33 replies to this topic

[Dave58]

At the simplest level, it would be a nice feature if community members could have the ability (if admins allowed) to have their profiles viewable by guests or not. It started with a few members complaining that the world could see their profile pictures or other stuff that they'd put on, then a few more chipped in to say that they'd customize theirs a bit more if only members had access. As a result of that we ended up turning off profile view for guests - where other members didn't mind, or actually wanted their profiles visible to everyone.

I suppose that making it a bit more complex like 'only allow friends' or choosing which bits to show would be a bigger ask, but stuff like that might be a bit more 'community orientated'.

[Jυra]

The problem with this is that they're forum profiles, not anything important or personal.

[Dave58]

How easy would it be to do this at the most simple level though? Member has profile set to public or members only. A tinyint in an ocean of blobs.

[CallieJo]

I'd also like to see a "friends' only" setting.

[• Jay •]

The problem with this is that they're forum profiles, not anything important or personal.

What is important or personal varies from site to site.

We also have members that would appreciate such functionality.

[Jυra]

It does not vary from site to site at all. A forum would likely have some sort of modification or specific changes to make it otherwise.

[• Jay •]

It does not vary from site to site at all. A forum would likely have some sort of modification or specific changes to make it otherwise.

Clearly you haven't discovered Custom Profile Fields. It's not a modification at all.

And I wasn't even talking about changes in the board software for that matter. I was simply saying not everybody wants their contact info flapping in the breeze.

[Jυra]

Then they wouldn't share it in the first place.

[CallieJo]

Why should members be limited in what to share because IPB does not have privacy options? Give them the freedom to share personal information if they choose to do so, but with the freedom to block everyone but their friends from seeing it.

We should all take privacy seriously, but not so serious that we tell people not to share private info and don't offer them any privacy options to use! The all or nothing attitude is just another reason to use places like Facebook and VB forums instead. At least they offer some privacy options for members to make their own choices instead of being forced to deal with whatever the admin decides for them.

Here is a screenshot of some of VB's privacy options:

 vbprivacy.gif   34.36KB   42 downloads

[CallieJo]

I would like to revisit this suggestion for some more feedback as it's important for our current project before we go live. Some of our partners have addressed some concerns about lacking profile privacy permissions. It's actually one reason we resorted to VB for another project we have. Most reasons had to do with profiles, sadly.

Does anyone have any idea on how to hack some friend only privacy permissions into the profiles? It would be greatly appreciated. If there is a mod (reasonably priced or free), please point me in that direction. Thank you.

[• Jay •]

I agree with Callie, this is one of the rare weak points in IPB.

Instead of bells and whistles on the posting/topic view pages, more flexibility in configuration of the member's account would be appreciated.

[Jυra]

You would have to restrict all forum posts from non-friend list too since the forum topics contain all the valuable information. That would mean forum topics would have blank bars similar to ignored people except it's the whole topic unless you friend everyone.

Encouraging members to input private information into their profiles is pretty insecure way of handling such information because a user may be poor at deciding who to accept or add as friend. It would just make people's private information less private and IMO it would be irresponsible (I wouldn't have replied several times if I were indifferent to the issue). People who crack people's accounts love social networks.

[Dave58]

Deja Vu! The same advocates and the same opponent!

For what it's worth I still think that profile permissions would be a good idea. I don't see how the above forums topics scenareo might apply.

Shall we meet up again in 14 months?

[CallieJo]

You would have to restrict all forum posts from non-friend list too since the forum topics contain all the valuable information. That would mean forum topics would have blank bars similar to ignored people except it's the whole topic unless you friend everyone.

I have no clue what you are talking about. Please elaborate...
It has nothing to do with what you see in threads. Those would be the same as they are whether you have profiles visible to guests or not as in the default system now. We are talking about member profiles, not the little bit of info you see in threads.

Encouraging members to input private information into their profiles is pretty insecure way of handling such information because a user may be poor at deciding who to accept or add as friend. It would just make people's private information less private and IMO it would be irresponsible (I wouldn't have replied several times if I were indifferent to the issue). People who crack people's accounts love social networks.

Your argument is lacking, sorry. Whether members share personal information or not is irrelevant. As it is now, whether profiles are visible to just members only or members and guests, does not prevent or discourage members from sharing whatever information they want to share. If we actually care a bit about our end users and give them those extra privacy permissions, they can set it up so only their friends can see whatever it is they want to share on their profiles. It's actually irresponsible NOT to give members that extra privacy permission to decide who can look at their profile! You'd rather the admin decides an all or nothing. Some of us would like the members to decide for themselves...it is their profile after all...and if we can't be responsible enough to give them these privacy permissions, they can get that on VB forums or facebook etc. instead.

[saturnus]

I would like to have the option of setting to "Friends Only"

[Jυra]

Forum topics is the bulk of a forum's content. It's irresponsible to give people a go to put personal information with a false sense of security.

[CallieJo]

Forum topics is the bulk of a forum's content.

Which has nothing to do with the profiles nor adding an option to only allow friends to view their profiles. That is the suggestion here in this thread. Adding an option for members to choose friends only to view their profiles. Simple, really. Nothing more, nothing less. Nothing to do with the rest of the forums at all. You would still see the rest of the forums just the same as you do now. Plain and simple. It's really not that complicated of a suggestion here.

Lets please stay on topic. Thanks.

It's irresponsible to give people a go to put personal information with a false sense of security.

Giving them an option to choose better privacy permissions is irresponsible? I don't understand your way of thinking at all. Please share some real world facts to back these statements up.

If you want to get technical, it's irresponsible on the admins' part not to offer this privacy permission to their members since it's so common to have on most of the popular websites. One could argue that people are going to share more personal information anyways since they may assume that they have privacy permissions in place already like most of the popular websites offer in some form or another for profiles.

Please let me explain some more reasoning behind this suggestion.

If allowed by the admin, a member is currently allowed to hide themselves from who's online list. A member is now allowed to hide their blog entries from everyone but their friends, thanks to IPB's new setting. We are asking IPB to add a similar measure of privacy permissions to allow members to choose whether or not everyone or just their friends can see their profiles.

Current setup:
Example 1: Profiles visible to guests and members and search engines.
Example 2: Profiles visible to members only.

Members put whatever they want in their profiles, regardless of what settings an admin has setup for their forums. Most would already assume that there are privacy permissions they can choose from. After all...Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Vbulletin forums, Xenforo forums, etc. all offer privacy options for profiles.

Suggested setup:
Exampl 1 & 2 above.
Example 3: Profiles visible to friends only. One option for a member to choose whether or not other people can view their profile or just their friends only. Admin would have a setting in the backend to choose whether or not this option is offered to their members. You turn it off, you don't have it. You turn it on, your members have another measure of privacy. When it's on, what you already see throughout the forums should also be seen on the profile. Simple things like name, avatar, post count, site-wide content, etc. Items that are hidden would include your updates, profile comments, about me, etc.

Again, members put whatever they want in their profiles, regardless of what settings an admin has setup for their forums. Most already assume there are privacy permissions as most big websites on the internet offer, as I've pointed out above.

Conclusion:
You somehow think that by giving members an option to help protect their privacy is going to encourage them to share more personal information than they already do. Whether they will or not is irrelevant because it can be argued differently for different communities and their needs! And it can be argued that they already do since most popular websites (even those using other forum platforms) already offer these added privacy permissions. However, you still fail to see that privacy options are common and expected when it comes to profiles. After all, as I've pointed out above, it's a common setting on most popular sites that have a profile available.

This is a suggestion to let us admins choose whether or not members can have an added privacy permission for their profiles. Therefor, someone like yourself could turn it off. Those of us that need this, can choose to turn it on. It should be up to an admin to decide for their own community. Not you nor I to push our beliefs onto other communites. It's a setting. Therefor, it's still an admin choice before it could be a member choice.

[Jυra]

Which has nothing to do with the profiles nor adding an option to only allow friends to view their profiles.

Giving them an option to choose better privacy permissions is irresponsible?

It does have to do with profiles because on nearly all forums the profiles are used for stats and finding content. That's a lot different than topics where people get to know each other and tell things about themselves.

Friends only profiles would just frustrate registered members who want to see when someone was on last, what their last post was, etc. It'll just make a bunch of blank pages with messages about how they're denied basic foruming functions. Having friends only as the way to protect people's home addresses and phone numbers as custom profile fields irresponsible because it's poor. There's opportunities for abuse. I don't see how there needs to be facts when there's always drama and news about what happens on social networking sites. Many forums have policies about not sharing personal information either unspoken or as a standard rule. A lot of the things in that vB screenshot aren't even personal can't be applied to IPB.

IPB also has profile cards/pops.

[Rimi]

I support better privacy options. I personally wouldn't use it but I acknowledge the large user base that would. Additionally IPB may be the only forum software to not have this...retail anyway. I know on xenforo you can block it so only people you follow can see it or something. Then again xenforo has amazing stalking capabilities so the privacy is necessary.

Edit: IPS has already enabled checks so that banned members profile information can be blocked and I think they can also be blocked for guests. A few tweaks and additions should make this quite simple IMO. But I don't know much.

[Jυra]

If the request was for certain areas of the profile instead of the profile, I'd likely be indifferent or even supportive if it had good reasoning behind it.