Hey everyone, I'm thinking about modifying the way user profiles for this forum are set up.  First of all I'm thinking of replacing the Messaging fields (Jabber, ICQ, etc.) with something more relevant like "Favorite artists" and the such.  Does anybody actually make use of the messaging fields currently?  I figure if you want to IM with someone bad enough you can just request their user names via e-mail anyway.

Also, what additional information would you like to share/view with other users?  I'm thinking the main ones are favorite artists (about three) and favorite soundtracks (five).  If you have suggestions please chime in!

Great idea, Adam. I've noticed that a lot of people's profiles are populated with "(Unknown)" in the fields anyway.

Favorite composers and favorite albums are good ideas, maybe five a piece or something. Also, a place to put in favorite video game (maybe with one or two slots) would be pretty cool.

Yeah, I only get an IM from someone once in a blue moon anyway, let alone anyone through STC or CC's forums. I think adding the kind of information you and Zane mentioned may make people more interested in talking to each other on a one-on-one basis outside the forum. I personally like chatting with others... and like it was said if they want your IM screen name(s) they can always e-mail you first and get it that way.

Edit:

Actually, couldn't you combine the favorite composers and soundtrack fields? I mean you could have the composers name and then have your favorite works by them within (parentheses) following it?

Here's another thought... instead of having just a favorite album section, it would be pretty cool to have sections for fave albums, arranged albums and composers. Maybe three of each or something. Just brainstorming a bit...

You could also have a "currently listening to" section as well

Borrowing from Zane's idea a bit, maybe we could have three (or x) favourite artists with three (or y) album fields each.

The 3 artists/5 albums thing is cool, since that's what the "old" information panels featured (I'd love the chance to update mine sometime in the future...Megumi Hayashibara is nice and all, but definitely isn't one of my favorite artists...I must've been going through a Nuku Nuku/Slayers phase). I enjoy reading the "preferences" fields on the older ones, plus favorite games and genres is nice as well, so maybe model it after them to keep the "classic" STC feel.

PS: Bring back the polls forum! (please?)

Currrently playing, maybe?

I like the "current favorites" idea. You can go with artists, albums, songs, etc. Or all of them.

Another thing that'd be interesting to me is a field that stated how long the user has been collecting vgm, where the user supplies the year.

Example: "VGM collector since: 1948"

I'll be honest I don't think an improvement needs to be made in the profiles, per se.  I hardly find myself even going into someones profile, I think I have twice.  Anyone selling something posts their email address in their sale thread for contact.  If for some reason I need to reach someone I will check their profile for contact info.  It would be more of a burden to go into someones profile to see interesting facts/currently playing/favorite artists and albums, etc. 

It would be neat, however if you could add that to the regular forum display.  Most sites have things like "Post count", "Date registered", some sort of "'I've been here longer than you ranking" on the postee's name section where it lists the persons name and whatnot.  We don't need anything spectacular, but something simple like post count/favorite artist/favorite album or "Currently Listening to". 

I love the idea of currently listening to.  I would not like it if I had to manually update it. That said, save the manual updating for your favorite artists/albums of all time and then enable a short forum signature that allows linking to what you're currently playing.  Most people know how to do this.

Something like:

[img]http://imagegen.last.fm/basicrt10/recenttracks/5/sephvbc.gif[/img]
Click here for currently playing~

But it seems the image code doesn't work.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.  I think I'll eventually have forum members' profiles somewhat along the lines of the old reviewer profiles:

-All-time favorite soundtracks (5)
-Current favorite soundtracks (3)
-Favorite soundtrack artists (3/5)
-Preferences / Favorite genres

I will probably keep the fave artist and fave album fields separate as the two don't always go hand in hand.  As these profiles will also be what are linked from people's reviews, I think an automatically generated "currently listening to" is a bit too random and will probably go with the explicitly stated "current favorites" instead, although allowing people to at least link to their last.fm pages is an option.

jb, I intentionally disabled "member since" and "number of posts" type stats, as well as user rankings, from being displayed on thread pages as I like to keep forum members pretty much on a level playing field without any "I've been here longer than you" type posturing.

Anyway, I may replace the current IM fields with favorite soundtrack fields for the time being until I'm able to implement all the user favorites info in the manner I'd like.  So anyone who's counting on having those IM fields better check 'em out and take memos while you can

While we're on the subject of improvements, how about getting rid of the "Retailers" forum and replacing it with something useful... say maybe a "Review" forum

cheers,

-avatar!

Yeah, I think we can probably get by with a sticky post on the Marketplace forum that lists the old reliable retailers (VGMWorld, Otaku.com, etc.).

I will see about having something along the lines of a reviews forum up soon.

As for retailers forum, I don't really see what harm there is in having it there.  Even if you don't check its topic listing, you will see any news posts from there when you check the new posts link.  Which everybody does regularly anyway, right?

But if lots of people think it's a nuisance as is, I can merge it into the marketplace forum and add some stickies.

There just doesn't seem to be a purpose for it...As evidenced by the lack of activity. I don't mind it, but it could be replaced by something that would actually generate activity.

(like the old polls forum always did).

Being able to mark "This Forum Read" or "Mark All Forums Read" is useful.

Also, larger avatars would be nice; I often recognize other users and their posts by their avatars, and my own avatar, of course, serves as a bookmark for my own posts, as well. Being able to see these things better would be nice.