Operation Audacious Phoenix

I am interested in a way of keeping brief notes on users that are saved to the server, the same way we can keep notes on blocked users/characters and add a brief tidbit about a character relationship.

I've been on RPR for so long that I'm losing track of who is who, especially with name changes happening more often now. I find myself occasionally running into someone who I didn't outright block, but whom I want to minimize contact with, only to find out they changed their username a while ago and I didn't know and almost engaged them in conversation. Similar issues with friends, sometimes the changes slip by because my feed got busy, or they're inactive for a while, and then suddenly I don't know who they are anymore because I have accumulated such a huge friendlist.

I bet there are some concerns about this that I'm missing right now, but I would really like having a way to put a note on a user's profile that only I can see when I visit my friendlist or a non-friend's profile. I figure that it may need to be limited to friends or one-sided connections for one reason or another, but I don't know for sure so I'm throwing that out there.

I'm really interested in hearing how others feel about this or what issues you think might occur with such a feature!

i love this idea!! it would also be very handy in different situations, like if they’re on a hiatus for x amount of time, etc.; then you could write that down there! i really think it’s a very practical and good idea, and i would love to be able to add small notes about my relation to different players here ^^

Although the idea of having notes about yourself that you'd never know is a little weird and could be distressing...


I also think I'd appreciate this because my memory is garbage.

...but I'm also not sure I'd take the time to use it.

I feel like this is something that could be abused.

For instance. Person A wants to start fresh after a falling out with person B.

Person A revamps their profile and changes their name after removing person B. They even go as far as to block person B.

Person B adds a note on this person that now tells them who they are even when they change their name. This opens the door for person B to harass person A by making a new account or sending their friends out after person A.

Person A has no way to escape this note that they dont even know they have put on them by Person B. They just cant figure out why or how person B keeps following them.

I get it isnt what you would use it for but with people wanting to keep their anonymity up. It is hard when a tool can be abused by a stalker.

While it seems like a great idea, could it not be achieved by keeping notes on your own?

I can see your concerns on this, but I don't suspect it to be much of an issue at all. When you block someone right now, you can already keep a note on the reason why you blocked them, which feels hardly any different from being able to put a note on a user when you don't block them.

When they change their username, the following happens:

- their already known characters are now listed under their new username
- my block list gets updated with their new username while retaining the existing notes made - something that happened not too long ago, a user I had blocked did just that and this is how I found out they changed their username on-site
- their old username URL will redirect to their new username for a period of 6 months before the old username gets fully purged from the system and is available again
- all their previous posts that they created on the forums are still linked to their new username
- their user ID is still the same - the URL to PM me will always be the same no matter what my username is, my ID is 574 and will not change

I guess I'm not entirely sure how a note for a non-blocked user is going to hurt their anonymity anymore than a block note would, considering user accounts are never really anonymous in any capacity on the site. Only anonymous character profiles are.

The reason I don't keep notes of my own outside RPR is because I have a friendlist with approximately 250+ mutual and one-sided friends, and I have no good way of keeping track of who does what on the site and then update a sheet or something along those lines. I get several friend requests per week on average and try to prune the list regularly, cross referencing constantly is a job I'm not keen on doing.

Edit: accidentally quoted instead of edited

I agree with Sanne, I think the usefulness of a notes function outweighs the chance of abuse from a would-be stalker. If they wanted to keep notes on a specific person to cause trouble, chances are they’re already doing it on some other app.

I didn't know that about the user ID, or well. I knew we had user ID's, I just don't know where one finds their user ID? Who knows where to look for the User ID and then keep a track of it? Could anyone just find my user ID and write it down? Either way, real neat to know about.
And sure, if they change user name and you can remember their character names, or if they had any characters listed at all and not marked as anonymous, you would probably still be able to find them, but you've got to do some foot work in searching for their profile again, and you'd be out of luck if they suddenly put those characters on private since you wouldn't be able to find their profile with their new name like that and if they have you on block then you can't initiate any kind of conversation with them so it makes finding them even harder. Rpr seems to do a lot to protect the users it has, which is great.
I knew that about the username change and the urls, but I didn't know for how long it was, so that is cool to know.
Granted you can remember the thread and the particulars of their post, I guess you could troll through the forums to find their new username through that, but it seems like an awful lot of effort to do, considering how many posts there are and how many threads there are, but some people just... Will go through any length I guess.


My thing is, when you block someone, you typically don't track down what they are doing on the site. You block them and put them out of mind cause you can't initiate any kind of contact with them.

when I put someone on block, I don't bother with them again, nor do I care to. That was the reason I put them on block in the first place. I didn't want to have anything to do with them anymore. So with that in mind, I guess it would be the intent behind the note. On a blocked user note, you put the note down to maybe remind yourself why you put them on block in the first place and you've got them on block. I suppose you could just abuse the block system to track someone by blocking and unblocking them so you can harass them if that was what you really wanted to do. If someone wants to really mess with you, I am sure they'll find a way to do it.


Wow that is a lot of people.

What is a one sided friend? Is that just someone who added you to add you and you accepted? Or is it someone you added, but didn't add them back? If you didn't add them back, then why not just remove them from your friends list to help clear up that big number and make it more manageable for you to look through.



I dig it and they probably do, but that's not using Rpr resources to do it, it's using some third party application or whatever to keep tabs on someone.

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How about this. Implement it like you want, but have the caveat that either this person has to accept this note about them, maybe via a pm or something. That way this person can know what is written about them and if they don't accept it or w/e then it is deleted, or limit it to friends only and whenever you two stop being friends, just like with everything else, your note vanishes. Could show up in their friendslist, which I think is only visible to them, and if they decide to add one, it is added on your friends list under their name or something.


I think if it is implemented, then a happy medium between wanting to keep up with people and people wanting to be safe can be reached.

I can definitely see the uses for it, I just am not entirely sure why it has to be something else that the server has to keep up with. It would be pretty wack if the server decided to just blank out all the notes on players. Then you're put back to square one, I guess.

Your user ID is always visible in most of the links on your public profile. These are mine:

https://www.rprepository.com/community/pm/compose.php?u=574
https://www.rprepository.com/shop/index.php?u=574
https://www.rprepository.com/community/addblock.php?u=574
https://www.rprepository.com/trophycase.php?play=574
https://www.rprepository.com/displaycase.php?play=574
https://www.rprepository.com/community/playercharacters.php?p=574
https://www.rprepository.com/community/personalkudos.php?p=574

There's nothing really private about this or hidden away, this is just how the site functions all over.

It is prettyneat! The help database also mentions this.

It's when someone sends me a friend request, and I allow them to friend me but I don't friend them back. This way they can follow my activity feed but I don't really see theirs. I usually do this with people who I've spoken to briefly or said hi to on the forums, but whom I don't know otherwise. It helps keep my feed readable otherwise I'd be swarmed!


I would never use it then. If a blocked user doesn't have to know what note is tagged to their account, then a friend or acquaintance doesn't have to either.

The scenarios described for how such a feature could contribute to stalking seem to require a very devoted stalker who will not leave the victim alone under any circumstances, but nevertheless cannot remember anything at all about their victim. This feels like a super unlikely fringe-case, that can mostly be solved by simply blocking someone and then involving moderators if they do things to get around the block.

It sure would be, but by this logic, we should not implement ANY new features, in case they don't work in future.

It feels like there is a lot of anxiety here that isn't quite explained by the way things work or are proposed to work?

Oh wow, your user id is everywhere. Makes sense, since it links you to your profile and all. That is cool to know, thanks for showing me. I honestly didn't know where you could find it.

Oh, okay. That makes sense, I was just thinking about that last night as I was pruning some friends, where it gave you the option to break the linkage entirely or just on your site.


What about if it were just kept to only friends being able to have a note written about them. This includes one sided friends, and acquaintances. Anyone you've initiated a connection request with. They don't have to approve it or anything or even be aware of it.

I think my biggest concern was just notes about random users, people who aren't connected on your friendlist at all. That part felt a little weird to me? Perhaps I misread it.


Well I was giving an example initially on how it could be abused. Everything after when I was replying to Sanne was just responding to what she had said. I don't count those as the same 'example' as a whole. I feel like I know people who straight up would do that though.

Lmao, I suppose. In Sanne's case it would be real bad though, seeing how she has such a large list. Would be a pain to have to go through and redo all of that, but that alone isn't something worth really worrying about since the server has backups for all sorts of things.

I was just voicing a concern. I don't have any anxiety about it. If anyone wants to use it to track me then that is whatever, and if they want to use it to harass me, then I'll just drop them on block, as it is something that definitely works out well.

I don't feel concerned about this feature for any reason, I just think it would feel weird to wonder if someone has a note about you. I mean, it could be something really nice, or it could be mean. I honestly don't care. If people are rude when using this, I would just block them. It's just the feeling of being like...profiled? I don't know how to phrase it.

I'd like to point out that we already have this feature for character relationships -- you can only see the notes someone has written about the characters their character is bound to if they choose to show it. People probably already have notes about you in some way or another you know nothing about.

Also, the program notepad, and actual notepads exist, and more people keep notes than you think.

Yeah, that was part of the reason I suggested having it like "How about this. Implement it like you want, but have the caveat that either this person has to accept this note about them, maybe via a pm or something. That way this person can know what is written about them and if they don't accept it or w/e then it is deleted, or limit it to friends only and whenever you two stop being friends, just like with everything else, your note vanishes. "

Essentially the same thing, except functions differently, but since we can't view other peoples friendslists, I figure the person you share a connection with could view the note about them.

Also I think I made a mention of having a notepad file for this, which lead me to wonder why it needed to be handled by the server, but in Sanne's case 250+ people is a lot to go through and cross reference.

Letting them approve it, imo, defeats the entire point of this.

Often there's an interaction with someone who isn't doing anything to warrant a block. I keep old PMs around simply to remind myself that person X and I already hashed out ideas, decided we weren't really a good RP match, then went our separate ways. Or maybe the RP lasted only a few posts before one or the other of us decided we didn't like it after all.

Nothing that I'd block anyone for. But certainly the longer you're a member of any forum, the more people you interact with and the easier it is to forget a brief interaction from a year or more ago.

Personally, I'd have notes like:

"Story jumped straight to smut."
"Interested in RPing with character Y"
"Ghosted previous RP"
"I ghosted them on previous RP"
"Never replied to interest PM"
"Styles didn't mesh"
"Speed poster"

Of course, notes could/should be editable. Opinions can change over time.

Wow....

I remember seeing this idea posted and nearly posted on it to show my support. I forget what came up but I was distracted by something and ended up not posting here.

I'm a little surprised this has turned into a concern though, I mean literally all the OP wanted was to keep notes about past interactions with other players and I dont see how there are safety or privacy concerns with that. Stalkers can just use Samsung note or something and this feature wouldn't really help enable them a lot I think.

I also dont understand why someone would need permission to keep notes....lol. I use Samsung notepad to keep notes about rps, characters, and yes even a few users. Truth is asking permission, like Juls said, defeats the purpose and makes the feature more difficult to use. Instead of asking permission I would just put my notes on Samsung note again which I'll never need anyone's permission to use (except...you know...maybe Samsung).

In closing I feel this is a neat innocent feature without any real safety or privacy issues if done the way the OP claimed and I'm all for it. The truth is I'm already using my own notepad in a similar way and the idea it could be tagged directly to players and characters would really help streamline a lot of things.

I think it is great that a lot of people seem to want this. I just wanted to voice a concern and I guess it is seen as unwarranted, but I felt it worth while to mention.

Either way, looking forward to whatever happens.

I would definitely like to have this. I have quite a few friends, I have quite a few RP partners and OOC chatters, I have people that I only see on the site every now and again, people I've had negative or positive interactions with but don't want to block or befriend.

It'd be interesting to be able to keep little notes like

'Didn't reply to LFRP inquiry'

'Not a fan of their writing for *insert reason*'

'Wants to RP with *insert character name* but can't right now'

'Likes to be called *insert name*'

'Wants *insert item* for their birthday'

I can understand how someone might feel a bit of discomfort knowing that someone is making notes about them, but since only the person who made the note will see the note, I have no problem with this. I feel like a note (to themselves) is just a thought, and we can't stop people from having thoughts about us, after all, both positive and negative thoughts, nor do they need permission from us to have those thoughts or write them down.

The only objection I see here that makes sense to me is, let's call it "the thwarted attempt to start fresh" problem.

If someone has a falling out with some people and wants to start fresh so they make all their characters anonymous, change their username and hope most people never noticed their user IDs and don't know about the forum posts linking to their new profile (a lot of if's), I guess I can see how a note would thwart this attempt to start fresh.



The moral of the story is --- I get why some people might feel like their anonymity would be compromised by notes that follow players after name changes -- but in reality, the anonymity that someone might think they get by changing usernames is really not a solid thing. If someone truly wanted to start all over they'd have to start from scratch.

Knowing that -- this feature seems like it would add more than it takes away.

While I understand the other users concerns with it--blocking and going to moderators would work for the types of situations mentioned. I know people who aren't confrontational might find that hard, but changing usernames isn't the answer to that problem (because it doesn't always work...as mentioned in the story above). Truly starting fresh is still possible -- it would just have to be from scratch. So in fact this doesn't thwart the ability to start fresh, it just makes it more widely known that changing a username doesn't equal anonymity.

Meanwhile, this allows us to keep helpful notes like:

- reminders not to mispell someone's name
- what nickname they prefer or dislike (ex. Jay vs JB for Jaybeard )
- pronoun preferences
- noting people you spot in forums whose writing style you like.

And mainly this.

For me, when I talk to people OOC, I often exchange first names with them.

Then...months later...I cannot, to save my life, remember their first name. So, they through my name into a message, and I want to do the same, so I end up scrolling back through pages and pages of PMs CTRL+F-ing the word "name" until I find that sentence.

It would be soooo much easier to have a note that says their name right there, if they've shared it with me.

My notes would probably say things like,

"John, the truck driver from Alaska" or "Jane, the sci fi RPer from France"

In short, I like it and hope it gets included.

I do appreciate your input! Like I said in my OP, there might be things that I missed and it's important to address potential problems. I fully understand your concerns for anonymity and it was valid to bring it up. I wouldn't say it's an unwarranted concern (harassment is really serious), just very unlikely to happen. And if it does happen, the moderator team is quick to step in and deal with the situation as long as it's reported.

I think Abigail provided an interesting perspective on the matter, too!