Friend List Changes

I pushed an update to the site today and I changed a lot of code. Most of it is just refactoring and housekeeping so nothing noticable unless there are bugs.

I did change the friend list. Before, friends were simply a list of FFXI characters. The character didn't even have to be registered or confirm friendship. So it was essentially a equivalent to a player set. Now friends will be between users on the site. You can friend a user by their username or from their character page. A friend request is sent and they will confirm. I matched friends and created friend requests based on the old friend data, so you will likely have friend requests pending. You will be able to delete outgoing friend requests after 24 hours, to mitigate spamming. I don't have a method to ignore/deny incoming requests yet, I have already seen a need for this.

Having friends in this manner allows me to develop features that give users better privacy control. e.g. Who can PM you, see certain features of your profile( such as social network accounts), and features that may include collaboration.

If anyone has any questions, bugs, you can PM me or post it here.

I know Kalila is going to ask for online users on top! ;) I will try to do that today, the change should make the task easier.

Here are some screencaps:

http://www.ffxiah.com/members/friends


http://www.ffxiah.com/members/friendrequests


http://www.ffxiah.com/player/Fenrir/Scragg#friends

I have some concerns with the new friend list and the mechanics for it.

I would much prefer to have the name of the character, not the name of the user account, displayed on the friend list. Not everyone thought about what the display name would be when they created an account here, and I think it just makes more sense to have the character name instead. Another possibility would be to have an option to tweak the friend name, or have an option to change your account name so it changes for everyone that has you as friend.

ty :)

I want to suggest that we don't have a friend request system. I think it's a cool idea, but if someone no longer uses the site anymore, and you wish to keep them on your list, and they didn't use the friend system or something, so they never added you, then they would forever be pending. I like that we could add someone and know when they are online so we could PM them, but that's gone unless both users use the friend system for the site. I know I could just simply send a PM asking them to accept, and that is fine, but like I said, if they no longer use the site there is no way for me to add them to my list anymore.

An alternative I have is to see who has added you as a friend, so you can add them as well. I don't think it should be mandatory that both of you are using the friend system for the site so you can see them on your list. Not everyone is going to use it :(

Just my opinion though, I still love it. I like that we have an easy way to PM someone that is online, or that we PM frequently, and that still fulfills what I used it for.

Not a bug or anything (I think) but can there be an option for a notification when you have received a request? Unless it is already there and I just haven't seen it which is possible.

Damn, I thought I'd beat the screenshot D:<

Another suggestion would be to have a notification of when someone sent you a friend request. Like when you have a new PM for Inbox, if you have a new friend request it could appear under "Inbox", but it would only show if you have a friend request, otherwise it would stay hidden.

I just found one in my email actually... An on site one would be helpful though.

I did not know that! :o

You should get an email.

That's not true, you can still PM them. Restricting PMs to friends would be something you opt-in to.

An email gets sent when you make a friend request. Later, you can remove a request and make a new one so an email gets sent out.

I could make player sets show online status to satisfy this requirement and use old friend data to generate a player set. Although I cannot put this on the front page.

I've thought about this and will explore my options.

Is there any way to cancel pending friend requests? I had a bunch of people added from ages ago that I used to talk to, but don't anymore.

Cool idea. Thanks for implementing it. My only hiccup with it is that I'd prefer a message in our Inbox, and not something sent to my e-mail.

awwww ; ;

I'll be your friend~

Not sure if this is a bug or not but several of the friends requests don't disappear off the list after I accept them... All the ones that were automatically sent when the system switched and 1 that was sent since. The other two both vanished once I clicked add.

Hmm. Not being able to friend myself means I've lost some usability of the site - I had myself and my mules friended, and used the friends list as a quick way to get to our profiles. I guess now I'll have to go through the characters menu, which will add a few clicks. Not a big deal, but I wanted to mention it.

there are some names in the "Incoming Friend Requests" section, that when I try to add, it says they are already in my friendlist, but their name is not cleared out.

also, there is no decline button.
:s

Just post comments from your mules on to your profile :)

Are all these friend requests that we have now real? Are they new? I never knew that there was a connection to the other person (only used friend list to check mules' auctions.)

Nevermind... some of these people are long gone. Sorry to anyone I never added. :(

WOW.

When I click on Friends link in the menu though, below the people I've "friended" there's a list of characters I have linked to this account.

i liked being able to friend my self for the simple fact i know when i was online if that makes any sense O.o

Cause sometimes you'll be logged out but your bookmark links goes to your page and you see mostly the same stuff and won't notice you're logged out until you try to do something?

I have only one big issue with this: I'm not in my friendlist anymore!!

Please give me the chance to get me back in my friendlist, it's important ;_;

Yay, friend list is ordered again :)

Ill just le my friendlist order itself...
BATTLE TO THE DEATH IT IS!
:D

Theres a bug with achievement point calculations, my listed score is 5,550 points less than what it should be.My total adds up to 288,661 my score shows as 283,111

Pretty much.

apologies to all of you who I apparently never noticed sent me a friend request or w/e because there were a ton of you on there just now

same ._. I had no idea, I'm still going through clicking add

Some people I don't even know who they are. Guess that's how you find out about stalkers~

edit: next step last visitors to your profile, so stalkers will be 100% busted!

Ty for accepting! I feel honoured! Scragg did too! /glee

Now for Aly and Aelius! :3

Yah I find it funny some people on there added me over never heard of. I'm like......k......./stalks them back

I'm stalking everyone at once!