Private Profile option

I don't agree Niamh, posting history is seemingly already visible through the community developed add-in. If mods need this to access post history, can't they use that?

The best way forward is usually to ask the fewest number of people to make a change. Instead, what the site is doing is imposing a change on everyone to make a small number of people's life a bit easier.

Private profiles were one of the few good things about vanilla, and now that's being taken away.

If you don't want people to be able to read your posts on an online discussion forum, then don't post on a discussion forum. Everything you post online is in the open for everybody to read, and it really feels like there are a lot of people making a mountain out of a molehill here.

@Boards.ie: Niamh

Is there any chance that the Profile page can be expanded to include other data, such as was available on the old vBB system?

I am here to express mine and solely mine opinion on the topic, and i did. It was "nice to have", not that it effects me personaly in the bad way, not that boards care or should.

Nothing personal

... i also remember some features we did had back then, like.... dark mode, 24h time... in the correct summer time, list of users thanking post in the banner, working notifications,... list might go on ......

I remember all the promisses it will be "good" and done "soon" because of "new platform". As you remaind me... since July 2021

You not the first to say that and perhaps multiple times during past year.

Did it ? Perhaps did and i'm wrong... so why admin and mods(not even mention userbase) have struggle using this site, lack of "easy things"? Quite the oposite it seam.

Whomever from Vanilla fed this **** to whomever was responsible for "buying" it, it didnt implement any "ease" as it appear so far, else why does it require to strip off of some features of the "new platform" already.

I might not know all interworking there, but as user - expirience for me is poor compare to what it was before Jul21

Perhaps we should not play this "remainder" game...

It is what it is now.

I still do hope that boards will find their way out with at least some of its "face", else why would i be here... oh yeah, to do a DIY CSS on the site to suite my liking.

Again, nothing personal.

... or ask some of the knowledgeable and skilled users here to chip in...

I think there are/were a couple of user-developed add-ons in use which a lot of users seemed happy with.

I was a mod for years, school holidays always brought out new trolls, usually late night.

Long before the change to Vanilla, you stopped showing a user's location, supposedly for privacy reasons.

This was going to be reviewed with the possibility of being made optional.

I'd love to see it back - it's particularly relevant for forums such as farming, gardening etc. Not so much for After Hours.

My two cents, as the developer of the mentioned add-in: IMO Boards are absolutely right not to suggest that mods rely on it. Some of the reasons for that are related to the extension itself: it's not designed for modding, it only works in a subset of browsers, it's not available on mobile.

Separately, there are practical reasons. Boards have no oversight of it: they have no idea if I'm stealing users' data, or have malicious code in it. To verify that I'm not, they'd have to assign a developer to oversee and monitor it, and at that point, they'd be better off using that developer to bring it in-house to begin with. Also, Boards have no guarantees of its longevity whatsoever. I could shut it down tomorrow, and they couldn't do a thing about it. Or I could just "go dark", and they'd have no support if anything on the platform broke it.

Returning profile visibility to what it was prior to the migration is absolutely the most sensible approach

The anonymity is a nice feature to dissuade those argumentative or accusatory posters from searching peoples entire post history (as they like to do) to shame, blame or use as an argumentative defence, or even retaliation.

I've never understood the need for an open list of every post you've ever made (from the beginning of time) being acccessible to any snoop, non-member, stranger, troll, lurker, spambot, agressor, (or those on your ignore list. for a reason) etc. What good does it do? Having the complete list invisible to the public seems more likely to initiate safe chat rather than leave a poster exposed and vulnerable to undesirable "attention" or negative consequences.

Niamh - the privacy was one of the few positives on vanilla (that and the 'choose your own' avatars is nice too, but I digress), and yes we may have had it work "openly" on the old boards.... But this is a new world - in this current, heightened, sensitive environment where any little thing you say, can (and will) be taken out of context and misinterpreted to suit any offenders agenda... I would think the lessening of privacy REALLY wouldn't be the smart way to go forward.... Well done Boards (not directed at Niamh), for adding yet another reason to be very careful what you say or keep relatively silent on boards, from here on out.

One question please.... Since Vanilla blurs the lines between private forums and open forums (the old boards kept them separate), will the open list of posts also include all historical private forum posts as well? If that is the case, you will surely have a mass exodus, with people (including me) asking for all their posts be erased (not just randomized) and their account info wiped out... Especially given the fact that some of those private forums relied on an element of trust, and having such private data openly shared (with anyone who happens onto your profile) would be a betrayal and violation of the trust we put in Boards, pre-vanilla.

Which is why I raised it on here, @Boards.ie: Niamh didn't seem to realise it was happening.

In fairness iirc, most posters who were genuine, ie not just looking to evade a ban, went on Private because the new site last year was displaying people's emails and old discussions with banking or other services.

I don't mind anyone seeing my posts and if this change makes it easier for mods to do their job, well fair enough.

But I do object to stalkers tracking previously private information and the site has a responsibility to ensure if they remove this privacy option, that it does not give free access to personal information to all and sundry.

If this is not done all that will be left posting on Boards will be one particular group of posters or bots,with no diversity of opinion.