Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24139784-20131107015933/@comment-24180763-20131124215022

5658398CC - Gleed*Spark

Hi all - thanks for your responses. I apologize in advance for another long post. Adrian, you were easy, at the top of my keepers...I appreciate your lights and likes. : )

I am pretty sure that all our lists are ranked identically, by "birthday" of membership in the game....the players who have been playing longest are on the top of the heap, for everyone. Tori -- if your list looks re-ordered, I am pretty sure it is because someone added you who has been at it a while...they will appear in their natural ranking order based on when they first joined up. Or, as you suggested, they have changed their name.

Likewise, this means that the oldest members, who are (usually) furthest along and have the most resources, are at the top of everyone's lists, and gets the most hits. Those at the bottom (the newest players), who from the postings appear the most eager to move forward and therefore the most likely to spend a large amount of time lighting for others -- receive the least. A couple of players who (used to be) at the top of my list always had 6 islands ablaze with 10 lighted torches on islands chock-full of ethereals, and those at the bottom had few or none, on sad dark islands with a collecton of unlit torches (a huge investment for newbies), looking like a birthday party where everyone is invited and nobody comes. I deleted those at the top a while ago, and they have not re-appeared...which means they were not lighting me. "Lighting as many as I can," still results (mostly) in those at the top getting lit often or always, and those at the bottom not.

The game is still fairly young (and FREE!) and the torches fairly new...I heartily agree that the friends list needs a lot of re-structuring, because it is so so difficult to slog through, and on my 'droid at least (Kindle Fire), it crashes in the middle at least once or twice each long torch lighting session from data overload. I am sure that developing the algorithims and data resources on the servers to have each members' lists ordered individually by who is liking who would be very difficult and expensive (in this free game)....but I am totally with you Colonel, that's what I want too. And a pony. : )

But bottom line for me -- this is supposed to be a fun recreational activity, not a part-time data entry job. Last night I lit my two pages, and I was smiling while I did it...I had time to browse around the maps and look at all the islands of my friends whose designs I liked, and give the thumbs up, and enjoy the experience...a very FRIENDLY experience, not an excercise in drudgery and quelling resentment. We'll see tonight if I have diminished returns....but I was glad to see one person I had deleted showed up on my list later  (sorry CManser, I'd booted you because you were one of the "as many as I cans" ...without more info, it is a very imperfect system, editing my list, a work in progress) -- but now I know you are a keeper, and  I lit and liked. : )    I encourage others to try to lighten your load...unless you are really enjoying it, 5 pages and more is just too much to do every day.   The freeloading is a lot like stray cats...they are not going to go away if we keep feeding them.  And by joining the pyramid scheme (adding pages and pages and pages of friends in hopes for a few lights, giving only a percentage of lights in return) we are perpetuating the problem....the only behavior we can change is our own.  Enough lecturing, sorry -- I think I am done with this topic now, I am no longer a frustrated little grapeless monkey.  [After "www."  paste:  upworthy.com/2-monkeys-were-paid-unequally-see-what-happens-next-sc4-3a   (It really is worth 2 and half minutes of your time!) ]   > Gleed.