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feathertail) wrote in ![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png){kind=small}
dw_suggestions2010-06-11 02:48 am
More descriptive "Profile" area
Title:
More descriptive "Profile" area
Area:
profile
Summary:
I don't mean the "User Info" page. I mean the "Profile" section of your journal, which (right now) is surprisingly sparse.
Description:
Okay ... take a look at any Twitter page. In the upper-right hand corner you've got a name, a location, a website link (which is actually labeled as such) and a 140-character bio, plus icons for people he/she is following. They don't call this section a profile, but it gives you a good idea of who you're dealing with.
Here on Dreamwidth, pretty much every journal has a section that's labeled "Profile," but all it is is your name and userpic. On hover, your userpic displays a link called "Profile" which actually takes you to (your journal).dreamwidth.org/profile, so apparently you've got to click on a link in your profile in order to see your profile!
Besides that is a personal link, which is not labeled as such and which may or may not actually look like a link depending on your journal's style. Finally, we have a few buttons for watching and things, which are nice but aren't informative or profile-y.
I think if we're going to have a "Profile" sidebar widget, it ought to be informative, instead of leaving our readers thinking we just left it blank. (And in my case, wondering why I'm named "Tachyon Feathertail Become Your Fursona.")
Specific ideas:
* A quick blurb with a "Read more ... " link that takes you to the bio section of your User Info page
* A note like "Web:" to indicate the personal link's nature
* A custom field -- see what DW'ers come up with!
This suggestion:
Should be implemented as-is.
11 (26.2%)
Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
3 (7.1%)
Shouldn't be implemented.
21 (50.0%)
(I have no opinion)
6 (14.3%)
(Other: please comment)
1 (2.4%)
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For a reason why, look at
In addition, virtually every other site I compare DW to in terms of rival featuresets allows this, and multiple extra boxes, in some way or other. The current profile setup hasn't really changed since LJ started, so many sites have done better since.
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I'm not against other people putting in different modules in their layout, and if there were two or three custom text modules instead of one custom text module, I wouldn't mind, because I could just continue to use none. What I don't want is my simple profile box changed with some sort of fields I won't fill out because I don't see a reason to have a biography section on my recent entries page. And I definitely don't want a text in front of my website link that says "web:", as if it wasn't painfully obvious that the link titled "ratcreature.net" under my name and icon goes to a website that belongs to me. And the Profile header links to the profile page, so I don't see why there needs to be another link.
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But a journal is a blog. And many of us specifically use our DWs as a normal blog, with many if not most readers coming here as they would a normal blog.
Both SB and I have been in and out of the UK top 50 blogs more than once, I'[ve barely been posting for a year, so I'm currently nowhere, but I use DW as a blog.
I want/need somewhere to give non-DW natives somewhere to look for basic info. This follows very basic usability guides for blogs, I specifically need to add my photo into the sidebar ASAP, for example.
You don't see the need to amend your profile. You don't need to. The suggestion is to allow others to do so to theirs.
The OP wants to be able to do it, and I've hacked mine to alreayd do it. Combine that with it being recommended for usability,a nd ther'es aclear rationale plus a clear demand. You don't have to do it, but you can.
As it happens, I'm going to be following up witha comment elsewhere to remove the link from the profile as is, and instead put it into links list, while allowing all links list entries to have XFN declarations so you can say multiple sites are "me", or friends, or whatever. So I'm not sold on the idea of markign the web link as proposed, but encouraging some text in there?
I'm all for that.
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Actually that is not how I understood the posted suggestion. The suggestion as posted was not "allow more flexibility with several custom text modules rather than the current one", it was that the current Profile module should change and become a "profile widget" that should look like on twitter or something like it. And that would mean my profile module would also become this "informative widget" even though I don't use my DW journal as a blog and have never used twitter.
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More descriptive "Profile" area
* A quick blurb with a "Read more ... " link that takes you to the bio section of your User Info page
* A note like "Web:" to indicate the personal link's nature
* A custom field -- see what DW'ers come up with!
==
That's it. I've pretty much agreed with you on the web: bit, but the other two? An optional custom field, you can put something in it if you want, or leave it blank, and a space for blurb text to give a quick bio. That you don't need to use.
The current profile is already a profile widget, and you can choose to display or not many of the bits (I don't display my real name, as that's also my website link currently for example). So you could choose not to display these extra bits as well.
The proposal is for extra, optional, boxes to fill in that display with your profile. Sure, it'd encourage people to use them, but some people don't display their profile at all currently.
One, last, point.
Yes. You do. Your journal is a blog. You write, publicly, in a sequential manner, about a variety of topics, with entries displayed by reverse date. That's what a blog is. Sure, a journal is a subset type of blogs, but even the backend DW code refers to 'blog' fairly regularly.
A lot of people misuse the term blog. But DW is, by definition, a blogging platform, and many of us want to use it as such. You don't want "blogging" features, fine, don't use them. But many people do, including some that feel teh same way as you about whether you "blog" or not.
(honestly, I hate the word "blog", but if it's to have a meaning, then the definition is fairly clear).