Profile posts - what's the point?

The more I look at the "latest activity" page - that is probably a few minor tweaks away from resembling a social media feel to it.

Perhaps we can explore that a bit more. What if we tweaked that and set it as our homepage? It might spark some activity since users will see more content related items upon their first visit. Normally, people see the forum list and it resembles a directory. They don't realize there's a whole party going on inside each of those nodes. Well, not on my site haha, but maybe yours!

I also like the featured threads items, but they give the user the feel of a blog/news site.

I think the way to get them OFF social media and back to us, is giving them that familiar social media feel at first, then letting them learn the site from there.
 
The more I look at the "latest activity" page - that is probably a few minor tweaks away from resembling a social media feel to it.

Perhaps we can explore that a bit more. What if we tweaked that and set it as our homepage? It might spark some activity since users will see more content related items upon their first visit. Normally, people see the forum list and it resembles a directory. They don't realize there's a whole party going on inside each of those nodes. Well, not on my site haha, but maybe yours!

I also like the featured threads items, but they give the user the feel of a blog/news site.

I think the way to get them OFF social media and back to us, is giving them that familiar social media feel at first, then letting them learn the site from there.
An Activity Feed homepage (option) would be awesome! Latest Activity just doesn't cut it. Would like to see read/unread markers and Titles before Actions in most cases. In other words, not "Username replied to the thread _____," it's hard on the eyes to scan titles when the usernames and actions come before the titles. The titles become staggered on the right. I would want them on the left with markers. And integrate all the add-ons. So it will list a new thread, and then a new resource, etc. Not like the widgets in What's New. So basically, a combo of WN and LA would be nice with some serious thought, integration, and enhancement. Profile posts could be included in the results. These of course, would be a "username first" listing. It all depends on what is happening but titles first is best for the eyes and discovery. Maybe there is something coming in 2.2. Ya never know!

This, as a live feed. Bonus!

Profile posts are great for those short thoughts or funny quips that should not be threads. The problem is nobody sees them. Hoping 2.2 can address (with attachments).
 
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An Activity Feed homepage (option) would be awesome! Latest Activity just doesn't cut it. Would like to see read/unread markers and Titles before Actions in most cases. In other words, not "Username replied to the thread _____," it's hard on the eyes to scan titles when the usernames and actions come before the titles. The titles become staggered on the right. I would want them on the left with markers. And integrate all the add-ons. So it will list a new thread, and then a new resource, etc. Not like the widgets in What's New. So basically, a combo of WN and LA would be nice with some serious thought, integration, and enhancement. Profile posts could be included in the results. These of course, would be a "username first" listing. It all depends on what is happening but titles first is best for the eyes and discovery. Maybe there is something coming in 2.2. Ya never know!

This, as a live feed. Bonus!

Profile posts are great for those short thoughts or funny quips that should not be threads. The problem is nobody sees them. Hoping 2.2 can address (with attachments).

a few visual touchups and ability to make comments on the spot, would make the latest activity page pretty cool for me! I would actually make that my landing page so users saw all the cool stuff being posted right away, rather than the forum.
 
Hey @Mike Creuzer - why don't you folks at ThemeHouse create something like this? I bet it would be a major hit! Everyone coming over from social media would see something familiar and it could probably spark a lot of new registrations for us.

I do see a future in a feed-based homepage for sure and I think we have most of the tools already in place :)
 
I love @Siropu 's ad mod when I was using XF more often.

Here's something I made real quick on MS paint with just a generic news story.

It uses the info that's already on latest activity, so nothing new is needed, just a rearrangement.

latest activity.webp

I made it two columns because it's easier to read (Golden ratio, google it) and when you're on mobile, it's about that big anyway.

Some other ideas...
  • option to show thumbnail instead of avatar if thread has an image
  • mix in media, ams articles, etc
  • make sure threads can be shared on social media really nice (if it has a big image in it, of course...)
  • audit basic seo, like making sure schema is there, even though that's all debatable anyway haha

You could technically use "threads" as any type of content -blog posts, articles, video posts, etc - at the end of the day, you're posting content into a blank text box regardless and it's all about how you present it to the reader.
 
Disabled profile posts long ago. Biggest issue was people posting private content in those posts thinking it was a private message to that member. In other cases, people were bypassing posting rules through profile posts. We just elected to disable it as a whole.
 
We had the same issue. Out of the box profile posts just look like a conversation inbox. Once you start adding features this stops happening.
 
Most of my members are older and have been around for years, since before profile comments were a thing, so in my case I think most of them just never got used to it, and in many cases aren't even aware of it, or only vaguely. Which includes myself. Maybe partly my own fault, too, because for one thing I don't use a profile widget - too many others more important to me and I don't want more clutter. And when someone does occasionally leave a comment for me on my profile, I'm less likely to notice it, and wonder why they didn't just pm me (a.k.a. start a conversation, but we all know that "pm" is shorter and more to the point. ;)
 
is it possible to add into profile posts permissions ?

-write on his own profile
-comment on someone else profile post
 
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