Is there currently any way that a logged in user can create, edit and update posts on their profile?
Kind of like the Twitter feed, where a post can be made and people can view it etc?
No, and it’d take a very compelling argument to sway me in favour of such a feature.
What do “profile updates” do that your personal activity feed does not?
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Well, I guess an activity feed describes more of what the user is doing/has been commenting on etc.
The ability to post updates would allow a user to post images, text posts, and even videos.
Eg. if it’s a forum about cooking, a user could post an image to their profile about something they have cooked, or a recipe they have found etc.
Does that make sense?
Why wouldn’t they post that as a topic in a specific category on the forum?
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Ok, maybe cooking wasn’t a good example.
What about if it was a forum about animals (dogs in particular).
The owner could have a picture of the dog as their profile picture and they could post pics, say if they have been to a dog show or they’ve been out on a long walk. I know a specific topic would suit this, but I also know that the use of a user being able to post updates would benefit from this too.
I think i see where this is going. The purpose for community platforms is to unite people around a certain goal/brand/project etc. Shifting this focus to personal profiles means that we are going towards Facebook and other social media channels, might be distracting.
Regarding your Idea, i believe this user could a thread updated frequently with the latest status of that animal. Or he could create a thread each time with a certain tag, so other people could follow this tag to know the latest updates of this animal.
My opinion though, might not be totally correct or wrong.
Yeah I understand what you’re saying, although I wouldn’t say I’m trying to shift the focus, I’m just saying it would be a nice feature/addition that a user could opt into when installing discourse or maybe a setting in the config.
The way I envisioned it is something like a Twiiter feed.
If this is something I want to add, am I free to add this functionality myself?
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If you can develop it, why not? Discourse is open source
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I like the idea generally.
I can think of numerous scenarios where additional information about members would be useful.
Consider the following three communities which I intend launching over the coming months:
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Film & Television - I’d like users to showcase their list of credits - which update frequently and on a more prosaic level, their favourite films, actors and a small description of each.
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Cars - Here I’d expect members to store their garage (a list of their cars or cars they’d like to have). A common requirement in online car communities. If folks don’t have the facility btw, they often put their garage in their post footer (which I don’t like…)
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Political Economy. (Smith, Paine, Marx, Mao etc). When folks discuss this very heavy subject, they like to see the credentials of the person they are conversing with. Reading lists, qualifications and so on. Almost like a bibliography. Yes it could be free texted in the existing profile, but be able to store a template complete with structured content types (similar to SharePoint) and have the member fill this out, would be very helpful.
Agreed, all of the above could be stored in a topic/post somewhere, but to my mind at that point it becomes archived and a pain to have to seek out when all you want to do is click on a conveniently situated profile button.
Plugin? If we must. But I have no intention of writing one personally. I grew up with assembler, c, c++, c#, js etc and have neither the inclination or time to learn another environment. Edit: Ha ha, probably not the ability these days either [old man].
Not saying that I wouldn’t want to become involved in the production of one or more plugins. Therefore, happy to consider part funding a plugin with others if there is any interest. Note, the only issue I have with plugins is that they have a habit of becoming un or partially supported. Unless they are taken into core. And if they are taken into core, perhaps there are discussions to be had about Discourse users funding specific areas of core development.
Chris, London
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Your 3 use cases seem perfectly viable for the need of a profile.
I agree that all this could be added via a topic or with tags but it seems easier and more convenient for this content to be accessed via a profile, also making it more user-friendly.
If there’s no talk of it making it’s way into core then the way forward is possibly with a plugin.