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BLF ‘about me’ page - a good idea or not? is it even possible?

After reading through once again, more complaints and thoughts about signatures/content/photos/animations etc I wondered if there was a function to add an ‘about me’ page where people could put all the info they want about themselves and photo’s without everyone having to see it as a signature? (whether they want to see it or not). Then where the signature is now could be a link to that page/button, and literally just a few other written links/words – no photo’s at all. Then all that info would be hidden unless you want to read/see it by clicking their link. All the photo’s could continue being ‘off site’ so it wouldn’t take up much space.

I understand (though it’s not something I do) that people see their signature as a reflection of themselves and feel the need (for some reason) to force it onto others, I would say is ‘fair enough’ but of course not everyone wants to know that information or see it over and over and over again, sometimes filling huge swathes of page as you scroll down often with little or no real content that is of any use – it’s a bit one sided since you can’t switch it off. It is very distracting, closely followed by annoying.
If we each had a ‘page’ we could put all that info on there, along with photo’s of our interests, pets etc and keep the forum clean of all this content. I’m sure it would speed the site up too as it’s not constantly loading it all in post after post! It would also help us to keep up with what people are doing mod wise etc – it’s not all about blocking sigs lol!
Just an idea, I don’t know if it’s even possible? (apparently it may well be possible according to our great leader SB)
What do you guys think? Good idea or bad?

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While I appreciate the idea, I personally don’t think I would click on a profile page. It is not that I don’t care about other users, I just care more about what they write and contribute and not about a profile they write about themselves.

Regarding signatures, I also have to admit that I don’t read them. Not judging the content of them, but the posts are the predominant reason why I am using BLF.

If I need to find a review or something specific I just use google / the search box here.

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Thanks G0OSE for the idea. It’s probably technically possible, but we would also have to take into account the risk of users putting spam or other prohibited content in their About Me pages, which would be an administrative headache for me.

Another simpler option might be for users to create an About Me page in the Introduce Yourself category, and then link to that post in the signature.

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Of course, there is always a risk of that - it happens already in posts/sigs lol - but this way it would at least be hidden, and I really believe it would only be those same people who post such things in the forum anyway. I think you’d actually get less complaints/flags, as for the most part it would all go unseen, then as it is now in the forum, someone would report prohibited content as they come across it.
Overall I think it would be a positive thing, but of course that’s why I posted this topic - it’s not just about an individuals ideas :slight_smile:
Posters could also put links to their projects on that page which would make it easier to ‘follow’ your favourite modders etc.

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The thing is, I don’t really want BLF to turn into a dumping ground for buried toxic garbage. Even if no humans see it, the bots do, and that will attract more spammers. It could also get us in trouble with our web host, which prohibits certain types of content, as almost all web hosts do.

The “advantage” of users posting prohibited stuff in the public forum is that the Report or Spam buttons (depending on the nature of the post) will eventually result in the post being automatically removed and even blocking the user account, depending on quite a few factors in the algorithm. That probably wouldn’t be possible with an “About Me” page.

I’m not definitively writing off your suggestion, just mentioning the other issues that would have to be taken into account apart from the purely technical implementation.

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One can already find out everything relevant to flashlights about any user here.
Just click on the name then use the handy clickable buttons to read that person’s posts and threads.

http://budgetlightforum.com/user/1

What more do you need to know?

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Any more than this and you reinvented “MySpace”