Allow for whisper and page in certain areas

[tricuspa]

As the Past develops we need to make sure the most common "standard" commands exist to the user base, they however may be limited only to that area (not be global).

1. Allow for players in The Past to page others in The Past.
2. Allow for players in the same room as another to whisper between themselves may also need to consider allowing whisper pose.
   • Additional things to consider, allow global use of page to certain user levels that are "on-duty". (Probably another switch/setting to consider adding.)

[AmberFennek]

In typical MUCK, whisper's MUF is a modified copy of the page MUF. Whisper only works locally, and has no message persisting functionality like page does. An altered version of say/pose can handle the whisper requirement, and a page command can be made from Evennia's default tell/page command with a few changes.

Related is allowing teleporting with no cost or skill/trait requirement in certain areas. Are there other commands that are required to consider?

As for the global use of page to certain user levels - MUCK handles this by page groups and additionally they use a special @shout command that only staff see. Using a staff channel or special version of @wall that works like @shout is much easier than trying to incorporate a global solution in a localized command such as page. @tricuspa What is your opinion on the staff need for this additional consideration? Is it another issue, entirely?

[tricuspa]

The only obvious concern of using a channel that I can see is when a staffer is helping an individual everyone else on the channel would possibly turn off if they don't want to be a part of the conversation, but I can see that would just develop familiarity with adding and removing channel. Though perhaps when a staffer connects it might always open up the channel just in case.

[AmberFennek]

Page command and its role in asking for help.

I understand you are referring to the communication aspect of receiving the help for a certain issue, not the call for help for the certain issue.

• Channels - how other mu* deal with help

How this is successfully done over a HELP channel on other mu* is typically that the issue is stated, and other users might respond with a reference to find documentation or a quick explanation before help staff become involved. If the issue is not resolved by asking for help on a channel, someone from staff could contact the player more privately. Most people on a HELP channel are there to get or give help, so asking for help on a help channel is less likely to be annoying traffic as it might be on the PUB channel.

FM does not have player-accessable channels. The nearest thing they have is @announce and page helpstaff, but typically only one person is on duty and responds even if the page goes to the group. Roughly half the time they will visit the location of the player needing help, and even though page is their preferred method of interaction, it may only be used for part of the issue-resolving process. In listing helpstaff and wizards on FM, players are instructed not to page off-duty staff. Since the goal is to construct a page-similar system just for The Past, the page system of old should probably not be an integral part of the world-wide help system.

• Global or local help call, or both as alternatives to help via pages.

Another alternative FM has to page-based help is the "help desk" where players go to a room and ring a bell. The gap between the public at large helping someone and staff helping someone is filled by helpstaff paging on FM, and I think we can be sure to solve that even if it means making a specific call for help command that alerts whomever, however we want, instead of having the user decide who to page after checking a list of who's available like FM has us do.

[AmberFennek]

Implementation notes:

W being for West, the next shortest command usage is wh Does anyone have suggestions for other aliases?

A notable difference when naming targets for the whispered message is that they must be separated with commas instead of spaces, since spaces are allowed in character names here, whereas elsewhere they are not. If it is to be the name separator, the comma should not be allowed in character or NPC names.

whisper Andy Griffith, Andy Warhol = <message> (and similar for page) whisper I really enjoy your work. (sends message to last whispered - no equal sign required)

How whisper operates in other realms will be more determined by relative distance between the whisperer and the whispered instead of arbitrarily targeting by name, so the command syntax may evolve.

Implementation of whisper begins! A mockup first draft has been committed and available for testing on the server, and is partially under unit test. Split/paired coding with @tricuspa is under way and seems to be productive.

[Pinacolada64]

The only obvious concern of using a channel that I can see is when a staffer is helping an individual everyone else on the channel would possibly turn off if they don't want to be a part of the conversation

This could be addressed by creating a sub-channel, similar to a different room on an IRC server, perhaps.

Learning a lot about object-oriented programming today. @.@

[AmberFennek]

This could be addressed by creating a sub-channel, similar to a different room on an IRC server, perhaps.

1. FM uses the help bell, which is a great in-character method, visiting somewhere, like a town hall, and ring a help bell.
2. Other mu* also typically handle help via volunteers on a help channel that is public.
3. FM also also has a wizzes and helpstaff page alias group.

If it's just a question/answer help need that any familiar player could answer, then option 2 works best, but if help is required by staff and needs to be done privately, page might be a typical method and page functionality should include ability to send a page to staff channel, thus integrating page and channels in a way that many might already be familiar with.

Potentially, we could have all 3 systems.

[tricuspa]

Sorry folks I have been busy the last couple weekends, so haven't been able to get to much. Hopefully this weekend will be a little more laid back so I can get back to work. Also this last week it seems like NOW has been down, has anyone got a hold of LL?

[Pinacolada64]

We've been on NOW all week, maybe it's an Internet routing issue for you? Could you just not connect at all?

[AmberFennek]

Whisper is functional, and page is redirected to public channel so that users trying to communicate by page will at least be heard.

Some design concepts for paging are being considered.

Some users suggest whisper posing, but alternative private posing concepts are being considered.