Time to delete friends?

whereisyellow wrote:

Mooscrat wrote:the pop up screen where you choose a friend to send the gift to is in the same order that your friends are in when you visit them.

I was wondering if someone was going to mention this! I too recently discovered this (about a week ago), and was wondering when it would be mentioned. The 'friend' list for Request a Gift is also in this same order as the Give a Gift list.

why didn't you? Don't be shy! Most of our findings help others out!

I was wondering if someone was going to mention this! I too recently discovered this (about a week ago), and was wondering when it would be mentioned. The 'friend' list for Request a Gift is also in this same order as the Give a Gift list.

why didn't you? Don't be shy! Most of our findings help others out!

Just hadn't been on here much, and I wanted to be sure I wasn't being repetitive.

On a separate note, I hope that people are allowing extra time after these past few updates before axing their friends. I've had a number that have been forced to "stay home". Most of them have been fairly communicative, but it has definitely raised my awareness on the issue.

Most relevantly though, it has led me to decide not to update until I have a few more things lined up. I know it is frustrating to others and annoying not to be able to visit most of your friends, but with the alternative of an even more buggy game it seems like there might be value in "preparing" for the update before jumping in right away. After all, you cannot go back!

I think a week seems fair though, and the spreadsheet system seems like it would be both fair and useful afterwards. Especially if you can create it "in order" using the method above with Level and Reputation stats.

Thoughts? Anyone else delaying their update?

I just gave in and started a spreadsheet, which I'm not very deep into now. It's very simple. Once I got over 300 friends it became too much to deal with, so I'm just immediately deleting people with outdated versions or "no server response" as soon as I come across them. I realize this might not be their fault but I need my game to flow fluidly and they're a road block. I track whether strength and energy is at fully charged, level, and reputation level, but I also note how many adult male gypsies they have in their manor. I'm currently using the "silver horse shoe" method of leveling up and I want to find two people close together that have more than one adult male gypsy to trade with so I can bounce back & forth gathering horses and experience points. If I have to delete a couple of people between them so they're next to each other so be it; no offense guys but this game is too hard to level up in as it is, I gotta exploit what I can when I can.

BUT, I keep adding friends so if I delete you I might add you again later... or did someone discover this wasn't possible? I only add by way of the in-game friends console offerings or by synthesizer.

Soozicle, I completely agree with your strategy, as that was the exact same path I took also. Leveling up through gypsies and horseshoes, and keeping a spreadsheet to track friend patterns. I would keep track of gifts sent and received, and if players were sending back mystery gifts or not (a few would keep sending wall requests but not even bother to send the thank you gifts!).

In the end, I whittled my list down to 51 friends, with whom I built strong relationships with. We all actively played everyday, traded fairly, gifted regularly, knew when to tip or not, expressed thanks even for the smallest gifts, and politely asked each other for help. Most importantly, we'd joke and banter on each others' walls. I hope you can find your own happy family too, because having good friends makes MM such a joy to play everyday!

I disagree with the practice of deleting friends based on a "no server response" message. I understand that decisions must be made and some criteria must be used to make those choices but don't feel this should be one of them. It should be based on merit and the players actions in the game, not the technical issues of Game Insight. It is obnoxious to not be able to travel from one friends manor to the next but it is not a permanent situation. The problem will be fixed, usually within 24 hours, and the next time you try to visit there will be no issue.

Having been a victim of the "no server response" four days last week and again today, I am grateful most of my friends in the manor have not decided to take this course of action. I feel it shows great sympathy and understanding on their part and I thank them for their patience.

Well Jen, I only did that once or twice before the new update came out that apparently fixed that, so it shouldn't be an issue now. I've forgotten all about my spreadsheet and am having fun leveling up now. When I'm bored of that I'll start paying attention to what gifts I get/receive, but for now I'm tipping those I can still get to after the update... I still tip even if their strength is fully charged but not the full 15... since I know some people are leveling up quickly now like I am and could stay fully charged for a while as they do it; I don't want to waste tips on someone who won't ever tip me but at the same time they could be doing what I'm doing and just haven't had time to tip out their strength... so, when I see that, you get five tips from me. A partial or fully discharged strength gets the full 15 unless they're lower level and I don't have a way to tip that much.

I'm not concerned at the moment with getting to 500 friends. I think I could do that with the help of the synthesizer if I wanted to, fairly quickly. I'm hovering around 300, with about 1/4 of those not updated yet so they do me little good. I'll wait until the update is at least a week old and start removing them, too. At this point they've become very cumbersome.

I foresee at some point in the future picking back up with documenting everybody and come up with that sweet-spot list of people like nannerfingahs did. All daily players, all considerate of the wish lists, all considerate of repaying gifts. At this point I've got too many friends to even think about tracking that. But I'll get there. I just want to level up first!

I would like to second this. Currently, I am a victim of the "no server response" error (and one person is even told that I haven't updated my game!). I can visit others (and do), I can communicate via the wall, and give and receive gifts, etc. The only limitation is that people can't visit my manor. I understand the frustration of getting stopped in the game flow by the no server response error, but I would hate to be deleted for that reason alone. I have reported this (twice) to Game Insight and they tell me they know the cause and are working on it for future updates. (Of course, the cynic in me says they may know the cause, but they didn't say they know the solution.)

JenMomma5476 wrote:I disagree with the practice of deleting friends based on a "no server response" message. I understand that decisions must be made and some criteria must be used to make those choices but don't feel this should be one of them. It should be based on merit and the players actions in the game, not the technical issues of Game Insight. It is obnoxious to not be able to travel from one friends manor to the next but it is not a permanent situation. The problem will be fixed, usually within 24 hours, and the next time you try to visit there will be no issue.

Having been a victim of the "no server response" four days last week and again today, I am grateful most of my friends in the manor have not decided to take this course of action. I feel it shows great sympathy and understanding on their part and I thank them for their patience.

I was unable to visit friends' manors for several weeks. I worked w GI tech support throughout it w the assurance that it would be fixed in the next (now most recent past) update. And it was!!!

I continued gifting & posting on walls to let friends know what was going on. I also posted it on my own wall so visitors were aware.
It never occurred to me that friends might consider deleting me because of it...

I'm so glad it's fixed I really missed visiting, leaving tips & notes, checking wish lists, and everything else that comes along w it (anyone else ever run out of batteries?!)

Just reminded myself to send GI a note of appreciation

Spent almost 6 hours yesterday deleting friends who hadn't updated. I can move smoothly between manors now, but what a laborious process it was!!! GI says they're going to make it easier to navigate around your friend list; hope it's done soon.

I had to delete some of my helpers, as they hadn't updated in a long while. I've noticed that no new ones have appeared (they show up trapped in a room and you free them).

Anyway, I think it's worth the time to go through the list. Now I can be sure that the chests that I send out will be opened and that my requests are going to someone who is actually playing.

Soozicle wrote:... I still tip even if their strength is fully charged but not the full 15... I don't want to waste tips on someone who won't ever tip me but at the same time they could be doing what I'm doing and just haven't had time to tip out their strength... so, when I see that, you get five tips from me. A partial or fully discharged strength gets the full 15 unless they're lower level and I don't have a way to tip that much.

Even strength levels can be deceiving. For all you know, those players could just be banishing Octopuses and ArgoSans.

pianofingers wrote:

Soozicle wrote:... I still tip even if their strength is fully charged but not the full 15... I don't want to waste tips on someone who won't ever tip me but at the same time they could be doing what I'm doing and just haven't had time to tip out their strength... so, when I see that, you get five tips from me. A partial or fully discharged strength gets the full 15 unless they're lower level and I don't have a way to tip that much.

Even strength levels can be deceiving. For all you know, those players could just be banishing Octopuses and ArgoSans.

Yup, that's why I still leave some for them rather than nothing, and why I make sure I use up at least some of my strength as soon after leveling up as I can (in case I find someone else who plays like me!). Until I get my list whiddled down to people who are actually playing and gifting the same amount I do, it's the best way I can find not to totally stiff people who are playing while not wasting too much on people who aren't.

I finally broke down and took the time on Monday to cycle all the way through my entire friends list, deleting anyone who hadn't updated yet, writing down basic stats for people that have. Now as I visit, I can look at what their stats were on Monday to see how much they've leveled up or if their stats are still maxed out, and write down how much I gifted to see if it's reciprocated. I'm also watching for people who just send a random gift that's not on my wish list and that I already had plenty of (I need friends who are just as thoughtful as I am to look at that stuff), friends who never send back at least one gift when I multi-gift them, and who of my friends multi-gifts. The idea is to whiddle it down to a core group of highly active gift/tippers, and then only add two or three more at a time that I can keep watch and figure out how they play without having to maintain a dang spreadsheet. Obviously while I'm doing this I've suspended the addition of any new friends.

It's very laborious but hopefully in the end it will make for a much more enjoyable game. What's making it far more difficult is that almost all of them I've visited again so far have leveled up so I'm sure I'll have to refine my standards to get it where I need it.

When is it time to delete pending friends?

I'm marking all friends that send or request gifts in January with a star. That way, I can see who is still playing! Next month I can then message/gift the un-starred ones to see if they are retired. Has anyone tried "Declining" new friends since the update? The decline button used to accept the friends anyway

xx Vix xx wrote:I'm marking all friends that send or request gifts in January with a star. That way, I can see who is still playing! Next month I can then message/gift the un-starred ones to see if they are retired. Has anyone tried "Declining" new friends since the update? The decline button used to accept the friends anyway

I think I'll do the same thing. It's going to be a long process - I have approx 800 friends. I recently deleted anyone with less than 40 experience which got rid of quite a few non performers.

Yumi wrote:

xx Vix xx wrote:I'm marking all friends that send or request gifts in January with a star. That way, I can see who is still playing! Next month I can then message/gift the un-starred ones to see if they are retired. Has anyone tried "Declining" new friends since the update? The decline button used to accept the friends anyway

I think I'll do the same thing. It's going to be a long process - I have approx 800 friends. I recently deleted anyone with less than 40 experience which got rid of quite a few non performers.

Wow, way to welcome the new players! Realize that not everyone has been playing as long as you have. So far the only ones I've unfriended have been one whose level never moved in months and a couple who were friends-but-not-friends where I could visit but I'd get stuck in their manor and couldn't even tip.

skiptx wrote:

Yumi wrote:

xx Vix xx wrote:I'm marking all friends that send or request gifts in January with a star. That way, I can see who is still playing! Next month I can then message/gift the un-starred ones to see if they are retired. Has anyone tried "Declining" new friends since the update? The decline button used to accept the friends anyway

I think I'll do the same thing. It's going to be a long process - I have approx 800 friends. I recently deleted anyone with less than 40 experience which got rid of quite a few non performers.

Wow, way to welcome the new players! Realize that not everyone has been playing as long as you have. So far the only ones I've unfriended have been one whose level never moved in months and a couple who were friends-but-not friends where I could visit but I'd get stuck in their manor and couldn't even tip.

These are all players who haven't leveled up for a couple of months. I haven't added new players for quite a while (because I felt i had way too many) so everyone has had a chance to consistently level up. If I recognize the player (because they've been gifting me) then they avoided the cut.

Yumi wrote:

skiptx wrote:

Yumi wrote:

xx Vix xx wrote:I'm marking all friends that send or request gifts in January with a star. That way, I can see who is still playing! Next month I can then message/gift the un-starred ones to see if they are retired. Has anyone tried "Declining" new friends since the update? The decline button used to accept the friends anyway

I think I'll do the same thing. It's going to be a long process - I have approx 800 friends. I recently deleted anyone with less than 40 experience which got rid of quite a few non performers.

Wow, way to welcome the new players! Realize that not everyone has been playing as long as you have. So far the only ones I've unfriended have been one whose level never moved in months and a couple who were friends-but-not friends where I could visit but I'd get stuck in their manor and couldn't even tip.

These are all players who haven't leveled up for a couple of months. I haven't added new players for quite a while (because I felt i had way too many) so everyone has had a chance to consistently level up. If I recognize the player (because they've been gifting me) then they avoided the cut.

Ah, okay. That makes sense. I keep adding new friends and some of them have just started playing, like one is only at level 4.

xx Vix xx wrote:I'm marking all friends that send or request gifts in January with a star. That way, I can see who is still playing! Next month I can then message/gift the un-starred ones to see if they are retired. Has anyone tried "Declining" new friends since the update? The decline button used to accept the friends anyway

This sounds like a great idea but difficult in practice. You see the message or request on your wall, take note of the player's name and levels (I have friends with duplicate names), and then you have to go find that person in the randomly ordered friend list so you can click the star. Is there an easier way? Sure would be nice to have the star available on the wall.

skiptx wrote:

Yumi wrote:

skiptx wrote:

Yumi wrote:

xx Vix xx wrote:I'm marking all friends that send or request gifts in January with a star. That way, I can see who is still playing! Next month I can then message/gift the un-starred ones to see if they are retired. Has anyone tried "Declining" new friends since the update? The decline button used to accept the friends anyway

I think I'll do the same thing. It's going to be a long process - I have approx 800 friends. I recently deleted anyone with less than 40 experience which got rid of quite a few non performers.

Wow, way to welcome the new players! Realize that not everyone has been playing as long as you have. So far the only ones I've unfriended have been one whose level never moved in months and a couple who were friends-but-not friends where I could visit but I'd get stuck in their manor and couldn't even tip.

These are all players who haven't leveled up for a couple of months. I haven't added new players for quite a while (because I felt i had way too many) so everyone has had a chance to consistently level up. If I recognize the player (because they've been gifting me) then they avoided the cut.

Ah, okay. That makes sense. I keep adding new friends and some of them have just started playing, like one is only at level 4.

Once I've whittled my list down I'll probably start adding players again - I agree new players need a hand up, I just feel my list is out of control & there are quite a few non-players. I'm hoping my hubby goes on a fishing trip soon so I can dedicate a day to sorting this out!

I have a question on friends vs. helpers. I have been marking all active players with a star - that is anyone who gifted, tipped or requested a gift on wall. Then, I sent a gift request to all the others and watched to see who responded - about a third of them have. Several of the ones that have not are "helpers" in my manor. If I delete them, do I lose them as helpers? Several are scientists or explorers that I would like to keep.

Abemom2 wrote:I have a question on friends vs. helpers. I have been marking all active players with a star - that is anyone who gifted, tipped or requested a gift on wall. Then, I sent a gift request to all the others and watched to see who responded - about a third of them have. Several of the ones that have not are "helpers" in my manor. If I delete them, do I lose them as helpers? Several are scientists or explorers that I would like to keep.

When you delete people as friends then if they are helpers, they are deleted as helpers too.

I'm wondering what benefit it is to having hundreds of friends? I at lvl 142 and I have tried to keep my list below 150 and still I have trouble being a good frond to all of those. When I get friend requests I go visit and see how many friends they have and if its more than 400-500 I decline. I sort or assume how could they possibly even remember who I am? I have seen some folks with 1500!!

Just wondered of someone knew of a particular benefit to it.

Teri

Two things come to mind. 500 friends gets you the top friend achievement and of course more friends means more people from whom you can request chargers

Here's my 2 cents. I have about 170 friends, so I have enough people to request chargers from when I need them. I tend to request a lot of chargers at once, and then go for periods where I do not request at all.
Requesting chargers is a pain, so when I'm low enuf to "ask a friend", I get 25-100 of the charger depending on frequency of its use. Ie,:möbius bow, I'll do 100 friends easy at one time.

I have about 25 closer friends, they're all marked as favs.  I free gift them daily or as often as possible. I visit about 5 friends a day and gift them.  I don't even try to "keep up" with the others, it's way too much. Every now and then I'll visit a new person just to help them out. But mostly I just focus on my small group and we chat and have a good time.  I almost always "buy" my 51 (free gifts from friends, if u visit them)-- way too time consuming to visit them all, I would gladly do it, if the stupid game didn't take so long to get to another manor, so slow! One of my biggest complaints. I fall asleep waiting!

And yes miss Sablesrgreat, you are one of my 25 close friends. I enjoy playing with you. I'm knitwit.