Should we nuke "profile posts" in Xenforo?

[neptronix]

Xenforo has a 'profile posts' feature that allows you to talk to someone in public, and this is kind of a hybrid between a private message and a public talk..

Already i am seeing profile posts being used to ask questions, but few users have answered them.

The problem i see with this is that these kinds of conversations should be happening in relevant forum posts, and any potentially useful info would be hard/impossible to reference later.

What's your opinion?

 

[Two4Seven SuprDan]

yeah its kinda confusing until i figured out that they are not private messages but public conversations ... private messages are good, not sure how i feel either way about public ones cuz at that point it should probably have stayed in the thread.

 

[amberwolf]

I could see it having potential uses as a kind of "public private message" but I think that stuff could be happening in threads just as easily, with most likely more useful results.

I've also already seen the noobie-asks-in-pm-rather-than-making-a-thread (though using the proifle posts instead of pm) at least once.

For reference this page lists some of the profile posts.

New profile posts

endless-sphere.com

XF doesn't have any way of moderating that content, either, AFAICT (i think I can delete it, but I can't edit it or move it anywhere, like to put it into a thread instead).

So...I would not complain if it went away.

I also wouldn't complain if you made the Postings Tab the default when viewing a profile.

 

[A-DamW]

I have no particular attachment to them going away.

 

[slaphappygamer]

I’m on another sites that his profile posts. Honestly, they aren’t used for anything helpful. It’s mostly “hi, how’ve you been” type of things. Which might be better in a PM. PMs are a great way to chat with a particular user, but some users have that feature blocked, so you can’t PM them. Unless you friend or follow them. Profile posts can have a similar restriction.

I agree that most questions that would be asked in a profile post are better seen in a forum thread. I can only see asking a certain question to a certain user to have only their input. But if the question is unanswered for many days, then I’d open a forum thread. Perhaps the user doesn’t reply on purpose to have you open a thread.

I vote no to profile posts. They don’t seem very useful here. Also, when a user uses search feature, profile posts will also appear in the results.

There could also be the case that particularly helpful and very knowledgeable users could be battered by numerous profile post questions. Questions that would most likely get answered in a forum thread.

 

[Comrade]

Complexity is always a bad thing when it comes to UI design and usability. Especially when it is superfluous complexity.

Another example of this is the line of information under the subject of a thread. In the old forum, the fonts were were smaller than the subject line, or smaller by a larger ratio, which was easier for a human brain (or my brain only) to ignore when skimming a page of subjects.



In the new forum the information line sticks out more, which is aggravated by more use of white space, making it more difficult to skim.



IMHO (and based on 2 years of formal graduate level HCI education) the username plays no role in whether someone is interested in the subject and decides to open the thread. So it's superfluous complexity. So is the creation date of the thread. That information is already duplicated on the right in the "last post" field, which is more relevant than creation anyway. And I doubt anyone changes their sorting method from the default "sort by last reply", since I would imagine active discussion and interesting subject are the 2 criteria the vast majority of forum users are looking for.

It would be much easier to skim a long list of subjects to find interesting things if the only thing shown on the left side was the thread title. Or the arguably superfluous information was in smaller font and less bright.

 

[neptronix]

Hey Comrade.
Your eyes are probably pre-programmed to skim old ES a certain way and ignore certain details and may eventually settle.

The difference between the two layouts is really small but with a little time spent looking at the main difference for reading purposes is that the font size is 1-2px smaller for the person/date display and therefore a tiny bit easier to ignore.

The username/date on the right is actually the most recent post date and the one on the left is the creation date and original poster.
This is useful information and i believe most ESers would dislike if it's missing.

 

[neptronix]

It seems like profile posts are generally a no.

I'll leave this post up for another week so to see if we have anyone with a good argument for keeping them.

 

[Comrade]

This is useful information and i believe most ESers would dislike if it's missing.

If those fields can't be disabled, then this whole conversation is moot, but if they can be, maybe create a poll?

I can't really come up with use any case scenarios where someone cares about who posted the thread. The title is the interesting part. And if it shows up on the page, that means it's an active thread, even if it was started a while ago. Maybe I'm crazy. But a poll would settle that.

 

[amberwolf]

I care, because I am frequently searching for specific posts by specific people in a forum or a list of posts, etc., so I can find info to help someone, or so I can merge duplicate topics (such as when noobs join and make a billion threads instead of keeping the stuff about the same project in the project, or even answering those trying to help them, etc). (a search doesn't always find everything in these cases so perusing the lists of threads, and the subforums, is sometimes necessary, and I need to see who started and who replied).

 

[chuyskywalker]

Kill 'em vote here

 

[neptronix]

If those fields can't be disabled, then this whole conversation is moot, but if they can be, maybe create a poll?

I can't really come up with use any case scenarios where someone cares about who posted the thread. The title is the interesting part. And if it shows up on the page, that means it's an active thread, even if it was started a while ago. Maybe I'm crazy. But a poll would settle that.

They can be disabled but this information is central to how forums are supposed to look and act.
Moderators need to know who is posting what and some people are many times more interesting than others.

We're keeping them!

 

[fechter]

I like being able to see when the topic was created and by whom. I find the feature useful.

 

[nicobie]

Me too.

 

[skeetab5780]

ya i vote no for profile posts

 

[larsb]

Nuke ’em

 

[neptronix]

Okay.. should be nuked!

 

[fechter]

Okay.. should be nuked!

 

[amberwolf]

Does "should be nuked" mean that it's been decided to nuke it, or does it mean it is already done?

If the latter, well, I can still see stuff:

New profile posts

endless-sphere.com

 

[neptronix]

Yes, it's turned off ( or so we think )

Check it now.