As a community-based region, one of the technical issues I've long-had with this and many other forums out there is the shitty default profile. You go to a person's profile to learn more about them, but our profiles do a horrible job of that or of anything else other than rehashing generic forum stats. I want to eventually transform our user profiles into an area of the website where you can express who you are, and show off what you're doing in our region. I don't want to remake Facebook (forum profile comments = eww), but doesn't it make sense that your profile would be where other members of the community could get to know more about you and see the things you're involved in and have accomplished here?
I'm very happy to be starting on this project, and be able to show you the start of it, at least as a preview:
http://wintreath.com/index.php?part=profile&id=1That is the link to my profile, but everyone has one! To find it, take the url above and plug your user ID into it. If you need help finding it, let me know and I'll get you a link. In the meantime, let's break down the new profiles.
SidebarThe sidebar has your username, avatar, and user title on top. These things identify you, and are one of the few ways you can set yourself apart on the forums at the moment, so of course we want to bring those in. Below that is a profile menu...currently you can send a PM if you are able to, or edit the profile if you are the profile is yours or if you're a forum administrator. Below that is an admin-only box that gives us some info we need to be able to know to do things like security checks.
The Stats BarAt the top of the other side is the stats bar, handy for those little stats most people are only interested in at a glance. Currently you can see your primary user role, post count, and karma count, although this will change during development. For example, post count will probably be replaced with something else, because I don't think it's a stat most people care about much...besides, it's on every post one makes.
The Main AreaThis is where all the important content will be shown...when you open up the profile, you see an introduction message. You can use it to talk about yourself, what you're doing in the region, anything you want someone to see when they open your profile. In the future, there will be options to view other kinds of things in this area, but we're just starting out here.
Profile EditAs mentioned before, you have a link to edit your profile with! Currently, you can edit your user title (you can also edit this in the old profile), or your introduction message (exclusive only to the new one). For both, you can utilize BB code just like you can on the forums.
For now, this remains a very simple work in progress, but I think it's a great start to this project...in time, these profiles will be linked into so many things, from your familial houses to your Citizenship nations to everything in between. I will post in this topic when I have updates specific to the new profiles, and I hope you will enjoy these refreshed profiles.
