Profiles - more information please

[tony rebelo]

I think that it might be useful to have a little more information on our Profiles.

What I would like to see is:

* How many comments an observer has made  (this is a very useful index of how much users are engaging with others, helping, guiding, mentoring, enquiring and training)

* When the user joined - how long they have been a member  (it is very useful to know how long  a member has been active on the site).

And perhaps (perhaps a big ask?) 

*  Societies, Clubs and Institutions that users are affiliated to, members of, or work for  (and I will suggest that we should badge these as well - but now I am aware that I am asking for whole new modules on the system that dont currently exist) .. 

A side effect of this is that it allows users to discover what natural history clubs and societies are operating in their areas and what they might want to join ...

ta

Tony

[bouteloua]

I too would like a way to see and search for others' comments and when the user joined the website

We can see the most recent comments and I find myself browsing this section occasionally, but there's no way to search them other than those that I have made or those on my observations that I know of (https://www.inaturalist.org/comments)

Tony, you're of course welcome to add links to the societies, clubs, and institutions you're affiliated with already in the profile description. It is a href/link enabled: no need for a separate section. :)

[Calebcam]

I agree with bouteloua, except that I don't think it should be a requirement to post societies, clubs, and institutions; that should be optional to put in your profile's description. (just my opinion)

Caleb

[Charlie Hohn]

I agree, we should not emphasize societies and such. I think this is another case where iSpot did things differently but it isn't something we are likely to emphasize in the iNat community. Beyond what Bouteloua said where you can already put them in your profile.

Also agreed with ways to search comments and such, or get a list of a user's comments on their profile. (though would that lead to some people harassing others? I don't know).

[johnnybirder]

Here's another vote for additional comment functionality. If I recall correctly, there use to be an option in the search function to at least filter for observations that have comments... did that disappear or am I just wrong? Either way, at least that seems to be an easy addition.

J

[Linda Jo Conn]

I think it would help if iNat folks would just add a sentence or two about themselves, their interests, whatever, in their profile.  

Probably thousands of iNat folks do not have any info about themselves shared. 

Much better than seeing "So-and-So is an i-Naturalist!" 

I usually (always) read profiles of unfamiliar identifiers of my observations, and put a lot more stock in ID's by those that share something, anything, about themselves.... 

even if they confess to be a gross amateur like myself!  

i.e., We do not need any more slots that more than likely will be ignoredl  

BTW, if you read my profile, I state the date of my first observation on iNat!  Certainly changed my life!  

ljc

[Mike Burrell]

One thing I'd really like to be able to see on the profile is where the user is based (Country and State/Province). This is really helpful to know when someone chimes in on an ID, for instance.

[Charlie Hohn]

or maybe some sort of areas of interest/expertise? I live in Vermont, USA right now but I do a lot of plant ID in California on the other side of the continent because I lived there for a long time. 

[Calebcam]

I would like to see that, in a lot of forums they will have the users profile pic - and then right under that is their field of interest. I don't think we should emphasize countries or state, that should be optional in the profile description.

Caleb

[Paul Bailey]

Maybe an option that can be toggled on/off showing the areas where a user has made the most identifications? Thinking about 'areas' in a geographic sense:

-- A 'Top 5' geographic spaces at a particular level, maybe county. In my case that would probably show up with Uijeongbu, Seoul, Yangju, Namyangju, and Pocheon. From that you could guess that I do most of my observations in northern South Korea and thus might know species there best.

-- An alternative could be highlighting the top selection at varying geographic levels -- country, state, county, city, and user-created place.

Either of the above could be combined with a taxonomic list, though in doing taxonomy would you let the user choose similar to what happens with 'Favorite Taxa' or have the system assign it automatically? If the latter, I suppose there could be problems with being overly generic. For example, if I have the most hover fly (Syrphidae) identifications but the system assigns my 'area of interest' to just flies (Diptera), I might get pinged for help with families that I know much less about.

[Tony Iwane]

I think putting when a user joined and adding the number of comments would be cool. I think for many other things, like societies, where a person is based, etc., can be addressed in the text field. Perhaps better prompts when new users make their profile would make a difference?

Tony