Filling a Match Profile

[Violet_82]

HI, I was trying to log in onto my account from another machine and I got to a page asking me to fill my Match Profile, with no way to cancel it. That doesn't seem right, what if I don't want to do that? Not sure why you guys are forcing that on users?!

[rproffitt]

Just tried it. I went to log in from my phone and can't remember all those field values. So I can't get in from my phone.

This may be another factor why it feels like there are less and less posts than usual.

[Violet_82]

That's what I meant, you just can't get in unless you fill all that in. In fact, when I was trying this morning, I simply gave up.

[Dani]

Very unfortunately, forums are really becoming quite old school, and traffic has been every declining. In an attempt to keep up with the times, I've been very slowly transitioning DaniWeb from being yet another generic computer forum into an interactive community of IT people and developers based on the concept of members being matched with each other and engaging in live chat.

[rproffitt]

OK, I get it. DaniWeb is changing. To get into the system there is now a test for me to log in. If I'm smart enough then I'm in?

https://www.daniweb.com/welcome/about writes about making it simple but this login on my phone has me stumped. Good thing I could log in here.

OK, I'm really trying to log in from my iPhone. I filled in the Headline and got stuck on the What Industry box. I just could not type a thing there. Again the test of how smart I am? After a minute of futzing trying to type in the box something changed and I see some odd list on the bottom of the screen I've never seen before on any site. It's some sort of pick list. Try to trudge forward.

This is far to high a barrier to entry.

[rproffitt]

Huzzah. I got logged into DW on my iPhone. I'm going to get a cookie now.

[Dani]

I filled in the Headline and got stuck on the What Industry box. I just could not type a thing there.

It's just a standard form dropdown. On iPhones, dropdowns show up at the bottom of the screen. I guess you typically don't fill out forms from your phone? Instead you can fill out the form from your desktop. It only needs to be filled out once.

[rproffitt]

Dropdown on the iPhone. Yes I've used this before but this iPhone 5s on iOS 9.3.2 (I see 9.3.3 is out) on Safari had the list showing a blank space below so I would not have guessed what that meant. I tried this about 5 times and on the fifth time the first items on the list showed up and then I knew it was a picklist.

About the fill out the form on my desktop. It never asked and I don't see where to do that at the moment. I took a look at my profile and these items were not there. So I went to edit my profile and the headline I put into the iphone did not match what I found on edit my profile.

I guess the iPhone+Safari is just a weird thing to use on the web. I do have an iPad too but to test what the OP was asking, I reached for what was closest.

[Dani]

Dropdown on the iPhone.

There's nothing I can do about that. It's a generic form pick list. It's up to the web browser / OS to determine how to handle the UI/UX for it.

About the fill out the form on my desktop.

You only have to fill it out once for your member profile. It's attached to your Dazah profile, not DaniWeb profile. Complete access to modify your Dazah profile will be coming within the next day or so.

[rproffitt]

And with that I guess you burned though a few keyboards this year.

Thanks for clarifying all the above and here's hoping those logins get simpler.

[Dani]

Yeah I think everything will slowly start making more sense as DaniWeb slowly morphs into my vision.

[JamesCherrill]

I too had these problems when trying to access DW from my iPhone this afternoon. It insisted on all kinds of obtrusive offensive and and irrelevant questions before it would deign to let me get into DW to see if anyone wanted any Java help. I had to give random and stupid answers to get through it, and I suspect others will too.
I'm sorry Dani but nothing could induce me to waste time "live chatting" to strangers or being "matched" with the computer's idea of a suitable matchee. (I also do not twitter. facebook or any other kind of vanity-publishing drivel). All I want to do is to help people learn to program and learn something myself. It that doesn't fit your "vision" then write me off as a old-fashioned fogey.

[Violet_82]

In a way it's all good to keep up with the times, but still you're essentially forcing users to fill that "matching profile". I reckon that if it wasn't mandatory I might even fill it in...properly I mean. What I'm saying is that users should really be able to bypass it rather than being forced to fill it in. Luckily on my home computer I'm still logged in, so I can still get on the forum, but when for one reason or another I will log out and have to fill the profile in I will probably give the most random and silly answers I could think of. I'm not trying to be annoying, I just really hate the idea of having to do something I don't want to in order to access the forum. And I reckon this is the kind of thing that put people off...well certainly me: if I log in onto a website and there is anything that prevents me from doing what I came in to do, that's tough, I'll leave the website. Not trying to be harsh, but I suspect that's the case for quite a few people.

[Dani]

All I want to do is to help people learn to program and learn something myself. It that doesn't fit your "vision" then write me off as a old-fashioned fogey.

I'm an old-fashioned fogey too then, because I still believe in the forum model. Unfortunately, Google does not, and advertisers do not, and it's just not a profitable business model moving forward.

if I log in onto a website and there is anything that prevents me from doing what I came in to do, that's tough, I'll leave the website.

In the not-so-distant future, there will be a strong incentive to filling it in correctly as your responses will heavily modify DaniWeb's behavior.

[AssertNull]

I reckon that if it wasn't mandatory I might even fill it in...properly I mean. What I'm saying is that users should really be able to bypass it rather than being forced to fill it in.

That's a very good point. Radio Shack always asked me for my phone number as they rang me up years ago. No explanation as to why that was needed or how they would use it, and it was phrased in a way that sounded like they felt they were entitled to it and I was obligated to give it to them rather than truly ASKING me for it and giving me a comfortable option for saying no without getting into an argument or things getting awkward. End result was that even though I loved their merchandise and their prices, I stopped shopping there until they stopped demanding a phone number. If it had been optional and they asked for it and told me what they were going to do with it, it would not have been a problem.

Yeah I think everything will slowly start making more sense as DaniWeb slowly morphs into my vision.

Possibly true, and I've been in situations where something was hard to explain before the change was in effect, so I asked people to bear with me and trust me because it would make sense later. The problem is that people are much less likely to be willing to do that if they have to answer a bunch of questions in order to proceed. You might need to either try to articulate your vision in advance or make it optional. In particular, if people are making up answers and your matching algorithm is based on those fake answers, those matches won't be very good. Plus not everyone (e.g. James Cherrill) wants to be matched up by a computer. We can already look at someone's profile and posts on our own and decide "That's a match" and send a PM.

[Dani]

All I want to do is to help people learn to program and learn something myself.

Then I suggest you check off the "goals" area of the form as mentoring others and receiving mentorship from others ;)

As mentioned, what you fill out will heavily impact DaniWeb's functionality in the future.

[Violet_82]

Google does not, and advertisers do not, and it's just not a profitable business model moving forward

I appreciate that but if that puts off posting it's not profitable for you too

In the not-so-distant future, there will be a strong incentive to filling it in correctly as your responses will heavily modify DaniWeb's behavior.

Have you thought about a poll to see what users think about it? If the majority agrees then it will be more of an incentive for you to steer things towards that direction, if not, then you know that doing so won't make everybody happy

[Dani]

I appreciate that but if that puts off posting it's not profitable for you too

The problem is that we've been on such a decline over the past couple of years that a change is required. I've been monitoring everything closely, and the number of successful new signups per day has not been affected as a result of requiring a match profile. It seems that there is a little bit of a hurdle right now for existing members who are confused as to why it's needed, and I think that will come to reveal itself in time as the new functionality rolls out. In the meantime, it's not proving to be a hurdle for new members.

Have you thought about a poll to see what users think about it?

If there's one single thing that I've learned after 15 years of running a community, it's that users don't know what they want until they're presented with it. I've learned to not go off of what people say, but almost always go off of their behavior. Often what people say and what they do are two very, very different things.

[Itsdigger]

It's not that simple though ,
I commented that I lied my way through the whole process while messing with a Linux distro.
The reason I lied is because I am not a pro and most of the questions didn't pertain to me .
Two of the boxes I simply typed in " HUH " and the drop down options don't have a retired crane operator answer to check off.
I'm simply a noob that enjoys these forums and really do learn a lot.
Is there no room for a noob like me ?

[rproffitt]

@Dani. Maybe it's time to make a break for it? That is, rather than stick with a model you write is not a good business, just head straight up to your new world?

I can't see what that is yet and I'm guessing it's a LinkedIn spin but I haven't read enough of what the new ideas are yet. The changes so far are leading up to something. I can feel it.

[Violet_82]

I've been monitoring everything closely, and the number of successful new signups per day has not been affected as a result of requiring a match profile.

Fair enough, you have the stats I don't, mine is just a feeling.

users don't know what they want until they're presented with it

Partly true, but my point is that it doesn't feel good to impose something on it, rather than giving them the choice to bypass it. Then again, mine are just suggestions, that's what I think