Why are people being suggested to fill in completely their profiles?
Why are people being suggested to fill in completely their profiles? Me personally, I don't care. I filled out mine for whatever reason, maybe I was bored or something. But I'm sure others, especially people who have been burned by the internet, been phished, identies stolen, children who have parents who monitor them on this site, etc, might not care to do that. Others just don't care to do that...they aren't like us losers who spend bunches of time in the answers. I think it should be made clear that it is not necessary to fill out your profile. Fill it out to your level of comfort. If you don't want to fill it out, you certainly don't have to. This will have no effect on your ability to fully enjoy the benefits of being a member of this site. 
28 Answers
Because it's a statement that says, "I want to be a part of the community."
Look, when somebody asks a question here, we don't know them from Adam. We don't know if it's a 14 year old wanting homework help, or a 35 year old preparing for a trip to Spain, or a 52 year old that wants to build churches in Nicaragua.
When someone posts a question in English, are they an English speaker wanting an answer, or a Spanish speaker wanting someone to check their grammar? Sometimes it isn't real clear.
By posting a few things on your profile, it might help the community interact with you, help them know where you're coming from, and ultimately help you benefit a bit more from being here.
Nobody asked for Social Security numbers or stuff like that. I'm guessing that if you fib about your date of birth and just get the year close it'll be good enough. (That's one reason I changed my name, by the way.)
So...aquí tiene, Señor. That's all it is. We won't be knocking on your door. 
Erm... hello? With the biggest websites on the internet including those like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter etc, do we really think that people are scared or feel pressured about putting some optional information on their profile page? I think people are clued up enough to be able to figure out for themselves what they're comfortable with putting there, or what they can be bothered to put there. This seems to me like a big deal over nothing, people don't need their hands held through every minor decision, this site really needn't becomea bureaucracy.
not some silly badge or the number of stars ... [snip] ...not some badge or how much reputation you can manage to rack up [snip] you can't say "I have a badge and 10 million stars."
Get beat up by a badge as a kid or something??? It's just a bit of fun, people like to collect things, even virtual things, people like feedback on their actions, it's encouraging, it's not obligation, it's not passive aggressive or emotional blackmail, if anyone REALLY sees it as this I would encourage seeking professional help; irrational paranoia can be overcome in ways that don't require the rest of the world to change.
Moe -
Okay. Let's have a full, meaningful discussion about this. I'd like to respond to various assertions and claims you made:
ChamacoMalo...This drivel:“people who have been burned by the internet, been phished, identies stolen, children who have parents who monitor them on this site, etc,” this came out of the south end of a bull travelling north!...
Stobber, what utter crap!...
I see that you're fluent in English, so I can't just politely assume that your word choice is the result of a lack of proficiency. Let's please keep this discussion civil; if we don't, no one is going to succeed in swaying anyone else's opinion. Looking at another segment of your post later on, I think you agree. Just please remember that the request is made in both directions.
Look above in this reply. See what it was that I posted as a comment in 17 questions. It includes “please” and “thank you”. It’s a politely worded request from one member of the Span¡shD!ct community to another member of the same community.
Sprinkling a few polite words into an aggressive demand doesn't make it less aggressive. It just makes it passive-aggressive. Anyone reading between the lines sees a command issued by one of the long-time regulars to a complete newbie. That's intimidating to many types of people, especially to the ones you said it to. They're brand new here, and instead of helping them with their initial foray into the community, someone is giving them orders to fix something they did "wrong".
I don’t think we are a family but I do think we are should behave like a community of people with a common purpose, common bonds, values and “civilization” so to speak. It’s that kind of civilization that makes us different, desirable, and attractive to new members in the first place.
All I can say in response is....LOL. More on that topic:
Today I took the idea directly to 17 members who had not filled-in their profile pages. All these hours later, not one of them has bothered to update that data...I want members who are anxious to be a participating and contributing part of the community...
I believe that I have tried in both direct and indirect ways, to draw new members into our community. I believe I have not achieved any meaningful success. I believe that posts like this one thwart and undermine efforts to improve the atmosphere of our community.
Moe, you sound like a zealot. I appreciate your desire for the perfectly ideal web community, but you have to remember that real people visit this site, and each of them has their own motivations and desired level of involvement. You're going to get a gamut of visitors, from the Do-My-Homework to the Silent-Lurker-Who-Never-Posts-Answers-But-Tries-And-Always-Has-Questions, all the way up to the Moe. You have to appreciate that fact, and not drive away everyone who isn't as perfectly ambitious about learning a language as you are. Those other less ambitious types provide real value to this site, too. Off the top of my head, I can think of these:
- They drive traffic to the site, generating ad revenue for the site owners
- They use the SpanishDict iPhone app as a result of visiting this site, and that app provide additional ad revenue to pay for the domain and bandwidth use.
- They use the tools on this site and, when they feel safe to do so, provide feedback on those tools to make them better. They're basically free software testers.
- As pointed out in another post, they ask questions that give the forum regulars a chance to practice teaching the language. Without the people who don't know it, you'll never be asked any questions about it.
I'm sure there are more reasons why the mods will want more members than just the extremely ambitious question-answerers.
Now I can understand the desire to set a bar so the very bottom rung of people don't lower the overall quality of the site. I agree with the policy that someone posting a question to the forum must first give an attempt to answer his own question using this site's tools. That keeps out the absolute riffraff, making room for people who at least sincerely want to learn the language. But setting that bar too high will start to erode a considerable portion of this site's visitors, and I can't agree that that is a maintainable long-term strategy.
Many of you participated in this Post/Question initiated by Nicole-Bailey:
http://www.spanishdict.com/answers/107816/how-can-we-improve-the-quality-of-our-posts
You may remember that in a comment to Eddy’s reply I stated:
I believe that when enrolling, applicants must be required to give more personal information, such as, gender, correct year of birth, mother tongue, language proficiency in English and Spanish, location at least as close as county/state/province (but not necessarily city/town/village). I put it that this should be required information on sign-up. Oh, yeah. The other thing is that people have a right to privacy. I agree. Canada took on FaceBook over this issue and, at least in Canada, it's said that FaceBook backed down. I'm not asking for privileged personal information
Many of you also participated in this post which I initiated a day or so ago:
http://www.spanishdict.com/answers/108685/profile-page-profile-badge
If you take the time to read the question I posted, you’ll see clearly that I am as aware of privacy and confidentiality issues as anybody. I also provided a couple of sound reasons for having a filled-in profile page. Some of the replies echoed my own reasons and added a couple of others.
Here is the “Comment” I entered in the Questions of 17 members (mostly new) who had not completed/Filled-in their profile information;
“Please fill-in your profile information. “Click” on your name in the upper right corner of this page. On the left side of your page, “click” on “Edit My Profile”. Complete the fields. Don’t forget to complete “About Me”. Thanks for doing this.”
I thought the request was politely worded. I know what is asked for on the profile page, that is:
Location, Birthday, Gender, English Proficiency, Spanish Proficiency, and About Me.
ChamacoMalo, I am astonished at what you wrote. This drivel:“people who have been burned by the internet, been phished, identies stolen, children who have parents who monitor them on this site, etc,” this came out of the south end of a bull travelling north! Look above at the information requested on the profile page. There isn’t a hacker or abuser out there who could possibly use that small amount of information to achieve the theft or abuse of anything or anybody.
Stobber, Look above in this reply. See what it was that I posted as a comment in 17 questions. It includes “please” and “thank you”. It’s a politely worded request from one member of the Span¡shD!ct community to another member of the same community. I don’t think we are a family but I do think we are should behave like a community of people with a common purpose, common bonds, values and “civilization” so to speak. It’s that kind of civilization that makes us different, desirable, and attractive to new members in the first place.
And what is all this hub-bub about?
I suggest it was initiated in the Post by Nicole-Bailey and then it was extended in my Post about Profile Pages. Today I took the idea directly to 17 members who had not filled-in their profile pages. All these hours later, not one of them has bothered to update that data. Even “briana muñeca”, the 27 year old male, who joined our community about 8 hours ago has resisted my direct request.
I don’t agree for a second that this language community is a translation service for every Tom, Dick and Harry who comes looking for our community to do his work for him or to replace the commercial translation services otherwise available. We are a learning community. I want members who are anxious to be a participating and contributing part of the community.
Nor are we a homework service for students who have not learned how to do their own research either here on our community site or any other place. I have to wonder if they have or have access to dictionaries on their own or in their schools. The more they are spoon-fed here, the more they expect that established behaviour to continue. We should be showing them how to find the answers they need and then helping them over the hurdles and hard parts when they have made an effort and need a coach.
I believe that I have tried in both direct and indirect ways, to draw new members into our community. I believe I have not achieved any meaningful success. I believe that posts like this one thwart and undermine efforts to improve the atmosphere of our community.
Dear Moe, I like you. I respect your input. But, I think that you are taking things too seriously. And, about the people that want us to do their homework, actually they are doing us a favor because we get a chance to practice what we have learned. It is not our concern if they do not learn, who knows they might not be too serious about acquiring languages skills. Is their lost not ours. We are not their parents- we are not responsible for their lack of enthusiam. Moe, please don't be offended, you have a good point but,don't get carreid away. So, the new people don't want to give any information, it is ok, If no one pushes them, thy might give some information later at their convenience not at our convenience. Remember that we are powerless over peple, places and things.
PS I liked your coment about the bull going north and leaving stuff behind, or something like that.
That sends the wrong message...that little badge isn't what's important. The important thing is that we all learn from this site what it offers (for free, and as a spanish speaker who has spoken for years, I can tell you it's excellent), not some silly badge or the number of stars you can manage to rack up. If you get some stars, that's great. I have a couple of stars because I'm a rebel and a few people happen to like what I say. Heidita and them just happen to tolerate my existance in this place. But that's not what is important...the learning is the important thing...not some badge or how much reputation you can manage to rack up. Look, if you are somewhere, and you say to someone "I speak spanish" and then they say holacomoestabien. medasorpresaquetulohablas, you can't say "I have a badge and 10 million stars." That's not gonna help you understand what that person is saying. That means nothing to normal people. Take full advantage of what they teach here (for free) and don't concern yourselves with silliness.
It's cool to see the progress but I will say that learning the language is more important for me. If I earn some stars and stripes so to speak, then great. I NEED to learn more and do it quicker. I wish there was more time in the day!
I agree that no one should feel pressured to share info they are uncomfortable with. But there is something to be said about letting us know approximately how old you are, what region of the world you are in and what your native tongue is. I think it does help with answering questions to a certain degree.
I don't mind telling people what city I live in. But even if I didn't, if I told people I lived on the East Coast of the US or just in the US and that I was an adult and not a student, it might improve the help I am given.
Moe has a good point.But in this life,my life,I will not worry too much.My years have thought me that I should not worry too much,because I can´t control much. I have learned that,I am powerless over people,people will do what they want to do regardless of my advice,my needs or my wants. I will not worry too much about cospiracies against my well being since everytime I get on my car and on the road there is a whole batallion of drivers that want to send me to my maker.They must be trying to do this,otherwise, they would not drive under the influence of wine,cell phone,text messages, or just plain carelesness. I found that the best way to live is to "let go, let God" all I have to do is put one foot in front of the other and do the work am suppose to do,the best way I can do it and let God worry about the results.
So, people -some people do not want to take the time to answer the questions that this site administrators want answer, well, Can I do anything about it?....No, I can not so why worry----Let God worry, let the administrators worry or let Moe worry if he chooses.Let us celebrate life now that we are able,let people do what they want 'cause,I am going to my grave with a big smile on my face. Me worry,no indeed.
Hi Moe - well you certainly opened a can of worms! I have to say that I agree with you to a certain extent - though not completely in asking people to fill out their profile. I respect people´s privacy in possibly not wanting to give their details. However I do find that when answering a question it´s nice to have some idea about the person you´re responding to although I don´t wish to delve deeply into their personal life´s. Likewise, when receiving an answer to a question it´s good to have some idea of the person who has responded. It all gets a bit mechanical otherwise - and do we really want to live like that?
If I was going to poke a stick at anything in this topic, I might ask why we ask for gender at all. Of ALL the info that the profile solicits, asking for gender seems the MOST irrelevant and also a loaded binary as it is presented here - what if I identify as transgendered? Why are we soliciting this information at all? I'd actually vote to have it removed from the profile.
I will have to differ with a very good reason: This is a learning site, a Spanish learning site. We differenciate in gender on all words, pronouns, subjects, adjectives....all kind of stuff so if we direct a question at somebody we simly MUST know who we are talking to.
Your post was from a completely English point of view, where gender does not count in language. So were the comments.
I generally agree with Chamaco. I don't really worry one way or another about the information people choose to share or not. I don't think it has ANY bearing whatsoever on what kind of contributions a person will make, or how we respond to their input.
So, in general, this issue is really a non-issue.
If I was going to poke a stick at anything in this topic, I might ask why we ask for gender at all. Of ALL the info that the profile solicits, asking for gender seems the MOST irrelevant and also a loaded binary as it is presented here - what if I identify as transgendered? Why are we soliciting this information at all? I'd actually vote to have it removed from the profile.
Little do you all know, that all some of us need is your city to find out exactly where you are. All I need is your IP address, and in just a few clicks I can find out where you are....and I'm a noob. People know these things and get freaked out about it. You don't have to fill out your profile to be a part of the community...you don't even have to have a single star. I don't remember any citizen requirements being put forth by anyone other than Moe.
We have had several discussion on this issue.
I agree with Moe who is kindly requesting people to fill in the profile questions, at least the nationality and native language should be a must in my opinion.
However, Chris has a point. People get easily frightened and think this filling out the profile is a must and they really don't want to, so they are scared away.
But we all see that people who don¡t want to say who they are, simply don't and that is it. I do see the point though, why some people do not want supply personal info because of bad experiences on the web.
I only know that I will stay 17 forever...and Heidi Klum forever...I hope you like my new picture....I think I look gorgeous
Let's see what Eddy has to say...
OK, now let's get back to learning Spanish.
