profile app or profile page?

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profile app or profile page? written Apr 10, 2021 2:49:50 GMT
pronounsidc
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what do you prefer in a site? do you like having a profile application that you fill out or do you prefer your profile page as your application?? what do you think are pros and cons for either of the options. trying to figure out which would be the most preferable for the site that i'm currently working on. it's a secret side project and will talk more about it another time, but what i can say is that it's about knights.
last edit on Apr 10, 2021 2:51:36 GMT by newyork
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profile app or profile page? written Apr 10, 2021 3:06:50 GMT via mobile
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generally as a member, i'm pretty indifferent to whether a site uses a profile app or a threaded app tbeh, but uh. as a staffer, i honestly don't think i'll ever go with a profile app again on a site.

the long and short of it is that i really didn't like that i couldn't actually delete old accounts from inactive members (since that's such a yikes to just delete someone's "app"), there were a lot of little quirks i wasn't a fan of (like having to lock approved accounts from being able to edit their profiles so no one could ninja edit app information to be a problem child or constantly re-entering certain answers because jcink won't hold an apostrophe in a short entry field for some reason), and i found them to be fairly difficult to navigate on mobile most of the time (not that threaded apps can't be too but imo having 50+ fields for an aesthetic profile app is kind of difficult to wade through in mobile mode for actual pertinent information).

like i said. neither is necessarily a dealbreaker for me for joining a site (since it's more what information is being asked for in an app that tends to be make-or-break for me), but as a staffer, i pretty firmly prefer threaded apps just because i don't like having 300+ accounts sticking around on the site when only 30 of them are actually active characters.
last edit on Apr 10, 2021 3:09:39 GMT by Kuroya


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profile app or profile page? written Apr 10, 2021 3:23:26 GMT
pronounsThey/Them
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I'm also kind of middle of the road as a member, I feel like I maybe lean more towards profile apps as a member? But only because I like being able to just plug stuff in without potentially breaking a code and having to find where it's broken? BUT this can be remedied by just having a fairly cleanly coded app so that it's not messy to edit!

We have a freeform section in the profile but it's MOSTLY for like...IDK a trivia or fun facts kind of thing? It's more of a 'use this however you feel like idc' with the meat of the information being in the 'shipper' (and I use that term loosely), so IDK, I think you could get away with either, there's pros and cons to both methods and in the end it's always gonna be up to a person's personal preference!
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profile app or profile page? written Apr 10, 2021 9:37:09 GMT
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Apr 10, 2021 3:06:50 GMT said:
constantly re-entering certain answers because jcink won't hold an apostrophe in a short entry field for some reason

[nospaces]

I had no idea that was an issue until a member brought it up. Thankfully Jcink's support was super nice, and they gave me a code that helped with that issue. I plugged it in, and it works all fine now. ^^[break][break]
I enjoy trying to make things as user-friendly as possible, and using the profile page as an app/profile for a character has been great in my experience. [break][break] I agree with Kuroya when it comes to having members freely edit their profiles after approval. It's especially worrisome on forums that use stat systems. Since I don't have a system on mine, I just trust members will leave their profiles as is. So far, it's been great. โค

[break][break]Edit: I forgot to add, I also am not a fan of deleting profiles, so for activity check sake, I have groups like so: Validating, Member, Character, Inactive.
[break][break] People that are applying remain in Validating. I have it, so when they register, they go directly to that group. Once I review their accounts, I move them to either Member (for OOC accounts) or Character.
[break][break] When people leave, I move them to inactive. I filter the member list to show members when I want to see how many active members we have. I have that info shown on our Boardstats as well.

[break][break]In case anyone is curious about that script for the apostrophe issue.

last edit on Apr 10, 2021 9:50:11 GMT by โœฆ MAD
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profile app or profile page? written Apr 10, 2021 14:03:37 GMT
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as both a member and a staff member, I definitely lean more towards profile applications, but it's mainly because I feel they are more customizable and hold a soft spot for me nostalgically. They are also easier to save and back up for myself, in the case that I want to use the character again on another site/forum, or rework them into a new concept.

But, although I prefer profile apps, it doesn't mean I'm against user profiles. If I'm really vibing with a site or feel like the user profile is not too complicated, I can fill out a profile page. On one of my current sites, this is the way the app is layed out -- and, honestly, it can be a lot sleeker and more accessible. The only downside is that the biography/profile can be added to later after acceptance, since it's a part of the profile and not necessarily something staff can "lock". But, maybe that's not such a bad thing in some cases. I just worry about those who will sneak extra benefits/powers/history etc into their character after acceptance to make them seem the best. But, so far, that is the only issue I see with it.
last edit on Apr 10, 2021 14:05:07 GMT by Deleted
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profile app or profile page? written Apr 10, 2021 15:16:31 GMT via mobile
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profile pages bc it feels like ppl never link their mf app in their mf miniprof and its annoying af to 1) forget the alphabet as i sift thru accepted apps or 2) have to go through pages and pages of their most recent threads to find the thing

also im biased as a designer TM a bit and think prof pages are both aesthetically and functionally a lot cleaner (mostly bc u tend to have more space -- in-thread apps r limited by the width of the post which is almost always <750px vs the width of the wrapper in a prof page)
last edit on Apr 10, 2021 15:20:09 GMT by selkie
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profile app or profile page? written Apr 10, 2021 15:25:36 GMT
pronounsshe/her
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i prefer profile pages just because i like threaded apps. and when profile apps are used, the profile is like. 10 thousand words of extra information i do not need. one hundred thousand fields to fill out... when i go to a profile page i just want to see the basics, like, age pronouns group image oocname ooctriggers postcount etc. and then if i am intrigued enough in the character i will go hunt down everything else

they always seem very complex, in the end, and i am not about that life. simple apps or bust. simple profiles or bust

also in more complex profile apps it takes me like ten hundred thousand years to find the post count, thread count, and "view all posts by this member" link. this is like the first thing i look at always to see if i want to write with a person or a character... do not hide it from me. smack dab front and center... thank u
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profile app or profile page? written Apr 11, 2021 3:57:54 GMT
pronounsidc
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thank you so much guys, this kind of input really helps me to understand what people are thinking and get different viewpoints on a subject. i was feeling pretty on the middle with it as well, both have some good qualities and some cons towards what they can do and stuff like that.