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A request for more personal information.

Sean the frumious Bandersnatch

18:02 / 03.12.04

I know that this has been brought up before, but I think it would be a good idea to have more room to write on the profile. The previous thread on the subject was only about having a male/female info box, and it was decided that this was too stereotypical for barbelith.

I think I have a solution: treat the gender and age section much like the location section is treated. People could write in whatever response they like, be it male, female, yes please, skull-fucker, etc. Likewise, age would be open as either the person's real age, the age he wishes to be treated as, or put in some bullshit about how, like Mork from Ork, he ages in reverse.

Finally, an "about you" section where the 'lither writes a sentence or two about his real life or his ficsuit (and, knowing barbelith, a lot of people will fill it up with shit like "absetosis 23 crash ultra-Gilgamesh when fourteen eskimos gestate in quarterback's womb- who is the king of snake?").

I realise that anonymity is important to some people, but I'd like to know who I'm talking to/how the person I'm talking to would like to be adressed. Sure, I only bring this up because I've run out of heshe jokes, but it's worth considering. As I said in the summary, if location is on a person's profile, why not age and gender?

Sean the frumious Bandersnatch

18:06 / 03.12.04

Oh, and one more thing... I realise that people age and, in the case of some 'lithers, change genders. I'd suggest that you could update your age, gender, and personal information much like you can with your ficsuit, e-mail, and location.

18:32 / 03.12.04

Rather than make a change to the site itself, why not just a post a thread where people who choose to do so can volunteer this information? Like the photos thread, sor of. Quicker and cheaper. You might get a good response if you write it up as an amusing questionnaire. People seem to enjoy quizzes.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

10:33 / 04.12.04

So, you're asking for more fields in your profile in which people would be quite free to post untruths? I have no real objection but must ask, what would be the point? Why bother?

Sean the frumious Bandersnatch

19:04 / 04.12.04

Why bother? Because I think that most people will post their real age and sex, that's why.

And the problem with the questionarre is that you would have to dig it up every time you wnated to know the gender or age of the person you are addressing, whereas in my way you could just click on their name.

Sean the frumious Bandersnatch

19:07 / 04.12.04

Wanted, not wnated. I think.

ONLY NICE THINGS

19:40 / 04.12.04

This seems to me to be a solution to a problem that doesn't really exist... does anyone else want age/gender fields? Does anyone else feel that their experience on Barbelith would be significantly altered by having access to age and gender information?

09:54 / 05.12.04

Sometimes, particularly if people will insist on changing their names to ones completely different from their previous names. I wouldn't want anyone to feel they had an obligation to provide personal details though.

Perhaps the "location" box should be replaced by a single free-text field where you could put anything you wanted - a link to your blog, your shoe size, a haiku, whatever.

21:19 / 05.12.04

Sean - you appear to be using sex and gender interchangably. While sex is a biological state, which can be and is changed through surgery, while gender, as Judith Butler argues, is a performative act rather that is not necessarily fixed.

Outside of that, I'm not sure I see where the information you suggest would be relevant - isn't it better to engage with what various posters are posting rather than engage oin an attempt to infer what they might be life based on answers to a few arbitary over-simple questions.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

09:21 / 06.12.04

Sean, just make stuff up. It's more fun that way.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

09:28 / 06.12.04

Sorry, that was flippant and non-Policyish. What I meant was: I don't see that having a/s/l type details would improve the Barbexperience that much. Sometimes knowing a bit more about a person can make you re-evaluate hir posts, sure, but the tiny scraps of info provided in a member profile aren't really enough to go on.

Also, people can fib.

ONLY NICE THINGS

09:36 / 06.12.04

We could change "location" to "Optional supplementary info" - so if somebody really wanted to tell people their a/s/l they could. I don't think it's a prority, though..

Regrettable Juvenilia

10:24 / 06.12.04

Or people who are really bothered can write "London, as a 15 year old boy" in their Location box and the rest of us can get on with what passes for lives...

We're The Great Old Ones Now

10:30 / 06.12.04

I've always wanted a field for everone's favourite fruit. You can get to know someone without knowing where they are or what gender they identify themselves with, but you can't really understand their views on anything until you know about their feelings on fruit.

ONLY NICE THINGS

12:08 / 06.12.04

Can I propose a single/attached/persuadable radio button, along with one for gender, a field for age, a set of fields for location (address, town, country, post code), a radio button for sexuality (gay/straight/bi/other), and a photograph? With posting false information in any field a banning offence?

Sorry. Serious now. I think Flyboy is probably about right - if you want to add extra detail under "location", there is no way to stop you, and it might even catch on.

13:36 / 06.12.04

Can't see that happening myself.

16:22 / 06.12.04

I'd just like a bigger box to write crap in, so that I can prove what a fun wacky creative shagmagnet I am.

Regrettable Juvenilia

16:26 / 06.12.04

Can't see that happening myself.

(Awww, I kid, I kid.)

17:05 / 06.12.04

Grrr, you pesky kids.

ONLY NICE THINGS

17:27 / 06.12.04

As a 36DD blonde 21-year old, I just don't see what extra information would add to the experience of Barbelith. I mean, it's meant to be about the ideas, right?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

19:22 / 06.12.04

I kind of like the anonymity. Not necessarily my own- I couldn't really give a fuck who knows who I am (and if the personal greeting from the pigs I received at a recent Stop The War march is anything to go by, it'd be pointless shutting that particular stable door as the horse has long since fucked off and joined the circus)- but other people's. I like the fact that I have to fill in a whole persona round just a bunch of words on a screen and that, should I one day meet them, I'll have that strange sensation of rebuilding them in my head.
Of course, by your system I could still have that... but I'm curious by nature, and wouldn't be able to resist pushing the button and spoiling the fun.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

20:00 / 06.12.04

But hardly anyone is going to check profiles anyway. After three-and-a-bit years posting here, I've come to the conclusion that it really doesn't matter what one says about oneself because the constructions that other people create around one's online self are just so wonderfully, amazingly wrong. (People who like me and haven't met me generally assume I'm 40 and a dude, people who don't like me assume I'm Season 1 Cordelia Chase. I sort of like it that way.)

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

20:20 / 06.12.04

Heh. One particular much-missed 'lither a couple of years back said ze was convinced I was actually Dik from the Subhumans until ze met me. Vagueness and mystery is a GOOD thing.

All the best

R Kilroy-Silk

21:45 / 06.12.04

I enjoy not having all the details of my fellow 'Lithers spelled out. Firstly because it leads to things like this, and secondly because it make the stalking sooo much sweeter.

12:57 / 07.12.04

If we're opening a wish-list on what to add to profiles, can I maybe make the case for a list of recently used ficsuit names? Maybe the last ten or so? I know some people like to change their ficsuit names every month, and with most of them it's relatively easy to figure out who's who because there's a constant stylistic element (i.e. Haus & Our Lady). Some people don't do this. Maybe it's just me, but I'd like to know if the poster is someone new, or just a re-branding.

13:45 / 07.12.04

I thought the 28 day cooling off period between name changes, coupled with the (prev. old suit name) suffix was supposed to limit that kind of confusion. That not doing the trick, GA?
Also, keeping PMs can help in certain instances, I find.

Goodness Gracious Meme

09:00 / 11.12.04

Our Lady has lost All Hope using GGM's computer

It does seem that if you change your name, then wait out the 28 day period, you can then post without it saying who you previously were. Not that many people on this board would be capable of showing that much restraint

16:51 / 11.12.04

But if you want to check whether this is the same poster as someone-who-said-something-similar-ages-ago, you can easily do a search on their name, and all their old posts will come up with the new name alongside. It's a bit like Smoothly’s point about old PMs. Changing your suit name can’t get you away from posts you’ve made, or messages you’ve sent. It’s always funny when people seem to think it will, though.

18:13 / 11.12.04

OK, so I'm easiy confused. =)

A suggestion for those who want more 'personal space': We have a wiki. How's about we create a page that lists personals, and anyone who wants to have more than what's on the user info page can create and link to their own page.

And the next person to say 'nobody reads the wiki' will get a slap around the head with a trout...

21:08 / 11.12.04

Dude! Everyone who signs into the wiki - and you’ve *got* to sign in to edit it now - it automatically creates a page for that user. So far, you’re the only one of us helping with the move who hasn’t used it to say something about themselves. And I thought you were just being inscrutable and mysterious.

But, yeah. All helpful ‘lithers have a page to talk about themselves. Good point.

08:26 / 13.12.04

So where are all these pages tabulated, hmm?

05:02 / 25.12.04

Why did I never know about the Wiki? and when will the new one be available? I just tried to browse the Wiki and all I got was adverts.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

07:24 / 25.12.04

Is this what you want?