Main Friends List

Has anyone figured out how friends are listed in the main Friends List?

I wish they would arrange them in descending Level order, at least! I'm sure everyone has their own opinions on that.

PegWalt wrote:Has anyone figured out how friends are listed in the main Friends List?

I wish they would arrange them in descending Level order, at least! I'm sure everyone has their own opinions on that.

A while back Admin suggested that the list was in order by when the person started to play. But recently, I added a low level friend -- under level 10 -- and they did not show up at the bottom of the list.

I had a strange thing happen this week with my manor order. Several of my friend's manors shifted. It was like they just up and moved three doors down.

Oh, well. Just a minor adjustment on my spreadsheet.....

I'm a quasi-database 'expert' (not really - I just play one on the internet).

My guess is that main order is 'unsorted'. This allows for the quickest database retrieval as any type of sorting adds unnecessary time and takes additional resources.

This is why the main list is MOSTLY sorted by join date - newer players' records tend to be added 'at the end' of the table. However, there are cases where some existing players might be deleted from the database or some shuffling occurs, thus freeing up their 'slot'. New players could occupy that slot in the database table.

Database optimizations and compacting can also shuffle order around.


I hope this makes sense!

(Edit: Wow! So many typos!)

Admin wrote:I'm a quasi-database 'expert' (not really - I just play one on the internet).

My guess is that that main order is 'unsorted'. This allows for the quickest database retrieval as any type of sorting additional and unnecessary time and resources.

This is why the main list is MOSTLY sorted by join date - newer players' records tend to be added 'at the end' of the table. However, there are cases where some existing players might be deleted from the database or some shuffling occurs, thus freeing up their 'slot'. New players could occupy that slot in the database table.

Database optimizations and compacting can also shuffle order around.


I hope this makes sense!

Makes total sense...just like defragmenting your hard drive. That would also explain why one of my new friends filled in a spot in my manor where I deleted another friend.

My first MM friend has always been at the top of my friends list. Could be coincidence. However in the last week A few new friends are up at the top!

Thanks everybody for your take on this.

I still want it at descending Level order. If the "Powers That Be" are out there and reading and listening, "git er done," like Larry the Cable Guy says. lol!!!!

I ask everyone I regularly trade with to write on my wall and that acts as a bookmark to visit them quickly.