# Search should also look at "About me" section in user profile

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/search-should-also-look-at-about-me-section-in-user-profile/24590
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [29 Janeiro , 2015 23:09 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/search-should-also-look-at-about-me-section-in-user-profile/24590 "2015-01-29T23:09:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![arnaud\_sahuguet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/arnaud_sahuguet/32/122538_2.png) [@arnaud\_sahuguet](https://meta.discourse.org/u/arnaud_sahuguet)
#### Post date: [29 Janeiro , 2015 23:09 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/search-should-also-look-at-about-me-section-in-user-profile/24590/1 "2015-01-29T23:09:34Z")

</div>

The current search feature seems to only include the name of the user when returning results.  
It would be nice is it also looked at the “About me” section.

This way, you can search for people based on their interests or skills, etc.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [29 Janeiro , 2015 23:26 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/search-should-also-look-at-about-me-section-in-user-profile/24590/2 "2015-01-29T23:26:31Z")

</div>

I do not feel this is a good idea – it would add a lot of noise to search results. Matching on username is one thing, matching on the whole of about me.. noise.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Mittineague](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/mittineague/32/114259_2.png) [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)
#### Post date: [29 Janeiro , 2015 23:33 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/search-should-also-look-at-about-me-section-in-user-profile/24590/3 "2015-01-29T23:33:09Z")

</div>

From a Moderator’s point of view, being able search profiles would be a big plus at being able to find duplicate accounts.

But from a typical user’s point of view I think being able to search custom fields would make more sense.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![cpradio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/cpradio/32/4970_2.png) [@cpradio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/cpradio)
#### Post date: [30 Janeiro , 2015 01:56 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/search-should-also-look-at-about-me-section-in-user-profile/24590/4 "2015-01-30T01:56:59Z")

</div>

I’m torn on this. As it would make suspect accounts more public and I don’t like that.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [30 Janeiro , 2015 02:20 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/search-should-also-look-at-about-me-section-in-user-profile/24590/5 "2015-01-30T02:20:58Z")

</div>

On top of that you can enter any kind of gibberish or nonsense on your profile and that is ok. But having it pollute search is not.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![tobiaseigen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/tobiaseigen/32/539204_2.png) [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen)
#### Post date: [4 Fevereiro , 2015 03:02 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/search-should-also-look-at-about-me-section-in-user-profile/24590/6 "2015-02-04T03:02:38Z")

</div>

I agree with @codinghorror but also understand the impulse. It would be nice to be able to provide users with fields they can complete so they can find their way to each other, for example to list tags of areas of expertise, languages spoken, what they are looking for etc. Maybe the custom fields could optionally be searchable?

But then again discourse is a forum and not a social network, and if it does its job people will find their way to each other through their discussions.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![ssvenn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/ssvenn/32/86740_2.png) [@ssvenn](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ssvenn)
#### Post date: [19 Setembro , 2018 16:43 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/search-should-also-look-at-about-me-section-in-user-profile/24590/7 "2018-09-19T16:43:02Z")

</div>

After playing around with AD SSO and sending some useful information like employee titles and departments as custom fields into Discourse, the ability to search custom fields to find users would be very welcome!

Something like this, leaving it up to the site admin how to set it up:

 ![searchable](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/0/a/0ab9a449072e60a4cf2412ecb8d9492013b15746.png)

(although maybe it would be better implemented as a new Field Type “Searchable Text Field”)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![weallwegot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/weallwegot/32/124753_2.png) [@weallwegot](https://meta.discourse.org/u/weallwegot)
#### Post date: [19 Julho , 2020 01:12 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/search-should-also-look-at-about-me-section-in-user-profile/24590/8 "2020-07-19T01:12:42Z")

</div>

> [@ssvenn](#):
>
> Discourse, a capacidade de pesquisar campos personalizados para encontrar usuários seria muito bem-vinda!

Se alguém quisesse fazer isso opcionalmente em seu fórum como uma extensão, presumo que seria necessário um plugin. Por onde alguém começaria se quisesse investigar o desenvolvimento desse tipo de funcionalidade?

**edição**  
Alguma outra literatura sobre o assunto. Eu esqueci que já havia visto isso antes, mas parece que alguém fez algum desenvolvimento sobre isso, mas acabou sendo decidido contra no núcleo.

> [@Adding user attributes to the directory item serializer](https://meta.discourse.org/t/adding-user-attributes-to-the-directory-item-serializer/130927/19?u=weallwegot):
>
> @david I’ve made a PR here cc @angus

É possível ter a funcionalidade na [PR vinculada](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/8376) em um plugin?

> [@User Card Directory](https://meta.discourse.org/t/user-card-directory/144479/10?u=weallwegot):
>
> Thanks this is beautiful and something I’ve been thinking about for a while. I know this is a theme component so not sure it changes any functionality, but asking anyways. Does this happen to enable users to search each other by their attributes? For instance if a custom attribute for users is University Attended and a user wanted to find everyone who went to a particular school could they search for Stanford and have all the users pull up here? I saw this [link](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changes-to-the-user-card-data-source/139951) that seemed to maybe imply that b…
