More descriptive "Profile" area

[feathertail]

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!

Poll #3458 More descriptive "Profile" area

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 42

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

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%)

Comments

[lanterne_rouee]

No need to be sorry! I'm just (still awake), catching up on reading and giving my two cents all over the place. lol

Suggestions are good. Most of them make me, personally, think about things I never even considered before reading them.

:)

[feathertail]

This is true. I'm just noticing that mine seem to be more geared to a different kind of site. >.> Oh well, Dreamwidth's still fun. I just wish sometimes that there was, like, an open-source version of Tumblr or something.

[lanterne_rouee]

Ohhh, I see what you mean now.

Yeah, I'm not personally a fan of tumblr either. I never even got as familiar with that one. It always seemed like... chaos to me. *ducks* lol Different things work for different people.

Maybe there will be an open source version of it though. Or, you know, something very similar. (Once people get fed up with some aspect of it or how it is run, they'll come up with an alternative, I'm sure.)

Hope you stick around here, too, though! :)