I would like to suggest that Chicken Smoothie switch from the current “group” system to a “tag” system.
This would allow a single pet to belong to multiple groups without a player needing to acquire more than one of the same pet. I feel like this would give us a lot more freedom when it comes to collecting, organizing, trading and displaying our beloved pets.
For example, I could tag the blue stained glass dog in my signature as "Stained Glass" and "Favorites" and have him show up when I look at all of the pets with either tag. Right now I have to choose whether to keep him with the other stained glass dogs or with my favorite pets when I believe he belongs equally in both groups. Then later when I'm trying to find him I would not have to try and remember in which group I decided to put him. I could find him by looking under "Stained Glass" OR "Favorites" rather than trying one group and then the other.
Things that could stay the same:
-Click the links under "manage groups (or tags, in this case)" to create, rename, delete or change trade status for a tag
-Check the boxes under a pet then select the desired tag from the pulldown menu at the bottom of the page to add those pets to that tag
-Select the desired tag from the pulldown menu at the top of the page to view all pets with that tag
-Current group settings could carry over into the tag system to save people the trouble of having to reorganize once the tag system is in place
-The number of pets with a particular tag is listed next to the tag name in the pull down menu
Things that could be added or changed:
-Have an option to view all pets in the pulldown navigation menu
-Have an option to view pets by adoption year/month in the pulldown navigation menu
-Display all the tags a pet has on its pet page
-When viewing a tag, have the option to remove pets from that tag by selecting them with the check boxes (Similar to the way you can move pets to “Pets without a group” now but you wouldn’t have to remove all the tags from those pets)
-Have the option to add/remove tags on each pet on its pet page
-Have the option to select more than one tag in the pulldown menu so you can tag the pets you've selected with several tags at once
-Rather than just saying "You own this pet" on the archives page, it could say "you own X of this pet”
FAQs
(Feel free to ask more questions either by posting below or sending me a PM)
Won't this system take up too much time and be too complicated?
People who prefer the group system would only need to place pets under a single tag just the exact same way the group system works. People who prefer to use multiple tags per pet could do just that. Using the same check box system we use now, it would take no more or less time to organize new pets as it does now. The tag system is only as complicated and time consuming as each individual user chooses to make it, just like the group system is already but with more flexibility.
How will I know how many of a pet I have if a single pet is in multiple groups?
A few of the new features I suggest above would make it easy to keep track of how many of a pet you have. A counter (“you own X of this pet”) on the archives page –or even on the pet’s page too- would help. Additionally, since pets are automatically displayed in order of adoption date you could view all pets, view pets by year/month etc. and be able to tell quickly and easily how many of a pet you have.
What if I trade away a pet I only have one of because I mistake a single pet in multiple groups for multiple copies of that pet?
Trading pets is always a risky pastime and it’s already up to each of us to make our own decisions about which trades we offer and which ones we accept. A tag system would not change the fact that it is each user’s responsibility to keep track of their pets if they’re going to trade them. People already make trade groups and NFT groups; they could make trade and NFT tags just as easily. People already have the option to enable/disable trades for each individual group; they could enable/disable trades for each individual tag just as easily. People already give pets names and items to distinguish between them; tags would not interfere with those methods at all.
(Edited from the original post 1/4/2012)
