I'd like to encourage new members to provide more information in their user profile.

December 31, 2004 1:19 PM

I'd like to encourage new members to provide more information in their user profile. [more inside]
posted by lobakgo to Etiquette/Policy at 1:19 PM (57 comments total)

I keep coming across members who have very little information in their profile--no name, no contact info. I remember somewhere Matt saying that he thought it would be good if people gave their names and I think it makes a difference. If you don't want to give your name, please give some contact info. At least then there's the opportunity to keep threads on track. And maybe if people provide their names there can be slightly more civil interactions.
posted by lobakgo at 1:20 PM on December 31, 2004

Yes, that way deranged people who take websites far too seriously can stalk and harass you.
posted by keswick at 1:32 PM on December 31, 2004

What about old members who have very little information in their profile?
posted by ZippityBuddha at 1:38 PM on December 31, 2004

Sometimes, when I'm driving, I think about how tenuous life is and how easily someone could cross the centre line or drive into a lake.

I hope Bill O'Reilly is first against the wall.

I once had a gingerale slurpee that shamed all other slurpees I've ever had.

What else do you want?
posted by The God Complex at 1:42 PM on December 31, 2004

You're partway there, TGC.

2. Copy & paste that stuff into your profile.
3. Profit! (Karmically, at least.)
posted by chicobangs at 1:51 PM on December 31, 2004

Sometimes, when I'm driving, I think about how tenuous life is and how easily someone could cross the centre line or drive into a lake.

Me too. Weird.
posted by Yelling At Nothing at 2:14 PM on December 31, 2004

This is actually the first place where I have both my nickname and my real name in the same, easily accessible place. The karma just glistens from me.
posted by hopeless romantique at 2:16 PM on December 31, 2004

What else do you want?

A ginger ale slurpee, now.
posted by modofo at 2:18 PM on December 31, 2004

I do not have my real name or any identifying information in my profile because I have a recurring problem with someone from my past with whom I do not wish to be in touch.

I love you all, but if you want to know things about me, read my comments. I'm extremely open about my bra size, my sexuality, the things that bug me about my husband, my religious affiliations, my political affiliations, my favorite wines and liquors, my favorite foods, etc., etc.
posted by Sidhedevil at 2:23 PM on December 31, 2004

Sometimes, when I'm driving, I think about how tenuous life is and how easily someone could cross the centre line or drive into a lake.

During one particularly bad spell, I thought about how tenuous life is and whether I should cross the centre line.

Fortunately, I couldn't inflict that sort of pain on an unknown, uninvolved, and innocent semi-truck driver.
posted by five fresh fish at 2:33 PM on December 31, 2004

Who needs names when we're all just numbers?
posted by naxosaxur at 2:33 PM on December 31, 2004

I couldn't inflict that sort of pain on an unknown, uninvolved, and innocent semi-truck driver.

bridge abutments mean never having to say you're sorry.
posted by quonsar at 2:35 PM on December 31, 2004

I prefer the moniker SMART DALEK, as I am a naural-born citizen of the Republic of Davros, a nation you no doubt are familiar with. Having earned a modest salary as an auditing and accounting consultant of major international bank, I have decided to introduce myself to anyone curious about myself, and to respectfully share in likewise interests with others interested in financial oppurtunity.

As it so happed one morning, my department came across a very huge sum of money belonging to a deceased person who died after being eaten by a large bear while driving his car across some railroad tracks and the unfortunate indivudial's finances has been dormant in my lending instituiton's account services without any claim of the fund in our custody either from business associates or relatives before our discovery to this development. But there are others who may wish to introduce themselves. My problems are nothing at the moment compared to the greeting of new MetaFilter members. All other necessary information can be discussed later should I hear from you.
posted by Smart Dalek at 3:01 PM on December 31, 2004

How is Skaro this time of year?
posted by ZippityBuddha at 3:02 PM on December 31, 2004

What the hell, it's not as if another stalker could possibly tip the scales.
posted by pookzilla at 3:05 PM on December 31, 2004

Metafilter was the first time I ever thought "hey, I'll put some info down about myself and someone other than a datamining company will actually give a damn about reading it."

But here is some more info for you.

I live in south Atlanta, I hate it there. Sometimes while driving around the ATL, I sometimes wonder how the hell a 20-something can afford a Hummer and it's payments/insurance/gas/upkeep (while he's tailgating me) and then I think about how America contributes some large percentage of heating up the globe.

Then I get angry and think about doing some activism to make people aware of my petty little hang ups with SUV's...

Then I get lazy and go home to have a beer.

You know, I think I'm going to go update my profile with this info...
posted by Hands of Manos at 3:12 PM on December 31, 2004

My favorite new members' name is filthy five dolla n00b

That name is a bit of profile in itself, is it not?
posted by jaronson at 3:34 PM on December 31, 2004

Sometimes when I'm driving... on the road at night... I see two headlights coming toward me. Fast. I have this sudden impulse to turn the wheel quickly, head-on into the oncoming car. I can anticipate the explosion. The sound of shattering glass. The... flames rising out of the flowing gasoline.

Aside from that, I don't care about people's real names, but I wish they would put some contact information (unless, like Sidhedevil -- who, as Queen of MetaFilter, can do whatever she wants anyway -- they have good reason not to); lets face it, most of us are not worth stalking, and it's frequently a good thing to be able to contact another member privately. For what it's worth, I've been contacted by a lot of people but never had occasion to regret posting the e-mail address.
posted by languagehat at 3:41 PM on December 31, 2004

I live in Hong Kong and love lo bak go, you little turnip you.
posted by mono blanco at 4:05 PM on December 31, 2004

I'd really like to provide more information in my profile, especially since I'm one of the aforementioned new members. However, I've had a couple of stalkers in my past (I'm really not that special--I swear!), so I tend to hold back on giving out my personal info. The last thing I want is someone else fixating on me.

Who knows? Maybe my paranoia will ease once I've been around for awhile.
posted by Four-Eyed Girl at 4:21 PM on December 31, 2004

We have all already told too much about ourselves.
posted by sled at 4:31 PM on December 31, 2004

i have a fish in my pants.
my favorite word is 'smock'.
for the really juicy stuff, you'll have to subscribe to my newsletter.
posted by quonsar at 4:34 PM on December 31, 2004

*subscribes to quonsar's newsletter, is immediately deluged by fishy spam*

Y'all do realize that e-mail addresses are only visible to other members, right? I mean, obviously you can't trust all 20,000 other members, but it does cut down on the risk.
posted by languagehat at 6:03 PM on December 31, 2004

when we're all just numbers

I am not a number.
posted by Wolof at 6:03 PM on December 31, 2004

So, Wolof Number 6, why did you resign?

As for myself, some people call me the Space Boxboy, some call me the Hamster of Love, some people call me Moran, 'cause I speak of the Dangermouse of Love.
posted by wendell at 6:11 PM on December 31, 2004

some call me the Hamster of Love

I'm going to become one of those people!
posted by taz at 6:31 PM on December 31, 2004

I have small amounts of information about several mefites on my user profile. Or was that not what you wanted?
posted by jonson at 6:33 PM on December 31, 2004

wendell my man, that was pure genius.

*ROFLs into the sunset*
posted by quonsar at 6:34 PM on December 31, 2004

I'm actually trolling for stalkers, which is why my profile includes my real name and a picture of me leaning forward so you can see down my shirt.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 7:34 PM on December 31, 2004

I love it when people provide personal information, it makes me feel incredibly superior to be making my salary in New York City while all of the small town yahoos post furiously in grad school poverty.
posted by orange clock at 7:51 PM on December 31, 2004

I figure anyone can easily figure out who I am, with google and a little effort. I wouldn't insult anyone's intellegence by making it too easy on them.

You are all intellegent, right? And living exciting lives of high drama, with no time left over to care about boring little old me.
posted by QIbHom at 8:24 PM on December 31, 2004

"I'd like to encourage new members to provide more information in their user profile"

I'd like to encourage new members to reconsider, and go the fuck away.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 9:41 PM on December 31, 2004

I've put some info in my profile. Not enough, apparently, as I've yet to attract a stalker.

Funny coincidence, five fresh fish. After I decided stepping in front of a bus would fuck up too many lives I started checking out bridge abutments. Drugs are our friends.
posted by deborah at 9:42 PM on December 31, 2004

I don't want to. If I want to talk to you, I'll email you. If you want to talk to me, you can email me. If you have no info, you don't wish to be spoken with and that's enough for me. If there's a MetaFilter party in the area, I'll go and introduce myself, but I don't need to give out more information.
posted by Captaintripps at 9:56 PM on December 31, 2004

Tell the truth... I'm not the only one who looked for Pink's pic, right? :)
posted by LouReedsSon at 11:13 PM on December 31, 2004

intellegent

.
posted by The God Complex at 11:26 PM on December 31, 2004

More info in MY profile?? You mean SOME info in my profile, don't you?

Then I might not be able to flirt (not that I do, anyway, because my wife discourages flirting). Then again, flirting on MeFi ... HORRORS! The rational intellect rebels.

How about meeting at Starbucks somewhere .... my WiFi and your WiFi.
posted by PlanoTX at 12:20 AM on January 1, 2005

Did you really want to look down Pink's shirt? You know he's a guy, right?
posted by Doohickie at 12:26 AM on January 1, 2005

Word? I guess I do now!
posted by LouReedsSon at 9:34 AM on January 1, 2005

*know now.
posted by LouReedsSon at 9:35 AM on January 1, 2005

What? List my real name in my profile? That'll be the day.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 1:28 PM on January 1, 2005

What is the hell is this profile everybody's going on about?

And Happy New Years!

PS Anybody who saw a guy running through Central Park around 59th in nothing but glowing green boxers... that wasn't me.

PPS Can you believe how nice the weather in NYC was today? Makes me so glad I woke up in the park!
posted by nixerman at 2:18 PM on January 1, 2005

I was the inspiration for J. G. Ballard's Crash.
posted by kenko at 2:37 PM on January 1, 2005

matt, please delete the above comment by "me." It wasn't, in fact, me.

And delete this comment too.
posted by nixerman at 3:33 PM on January 1, 2005

Alright, since I haven't updated my page in a while:

I framed OJ. Yeah, that was me. Also, I convinced Koresh to go solo, and told Manson his songwriting sucked and to just give it the hell up. A drunken dalliance with some livestock in the UK a few years ago is probably where the Mad Cow outbreak started. I was the voice behind Milli Vanilli, and the mind behind catchphrases like "Where's The Beef," "I'm [insert famous name here], bitch," "So's your mother," and "Hey, that's not my hand!"

I was Christopher Walken's dialogue coach, Bruce Willis' toupee maker, and the Roadrunner's personal trainer. I can outdrink, outsmart, outfuck and outduel all the members of GWAR simultaneously. Parts of Ulysses were ghostwritten by me, and I was briefly married to Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, Elizabeth Taylor and Zsa Zsa Gabor simultaneously. Which was legal in the state in which I was living at the time.

I wrote the 60 Minutes theme song, and once I beat Idi Amin in a bowling match using the skulls of his enemies. I was a founding member of both The Algonquin Round Table and Jethro Tull, and up until late 2002, I was Robert Downey Jr.'s coke dealer.

I was briefly head of the Bonnanno crime family while some administrative details were sorted out, and I have faked my own death twice. And I have inside information that proves the The Blair Witch Project was an actual documentary, and the "filmmakers" are actually mass-murdering geniuses. (I only mention that last one because the extortion money I've been living off of is starting to run low.)
posted by chicobangs at 4:19 PM on January 1, 2005

Bruce Willis' toupee maker

Bruce Willis wears a toupee?
posted by ericb at 6:11 PM on January 1, 2005

I didn't say I was good at it.
posted by chicobangs at 6:12 PM on January 1, 2005

chicobangs ... spit my wine on the monitor!
posted by ericb at 6:15 PM on January 1, 2005

I framed OJ.

and I helped!

/shake & bake
posted by jonmc at 6:17 PM on January 1, 2005

Thanks, jonmc. Now I know I'm not the only one who still says that.
posted by Four-Eyed Girl at 6:40 PM on January 1, 2005

Well, it's a well documented fact that I live in the past, four-eyed girl. You may be suffering from retro-itis.
posted by jonmc at 6:43 PM on January 1, 2005

I'll add more stuff when I get a chance. Sorry.
posted by exlotuseater at 6:50 PM on January 1, 2005

I wrote the 60 Minutes theme song

And that shit grooooooves.
posted by eyeballkid at 9:36 PM on January 1, 2005

I'm a new member, for sure, paid the five dollars and all. The original post in this thread was about putting more info in the profiles.

I can only speak for myself, but I'd guess if you carefully polled new members they'd tell you the same.

I joined MeFi because it was a reasonably well-behaved (by 'net standards... probably by other standards too come to think of it) and quick-witted community. That was the long and short of the attraction, to interact with thoughtful people over a range of subjects.

As far as offering more information on myself. there did not seem to be any purpose in it, either for myself or for MeFi in general. If you really want more information on each member (here's where my marketing communications background comes in) you need to give them a compelling reason to offer it up. After all, people are pretty leery about giving up too much info as it is, and you're asking for a commitment of time. (Look at the profiles on Match.com and services like that, where personal info actually MATTERS to the quality of the experience. Even on those sites, a lot of folks can't be bothered.)

The user's going to ask him(her)self, 'How does my investment of this time enhance my experience on MeFi?' (I mean, they won't use those very WORDS -that would be WEIRD- but that'll be the gist of the thought.)

So. If whoever of you runs the show really wants more input from newer users, first step is to come up with some compelling reasons for folks to punch it in. You're bright, you'll come up with a compelling set of reasons appealing to both altruism and self-interest. Maybe some folks who upgrade their profiles will 'win' a traffic-driving link to their sites on the MeFi front page for a while.

Speaking of the front page, once you compile your list of reasons and come up with a contest or something of the sort, you'll want to put a bright yellow (?) button on your front page to the effect that everyone with a skimpy profile should upgrade it (the link goes to the reasons, contest and so on). Maybe this button can appear just for newbies, so as not to piss off older MeFi users.

Anyway, just offering a suggestion since this seemed to be on someone's mind. In fact, if it's a question of effort, I'd even be willing to work out the language and site sketches for the promotion.

For what it's worth. By the way, you (whoever you are) have a great site. You knew that of course... just letting you know that I know.
posted by humannature at 10:48 PM on January 1, 2005

chicobangs I owe you an apology. Remember that nasty rash you gave Zsa Zsa? Well you got it because I'd given it to..........
posted by Cancergiggles at 9:21 AM on January 2, 2005

No worries, mate. Nothing a year in the Himalayas "taking the cure" from Ol' Jimmy Patukoglu at the base of K2 (thanks for the ref, by the way) didn't clear right up.

And I haven't had athlete's foot since neither, which frankly was just a bonus.
posted by chicobangs at 10:25 AM on January 2, 2005

That was the long and short of the attraction, to interact with thoughtful people over a range of subjects.

Ummm... you *have* met quonsar, right?
posted by Doohickie at 2:51 PM on January 2, 2005