Add this Meetup feature to WP?- Member profiles in list form

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Attn: Alex. The Meetup websites allow its members to search the profiles of the members of each Meetup so it is feasible to do this in terms of website capability. Can you do that with WrongPlanet? Ideally, Best case is to be able to scroll through thumbnails with basic info from profile such as age/location/gender. Even better would be limit options for age, location, gender or whatever else others might want so the number of thumbnails to scroll through is reduced to a more reasonable size. Is there anyone else on this site that would like to see this feature? Thanks.

Because of the nature of the information posted here I suspect most people wouldn't want their WP self to be quite so easily discovered and possibly associated with other sites they may use.
This is more of a self-contained social support site than a social networking site.

Hello Cornflake. You also answered my previous post. I am not suggesting that anyone on WP add anything new to what is already in their profile unless they want. If they want to remain private, then they can continue to do the same. As it stands now, it is possible to search every profile on WP one at a time if someone wished to do so. I am just suggesting it be better organized as a matter of convenience.

As for whether aspies in particular are more sensitive to having online profiles, for comparison please go to www.autismhangout.com, click on Community, click on Members and you will see the list "Current members", just what I am suggesting except that it just lists the screen names (each of which can be searched for full profile) instead of thumbnails which WP already has and which would make a more useful list as they can be scanned more easily. If Autism Hangout can do it, WP can.

I think the point I was trying to make is that WP is not a social networking site - it doesn't really exist to be a convenient mechanism for meeting and without some fairly detailed profile information being made mandatory - location, for example - the "Meetup" system you suggest would be rendered ineffective anyway.
As for the "Meetup" functionality itself, this would appear to require a substantial re-write of the WP site code to incorporate it and as this is running in "maintenance mode" only, it's extremely unlikely it would be considered of sufficient importance to warrant the work - and expense - involved.

When members want to arrange a meet a thread is usually created in the Members Only forum because of the relative privacy that forum provides and those who are interested post as appropriate. As these are arranged in a sporadic, ad-hoc manner and are usually of the form "London meet" (for those in the UK and able to reach London easily), making available any more comprehensive methods of arranging meetings would appear to be overkill and fall into a social networking function, outside WP's remit. There are already plenty of other, more specialised methods available elsewhere to deal with this: the "Meetup" function you describe being one and the more obvious Facebook being another.

Having seen the ease with which a member list can be examined and analysed on the Autism Hangout site you linked I can only say that personally, I am very pleased it's not possible to do this on WP. If Autism Hangout can do it, well... they're welcome to do it.
I do not use WP so I can be located or identified easily for any reason, and neither would I want to. I don't see any convenience value in this at all and judging by the posts touching on this issue from other members in various places on WP, these seem to be generally held views.

If you are determined not to allow this, then we needn't waste time with further discussion. However, I don't know that you speak for everyone here. We are both critical thinkers. Problems usually have solutions. There are answers to your objections:

If cost is the issue, funding from a foundation should be available, but even that is not necessary. As for your claim that people would be posting information that they don't want others to see, the only persons who would be posting would be those who want to participate.

Creating a new "Members Only" subgroup for those interested in social networking meets your objection about anyone other than members being able to search. Since profile thumbnails appear automatically whenever anyone replies to a post, someone interested in searching members of WP could scan the thumbnails there..

You could always do a trial to see how it goes. If you don't like it, then you can do away with it. As a practical matter, you could list a few rules, make sure you ask those who want to participate to fill out their profile so it wouldn't be "ineffective" as you point out above. Any member who wants to join simply replies to the post. Limiting to one post makes it easier. Anyone who joins can limit their reply by stating who they are interested in contacting and who they want to contact them. That way everyone gets only what they want. As for your other suggestions, I'll ask.

Last edited by NotDiagnosed on 19 Jan 2013, 11:35 am, edited 1 time in total.

It's not my site so I'm in no position to allow or disallow anything here which doesn't impinge on the site rules. Instead, I am giving you my opinion on why it's not something which WP as a support forum requires and that this opinion appears generally supported.

WP is not a social networking site and does not exist as a means for people to meet up, therefore piling on support for it is wasted effort. What you propose is not something demonstrably lacking from WP; it's something you're insisting would be "convenient".

I'm not going to bother addressing your "answers" because I have already explained that the site is running in maintenance mode.
What I think you should do is spend much more time getting to understand what WP does and how people use it.

See online description of WP as social networking site by clicking on this link which contradicts your above: www.prleap.com/pr/72298.

If you want to focus here on the specific term "social networking", ignoring all the other things I've said, that's fine; go for it.

I will quote part of what you linked though since, similar to what I've said, it promotes the primary purpose of WP: interaction and support.
Not a handy means of meeting people.
The functionality and other things you want to see here would move the site into becoming something more like the Facebook model of social networking, which I thought I'd made clear as what I think of as "social networking", and something which the membership doesn't appear to want anyway - meets are already easily arranged by sending a PM or by creating a thread, as people get to know each other through the forums.

In summary: you want members' details to be easily accessible through a single, publically-accessible membership list so it's made convenient for you to find people who may be of interest, and I can tell you with certainty that this will not be well received from a privacy angle.
Suggesting that it could be made opt-in and that only certain details are added negates the entire purpose - and even if the site code was under active development, it would add an unnecessary layer of complication - main profile says A,B,C,D,E - "listed" profile should only include A and C, with D changed to (X).
All of this is useful only on a site primarily aimed at enabling meet-ups. A dating site, for example.

I'm not going to spend any more time in trying to explain to you how WP works since your history indicates that you are determined to treat WP exclusively as a site for meeting people. That, and argue in this thread.
That's fine too, you can do that - but with no attempts made to interact with anyone here on the forums, despite at least two suggestions from other members that you might want to explore that on the basis that you'll get to know people and also find many of your questions have already been answered - I doubt that adding anything extra of any description, anywhere on WP, is going to help you.