Following the IRC discussion hosted by enkindle on the subject of Crew Tags appearing automatically in player profiles:

We have established that somewhere on your profile, there will be a field that reads something similar to

What I'm suggesting is that next to that field, a button is created, named "Expand Family History" (or something similar)

When pressed, this button reveals a list of the player's past crew affiliations, like so:

going all the way to the player's birth.

(Clarification: no previous char names, OR crew names belonging to dead ancestors for obvious reasons, history DOES NOT CARRY ON to the next character)

When a person leaves his current crew, by choice or because his CL died, the default value should read "Ex-Member of the-last-crew-you-were-in".

The default value could also be nothing, but my personal preference is what I suggested above.

What does this add to the game? 

A player's choices leave a "mark" on him as long as he's alive. It may be a mark of glory if he has been part of a great crew or a mark of shame for being in a shitty family. People will have to think twice about joining a crew, as this will have a small but permanent consequence on their lives. Moving around crews recklessly will also leave a mark, that is up to interpretation by other players.

This family history list would serve as a nice summary of one's run in MR, something to look at when you die and reminisce the good or bad times had. 

I can imagine it would feel good for a Godfather to see his journey from day 0 to godfather-dom, and it would also be interesting for others to see the adventure from mere civilian to the highest rank possible.

This doesn't change anything regarding the incognito aspect of the game. Everyone can see what crew you're in right now and everyone has at least local lists showing your name and your crewleader's name. A player's previous crews are already common knowledge and this history list would do nothing more than organize that knowledge in a nice chronologically ordered list.

This second post is only complimentary ideas on the main suggestion and could also be implemented or tossed away, since they are not a vital part of the suggestion but let's say "bonus" features.

1) There could be some use for the Loyalty status setting. A person who is disloyal will not get marked upon leaving a crew due to his CL's death.

2)If someone is kicked from the family (which rarely happens, as people tend to shoot family members they want to get rid off), there could be a "banishment" mark left in their history.

I do like this idea. It's kind of like a bookmark on your story. I don't believe people should be jumping families like monkeys jumping trees but for the likes of crewleaders and godfathers it would be nice to see where they came from.

I have to say no to this one. 

My main argument is this.. people on protection lists are only protected if they bother to put their crews tag in their profile. If you put their 'crew history' in there, people won't even bother having to make any effort whatsoever.

Maybe that sounds harsh of me that I would rather people who can't be bothered don't end up protected, but if they care so little about their own lives that they don't take the 20 seconds to copy and paste their crew name into their own profile, why should they get protection?

Also this gives far too much information away, and allows a lazy crewleader easier ways of seeing if someone has left his crew. The personal messages for that and other stuff was removed for a reason - if you keep a history of everyone's crews even if the crewleader doesn't notice, someone else eventually will.

I just... don't like this idea. 

My main argument is this.. people on protection lists are only protected if they bother to put their crews tag in their profile. If you put their 'crew history' in there, people won't even bother having to make any effort whatsoever.

Maybe that sounds harsh of me that I would rather people who can't be bothered don't end up protected, but if they care so little about their own lives that they don't take the 20 seconds to copy and paste their crew name into their own profile, why should they get protection?

One could argue that the whole feature is redundant, since you still have to put up a tag in order to get the protection, as things are now. However, the positive impact in the game (aesthetically or otherwise) is in my opinion greater than the redundancy of the feature. The way I see it, a family history button would further decrease the new feature's redundancy.

Also this gives far too much information away, and allows a lazy crewleader easier ways of seeing if someone has left his crew. The personal messages for that and other stuff was removed for a reason - if you keep a history of everyone's crews even if the crewleader doesn't notice, someone else eventually will.

You would still need to track down the member (visit his profile) to see whether he was in your crew and left. A lazy crew leader would still have trouble finding out instantly.

All in all, I think since the feature is already there, we should help it grow and complete it, and since it's primary purpose is aesthetic, I think sacrificing some small gameplay aspects that only kind of punish laziness is worth the trade.

You would still need to track down the member (visit his profile) to see whether he was in your crew and left. A lazy crew leader would still have trouble finding out instantly.

My point was that if you included that.. anyone could find out instantly.

I think sacrificing some small gameplay aspects that only kind of punish laziness is worth the trade.

I don't believe it's worth the trade.

Agree to disagree I guess!

this could be made streamlined by possibly "hiring" a detective on a person to search their past crew's and even possibly unveil people who jump from one city to another and what not and perform basically frowned upon actions however it would be a costly enterprise and only be available for those MM+, maybe only a cl/rhm or even just a gf of a city could perform this action as well

same idea basically just making it less prevalent and less accesible

I dont mind the cosmetic look the crew tag has given, And will agree with Deadlysin why should a member be given protection when they cant be bothered to place the crew name in there own profile.

The crew history idea while it can add some form of nostalgia to those who like that it can also cause problems to those who like to hide themselves in a crew for different reasons.

Not always for rogue reasons but for a player that just dont want to be in the limelight so to speak.

Who just wants to kick back and be a johnnynoname so to speak