- Mabian
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- Exalted Mythic Member
- gamertag: Mabian
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"Whatever exists, whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent. These anonymous creatures may seem little or nothing in the world. Yet the smallest crumb can devour us. Any smallest thing beneath yon rock out of men's knowing. Only nature can enslave man and only when the existence of each last entity is routed out and made to stand naked before him will he be properly suzerain of the earth."
I've got to agree with you there. Trying to search for a group is nearly impossible. The way I see it, the problem is that groups are usually not named precisely after their purpose, and trying to search for key words will turn up a thousand groups.
The first solution is the most obvious, and you have already pointed it out: Update the Group Search. By doing this, members have a better chance of finding groups within their criteria. If I am reading your post right, then we can probably also design a search that fixes the problem with group purposes not being put out in front by putting group purposes (as told by the creator of the group) out in front.
There is another problem however. Everyone can, and wants to, make a group. This is great when people have something fresh to bring to the table. But there are far too many groups that seem to be copies of others, with a new name and new look. If you wanted to find a group to discuss any one of the Halo games, you'd turn up thousands of results. We then come to the second solution, which then leads into what I feel is a paradox.
The second solution would be to severely limit what kind of groups can be created. By this I mean that while just about anyone can create a group, if they are just a copy of another group (whether it's because the member just wanted to create their own group or because they didn't know), they won't be able to create it, or it will be deleted soon after. The paradox of course is that if not everyone can make a group, then it severely limits how many people can take part in the group-making portion of the community. However, I don't see the existence of multiple groups that have the same purpose as helping the community. There are cases where groups are intent on becoming the only ones in its field. We then have more problems, namely, who would give up power? No one is going to willingly let go of what they have, because they want the recognition that they made the only _____ group on B.net.
So I agree that we need to make searching for a group less of a headache. I commend you on coming up with a solution (note that I personally haven't seen such a solution before) that sounds like it would work amazingly well in accomplishing this goal. However, I think there is still a problem that looms before us...and fixing it is not going to be easy.