Please reply!

[ QUOTE ]
See, this is the wonderful thing about text - it doesn't portray emotion too well. It also hides frustration and annoyance easily. If you are annoyed at a /tell asking you to join a team, all you have to do is reply with, "No thanks, I'm soloing" and add a smiley at the end. Simple.

Of course, getting six or seven /tells in less than 10 minutes can be irritating, but it doesn't take a second to send a stock reply. You can rant about your annoyances later.

[/ QUOTE ]
It works both ways though, if you get no reply within a reasonable length of time (say 60 seconds) just assume they're busy / AFK / Not interested and move on rather than getting upset about it. Assuming people are rude, ignorant or arrogant for not replying to a message from some random stranger is just odd.

[ QUOTE ]
and add a smiley at the end. Simple.

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes, as the Church of GG teaches everything is better with a smiley at the end of it.

---

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
See, this is the wonderful thing about text - it doesn't portray emotion too well. It also hides frustration and annoyance easily. If you are annoyed at a /tell asking you to join a team, all you have to do is reply with, "No thanks, I'm soloing" and add a smiley at the end. Simple.

Of course, getting six or seven /tells in less than 10 minutes can be irritating, but it doesn't take a second to send a stock reply. You can rant about your annoyances later.

[/ QUOTE ]
It works both ways though, if you get no reply within a reasonable length of time (say 60 seconds) just assume they're busy / AFK / Not interested and move on rather than getting upset about it. Assuming people are rude, ignorant or arrogant for not replying to a message from some random stranger is just odd.

[ QUOTE ]
and add a smiley at the end. Simple.

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes, as the Church of GG teaches everything is better with a smiley at the end of it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Only certain people believe that...
Theres the Inquisition, who jump on any smily in sight and obliterate it fr...
Oh...you mean GoldenGirl? Not the other GG then...
Yeeessss...-breaks out the torches and pitchforks-

---

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Show some courtesy, leave them alone.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's a two way street mate.

If you REALLY don't want to team, why not hide? Then I won't see you, I won't invite you (with or without a tell) and everyone's happy. If you've got an, at best, ambiguous message then it's not surprising if you get the odd invite.

Sure if it's just a blind, I can understand it being problematic, but equally you and I both know that if you only want to team with specific people or your SG, it's simple enough to let those people know you're in game without the wider world knowing.

If you have a message saying "I don't want to team with anyone EVER" then chances are I won't invite you. But this is fundamentally a team game, and so if you're on the grid, and you show up in the search, without a categorical refusal to team, I might just invite you. If you really don't want to be invited to a team, I'd suggest the onus is on you to take the steps to prevent that.

[/ QUOTE ]

Talk about ridiculous and being pedantic.

Why should people have to put up with people like yourself who send tells to people who dont want to team, have the option "dont want to team" showing, and then you have the nerve to say it is all their fault because you cant bloody read. Good Grief.

---

Zhaan, Chakyra, Fiorina 161, Aeryn, Polly Nation, Dee Pression, Shazanne, Night Jester and too many more to mention.

Network Hell 47640
Valley of the Harpies 74519
Green and Pleasant Land 75966

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
See, this is the wonderful thing about text - it doesn't portray emotion too well. It also hides frustration and annoyance easily. If you are annoyed at a /tell asking you to join a team, all you have to do is reply with, "No thanks, I'm soloing" and add a smiley at the end. Simple.

Of course, getting six or seven /tells in less than 10 minutes can be irritating, but it doesn't take a second to send a stock reply. You can rant about your annoyances later.

[/ QUOTE ]
It works both ways though, if you get no reply within a reasonable length of time (say 60 seconds) just assume they're busy / AFK / Not interested and move on rather than getting upset about it. Assuming people are rude, ignorant or arrogant for not replying to a message from some random stranger is just odd.

[ QUOTE ]
and add a smiley at the end. Simple.

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes, as the Church of GG teaches everything is better with a smiley at the end of it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes it does go both ways, but if you aren't AFK and do reply, you've covered your end.

As for smileys - much like anything else, overuse is bad for you.

---

I can't understand why the simple icon system in search is so hard for some people to follow.
Grey: Not looking for team
White: Looking for any
Green/yellow etc: Looking for something specific
Red: "FFS stop spamming me with blind invites"

If that player is flagged as Grey or Red, you should not even presume to expect a reply.

But as FFM wisely pointed out:
[ QUOTE ]
people aren't interested in what other people want to do, they want to do what THEY want to do, and they'll bug other people no matter what until they find someone else that'll do it with them.

[/ QUOTE ]

---

[ QUOTE ]
I can't understand why the simple icon system in search is so hard for some people to follow.
Grey: Not looking for team
White: Looking for any
Green/yellow etc: Looking for something specific
Red: "FFS stop spamming me with blind invites"

If that player is flagged as Grey or Red, you should not even presume to expect a reply.

But as FFM wisely pointed out:
[ QUOTE ]
people aren't interested in what other people want to do, they want to do what THEY want to do, and they'll bug other people no matter what until they find someone else that'll do it with them.

[/ QUOTE ]

[/ QUOTE ]

Quite true, but this onl really works if people use it properly. There are a lot of times when people do not change their status after logging on to 'Looking for Team' or they might not be bothered either way so don't change their status. If teams were built solely from people looking at the key colours the game would die because it is extremely rare to see more than 5 people in any given level range set to Looking for Team...

---

Golden-Phoenix - Lvl 50 Fire/Fire Tank
Oodja Nikabolokov - Lvl 50 SS/WP Brute
Baby-Phoenix - Lvl 50 Peacebringer
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could Chuck Norris?

That may be so, but it's not sufficient justification for the assumption of a right to a reply.

---

[ QUOTE ]
I can't understand why the simple icon system in search is so hard for some people to follow.
Grey: Not looking for team
White: Looking for any
Green/yellow etc: Looking for something specific
Red: "FFS stop spamming me with blind invites"

If that player is flagged as Grey or Red, you should not even presume to expect a reply.

[/ QUOTE ]
The game flags players as grey BY DEFAULT.

Nobody bothers to change it unless they're desperately looking for help with something. Grey might technically be labelled "Not Looking for team" in-game, but in practice it corresponds more to "I am not hidden and am not so annoyed by other people that I have changed my status to 'Not accepting Invites' - I am therefore a good candidate for recruitment".

Lack of response to a well-written /tell bugs me as well. Even if it's just a "No". Or a "Soloing, Sorry.". I don't mind if you're in the middle of fighting something or AFK, after 5-10 minutes it gets a bit ridiculous.

I won't ever send more than one tell to a person at a time though, regardless of how annoyed I am with a lack of response. No response within 5 minutes = "not interested" for all intents and purposes anyway.

---

If the game flagged to Lookg for Team by default then presumably people specifically not looking would change it accordingly therefore making everybodys life easier. People looking to join/srart a team would know who isnt looking for a team rather than who might just have not changed their status.

I hold our less than technically advanced seach function responsible for everything in this entire thread

---

Golden-Phoenix - Lvl 50 Fire/Fire Tank
Oodja Nikabolokov - Lvl 50 SS/WP Brute
Baby-Phoenix - Lvl 50 Peacebringer
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could Chuck Norris?

It would make me laugh if it wasn't so tragic.

All these people trying to justify annoying people ingame by saying that the people being annoyed are the ones at fault for using the default system for not wanting a team.

If you cant be bothered to read, or haven't yet learnt, then maybe it is up to you to change your ways and not those using the system as it was meant.

---

Zhaan, Chakyra, Fiorina 161, Aeryn, Polly Nation, Dee Pression, Shazanne, Night Jester and too many more to mention.

Network Hell 47640
Valley of the Harpies 74519
Green and Pleasant Land 75966

[ QUOTE ]
The game flags players as grey BY DEFAULT.

Nobody bothers to change it unless they're desperately looking for help with something. Grey might technically be labelled "Not Looking for team" in-game, but in practice it corresponds more to "I am not hidden and am not so annoyed by other people that I have changed my status to 'Not accepting Invites' - I am therefore a good candidate for recruitment".


[/ QUOTE ]

Hence why so many people use their search comments. If they're flagged as "Not looking", and their search comments say something like "Soloing", then it should be pretty clear that they're not interested. Assuming ANYthing else is just making yourself more comfortable with sending blind tells or invites, and has nothing to do with thinking that person might just have forgotten to change it.

---

@FloatingFatMan

Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

I think in general the default grey search option is translated into "Am not particularly looking for a team but am not avoiding it either" and I think that is quite a fair assumption and it is how I use it, there is no 'ambivalent' option.

When I am putting together a team I will invite those in the LTF bracket first, but since that is rarely more than 2 people (And don't even try suggesting that is a true reflection because it just isn't), then I will move on to those in the default section without something in their comment saying they don't want to do what I am asking them.

I always assume that "Soloing" means they don't want to join a team, but I can understand that it is a bit ambiguous. Otherwise unless your search comment specifically tells me that you do not want a team or get a /tell I think I am perfectly entitled to ask you if you want to join a team, either you make it clear or I will clarify with you.

Being in the default section would mean I leave you alone IF it was used correctly by the majority, but aren't one of the few who uses it properly. If people didn't bother those in the default setting there would never be any teams.

If you don't want a /tell from certain people then update the comment clearly, or put yourself in the 'not accepting' bracket, in which case those bothering you deserve ignoring.

But if you are going to get your knickers in a twist about people asking you a question you really need some social training, do you take offence to someone stopping you in the street asking for the time when you are not wearing your "ask me for the time" sandwich board?

Finally: there is no excuse not to politely reply to a polite tell (That you notice) asking you anything that you haven't already answered in your search comment. Some of you are coming across as a bit anti-social.

---

As I said earlier in the thread, I reply when I receive tells and it is normally politely, however, if I am "noted" as not wanting teams, or even worse, I am in a team and people still ask if I want to join one, then I will get snarky.

What I do object to, is people on this thread insinuating that it is the fault of the receivers for getting inappropriate tells and not the senders, who either are lazy or just do not understand the systems ingame.

---

Zhaan, Chakyra, Fiorina 161, Aeryn, Polly Nation, Dee Pression, Shazanne, Night Jester and too many more to mention.

Network Hell 47640
Valley of the Harpies 74519
Green and Pleasant Land 75966

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The game flags players as grey BY DEFAULT.

Nobody bothers to change it unless they're desperately looking for help with something. Grey might technically be labelled "Not Looking for team" in-game, but in practice it corresponds more to "I am not hidden and am not so annoyed by other people that I have changed my status to 'Not accepting Invites' - I am therefore a good candidate for recruitment".


[/ QUOTE ]

Hence why so many people use their search comments. If they're flagged as "Not looking", and their search comments say something like "Soloing", then it should be pretty clear that they're not interested. Assuming ANYthing else is just making yourself more comfortable with sending blind tells or invites, and has nothing to do with thinking that person might just have forgotten to change it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Seems I find myself in disagreement with you for once then FFM...

Personally I update my search comment very occasionally, usually leaving it saying something along the lines of what type of powersets my AT has and "Please send /tell before inviting", but if I'm looking for something in particular then it might have details about that.

Now I "get" that some people will change it regularly, perhaps even every time they log in.

The problem is (as has been brought up before) that a great many people (the vast majority in fact, from what I've seen in the past few years) tend to park that comment and only update it when they're particularly after something. It could be a badge, or a TF, you get the idea. In general they leave a default comment up, or forget to change it from whatever they left it at last.

So if a search comment says "soloing" and the name is grey (default) I'll assume that sending a tell is fine. Why? Because both those are very, very common things to be left up by default.

Even if a person HAS changed their comment to "Soloing" recently, it simply describes what that person is doing, it does not state what they do NOT want to do. If a comment says "Not interested in teaming" that's different... the only tell I'd see as being anyway 'justified' to that person would be something along the lines of "Apologies, I know your comment says you're not interested in teaming, but would you possibly have a few minutes to help me finish a mission I'm having real trouble with? Please?"

In terms of "Search status" flags, I generally take it as :

Red (Not interested. Don't tell, or even THINK about a blind invite)
Grey (Doesn't care. Send a tell but don't blind invite)
Other (Actively Looking - Sending a tell first is polite, but blind invites are generally acceptable unless their comment says otherwise)

Tells are a means of communication between players.
This is a MMORPG, a multiplayer game built around teaming.
Communication between players is one of the foundations of the game.

If someone is bothered about being sent tells, there are two options:
(i) There's /hide. This solves everything except for spam invites from that completely daft annoying global friend. (Everyone has one... )
(ii) "Not accepting Invites". This is effectively "I don't want to team with you. Leave me alone", and should be treated as such except in dire emergencies or if you're good friends with the person in question.

All IMO, naturally... And it probably should be mentioned that my 'default position' these days is to play the game in "/hide" (with only search listings turned off) unless I'm leveling and don't mind PUG invites...

---

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The game flags players as grey BY DEFAULT.

Nobody bothers to change it unless they're desperately looking for help with something. Grey might technically be labelled "Not Looking for team" in-game, but in practice it corresponds more to "I am not hidden and am not so annoyed by other people that I have changed my status to 'Not accepting Invites' - I am therefore a good candidate for recruitment".


[/ QUOTE ]

Hence why so many people use their search comments. If they're flagged as "Not looking", and their search comments say something like "Soloing", then it should be pretty clear that they're not interested. Assuming ANYthing else is just making yourself more comfortable with sending blind tells or invites, and has nothing to do with thinking that person might just have forgotten to change it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Seems I find myself in disagreement with you for once then FFM...

Personally I update my search comment very occasionally, usually leaving it saying something along the lines of what type of powersets my AT has and "Please send /tell before inviting", but if I'm looking for something in particular then it might have details about that.

Now I "get" that some people will change it regularly, perhaps even every time they log in.

The problem is (as has been brought up before) that a great many people (the vast majority in fact, from what I've seen in the past few years) tend to park that comment and only update it when they're particularly after something. It could be a badge, or a TF, you get the idea. In general they leave a default comment up, or forget to change it from whatever they left it at last.

So if a search comment says "soloing" and the name is grey (default) I'll assume that sending a tell is fine. Why? Because both those are very, very common things to be left up by default.

Even if a person HAS changed their comment to "Soloing" recently, it simply describes what that person is doing, it does not state what they do NOT want to do. If a comment says "Not interested in teaming" that's different... the only tell I'd see as being anyway 'justified' to that person would be something along the lines of "Apologies, I know your comment says you're not interested in teaming, but would you possibly have a few minutes to help me finish a mission I'm having real trouble with? Please?"

In terms of "Search status" flags, I generally take it as :

Red (Not interested. Don't tell, or even THINK about a blind invite)
Grey (Doesn't care. Send a tell but don't blind invite)
Other (Actively Looking - Sending a tell first is polite, but blind invites are generally acceptable unless their comment says otherwise)

Tells are a means of communication between players.
This is a MMORPG, a multiplayer game built around teaming.
Communication between players is one of the foundations of the game.

If someone is bothered about being sent tells, there are two options:
(i) There's /hide. This solves everything except for spam invites from that completely daft annoying global friend. (Everyone has one... )
(ii) "Not accepting Invites". This is effectively "I don't want to team with you. Leave me alone", and should be treated as such except in dire emergencies or if you're good friends with the person in question.

All IMO, naturally...

[/ QUOTE ]

But this post just shows my point.

YOU are making assumptions about everybody else in the game.

YOU think they are being lazy and have not changed their notes and status.

Surely it is just as likely that THEY have correct notes ans status and YOU are wrong and still justifying the fact that you are probably being annoying.

---

Zhaan, Chakyra, Fiorina 161, Aeryn, Polly Nation, Dee Pression, Shazanne, Night Jester and too many more to mention.

Network Hell 47640
Valley of the Harpies 74519
Green and Pleasant Land 75966

[ QUOTE ]
Surely it is just as likely that THEY have correct notes ans status and YOU are wrong .

[/ QUOTE ]
Are you seriously suggesting that the majority of players update their status to correctly show what they want to do? I bet its not even close to 50% that do, more like 10% do 90% don't.

---

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Surely it is just as likely that THEY have correct notes ans status and YOU are wrong .

[/ QUOTE ]
Are you seriously suggesting that the majority of players update their status to correctly show what they want to do? I bet its not even close to 50% that do, more like 10% do 90% don't.

[/ QUOTE ]

But that is your assumption. Sure it may be quite a few people, but who are you to assume Godlike status and knowing all of their statuses are wrong?

---

Zhaan, Chakyra, Fiorina 161, Aeryn, Polly Nation, Dee Pression, Shazanne, Night Jester and too many more to mention.

Network Hell 47640
Valley of the Harpies 74519
Green and Pleasant Land 75966

[ QUOTE ]
But this post just shows my point.

YOU are making assumptions about everybody else in the game.

YOU think they are being lazy and have not changed their notes and status.

Surely it is just as likely that THEY have correct notes ans status and YOU are wrong and still justifying the fact that you are probably being annoying.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, I'm not.

Read the post again: I'm interpreting exactly what a comment says.

1. "Soloing" means "soloing". Not "Will not accept invites".
2. "Not looking for team" means "Not looking for team", not "Will not join a team if asked".

Assumptions and inferrence tend to break down in a text based setup, particularly with a multicultural group of players. You can't accurately convey humour, irony or annoyance in a search comment. So try accuracy.


However,

+ Not looking for team (Grey) is the default.
+ Visible (unhidden) is the default

This is a MMORPG, therefore teaming and communication HAS to be the 'norm' under the default setup otherwise the game simply won't work. So Teaming and tells should be perfectly acceptable unless a person "opts out".

1. If people are bothered by teaming so much that it annoys them, they can go "not accepting invites".
2. If people are bothered by tells so much that it annoys them, they can hide.

If people are not bothered by teaming or tells, but merely have a preference for soling, by all means include this in their serch comment. However, this is not Opting-Out, this is merely providing additional information that may or may not be viewed by others (depending on how clued in they are about the comment system, or how generic or out of date your comment looks).

---

Soloing means soloing. Full Stop.

Not looking for a team means not looking for a team. Full Stop.

Stop trying to justify your own laziness by misinterpreting the simple.

---

Zhaan, Chakyra, Fiorina 161, Aeryn, Polly Nation, Dee Pression, Shazanne, Night Jester and too many more to mention.

Network Hell 47640
Valley of the Harpies 74519
Green and Pleasant Land 75966

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Surely it is just as likely that THEY have correct notes ans status and YOU are wrong .

[/ QUOTE ]
Are you seriously suggesting that the majority of players update their status to correctly show what they want to do? I bet its not even close to 50% that do, more like 10% do 90% don't.

[/ QUOTE ]
But that is your assumption. Sure it may be quite a few people, but who are you to assume Godlike status and knowing all of their statuses are wrong?

[/ QUOTE ]
I am someone who plays the game, looks at the search screen and see's teams forming out of people who aren't sat on the LTF comment. It is blindingly obvious that I am right (Fine the % may be out but the point stands) or I wouldn't claim it (At least on Union).

Also I don't know one single person that updates their search comment every time they log on which would be hard if the majority of people were doing so.

---

[ QUOTE ]
This is a MMORPG, therefore teaming and communication HAS to be the 'norm' under the default setup otherwise the game simply won't work

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually I'd say CoH is an abberation in most MMOs. WoW has very little teaming in it really, at least in the normal PvE gameplay (mine last week comprised of someone randomly chickening me and then running off and a Blind Invite leader who seemed to be spamming invites so he could talk gibberish at us. I quickly remembered why I got bored of it so quickly last time).

WAR is pretty good for getting a team thanks to the "Teams near you" system but there wasn't really that much communication going on between PuG members.

---

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Surely it is just as likely that THEY have correct notes ans status and YOU are wrong .

[/ QUOTE ]
Are you seriously suggesting that the majority of players update their status to correctly show what they want to do? I bet its not even close to 50% that do, more like 10% do 90% don't.

[/ QUOTE ]
But that is your assumption. Sure it may be quite a few people, but who are you to assume Godlike status and knowing all of their statuses are wrong?

[/ QUOTE ]
I am someone who plays the game, looks at the search screen and see's teams forming out of people who aren't sat on the LTF comment. It is blindingly obvious that I am right (Fine the % may be out but the point stands) or I wouldn't claim it (At least on Union).

Also I don't know one single person that updates their search comment every time they log on which would be hard if the majority of people were doing so.

[/ QUOTE ]

All bow to the psychic overlord of righteousness. Talk about get over yourself,lol.

---

Zhaan, Chakyra, Fiorina 161, Aeryn, Polly Nation, Dee Pression, Shazanne, Night Jester and too many more to mention.

Network Hell 47640
Valley of the Harpies 74519
Green and Pleasant Land 75966

[ QUOTE ]

Red (Not interested. Don't tell, or even THINK about a blind invite)
Grey (Doesn't care. Send a tell but don't blind invite)
Other (Actively Looking - Sending a tell first is polite, but blind invites are generally acceptable unless their comment says otherwise)


[/ QUOTE ]

That bit looks good to me.
If i log in i get automatically set to not looking for team. I do not mind at all if people send me tells then asking if i want to team, i might just not gotten around to flagging myself or i simply forgot.


It really works both ways, you are playing an MMO. It's a multiplayer world. There's nothing wrong with player interaction, infact it should be encouraged.
If you are soloing and get so gosh darned annoyed at getting asked to team in a multiplayer game, then it might be an idea to actually go out of your way to put the red flag on yourself. Because then you will more then likely be left alone and not get upset by getting tells asking you to join teams.

Simply because the "not looking" is default, it is interpreted by me, and i know by several others as well, as a "not doing anything or i just logged in flag". I do not mind at all getting asked to join teams with the not looking flag up. And simply putting "soloing" in the comment is in my opinion really not giving enough information that you are soloing and want to be left alone. Like i said before, it could be equally well interpreted as that you're just alone atm and up for grabs.
And that has nothing to do with people going out of their way to annoy others, they might simply just want other people to play with, and god forbid teaming in a MMO.



I agree that the lfg tool is pretty lacking in many areas.
But the attitude expressed by certain individuals in this thread it's almost as if they expect you to read minds.

---

Just want to add that I am not one for jumping to conclusions and haven't made any other such claims in other threads, I don't have a god-complex, but I find it hard to believe that anyone disagrees with me in this instance.

---

[ QUOTE ]
Soloing means soloing. Full Stop.

Not looking for a team means not looking for a team. Full Stop.

[/ QUOTE ]

I believe that is precisely what I said above.

[ QUOTE ]
Stop trying to justify your own laziness by misinterpreting the simple.

[/ QUOTE ]

You are now getting needlessly antagonistic, so I think I will decline to comment on that and just leave you with this: What if my search comment said "Jumping up and down" (with or without the 'Full Stop.')

What does that mean?

+ It means that at the time of writing the comment, I was jumping up and down.

+ It doesn't mean I'm still jumping up and down. I could have written it last month.
+ It doesn't mean I wouldn't be up for, say, being invited to play football instead.
+ It doesn't mean that if my phone went off I wouldn't stop what I was doing and answer it.

If I had my phone turned off (not accepting tells) or was jumping up and down where noone could see me (hidden) or had a big red "DO NOT DISTURB" sign (not accepting invites) then it might be different.

---