Suggestions/Feedback Summary, Nov-Dec 2024

Every month, by request, I will be making a post summarizing that month's anonymous suggestions/feedback, and my response to them. Each submission will have also been shared with the other admins for their feedback as well (especially if the submission specifically pertains to their job), and their views are also expressed here in my summary, as indicated. Feedback from other admins is in their words...I just copy and paste it into the post.

November

#1: I mean no offense, Blitz, I'm just honestly curious......... but it seems like there are so many times where someone has a good idea for something for HP, but then it can't be implemented because you don't know how to do it. Why doesn't HP have an actual coder who can implement new features and fix bugs?

-tries not to take this personally- I'm fully aware coding isn't my forte. I'm the first to admit it, after all. There's definitely stuff I'm willing to attempt that's suggested (or even my own ideas I take a shot at!), and stuff I know is 100% beyond my abilities, even with Master Google's assistance. 

Why do we not have an actual coder? Full disclosure: We've had several in the history of HP...Amanda, Greta/Jade, Gabby, PSWebSolutions, Andrew, and our very own Mango. The above-listed people have coded everything from the initial creation of the game (Amanda), adding features like the Forum (Gabby), Pet Achievements (can't remember who), Player achievements (also don't remember who), Tetrimino (Andrew?), club, player, and animal css generators (Mango and others), etc. Even Sam has added a lot of features herself over the years, not to mention HP ended up launching her into a web-based career path, which she transitioned to when I took over the day-to-day running of the game.

Blitz, stop rambling. Why no coder? Well, while the above-listed people were great for the game, they all inevitably either a) got busy, b) ghosted after finishing whatever they were doing for us initially after many delays and overall turned out to not be reliable in the least, and/or c) they no longer offer coding. And honestly? Coders that are worth it but won't bankrupt the HP bank account for their services and are someone trustworthy? They don't grow on trees. We don't let just anyone into the back end of HP. At the moment? It's Sam and myself who have access, that's it not even the other admins do post-big hack. Because who wants to inadvertently cause another hack like in 2018 by allowing more people access.

Along the vein of having an actual coder, some suggestions, while fantastic, also just aren't possible without a complete overhaul of whatever part of the game they'd be attached to, which as you can imagine wouldn't be something simple, and would involve a lot of risk we just aren't interested in dealing with.

All that being said...if you're a coder of the SQL/PHP variety, feel free to shoot me an email with a digital resume and I (and Sam as the purse-holder) would consider it.

#2: Would it be possible to add ‘height’ field for dogs? Measured in inches? Like horses, people can leave it empty or use AKC for guidelines?

Wasn't aware that this was a thing in the AKC (or CKC for that matter). Confirmed with Koni that yes, it is in fact something considered in the dog world, and some fiddling around later and BAM! Done. You now have the option of giving your dog a height in inches.

December

#1: Would it be possible to add digit separators? So 5000000 becomes 5,000,000? Makes it much easier to see animal points, ages, prices, etc.

Many things on the game already have the separators (eg. the confirmation page when you go to send money to someone, graphic auction bids, animal points on search results, etc). If you're specifically asking for this more for animal points on their page...I did add this once by request and it promptly broke everything for awarding points. The way the code is set up, it doesn't support it for reasons unknown. If there's somewhere else you'd like me to try to add the , to, let me know and I'll see if it's going to break everything when I do it (lol)!

#2: On iPad, some animal points tend to show up as clickable, callable numbers, could that be disabled?

TIL that's something I can do! lol. Quite literally, I didn't realize there was a way to turn that off in the website code! I always just thought it was an annoying Apple feature I didn't know how to disable on my phone. So thank you, Anon, for teaching me that! Also, your wish is my command!

-bump-

Appreciate your hard work!