Using the Profile and Other Forum Features

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May 4, 2008 - 9:47 pm email to a friend printer friendly view / write comments

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Dr. West

   I just wanted to highlight that there are several nice features of the new forum software, including ways to add some background in a profile, send personal messages to other members within the website and without publicizing e-mail addresses, and other options.

   Starting with managing your profile, once you log in, you can go up to the menu at the header and select Profile, which lands you on a summary page.  There is a menu on the left side of the page that looks like this:

The main part of this is the middle section on Modifying the Profile.  Under Account Related Settings are basic things like the screen name, e-mail, and password management.  It’s also where you can and should specify whether you want your e-mail to be accessible to other people on the site or not. 

   But the second listing in that section, on Forum Profile Information, is where you can really personalize things.  Here’s what it looks like:

At the top of the page is where you can upload an image to use as an avatar.  Below that, there’s a line where you can add personal text, which is very limited, because it gets squeezed in below your avatar picture.  You can put nothing, or your location, and/or that you are a caregiver or patient with stage IV NSCLC, for example.  Below that are fields for you to add your birthday, location, and gender, which appear if someone accesses your profile but otherwise doesn’t appear on screen automatically.   After that, there are a series of fields for adding instant messaging, ICQ number, and other things I don’t use, but if you do, feel free to add them (and tell me/us if there’s some reason we should use these).   You can then add a Custom Title, another short blurb of text that appears to the left of your avatar.   Below that, you’ve got space for a signature, which automatically goes at the bottom of your forum comments and provides room for a few lines.  You can add a little more background information here, and/or a quote, or anything else you’d like to express.  There’s also room to include your own website, if you have one.  And then at the bottom of the page is a space for a bio, which is accessible when people click on your profile.   Here you can add a more detailed coverage of surgery dates, pathology findings, treatment’s received, etc.  Or just tell us more about whatever you want to share about yourself.

    Here’s what the result looks like on the forum page when you add a comment:

(Click on image to enlarge)

So you can see from the image above where these various text fields from the profile fit onto the actual forum page.

   The other thing I wanted to highlight is the icons next to a person’s avatar, or otherwise just under their username.  Here, there’s a little image of a cartoon person, which can access a person’s profile if you click it (you can also get that by clicking on their username).  There’s a little image of earth, which will open a new internet browser window that includes their website, whether it’s from their blog, carepage, business, or any other site they run.  Next to that is a little envelope, which should only appear if a person has specified that their e-mail is not to be hidden (please let us know if that’s not filtering properly).  Finally, there’s a little cartoon conversation bubble, to the right, which is the way to send a message to that person through the GRACE website.  If you use this feature, you can access messages through the My Messages tab on the top menu bar.   From the menu under My Messages you can also specify whether you don’t want to receive messages from a particular person, or just put an asterisk to note that you don’t accept personal messages from anyone.

   That’s more than enough for now.  But I hope more people will add avatars and populate more of their profile information.  I always felt that one of the important aspects of an online community is having some sense of who is on the other side of the conversation, so people know who I am and where I’m coming from (literally and figuratively).  You can offer as many or as few details as you want.

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