Hide Session from New User

[NukiRaccoon]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Some people have run sessions that they, or members of the community, don't want new users wandering into for whatever reason.

There is, as far as I know, not a way to limit a session to only users who've been here a while. So, for example, if I have a world where I'm doing something edgy, and I don't want it to be the first thing new users see, I don't have a way to do so other than making it contacts only or something.

Describe the solution you'd like

Just a button between the "Registered Users" and "Contacts" options that's like, "Established Users", that prevets users from seeins the session if they haven't been here for more than a few days, or perhaps a number-input for a number of days they have to have accounts before seeing a session.

Describe alternatives you've considered

If there is a way to limit a session this way, it's some sort of proto-flux system I haven't seen anyone implement, and wouldn't be able to hide the session regardless, meaning new users would still see the session but simply be barred from joining and likely not know why.

Additional Context

This is a bit related to issue 1042, which would add indicators to new users.

[JackTheFoxOtter]

I really dislike this idea. Just because a user is new shouldn't mean they should be filtered out. This could quickly lead to a sense of "ranks" or "exclusivity" for playing for a certain amount of time I've seen on other platforms, and I think it fundamentally doesn't fit into this community.

Instead, the existing access control methods focus on relation to the host, which I think makes a lot more sense. If you want to make a session only your friends can enter, make a contacts or contacts plus one.

[JackTheFoxOtter]

You can use the VerifyJoinRequest node to implement this yourself and give custom error messages if the join fails, so you could implement this functionality yourself if you really want to, but as you said the session would still be visible in the session browser.

[Feyyore]

This does not sound like something that would be of the betterment of the community. If implimented it would be more of a detriment to the new player experience and excludes users in ways seeming overly restrictive.

There are options already in game to withhold sessions from certain brackets of users that handle this already. Essentially this is a harmfle and void idea.

[NukiRaccoon]

This does not sound like something that would be of the betterment of the community. If implimented it would be more of a detriment to the new player experience and excludes users in ways seeming overly restrictive.

There are options already in game to withhold sessions from certain brackets of users that handle this already. Essentially this is a harmfle and void idea.

The three problems are 1) new users will be able to see the world in question, which was a complaint people had about the drama that prompted this, 2) will have that content potentially crowdout content want them to see (worlds with people who are ready to welcome them), and 3) are unlikely to be able to see why they can't connect to the world, because the current notification for when you don't is a tiny piece of text, illegible on most screens, floating in the world in front of you for literally only a few seconds, as I stated in a different issue.

It's not about trying to exclude new users, it's about trying to funnel them towards content that the community wants them to see when they first join (such as the Mentor Workshop and Avatar Libraries) and away from content we don't (such as the edgy nightclubs).

[jae1911]

It's not about trying to exclude new users, it's about trying to funnel them towards content that the community wants them to see when they first join

You fail to take into account that some new players might want to join the "edgy nightclubs" or avoid mentor workshops at first, and just might want to socialise.

Ultimately, it should be up to the new player to choose where they want to be instead of having this choice removed from them. Making sure they know they have that choice would be far more effective than barring them from sessions.

[shiftyscales]

1) Would be better handled by other features such as content tagging/warnings.

2) Would be better handled by some mechanism to promoting visibility to mentoring/new-user friendly sessions rather than hiding sessions from new users. (This can already be done if the session host puts something like "New Users Welcome" in the session title.)

3) UI, or other issues for things that aren't working as they should need to be their own separate issue here.

There are further ideas that have been discussed to extend the initial tutorial/new user flow process on the platform, e.g. having an extended/narrative styled game that more actively demonstrates a lot of the platforms mechanics. Having new user hubs that users could be funneled into following the tutorial, e.g. giving them a choice of where to go next.

Fixating too much on a particular solution, e.g. hiding sessions from new users is not a good way to report problems.

Instead, highlighting the underlying issues, e.g. a lack of prominent visibility for sessions/worlds/content a new user might find helpful to visit first ensures that the issue itself is highlighted, and a myriad of possible options can be considered for how best to approach, and resolve the problem.

I'd highly recommend reading up on the XY problem, @NukiRaccoon. Between that, our best practices for bug reporting, and how we prioritize issues I hope you will better understand how you can better communicate issues you are having in a way that works with how we operate.

Thank you for your suggestions. I will be locking conversation on this issue as it has gotten unproductive.