Sheriff Phil Chett points out that profile pages are a huge source of spam. That is, spammers register and then use their profile pages to create links to various sites. This boosts the Page Rank of those sites, and lowers the Wikidot overall Page Rank. Every day he deletes about 150 spam profiles.
Apart from the sheer courage of clicking so many Delete | Yes please | Yes I'm really really sure | Please, just do it, I'm sure options, Phil's suggestion is simple and brutal (this is why we made him Sheriff): delete all profile pages. It is an interesting idea but before we create a blazing bonfire, I'd like your opinion on this. How many of you use your profile page?
To be honest, I've never edited mine until now (it's not really obvious, you need to click My account | Account Summary | My profile | Edit a page about myself. Not intuitive.
Anyone actually use this feature? Anyone mind if we delete it? Let the ranting begin… :-)
in the past 1000 profiles i have looked at over the past fortnight or so
2 have been fair a bit of "profile detail"
1 has been "i think this is actually my wiki i am editing"
4 have been .. my name is fred and i come from wherever.
993 have been used solely for spam links.
(many thanks to the bloggers who have been advertising "wikidot profiles" as a "good place to put your links")
I agree 100.1%!
Portfolio
I think I used to use it a bit, but since I've now blocked access to my profile, I rarely edit it. It literally just says "If you see this, that means I've added you to my contacts list. For everyone else, access to this page is denied."
I think it's a useful feature, however — even if I'm not using it at the moment.
Some alternatives to all-out deletion:
~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, backup tool (in development)
The only thing I find profiles useful for is when I'm trying to look up a recent post or contribution from another user. If that functionality can be maintained, I'm all for saving the sheriff some work.
-Ed
Community Admin
The karma thing sounds ok to me. Lots of forums limit users from posting links or having sigs until they posted x amount to combat similar issues.
Yes, we don't really need them. I don't, at least.
Sounds like I must be one of the 0.2% of people that have bothered adding a bit of content into my profile.
If I notice an interesting comment in a forum, I often have a bit of a look at the poster's profile to find out a bit more about who is making the post.
I like Shane's suggestion about linking it to Karma. Perhaps being given a profile page could become a reward for reaching Karma level three.
Actually perhaps some additional little bit of functionality should be turned on every time someone hits a new karma level, to make the system a bit more meaningful.
Wayne Eddy
Melbourne, Australia
LGAM Knowledge Base
Contact via Google+
So if you were a guru, you should be able to even do a custom css.
A simple solution is to disallow links(URLs) on the profile page.
Suresh Govindarajan
http://sgovindarajan.wikidot.com
I think that's the main reason someone would use their profile page in the first place.
Description, images, links.
Spammers use the same things that genuine people use :(
~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, backup tool (in development)
I use profile pages extensively. Profiles are critical for the functioning of my wikis, as I use them as part of my teaching. Without profiles, it just become too burdersome to see who has done what. With profile, I only need to click on Recent contributions and Recent posts by a particular member/student to have that info.
Furthermore, profiles offer the reader the opportunity to see who (i.e. how serious) a member is. Any contribution by someone with a "weird" username, without profile identity and with few contributions will probably be deemed less serious than any contribution by someone who uses his name as username, has a profile indentity and several contributions of quality. One thing where Wikidot is better than other wikis (for example, Wikipedia) is that users' contribution can be traced because they have a profile. Otherwise, pages become no more than a place were anonymous users dump information.
On the other hand, if the profile page is deleted…wouldn't the spammers use front pages/start pages for the same purpose? And if these are, therefore, blocked, wouldn't they use secondary pages, then? Deleting profile pages may, thus, not solve the problem, while, at the same time, limits Wikidot's functionality in the long run.
I agree completely with this post!
I think profile - information summarized on one page can be very useful"
(As an example have a look on http://www.wikidot.com/user:info/rhombus-p )
I unmderstand the problem of spamming over such page and i uinderstand now the difference between user-info:… and profile:page on Site "profile".
I vote here for profile pages
OR
If than such a profile page on the profile.wikidot/profile:"user-id" has links on it - than this oculd be exact the wish of a paying user ( business central informaion ) or a high level user with a lot of experience…
And:
on the "user-info:" page ( my account/ profile) there is the possibility to show ONE "http:// .. site" anyway.. which copuild be again a wikidpt site with exact this spamming list of links… than the problem has shifted to another place.!
Service is my success. My webtips:www.blender.org (Open source), Wikidot-Handbook.
Sie können fragen und mitwirken in der deutschsprachigen » User-Gemeinschaft für WikidotNutzer oder
im deutschen » Wikidot Handbuch ?
This is not true. You can trace all contributions of a Wikipedia memeber or even of IP. There's link "contributions" besiede every user in Recent changes. Here's the example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Maduixa (this is me)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/77.103.65.250 (some IP)
I can do without profile page, but I would leave the rest, that gives info on a user, and it is not editable by a user. For example, The info about sites he is a member, adimin, etc, his last contributions and posts, etc. Just remove the possiblity to seed a spam link. I wouldn't give the privilege of having a profile page only to pro accounts, since there are lot of free accounts that acutally are building Wikidot. I would rather link it to the number of contributions, carma level or something like that. No need to have sites, just reasonable number of normal contributions to any of the Wikidot sites. Let's say, 100? Or 500? The number can be discussed, of course… No spammer will bother to make 500 changes to any of the sites, in order to be able to put his stupid spam link…
If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegan. - Paul McCartney
There seems to be some misunderstanding here. (Perhaps I am the one that doesn't understand.)
As far as I understand, this is regarding the deletion of profile pages, not a user's profile. There's a difference.
Edit: For example, JDPerezgonzalez, you do not have a profile page yet as you haven't created one! ;-)
~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, backup tool (in development)
If it were easy to turn profiles into Wikidot's version of igoogle, that would be amazing.
For instance, we've got all kinds of modules (a newsletter, a photo feed, a twitter feed, a neighborhood blog feed, etc). Each user could select from those modules, put them on their own profile page, and track on information that's relevant to them.
Alternately, the profile page could help members of a wiki to connect better across the wiki. I once floated an idea of a profile tag cloud, which would draw from profiles and meld them in any given site.
But as they are right now, I've never touched mine.
@Shane,
This is very confusing for the reason you described in your edit above. Click someone's name, click "profile page" and you're transported to what you're calling their "user profile". If a separate "profile page" has been created it's displayed below the basic information area (unless the profile is blocked).
The way you're describing it, we have links that say "profile page" that should be called something else if the page we're landing on is not really the profile page, but a wrapper that holds various pieces of a complete user profile.
No matter how you describe it, I think the main part that Phil wants to wipe out is the entire page profile. What's not clear is if we're talking about losing all of the profile pieces. I'd prefer to see the mini profile information stick around. I like Scott's idea for iGoogle-type functionality too.
-Ed
Community Admin
Perhaps I shouldn't have posted — I just made myself and everyone else even more confused! ;-)
~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, backup tool (in development)
It was clear to me… the problem is customized profile pages, not the user profile as such. It's very useful to be able to see what a user does (contributions, sites they admin, etc.).
Portfolio
No, I was confused before you posted! :)
Community Admin
Overall it seems unnecessary. The "About Myself" section is enough for basic profile needs. If users want their own personal blog/profile, they should make their own wiki, which is now pretty easy and offers way more. If a site requires a wiki editable profile for each user, admins can set up a user category on that wiki. If users want to test wiki editing, they can use the sandbox. Additionally, the look and feel of the User Profiles area is inconsistent with Wikidot's account theme and with our own wikis, making it very awkward and out of place.
Agreed. Although I mentioned some alternatives to removing it above, you've brought forward some very good points and I happen to agree with everything you've posted there. I'm moving from "hesitant" about this change to "neutral" — if people want it gone, let's get rid of it ;-)
~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, backup tool (in development)
Okay… good point… If you want to be known, make your own site, it's easy :-), but then there is that question… is it possible to have a page on that site wich lists all my sites, of wich site I am admin… an will it really solve the matter of the spamming? Spammers do the effort to make something. So most users (not spammers) don't have a profile… they are of no concern. 0,2% of the users did the effort to make a profile and most of them want some links to things they are proud of. Spammers use the profile to promote some things or get better ranking by using links. Will it solve the question to ban links from the profile? Or will they be as effective when they are in a regular wikidot page?
What happened to the suggesting of the spammer-competition… to report spammers and get credits for it?
I don't use my profile, but I am interested in someone's list of sites and of wich sites this person is admin.
So lose "about me" keep "about my membership"
Sorry for the late posting
A - S I M P L E - P L A N by ARTiZEN a startingpoint for simple wikidot solutions.
lol. I'm glad someone is paying attention :-) (now corrected)
Please dont get confused over "user info" and "profile"
http://www.wikidot.com/user:info/thegob
I AM advocating getting rid of this:-
http://profiles.wikidot.com/profile:thegob
they are completely separate, and not joined at the hip. (afaik)
I'm thinking Time/effect/ efficiently. Deletion of profile pages wins hands down.
Just to add a bit to the numbers. for every 1 profile page that is edited, there are 4 new users that dont complete one at all.
so roughly speaking, it should be
2 have been fair a bit of "profile detail"
1 has been "i think this is actually my wiki i am editing"
4 have been .. my name is fred and i come from wherever.
993 have been used solely for spam links.
4000 haven't completed one at all
Well, this example is clearer. I think some of us may have got confused because there is another link called "profile" in the user info section (and, personally, because I didn't follow through the information offered from the start )
Following Phil's clarification between user info and profile, I'll say YES, down with profiles while keeping user info.
Just get rid of the profile pages. If people really want to blow their own trumpet; they can make a wiki page for themselves.
Exactly!
___TTT___/ http://www.trumpetexercises.net
(_|||_) \ - Janne
Better, they can make a wiki for themselves.
Portfolio
i personally use my profile page to show what site im a member of in a nice little site grid, and to show how many edit, post ive made (which reminds me, i need to update that…)
Wow, nice profile idea rhombus. How do you work out the number of edits and posts and the averages? Are they recorded somewhere?
~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, backup tool (in development)
no i wish, that would be cool… i just do them manually…
BTW: you can use custom css on your profile with the CSS module. look at mine
Well, considering they're going to be deleted soon, you won't be able to do that for long ;-)
As for the custom CSS module… I've started using it quite a bit now that I've come up with ways to use it.
~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, backup tool (in development)
it is incredibly usefull
Same here. Recent contribution/posts have been brought up a lot and I think for MOST members of any forum, etc. recent post history is what they most often want to see. I know this is unrelated to the discussion of profile pages per se, but I think it would be great if a quick link to recent posts/contribution appeared in the user popup when you clicked on a username.
I think this may encourage new people to post on my site, for example if they could quickly access a list of posts from a user they may want to respond to. Sorry to make this long winded…just wondering what others thought as I think most people will be too lazy to click on a profile first!
@Eric,
I think it's a good idea. A link to Recent Contributions would be handy too.
-Ed
Community Admin