[Suggestion] 'This member limits who may view their full profile': needs better 'social stimulation'

[Grover]

I was inspired by Dutchbb overhere. When you go to an User's Profile that has been blocked from viewing, you are presented with this:



This user (http://xenforo.com/community/members/eqnoble.1321/) has blocked his profile from viewing by others. What XF tells us is: 'This member limits who may view their full profile'. Yes, thank you, but what can we do to see it then?

The enduser of XF only sees this message and being new to XF as a brand new (and soon to be marketleader) platform, people don't know how to be able to get access to this profile.

What XF 'should' do IMHO is presenting the enduser with additional guidance saying something like: 'Become a member (link to registration page) of ThisForumName to get access to this users (or ThisUsersName) profile'. Or... 'Follow (link to follow function) ThisUsersName to get access to their profile'. Edit... Or... 'ThisUsersName is not following you and therefor you have no access to their profile'.

Something like that is needed, because the message now is too bland and not inviting in any way to generate interest/social activity.

Brilliant, another great suggestion, isn't it?

 

[Dean]

I think 'following' is an incredibly simple concept, and the 'friends' concept is fundamentally flawed because by definition people need to approve/disapprove/ignore the friend requests and the 'disapprove' is inherently unfriendly. Like the negative reputation feature.

Making the 'followers' any more complicated will require all xf members on all xf forums to understand it.

Simple is good.

 

[Grover]

I think 'following' is an incredibly simple concept, and the 'friends' concept is fundamentally flawed because by definition people need to approve/disapprove/ignore the friend requests and the 'disapprove' is inherently unfriendly. Like the negative reputation feature.

I agree with this. However... a mutual/approved connection(call it friends, followers, contacts, whatever) has serious benefits as well.

Making the 'followers' any more complicated will require all xf members on all xf forums to understand it.
Simple is good.

But that is the point. It isn't simple. Or it is maybe(depending how look upon it), but because of that (the simpleness... but I disagree it has anything to do with simplicity) it makes things actually more complicated. Ask yourself this question: do you or your current/future members really find it logical that in order to be able to view someone else's (B) profile they (B) need to follow you (A)? I thought that following someone (B) makes their (B) content, available to me (A). But it does not work like this when it comes to the profile privacy... it works the opposite. How is that simple? Following a user that has his profile blocked doesn't do anything.

 

[The Sandman]

As forum administrators, most of us are popular on our own forums, and can expect to be followed and liked until we're positively giddy. And there will surely be an in-group of members who are likewise idolized. Then there are the contributors who make quality posts - some of these members will be in the in-group, some will stand conspicously apart - either way they will get their props in likes and followers. However, there will always be a large number of members who are not in the in-group and who are not consistently strong contributors. These are the people who might feel slighted by the Likes and Followers system. Finding ways to make this less uncomfortable for them will be difficult.

Really, most of my members are not familiar with the concept of 'Following' someone and even if they are... I can imagine the questions coming up: 'How can I view a person's profile if they blocked it? I tried following them, but that doesn't help!'. Indeed. How odd is it for an enduser A -not familiar with XF- having to comprehend that in order to view a blocked profile of user B, this user B has to follow them (user A). It just doesn't make sense and is not intuitive.

I'd be willing to bet that the in-group people pick up on the nuances of the system straight away.

 

[Dean]

But that is the point. It isn't simple. Or it is maybe(depending how look upon it), but because of that (the simpleness... but I disagree it has anything to do with simplicity) it makes things actually more complicated. Ask yourself this question: do you or your current/future members really find it logical that in order to be able to view someone else's (B) profile they (B) need to follow you (A)? I thought that following someone (B) makes their (B) content, available to me (A). But it does not work like this when it comes to the profile privacy... it works the opposite. How is that simple? Following a user that has his profile blocked doesn't do anything.

To me, it make absolutely no sense what so ever, for people to be able to block newsfeeds - that information is quite easily obtainable by viewing/searching/Whats New.

That simply confuses things, and the ability to block newsfeeds will be removed from our forum.

 

[Grover]

I'd be willing to bet that the in-group people pick up on the nuances of the system straight away.

On every UI that I see/test I will always focus myself on the novice end user and do my best to leave the 'in-group' out as much as possible. My sites are not aimed at technically internet savvy people... I need functionality to be as intuitive as possible. That is one of the many reasons for example why I loath Internet Brands vBulletin4 with a passion. And this is one of the main reasons why I adore XenForo so much. Outstanding intuitive user interface. In fact, I like the followers concept, but when it comes to profile privacy, I just believe that the friendship functionality that comes with XF competitors like vBulletin, Invision and most other social platforms out there works much better there. Much more intuitive and logical.

 

[TrixieTang]

Why even show an error page when a member's profile is "private"? We already have access to information such as full sized avatar, location, age, status, join date, post count, likes received and trophy points on the member card. At least show their profile page with that info since it's already public no matter what, and have a message somewhere on their profile that explains that they only share certain information with members that they follow.

Although personally I want an admin option to completely disable the "View your details on your profile page:" option since a lot of forums including mine don't need or want profile privacy options like this.

 

[Lycaon]

Naw you're not. You're 'selective'.

I like that one.

I'm a selective git... Oh yes.

 

[AmericanForum.com]

On every UI that I see/test I will always focus myself on the novice end user and do my best to leave the 'in-group' out as much as possible. My sites are not aimed at technically internet savvy people... I need functionality to be as intuitive as possible. That is one of the many reasons for example why I loath Internet Brands vBulletin4 with a passion. And this is one of the main reasons why I adore XenForo so much. Outstanding intuitive user interface. In fact, I like the followers concept, but when it comes to profile privacy, I just believe that the friendship functionality that comes with XF competitors like vBulletin, Invision and most other social platforms out there works much better there. Much more intuitive and logical.

Grover this is an excellent point and I fully agree that the primary focus should be on the novice end user ... M&K already knew that

 

[Peggy]

Grover, it may be that this member has his profile hidden from everyone.

 

[Russ]

Why hide details that can be basically "exploited" and found else where? The simple fact that a private member page has the same appeal as a 404 page boggles my mind.

 

[Peggy]

The fact is, in the social networking world, such as Facebook, Linked-In, MySpace, etc, a member is given the option to make their information visible to others in a number of ways - either visible to everyone, members only, followers only, or no one.

 

[Russ]

The fact is, in the social networking world, such as Facebook, Linked-In, MySpace, etc, a member is given the option to make their information visible to others in a number of ways - either visible to everyone, members only, followers only, or no one.

I'm all for privacy preferences, however I still feel STRONGLY a private member page should contain more than a 404 page. Why hide the avatar, or post count, "find posts" when all that content can be found via member card and search feature? Seems silly to make one go through the effort if you ask me.

 

[Kim]

I'm all for privacy preferences, however I still feel STRONGLY a private member page should contain more than a 404 page. Why hide the avatar, or post count, "find posts" when all that content can be found via member card and search feature? Seems silly to make one go through the effort if you ask me.

That's actually a good point, perhaps the normal pop up mini profile info, and the privacy notice.

 

[Mike]

The error message is really just a temporary approach to it.

 

[Peggy]

I'm all for privacy preferences, however I still feel STRONGLY a private member page should contain more than a 404 page. Why hide the avatar, or post count, "find posts" when all that content can be found via member card and search feature? Seems silly to make one go through the effort if you ask me.

Ok now I understand what you're saying, and do tend to agree. Even on FB and MS, you see at least an AV, and limited info, along with a notice that the user has chosen to make their profile private.


EDIT: TY Mike for letting us know that this is temporary.

 

[Grover]

Ok now I understand what you're saying, and do tend to agree. Even on FB and MS, you see at least an AV, and limited info, along with a notice that the user has chosen to make their profile private.

Yesss, you've got it! That is why I titled this request: 'This member limits who may view their full profile': needs better 'social stimulation'.

 

[Peggy]

Yesss, you've got it! That is why I titled this request: 'This member limits who may view their full profile': needs better 'social stimulation'.

heh took me a while. sorry.

 

[Grover]

heh took me a while. sorry.

No need to say the 'S'-word, miss 'P'!

 

[dutchbb]

I wasn't surprised to read this is only a temporary solution, the XF devs care to much about these things to leave it as it is now

 

[Grover]

I wasn't surprised to read this is only a temporary solution, the XF devs care to much about these things to leave it as it is now

Well, it has been temporarily for half a year now

(see this profile for example), so I guess it will be like this in XF 1.0 Gold. Not one of the most important things, but I guess we can see improvements in 1.1