Suggestions

given staff have said they're planning on revamping the skin system, i am once again asking for a proper shop for skins

I'm surprised there hasn't been more discussion on this, especially with the possible loss of tools like GASP. I think this could be a good base to sort of "replace" the functionality of it (assuming mass pings are removed without effective tools to replace it).

How have I never seen this suggestion before? Yes please, this is great! One of the main things holding me back from making new skins is the tedium of relisting things on the AH every week.

I‘ve commented my support here before the pinglist change and I’ll comment it again after. I did make another suggestion to try and allow the new Pinglist to function similar to GASP but adding the functionality into other parts of the site (like a skin shop, where there can be potentially tags and more in depth filtering) is also a good way to go about it.

Both this along side additional improvements to the new ping system would be the dream!

I am off of work and coming back to write a longer and probably way too wordy support response.

This is, I believe, one of the better solutions for the current plight of loosing things like GASP (on top of also just being a way improved skin system, but I think it also has potential to help the new system too).

The current ping system still needs tweaks and fixes, for sure, at least as far as all of the ones the dom orgs have put together as they have easily the least complex and easily achievable set of requirements to meet. Many of the current suggestions going around should be added to it to make it more flexible and a better feature over all, as I think the new ping system but upgraded combined with this suggestion and a little bit more would make skin selling a far less disagreeable beast, but I think trying to keep the enter old system under it might bog it down so;

Skin sellers (and by extension dragon sellers, but I don't want to derail this thread) could use this suggestion along with a "free-form" tagging system. I was thinking about a pre-provided list of tags people could use but I think that would get stale, cause strife, be too limiting, and be outdated rather quickly. It'd need more moderation but would allow the users to come up with commonly used tags themselves, old ones to easily fall back, and new ones to in real time form.

This suggestion, along with an "include [insert tag]", "exclude [insert tag]", and "exclude tagless" search feature for searching tagged skins, where a skin maker submits the tags to go along side their skin when first submitting it, I think would be the most solid option we could possibly get in terms of longevity to the feature, it being the most intuitive, and it being the most user friendly.

I've always liked the idea of this suggestion, even without the possibility of the additional tags, and I hope a skin shop is seriously considered!

[quote name="Comical" date="2023-10-27 19:27:56" ] Skin sellers (and by extension dragon sellers, but I don't want to derail this thread) could use this suggestion along with a "free-form" tagging system. I was thinking about a pre-provided list of tags people could use but I think that would get stale, cause strife, be too limiting, and be outdated rather quickly. It'd need more moderation but would allow the users to come up with commonly used tags themselves, old ones to easily fall back, and new ones to in real time form.[/quote] I would love this! I would even be okay with an official tag list, as long as it was long enough & there was a suggestion thread for new tags. Artists could add tags to skins as part of the submission process. It’s would be super helpful for both advertising and buying skins. (The main advantage of an official tag list is it could be incorporated in the AH… a separate skin system like the one described here would be the ideal scenario, but that requires more coding. Another advantage of an official tag list is it makes it easier for users to avoid skins they dislike.)

[quote name="blaireau" date="2023-10-27 19:45:42" ] (The main advantage of an official tag list is it could be incorporated in the AH… a separate skin system like the one described here would be the ideal scenario, but that requires more coding. [b]Another advantage of an official tag list is it makes it easier for users to avoid skins they dislike.[/b]) [/quote] This is true in a sense, but I would say not quite. Flight Rising staff can simply not provide enough tags to cover everything that anyone would ever need to block things they don't like. I do think they'd need some sort of guide (and obviously moderation), for some sense of coherence and more usability (god forbid we ever get what people do on Tumblr where they add random crap at the end of a tag so the system doesn't block it or how people have a million different ways to say the same thing so people need to block a million different tags for one thing they don't want to see). The 'exclude' in my head is more so for filter-ability, not for censoring. I think ultimately if websites want a "censor" option, they need to allow users to block specific images or the like completely separate from what tags are added to them but, again not to derail, that is for a different suggestion and not on topic with this one! But really, I will take either, they both have their own pros and cons and even if I prefer the free-form one (which could very well change depending on how in-depth an official list could be), the official tag list is still better then no filters.

Oh yes, to clarify I was thinking of tags in GASP terms - it would let users search for skins that have keywords they like and avoid skins with keywords they dislike (eg search for pastel pearlcatcher skins that don’t have gore). The tag system could eventually be used to censor skins, but like you said that’s a separate thread.

Ah yes that makes way more sense, thank you for clarification :]!

I NEED THIS IN MY LIFE