Category: Zone BBS Suggestions and Feedback
I hear many of us complaining about blank profiles. We find them interesting, and helpful often in encouraging us to start talking to someone new.
sounds like a good idea
I agree.
When i signed up to penpalworld or whatever is called after registration there was something like a wisart guiding you to make a profile. It was like step 1. Tell us where are you from, step 2. Upload a picture if you want and things like that.
It should be something similar for the zone as well.
Sounds like a good idea.
I like this idea. It's bullshit that most people don't fill out the profile so why not force them to!
This issue has been discussed Here.
I think whether or not someone fills out a profile is their personal choice, but at least provide a tutorial upon first log in that will explain what the profile is, where it can be completed, etc.
I love this idea. I have noticed that the people who don't complete their profiles are mostly the younger people. Also, where it says "Location," some people put their address and there are the people who put smart ass stuff. An example of this is: Location: somewhere. The Location field of the profile definitly should be required, but instead of the users typing where they are from there should be a list of states, cities or countries. I really hope something can be done about the profile.
Agreed with Post #6... go back and refer to...
These are the items I think should be on the profile for manditory:
Age
Gender
Location (State, Country, City or all three)
Orientation: Single, in a relationship, married or not interested
What are you here for: Games, chat, boards or all of the above
I know all the person has to do is turn off QNs to not be bothered.
Some optionals would be:
Religion
Education
Notes:
People might prefer to talk to people either by gender, age or location. And some prefer not to talk to the 13-18 crowd.
Orientation: MySpace has this as a drop down. You have to select what section are you in.
In the What are you here for: For those who prefer to select via a check box what they are here for. Is it games, grafitti, chat, voice chat what? This way people know not to bother those who are just here for the games. Yes mostly people do have mass QNs turned off for this but there are times people forget to turn QNs off all together.
Religion and Education are the two optionals I chose. Some prefer to say what type of education they're in and some don't. Ditto for the religion.
These are suggestions, if you don't like them don't bother commenting about it.
...note to THE LION: For someone who is spouting off about the bit about listing age as manditory, I note that on YOUR profile/visual, that you have not listed the YEAR of Your birth...
...interesting.
Agree that a profile wizard is a good idea to allow users to fill out their profile when they first join, but I absolutely disagree that any part of a profile should be mandatory. People come on here, and other sites, to escape from the reality that is life sometimes, and for some, that means they wish to do it anonomously. Even if you made things like age/gender/location mandatory, if people didn’t want others to know they would just insert bogus info anyway so it would be a pointless exercise. As for making a religion box, I think that is an extremely bad idea. I actually don’t think religion should be mentioned as it is such an emotive subject, and I therefore feel that people should be actively discouraged from stating their religion. As for whether people remember to turn quicknotes on/off, if there were a profile wizard, it could include the options to have quicknotes on/off from the beginning, so people could choose whether to receive them or not when they first join.
I agree. Helpful hints for filling out profiles is a good idea. But making certain personal information manditory is rediculous. They should be encouraged to say as much about themselves as they feel comfortable saying in that spot at the end of the profile where you talk about yourself. I find it amusing and somewhat annoying when someone fills out a profile with age, gender, etc. and then leaves that area at the end totally blank. I don't base whether I want to get to know someone on only age gender and location. I go more by what they reveal about their likes and dislikes and other info they give at the end. But I don't think anything should be manditory - they should just be gently encouraged to fill out their profiles.
agree with the original concept of this post
I have a feeling the reason why some people don't fill out their profiles completely is because they think it takes too much time or they are too lazy. I guess some people just don't care that other people like to read the profiles.
but this is a community not a dating agency. if you want to get to know people then talk to them, you don't have to read a profile to know what people are all about, say "hello, where you from, ... etc etc", and sooner or later you'll either find you have something in common or not.
I'd rather know right off whether I have anyting in common before I start talking to someone. Especially if they never post to the boards where you can also get a good idea of someone's sense of humor, opinions on different subjects, etc. I have made more than one friend on here solely based on a conversation started about a board topic. But if a person never posts to the boards and has no info in their profile, I am not likely to try to start a qn conversation with them.
Sadly if we have to ask people all of the basic information about themselves, many will do that in qublic qn, which will mean seeing the same questions asked of the same people all the time, and qn being clogged by even less interesting stuff than it is now with the verual food fights and so on.
It's just a suggestion. Reason why I say age be manditory: Because some people don't put it in. Yes you have to put in a age for the Coppa thingy the site did a while back. But I've came across a dozen times that people will talk to me and I'll check their profile out. I'll see no age, no gender and no location...... I then get the courage to ask how old or what gender or what location these people are...... 90% it's usually the 13-18 crowd.
I just think it's a better idea since we allow the 13-18 crowd to come and hang out with the adults. I have a preference on age, gender and location to chat with people.
I know it's their choice but like I said some sites I've been on actually make this simple stuff manditory.
I agree with kev on this. We may not get along but I can agree! allthough it shouldn't be mandatory, peop.e should put where there from and things of that nature.
I don't view profiles much, but there should at least be a birthday year, in case someone doesn't want to put their number of years. As for the person who wanted religion, and education and all this other stuff, why ot just say hey let's cut open your brain, sive through it, then give ti back when we're done?
I always have a dark streak on my underwear. Does this satisfy your obsession with mandatory personal information? Damn the, lion, take it easy with that prying of yours...
Well, A couple of points here as this topic has been discussed once more in public qn.
Someone suggested a kind of wizard to help new users fill out their profile when they first join. That sounds like a great idea depending on how much work it would create for the admins.
The other thing a lot of people are concerned about is age. now, we have to enter our age as part of the zone's rules when we join. While I don't agree that our profile should have to show our exact age, would it be possible for admin to code it in such a way that it could then put a piece in the profile where it says age, that if no exact age is given that it can put in an age range say between 13 and 18, or over 40 to gve a couple of examples so that we could gain an idea of peoples age at least and thereby know if they are people we might want to chat with.
I also think location should be shown by default, but i think these are the only 2 things that should be shown for everyone, the rest as has been said is up to the user.
Also having read both of these boards, this one, and the one linked by Jim, the only member of staff to actually post has been Dan. how do we know that the admin are actually taking notice of suggestions like this if they don't post to let us know that they've red, and will or will not consider the views stated? So please admin let us know what you think, we need to know as members that our views are valid and being heard.
What I don't get is, why is age so important? Surely someone is interesting or not, and their age is irrelevant? I personally think that gender is more relevant, as some people may feel more comfortable talking to someone of one gender rather than the other, and gender is not always obvious from user names.
These are just my opinions though, not those of the CLs/admins in general.
Mel, you are right to an extent, but often when you see someone for the first time, you don't know if they' are going to be interesting. So, yes Gender is important and the thing i forgot in my last post, but also age range may suggest a better likelyhood that the person may have common thoughts interests and beliefs, so could be worth starting private conversations with.
I actually think that age is more important than gender, here’s why:
Generally you would look at someone’s profile with a view to talking to them, and perhaps, in time, forming a friendship with that user. Now we have a vast age range here on the site, from 14 upwards, and I believe this should be taken into account. I am 32, and I personally believe that forming a strong friendship with a 14 year old is not appropriate for someone of my age. I would obviously happily talk to someone who was 14, but I wouldn’t talk on the same level, wouldn’t give out my email/msn to someone so young, but I would do so with someone who was similar age (maybe 18 and upwards. I certainly wouldn’t be happy for my son (when he reaches 14) to be making friends with 30 year olds over the internet. Yes some people do have a gender preference, but that’s a personal thing, but age is something that society as a whole deems to be only appropriate at certain levels.
Claire,
Good point and one I hadn't thought of in terms of children being on the Zone, or the net in general. Again, and this is my own opinion, I don't think that the Zone is a suitable place for children but as they are here, we need to ensure their safety as far as possible.
I like the idea of mandatory profile information. But, I think that certain information should give you a choice as to whether or not you want to show it (just like the year of birth is currently done).
I think, for example, that gender should be mandatory because I like to know which sex I am talking to when we talk, and you can't tell from names (especially screen names). It's not that I want to know who to flirt with: I just want to know which topics they are going to be more comfortable with (football or cooking, for example.)
I think that age should be mandatory because, as someone else pointed out, we need to protect the kids on here, but, I think this is one of those things where a person should be able to choose whether or not to show it. As one of the more senior members of the zone, I was worried at first about being able to get along with the thirty year olds on here, not just the kids; and I might have preferred at first not to show my age. But, at least it would be obvious to anyone who looked at my profile that I made a conscious choice not to show my age.
Finally, I like the idea of some sort of profile wizzard not only because it assures us that information is filled out, it also has a psychological advantage. For someone who is coming on here for the first time, it says, we want you to get along here, and we're willing to help you do it. When I first came on here, my thinking was that a profile was a necessary evil (come on, just let me at the games guys). I had no idea how involved the profile was in the community aspect of the zone.
As far as new information such as religion is, I'm not sure. We may be opening a pandora's box in asking for such information, but, some people might find it helpful when deciding whether or not to talk to a person. I definitely think it should be optional.
Bob
I read everything on here. I doubt we'll be requiring ages any time soon. But the wizard is an idea worth looking at.
yea wizzard, thanks.
My view on this profiles thing is that the profile belongs to the individual. They should have the right to decide for themselves how much information they wish to share. It is not a requirement of anybody to know anything about the users, it's just up to the user what they want you to know about them. I think there should be help sections for new users to show them what goes where and how to fill in profiles though. We certainly don't need to know whether or not somebody is in a relationship, what their age is, where they're from. This information may be of interest, but we can live without knowing it, and some users may choose that only certain other users have more info on them. This decision should also be respected. Let the people be free to decide for themselves what you know about them, like they would be if you met for the first time in a town centre, at a cinema, at McDonnalds, at a football game, at a pub, etc.
Good point but as stated earlier if you are above the age of 18 do you want to talk to a 13 year old. I mean no disrespect but the age should be shown just because you really have no clue who you are talking to. but for the wizard it just sounds a little off. if someone wants to make a profile they make it.
I agree, but I think the admins would certainly have a say in it.
I, for one, would like to see some general statistics like "percentage of males/females", "percentage of users under age 18" "over forty". etc. You get the picture. I think this might make site statistics something meaningful.
For that to happen, folks would have to fill out a profile, but, should be given the choice as to whether or not to show their personal information.
Bob
see thing is, I see a lot of issues with this. While some people, I'm sure, would be more than happy to fill out their profiles, there might be others that don't wish to fill out the profile, that don't wish to give out much personal information about themselves. That's why I believe that a lot of these things shouldn't be made available, or at the very least, the fields should not be required fields.
Is there currently any way of knowing how many views my profile has received, or is this top secret knowledge also available only to premium members? Maybe I'd consider filling out my profile if I knew how many times it has been viewed.
I don't htink anything should be required. If people don't want to fill out their profiles, then obviously they don't want you to know a lot about them. Also, some people come on the site to just play games and don't bother talking to others, so why should they have to fill out a bunch of crap that is essentially pointless? If we made these things manditory, those who don't want that information public will just make it up.
No Ras, we premium members don't know how many views our profiles get either. That would be sort of a nice feature though. I don't think anything should be required information, but I do wish new members would be at least gently encouraged at the time they are informed that they have been accepted to at least fill in some info in that last part of the profile page where you can state in paragraph form a little about yourself. And if it is your wish not to talk to or meet new people, then why not state that in your profile paragraph.
I don't think you folks are getting my idea, or, maybe you are and don't like it.
For starters, the profiles can be used for two different things, to show others something about yourself, and two, to let the admins know who we have on the zone.
If things worked the way I see them working, everything except username would have a checkbox next to it that would say something like: "show this information to others." If that checkbox were checked, then that information would appear to a person looking at someone's profile. If not, then no one but the user him/her self and the administration would see it.
Then the site admins could distribute general site statistics about the zone users. They could also use this information to develop zone activities that would appeal to their current users. Like, do we develop virtual strip poker, or virtual go fishing, as additional games for the site.
Thanks,
Bob
I think I get your point now Bob, and I guess it does sound reasonable.
BTW, I vote for strip poker. LOL
a mandetory field should be gender I am sick of having to guess if someone is male or female.
I think that some parts could be mandatory, get a little information off of them. This way you know atleast their name to start off with. I just joined a couple days ago, and like knowing who's who if I look at their profile.
puppypower and Jinny,, that's a good point. It is rather disconcerting to not know the gender of someone you are talking to. It's kind of like talking on the phone with someone named Tabulo whose voice is in the mid-range, "could be a guy", "maybe not". Really disconcerting. But, I guess if someone really didn't want others to know their gender, or anything else, that's their business. However, I think they should have to choose a label like "male, female, or "none of your business"".
Thanks,
Bob
Not to poop on your party or anything, but isn't not filling it out stating that it is none of your business? I like the idea of seeing how many times a profile has been viewed, or maybe to make it a bit more accurate, how many users have viewed your profile. Views in general terms don't mean much, since you could just keep hitting refresh and getting another view on your profile.
ya. that's a stat I wish we would have tracked. If we did require gender, people'd just lie.
kc8pnl, I agree and disagree with you.
You said, "Not to poop on your party or anything, but isn't not filling it out stating that it is none of your business? I like the idea of seeing how many times a
profile has been viewed, or maybe to make it a bit more accurate, how many users have viewed your profile. Views in general terms don't mean much, since
you could just keep hitting refresh and getting another view on your profile."
I think if someone doesn't fill in gender, that could mean "none of your business", "I can't be bothered" or "I don't know how". But, if they choose "none of your business" that's saying "that's none of your business" only.
As far as your ideas on views is concerned, I totally agree with you, and I hadn't thought of that. In fact, if they wanted to get detailed about it, the admins could show who has viewed your profile, and how many times. That could be interesting.
Thanks,
Bob
Yes, I think it would be fun to know who has viewed my profile. And I also agree that knowing how many users have viewed it is better than just how many views it has had. I do look at profiles I have looked at in the past just to refresh my memory or see if a profile has been updated.
I find myself going back to the same profile because, if I haven't talked to someone in a while, I want to refresh my memory.
In your case Becky, I keep going back to see if it'll say "account disabled". <grin>.
Bob
Reading this discussion I can only conclude that most of the people here MUST have tremendously boring lives if you waste so much times conversing about who, how many and when someone viewed your profile!!! Geez... who gives a shit? So your profile was viewed 3604810374052 times, and? Will that make you feel popular? Important? an Idol (oh wait that is another story)... If you have such meaningless and boring life that the amount of views/hits of your zone profile is the highlight of your day, then you are just more pathetic than you have realized... Tsk, tsk, tsk... 'rolling eyes and shaking head'
Bob, I check your profile every so often to see if you have admitted to having Ed Zachary disease.
lol becky
Sorry Becky, I don't have Ed Zachary's disease.
However, this last week I discovered that I have star's disease.
This is a rare psychological malady which gives me a much inflated view of my petty existence, my inflated view of myself and my place in the universe. It manifest's itself by causing me to post pathetic posts to the boards needlessly demeaning my fellow zoners so that I can feel much better about my absurd little life.
Bob
Gee Bob, that's too bad. I hope you get over yourself...I mean get over the disease.
Well, this topic has changed somewhat from when I first posted, and in some way has digressed to joking. However with the idea that it might be good if we could find out how many other users clicked on our profile, I wondered if it would be at all possible to monitor how many people ctually take a look at the website that we have in there. For example in mine it concerns the syndrome I was diagnosed with earlier this year, and the charity in the UK that I've become involved with as a result. It would be interesting to know who found me interesting enough, or cared about me enough to actually have clicked that link and gone off to read a little that tells even more about me.
As I understand what you are saying blackbird, you want two monitors, one to monitor how many people view your profile, and another to monitor how many actually click on a link in your profile?
If that's what you mean, it's not a bad idea, I just think the second might be kind of hard to implement. I don't have an external link in my profile, but I wouldn't mind seeing how many went from there to my live journal account. Others might like to know how many folks listened to their audible profile.
Bob
they're both easy to implement. Just remember that the total will be from when it's implemented in to the future, since we haven't tracked this in the past. For clicking links, we already do this for tracking clicks on the text ads, so it's relatively simple.
For fear taht this topic died, I have some updates. I've been updating the new user registration system and have made a few changes. First, gender is now a field on the registration form. It's not required, but I think most people will fill it out when it's right on the form. Many of the fields on the registration form are now described so new users have a better idea of what each item means. Next, once a user registers, they are given the 500 points and told that they can get 500 more by filling out a profile. Hopefully, this'll encourage more people to fill out profiles after registering. Also, the default for Quicknotes is now to have publics off. We'll try to make it clear and maybe easier to turn these back on, but hopefully this'll lessen the learning curve for new users and turn the chat system into something that people will want to opt int to instead of something they're forced into right away. I'm now going to work on the new user help file.
Thanks J. I especially love the idea of 500 additional points for filling out a profile, good incentive.
Thanks again.
Bob
Yea! Thanks J. I also like the idea of points to encourage filling out a profile.
People do not have to fill out anything they don't want to. Though if that is the case then why have a profile thing anyways. Also lets take it a step further and say that at times when looking at the profiles I come across ones from 3 years ago that are blank. Shouldn't there be a limit of how many days or months someone signs up that there account gets deleted?
it would screw up the system if we deleted old accounts.
Hi all. I agree about showing how many have viewed your profile. If I were looking at my profile, it would say "This profile has been viewed 40 times by 40 users. If say Blackbird were to go to my profile, it would say "You have viewed JH_Radio's profile a total of 3 times. I think that the profiles views stats should be reset wen you update your profile. On the stats page, there could be a stat saying "Last 50 updated profiles." This way you can see who were the last 50 profiles to have been updated, and by whom. Just muy thoughts that I don't think were covered anywhare yet. John
Would be cool, but it's not retroactive.
Ah I see Jay. Retroactive sure would make things be more of an accurit picture.
ya. unfortunately, we don't have those statistics since we never logged them.