Suggestion Re-add Subaccount Merging

[Kirie]

Hi all!

This is just a small QoL suggestion separate to the very cool map update stuff that's been going on. Back in the olden days (before the 2019 site update), subaccounts worked slightly differently, and users couldn't unlink and delete subaccounts but instead could merge them back into the main writer account.

My suggestion is to bring the merge feature back, keeping the option to delete subaccounts.

I've listed some pros and cons below, but would be interested in what other's thoughts are (and if anyone else actually cares about this lol)

Pros:

• Post provenance: Unlike deleted accounts, posts from merged accounts are still linked to the person who wrote them - I imagine this is already the case for administrators, but it would be nice for users too.
• Better searching: Posts from merged accounts are easier to search, because you would no longer have to know keywords or tags for the posts you are looking for, you could just look through the writer's 'postings' page. This is particularly helpful for keeping track of codex and factory subs
• Total posts: Posts from merged accounts contribute to the main account's total post count instead of being disconnected.
• Creative freedom: With the option to merge accounts, writer's can create alter ego or related subaccounts for a short term narrative, and then merge them once finished.

Cons:

• Limited other utility: I note that this would probably be a lot of work for a minor change for users
• Unsure of technical/moderation factors: As this is a proposed site-wide feature change, there may be other reasons this is technically more difficult or presents a moderation issue for staff. As far as I know, reintroducing merging wouldn't be as simple as turning on an 'out of the box' feature for the platform.
• Can make old threads confusing if the previous character name is not visible

I'm not a web developer nor do I know how difficult this would be to implement, so I'd appreciate feedback on whether or not this is realistic :^)

 

[Tefka]

I wish it was possible, but it's mainly not possible because of the human element.


Cons
1. Humans regret performing an operation for which there is absolutely no undo button.

I don't recall ever having a merge function, it was probably just me providing the capability to merge subaccounts into the main account, which I'm not ever going to provide again. But also my memory is shite, so maybe we had it.

Users already have many alternatives, like repurposing old unused subaccounts rather than creating new ones. But in my mind, the only main pro that this feature (merge) would give is... all the time you spent on a character that you've now abandoned can be reclaimed in the currency of posts, thus arbitrarily boosting your main writer account's post count. It wouldn't be a matter of searching, it'd just be a matter of "hey, I put this much work into Chaos over the years, and it's represented by the amount of posts I have."

Whether this applies to OP or not, I dunno, I doubt most people would admit to it bluntly because it's such a small thing ultimately and people wouldn't want to admit it. But it's true, for the majority of roleplayers, I have no doubt, and I don't really blame them.

But it's not enough to convince me to dedicate resources to it. It doesn't follow the main rule I abide by when running Chaos, or at least doesnt' rank very high on the list this rule requires I follow:

1. Always, always, always focus on designing features that will attract new members.

 

[Kirie]

Thanks for your thoughtful response Tefka .

For me personally, I was (selfishly) motivated to suggest this based on the desire to have my total post count reflected in a single place as you mentioned above, and also by some recent frustrations trying to wrangle the site search to find posts from deleted subaccounts.

I understand and agree with the points you've raised, particularly around prioritising something like this and dedicating resources to it. In my opinion it falls pretty clearly in the 'nice to have' camp of features, rather than something that will dramatically enhance users' experience.

Admittedly I hadn't really thought about repurposing old subaccounts. Having had a quick think about it, that's probably the next best thing short of merging and I'm gonna give it a go.

While my perfect world would be one where subaccounts can be merged into the writer account, there's definitely room to figure out an alternative with existing site features.

 

[Tefka]

in a perfect world I'd clone myself five times and have a Dev team added to staff, but the last dev we met with to help me was really effing weird and that kind of control given to someone that we can't trust like that just isn't in the cards.

Stability, unfortunate, is our #1. But if we had a dev team that size, it'd be insane.