Placeholder members
Placeholder members let officers track in-game players before those players sign up to Last Command directly. They look and behave like full members in every officer-facing view — Pulse, donations, attendance, leaderboards — and only differ in that they can't sign in or self-edit. When a player eventually joins, an officer merges the placeholder into their new account so all history stays attached.
Why placeholders exist
Most active alliances have 30 or more in-game members and at any given moment a chunk of those haven't signed up to Last Command. Officers still need their data — donations, attendance, hero builds, position in last week's VS — so we built placeholders. They're first-class members in every officer view; the only thing they don't do is sign in.
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Creating placeholders
From the members directory, R5/R4 hit Add member → Placeholder. Required fields: in-game name and rank. Everything else (power level, HQ level, hero list, preferred role) is optional and can be backfilled over time.
On Pro, the AI screenshot scan accepts an in-game alliance roster screenshot and creates placeholders in bulk — names and ranks straight from the screenshot, ready for review before save. Saves an evening of typing for a 50-member alliance.
Merging when a player signs up
When an in-game player you've been tracking as a placeholder finally signs up to Last Command, an officer merges the placeholder profile into the new account from the placeholder's detail page. The merge keeps every attached record — donation history, DS attendance, hero builds, train slots — and reassigns it to the new authenticated user. Until the merge happens, both records coexist; we don't auto-match on name to avoid collisions (two people called “Storm” happens often enough to matter).
Edge cases
- Player renamed in-game. Edit the placeholder's name to match. Future captures match the new name; old history stays attached.
- Player left and rejoined the alliance. Mark the original placeholder “left,” create a new one (or use the placeholder created when they re-signup). Old history stays in the archive.
- Two placeholders for the same player. Merge one into the other rather than deleting — preserves both history strands.
Related: Members directory for how the placeholder badge shows up in the roster.