More concise command output - /info and /whois

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bren4q
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More concise command output - /info and /whois

Post by bren4q »

As an admin on a busy server with lots of guests I find that the amount of text appearing as a result of entering commands can get in the way of what you are trying to do or can stop you from easily reading what other people are saying. My suggestion is for more concise info messages from commands. This particular topic is for the text that appears when you use the /info or /whois command.

Some lines can be combined into 1. Some can be shortened by being reworded. Some can be left out if an indicator is used elsewhere.
I realise that certain terms (such as rank name) are user definable and could be longer on some servers, and in those cases the sentence would have to wrap around and take up two lines. But my hope is that with these small changes there will be less command chatter for the vast majority of cases.

My assumptions are:
- max output chars per line is 62
- max length of a Minecraft account name is 16
- up to 3 asterisks after a name for banned, frozen, muted
- except for the first, all lines have two leading spaces

In the longer example I use large values for the counts on time and blocks. If time values start exceeding 10,000 then wrapping will likely occur and take up 2 lines, but hopefully this will be very rare.


Use case #1 - typical griefer who logs on, griefs, and leaves

CURRENT OUTPUT (8 lines)

Code: Select all

About DerpyDude1234567: Last seen 2d7h ago from 
> 192.168.111.222.
  Logged in 1 time(s) since 13 Mar 2012.
  Account is BANNED. See /BanInfo
  Built 12 and deleted 304 blocks, wrote 3 messages.
  Rank is guest (default)
  Spent a total of 0.2 hours (11.3 minutes) here.
  WARNING! DerpyDude1234567 has deleted more than built!
PROPOSED OUTPUT (4 lines)

Code: Select all

About DerpyDude1234567: guest (BANNED - see /BanInfo)
  Last seen 2d7h ago from 192.168.111.222
  Joined 13 Mar 2012. Total 11.3 minutes. Logged in 1 times
  Blocks Built: 12  Deleted: 304
Changes
1. Output the current rank on the first line, after the person's name. This removes the need for having "Rank is guest (default)"
2. Instead of putting a BANNED message on a line of its own, it will fit on the first line with the person's name and rank.
3. The "Last seen" line is quite long and struggles to fit on the line with the user's name, so it can have a line to itself.
4. Combine the "Logged in x times since <date>" and the total time into one. Instead of always outputting total time in both hours and minutes, only output minutes if total time is less than 60 minutes, and only output hours if it is more than 60 minutes.
5. Blocks built, deleted and drawn are useful but the amount of chat messages can probably be omitted. For more active players this stat often spans 2 lines. Reducing it to just "Blocks Built: xxxxx Deleted: yyyyyy Drawn: zzzzzz" is the most useful info.
6. Leave out the warning line when they have deleted more than they built and instead just highlight the "Blocks Built: 12 Deleted: 304" line in red for those cases.
7. For the Promoted/Demoted info line, abbreviate some of the words to

Code: Select all

  Promotion: designer->advbuilder by SomeAdminGuy1234 3w4d ago

Use case #2 - player with nearly all info data present and large data values

CURRENT (17 lines)

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About DerpyDude1234567***: Last seen 2d7h ago from 
> 192.168.111.222.
  Logged in 71 time(s) since 13 Mar 2012.
  Frozen 2w4d ago by SomeAdminGuy1234
  Muted for 97w2d by SomeAdminGuy1234
  Account is BANNED. See /BanInfo
  2 accounts (1 banned) on IP: SomeBuilderGuy, SomeGrieferGuy*
  Built 3027325 and deleted 1017577 blocks, drew 52127 blocks,
> wrote 1946 messages.
  Kicked 4 and banned 1 players.
  Got kicked 8 times. Last kick 2w4d ago by SomeAdminGuy1234
  Kick reason: You smell
  Promoted from builder to advbuilder by SomeAdminGuy1234
> 3w4d ago.
  Promotion reason: You placed blocks!
  Spent a total of 29.2 hours (1750.3 minutes) here.
  WARNING! DerpyDude1234567 has deleted more than built!
PROPOSED (12 lines)

Code: Select all

About DerpyDude1234567***: advbuilder (BANNED - see /BanInfo)
  Last seen 112w6d ago from 192.168.111.222
  Joined 13 Mar 2012. Total 8029.2 hours. Logged in 2052 times
  2 accounts (1 banned) on IP: SomeBuilderGuy, SomeGrieferGuy*
  Blocks Built: 1027325  Deleted: 3017577  Drawn: 20452127
  Frozen 112w4d ago by SomeAdminGuy1234
  Muted for 197w2d by SomeAdminGuy1234
  Got kicked 8 times. Last kick 112w4d ago by SomeAdminGuy1234
  Kick reason: You smell
  Promotion: designer->advbuilder by SomeAdminGuy1234 3w4d ago
  Promotion reason: You placed blocks!
  Kicked 4 and banned 1 players.

Thanks for reading. It may not look like a huge amount of change but it would certainly make things more user-friendly for us power users!

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JustOnePanda
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Re: More concise command output - /info and /whois

Post by JustOnePanda »

I actually like this, it'll shorten up the chat and makes things so much more organized :D
"a person's dream are meant to be fulfilled not crushed and these words I am typing from the 3DS are from my heart"
-SSJGoten22

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fragmer
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Joined: May 21st, 2011, 10:53 pm

Re: More concise command output - /info and /whois

Post by fragmer »

Thanks for a thoughtful suggestion, bren4q. I'll see if I can incorporate some of your ideas into the next release.

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