Alright, let's state this thing neatly and detailed.

First, here is a previous request (t/150705/start=0), but it was probably half of what I have in mind right now, so read below :3

Let's start with saying that I hate what happens in #lobby nowadays: people spamming, people talking about anything, moderators continuously called to this chat by reports and so on... Basically, it's awful imo

The option came in mind already (as mentioned in the previous feature request I linked) and it was about making link to your multiplayer room instead of saying "JOIN XXX GUYS !!1!1!!!!".

Here is the part almost nobody knows: we can already do that, but it's so long and "hidden" then those who really should use it would never know it

What to do:

1. Enter the multiplayer and create a room
2. Invite yourself (yeah, yourself) by typing /invite [-MrSergio-] (your username, obviously)
3. You'll automatically open a chat with yourself with the invite. "What to do next?" you could ask
4. Hover the link you sent yourself and you'll see the real link. Copy that (You have to do it manually)
5. Once you have your link, go to #lobby and use the [link text] formula using the link you just got
6. Wait for players to click on your link while you stay quiet in your room and don't spam in #lobby as you usually do

Now that you know this is not like you solved much: there's nothing to prevent a huge spam of room links in #lobby anyway, so here's the second part (the biggest change in #lobby)

MAKE #LOBBY A CHANNEL SIMILAR TO #ANNOUNCE

Yeah, you read it correctly and I'll explain why in a moment.

Here's is the new part I thought by myself while staring at that chat: add a button in the multiplayer room, maybe with a label like "Advertise your room", or something like that, which will make appear a simple text box (the same as in the options for the HL list and the Ignore user list) where the player will put a message to advertise his room automatically in #lobby. This implies that osu! will do the process of the auto-invite/copy-paste link for you and it will use the phrase you put in the text box to cover the link (If you leave the text box empty osu! will just take the room's name instead, and maybe adding the game mode [Standard, Taiko, CtB, Mania] and the song, but this is starting to be a bit a mess right now, so let's leave it as it is, with just the room's name)

But this still needs some control, as we said before, so this button will have a cool-down time (let's say for at least 2 minutes maybe?). This way the spam should be critically reduced by now, even if there's still the huge amount of lobbies to take in consideration, but it's something already imo.

I said #lobby should be similar to #announce, which implies that nobody will ever be able to write directly in that chat, but only see it and click the links that osu! will create as requested by the players when they press the button mentioned before (I know this is really radical, so I except a lot of critics on this, but I think is the best option)

As for the button placement I think we could place it under the mods selection button or under the "Win condition" (or even beside the room's name)
Sorry, but I'm not creative so I could't come up with better suggestions for this one :/


REASONS:

1. Less stress for our moderators, since they'll have one less channel to take care of
2. A lot of people will avoid taking useless silences for stupid reasons <.<
3. #lobby will finally have the function that it was meant for
4. (Main/personal reason: I love rules and I love people too, but usually these two can't stay together for some strange reason, so basically I'm doing this for everyone :3)

I hope this post gets attention as the other one and that it will receive a positive feedback. Thanks for your time :3 (/me gets prepared to the possible incoming hell out of this)



ADDITIONAL SUGGESTIONS BY OTHERS OR BY MYSELF

1. I tried to think about the message's design and it came out something like this (add comments on what to add/remove from this please)
   
   I used BAldoTridentE's code to make part of the message
   Oinari-sama suggested a "colored" advertise based on the players in the room which I'd really like to see if possible (p/3748105)
2. As LoliFlan mentioned, there should be a new command for moderators to erase un-wanted room names (maybe let's keep the room but just reset the name to the default "XXX's room" when these cases occur). Maybe a command like !rr <user who advertised the room> (rr stands for "room reset" and typing the user's name will help to identify more easily the room in question) Alright, Nathanael's suggestion is a lot better in this case
3. The point above made me think about the privileges to advertise the room: it should be advertise-able only by the current host, but we need a general cool-down for the entire room in this case, since they could change constantly the host just to make more advertisements
4. Maybe we could add an auto-advertise system instead of the button, which advertise your room once it's created and keeps advertising with an interval based upon the players in the room (see here). by Oinari-sama /// What I'd like to add as my opinion is that we still need something to turn this off in some circumstances to avoid useless advertising when we don't need it (so maybe another button xD *runs*) Alright, this turned out to be quite unnecessary so for now I'll remove it from the additional features (based on the community feedback, it will return when I see people supporting this)
5. After discussing with Oinari-sama on the auto-ads we concluded that we need a box in the creation room screen to add more details about the room. Referring also to these requests : t/165856 and t/146640

maybe have a kudosu sistem to advertise in #lobby so it's not spammy not approved by Ludo <3

nice idea! I would support this if I had any votes

marcostudios wrote:

maybe have a kudosu sistem to advertise in #lobby so it's not spammy

That would be messier imo, since "Who will give the kudosu?" - "Who will ensure you deserve those kudosu?" - "How will you spend those kudosu?" and so on

The cool-down time fits better in this case, since everyone will be able to post their room without (relevant) restrictions

I already mentioned the idea personally to sergio, i thought something like this:

22:30 NameOfThePlayer: Join Room [Name/Link of the room] ([Current players]/[maximum players]) [mode]

=

22:30 Andrea: Join Room EasyForFun (2/16) [Standard]
(Link of room just for example)

Cool idea, i would like to shoot a star but... :C

#lobby is the most chaotic channels in the osu!verse.
Having it function similar to #announce is an excellent idea. As a moderator I find it is quite the task to moderate it sometimes.

It can function as "click this to advertise", for example per 5 minutes, to prevent spam.
The only thing left to moderate is inappropriate multi room names, but an option to disband the room for the moderators can also be granted.
It's how I would see it.

I would like to see this as soon as possible, full support.

yes yes uwu//
i've been wanting to make something similar to this, but never had the chance to/never had a clear idea, but you're right. something needs to be done
lobby is also between rules, you're allowed to chat briefly in there, and that makes it hard when there is random languages in there. it's very confusing.
I had an idea to pitch to this, but I'm still thinking about it, I'll post again if I get any ideas
Good idea though man, full support

Why not having ads fully automated instead?

The 1st ad is automatically sent when the room is created, eg: Oinari-sama has created the room [room-link Touhou 5 Stars]

Instead of ingame manual button, ads are sent in #lobby automatically afterwards at set intervals, based on how many people are in the room:

1. 1-2 Players: Once every 2min
2. 3-5 Players: Once every 5min
3. 6+ Players: Once every 10min

(figures TBA, will need to change based on feasibility)

It'll be nice if people can subscribe to certain keywords in this channel (eg Touhou). Highlight lists may work temporarily but is not ideal (as you'll get false alarms from other channels when someone mentions "Touhou")

I totally agree with the "creation room link", but having thousands of rooms being automatically advertised won't be a problem? I mean, this idea was meant in the first place to avoid spam and I think the auto-advertising goes against this. What happens if 2 users start playing Within Temptation - The Unforgiving (53 minutes long) ? They will have their game permanently advertised every 2 minutes in this case.

So basically this idea should be like (maybe you meant it this way and I didn't understand it. Sometimes I'm just blind, sorry) the auto-advertising will be active only while waiting. But here's another thing I was thinking about: What if I let my room public, but I only invite friends (it could be. Not everyone sets the password and then invites) ? In this case this thing should be turned off in some way imo, since will be useless to have the room advertised when I really don't want it to be.

As for the HL...I don't know, maybe they can use their own HL list for that since I'd like to keep as simple as possible this feature to avoid a massive wall of new code just for this (obviously if it's easy to do, why not)

Obviously this goes in the Suggestion section :3

Your line of thinking is hilarious to say the least

1. People are breaking rules alot
2. Alot of it happens in one channel
3. If that channel got closed those people would stop breaking rules.

Yeah how about no. You should think about the consequences before you make a suggestion.

Unless this comes with every other room being closed aswell then prepare for the spam to spread like the plague.

I actually thought about this for a long time, you know...

Anyways, everyone can express their opinion, so thank you for the contribution :3

Sea_Food wrote:

Your line of thinking is hilarious to say the least

1. People are breaking rules alot
2. Alot of it happens in one channel
3. If that channel got closed those people would stop breaking rules.

Yeah how about no. You should think about the consequences before you make a suggestion.

Unless this comes with every other room being closed aswell then prepare for the spam to spread like the plague.

But have you even seen #lobby? It's a mess.
I don't think people would get mad, lol.
But. A lot of conversation in lobby is caused by people thinking it's their #multiplayer. With that, I propose another idea, which will most likely be put into another thread. To avoid spam in #osu, I think there should be some kind of reminder when people haven't talked in #multiplayer, but in #osu. I think it would avoid confusion.

Sea_Food wrote:

Your line of thinking is hilarious to say the least

1. People are breaking rules alot
2. Alot of it happens in one channel
3. If that channel got closed those people would stop breaking rules.

Yeah how about no. You should think about the consequences before you make a suggestion.

Unless this comes with every other room being closed aswell then prepare for the spam to spread like the plague.

At least it's one less channel

I support this idea very much. - As soon as I click 'multiplayer' the first thing I do is close #lobby because it's such a mess.

----------

Sea_Food wrote:

<snip>

People don't think about stuff like this before-hand, they just do whatever seems convienent.
The 'main' cause of the spam is that #lobby just opens and puts your channel tab to it as soon as you click multiplayer.

If this idea is implemented correctly it could reduce the amount of spam greatly,
and even if it wouldn't, it would be a good system to join a room to your liking.

----------

Either way, I don't see a downside to this, really. It's a good idea and I don't see how it can have a negative impact, only a positive one.

[-MrSergio-] wrote:

the auto-advertising will be active only while waiting. But here's another thing I was thinking about: What if I let my room public, but I only invite friends (it could be. Not everyone sets the password and then invites) ? In this case this thing should be turned off in some way imo, since will be useless to have the room advertised when I really don't want it to be.

I didn't think about that many possibilities, was trying to see if the "auto-ads" idea is worth discussing or not. It'll indeed be better if the "auto-ads" are only sent when waiting in the room. It'll also make more senseif private (pass protected) rooms aren't auto-advertised.

btw those 2/5/10min are artibary, I don't have any stats on hand to make feasibility calculations. It did the job to get the discussions going

Oinari-sama wrote:

I didn't think about that many possibilities, was trying to see if the "auto-ads" idea is worth discussing or not. It'll indeed be better if the "auto-ads" are only sent when waiting in the room. It'll also make more senseif private (pass protected) rooms aren't auto-advertised.

btw those 2/5/10min are artibary, I don't have any stats on hand to make feasibility calculations. It did the job to get the discussions going

I didn't think at those options too tbh, they just came in mind reading your post xD.

As for the time intervals, as I said, I have no precise idea too and it's what I'm trying to solve these days since I think the auto-ads would be much easier for many players that usually don't even watch what's on the screen (yeah, I've met few of them <.<), but for now the button to advertise their own room (with the cool-down time of, let's say, 5 minutes in any case) seems to be the solution to "I don't want my room to be advertise" and "I don't need advertises while I'm playing", since nobody says you have to press that button no matter what xD

Mean while, I thought about another thing I didn't take in consideration: most players usually enter the multiplayer and create their room with the currently playing song (which sometimes isn't the song they really want to play, and I am one of those players actually), therefore their first advertise (the creation room advertise) will be useless, since they will advertise the wrong song (see the first post for the advertise sample). So, what can we do now to prevent this?

1. Maybe we could make the "creation room advertise" wait till the real song is selected (but this is gonna be messier to code down probably, so it's a bad idea imo)
2. Maybe we could open the song select before the room is created (kinda complex too. I was thinking to something like the "skip to song..." Button we have in the main menu, but, as I said, it looks kinda complex)
3. Last option, which seems to be more logic, but still complex too. Basically I'm thinking about asking to choose from "join/create/exit" before entering the actual multiplayer room. If join is pressed, you'll go to see the multiplayer room with all the current lobbies and the channel #lobby will automatically pop up. If Create is pressed, you'll go to the song select screen first, where you'll choose the song you want to play (this way you can advertise the correct song for the "creation room advertise"), and then (after you press enter) you'll have the usual "create multiplayer room" screen, where you choose the name, number of players and password (this option looks a lot better, but I wonder about the code side of this...)
4. Former option: use the button I mentioned before to advertise your room only when you want to (this one looks a lot easier tbh, always looking to the code implementation)

Alright, let me hear your opinion on this one since, as you seen, there are quite a few options to take in consideration (I'm seriously tempt to make a poll out of this, but let's just discuss it xD)

Could consider fetching custom text instead of /np when the room is first made. Was thinking about how this could work with t/165856 & t/146640

EDIT: Throwing these out before I forget:
It'll be nice if the ads text can be colour-coded based on number of people or time created, eg:

1. New Room ads: Green
2. 1-2 Players ads: Yellow
3. 3-5 Players ads: Orange
4. 6+ Players: Red
5. Tag, Team VS: some other colour

^Again those numbers/colours are just examples.

This is a good idea imo. I'd also like to add at this request.

1. The command for the room name to be changed is !rename <entry> (of course this command should be hidden in case moderators are inside the room).
   If there is no entry, the default room name will be used (<Player>'s room).
2. Add a channel (e.g. #renamelog) ingame which is only visible to staff for logging all renamed rooms with a code to automatically reset the room name.
   • 
     NathBot: [Code: 512] BanchoBot has changed the room name of #multiplayer to "<insert inappropriate content>"
     Nathanael: !reset 512
     NathBot: Room name of #multiplayer has been reset to "BanchoBot's room".
3. Disallow silenced users from changing the room name (if they are the host).
   I am sure some people are using this method to talk in the room.
4. Allow automated multiplayer advertisements using the same options used to filter muliplayer rooms to avoid ads you don't want (client-side).
   Everything will still be sent out at the channel but the game client will remove the ones (before it gets displayed) doesn't match the filter condition.

Any comments about my idea?

Oinari-sama wrote:

Could consider fetching custom text instead of /np when the room is first made. Was thinking about how this could work with t/165856 & t/146640

EDIT: Throwing these out before I forget:
It'll be nice if the ads text can be colour-coded based on number of people or time created, eg:

1. New Room ads: Green
2. 1-2 Players ads: Yellow
3. 3-5 Players ads: Orange
4. 6+ Players: Red
5. Tag, Team VS: some other colour

^Again those numbers/colours are just examples.

Now I love this idea. Really nice the idea of different colors if we could have them and it will avoid adding "(3/8 players)" after the room's name as I thought from the beginning, so I'll stick this for sure.

Also, I agree with the other 2 features, this way we can merge with them

Nathanael wrote:

This is a good idea imo. I'd also like to add at this request.

1. The command for the room name to be changed is !rename <entry> (of course this command should be hidden in case moderators are inside the room).
   If there is no entry, the default room name will be used (<Player>'s room).
2. Add a channel (e.g. #renamelog) ingame which is only visible to staff for logging all renamed rooms with a code to automatically reset the room name.
   • 
     NathBot: [Code: 512] BanchoBot has changed the room name of #multiplayer to "<insert inappropriate content>"
     Nathanael: !reset 512
     NathBot: Room name of #multiplayer has been reset to "BanchoBot's room".
3. Disallow silenced users from changing the room name (if they are the host).
   I am sure some people are using this method to talk in the room.
4. Allow automated multiplayer advertisements using the same options used to filter muliplayer rooms to avoid ads you don't want (client-side).
   Everything will still be sent out at the channel but the game client will remove the ones (before it gets displayed) doesn't match the filter condition.

Any comments about my idea?

I didn't thought about the moderating side because I didn't know how things really goes for you guys so I decided to leave it to you.

This idea is great, since my !rr command was kinda silly now that I think about it xD

Obviously this goes in the first post too for reference :3

I really love this idea, though.

Take my star!