(If this should be broken off as a separate topic, let me know… I’m not sure if I should continue posting in this thread/category or go elsewhere with this.)
I’m going to add user fields. Some are general information we would like to have for all users (voluntary), e.g. the city/country they are in – or do we manage that with a hundred different groups? Just thinking of that now: user fields or groups? Aside from city, some pertinent information could be: “big family” (people with lots of animals), “managing this alone”, “working irregular hours”, “disability or health issues”, “absent most days vs. usually at home”, “level of comfort with technology”, “stress level”… all these are “context” indicators about the user that are super useful for us to know because they influence the way we will advise and support people when they post.
Two categories of user fields I feel should definitely be user fields – one batch will serve for people migrating from facebook, another for “real new members”:
- date they joined the community on Facebook (most people know), can be approximative; name on Facebook or profile link (to help us recognise people)
- for new members we have screening questions that are already in place on Facebook, that I’d want to transfer pretty much as is (do you have a diabetic cat, give us some details, what are your expectations/needs, are you giving insulin/treatment or open to doing it, how stressed out are you right now… that pretty much covers it)
Is there a way to “group” user fields with a conditional (“I’m coming from the community on facebook” / “I’m completely new to the community”)?
(See, this is kind of like a question on features, so should this stay in the Community category?)