everything that has a number on it like this. You can change any of the text to whatever you want it to be as the system only listens to the number - not the text. The text is for you and perhaps Search Engine Optimisation/Listings. Although "https://ecchidreams.com/gallery/album/2540" doesn't work, which I find slightly inconsistent. So with that in mind, whenever your URL's change because you've edited the titles - it doesn't matter.

Thank you for the suggestion. 

[Warning]

Goddamn it, for a second I did think that there was a possibility to add tags (like we add them to pictures) to albums. This would have solved a good part of this suggestion. (If they were visible from the album list.) But I understand. It's not entirely a problem to edit the title of the album, I just thought that I could suggest something different. For now, I'll keep editing my albums simply. I know we can add tags to threads and pictures so it would have been nice to add tags to albums as well in order to create an available or unavailable tag.  Thank you for your response anyhow.