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Whenever a user joins a community, his/her "about me" section is filled with that of his/her oldest account. Though it may be a proper way to make a verbatim copy of "about me" section to the new community instead of leaving it blank, I think it is not desired always (or maybe mostly). Let me explain how:

We've many categories of sites viz.: Technology, Culture/Recreation, Life/Arts, Science, Professional, Business etc. Now, "about me" on different site of a different category would be obviously different! In addition, some users also write different "about me" on different site of the same category.

So, shouldn't we just keep blank "about me" section of new joining community instead of copying it from doest account without prompting? Of course, we can redirect/prompt user to the edit area of about me (site.stackexchange.com/users/edit/[user_id]) so-that user get remind to fill it.

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I can not see how this would benefit users.

I have to ask what is the point, given the exact scenario you describe. If a user makes concious effort to have an "About Me" tailored to the site they have just signed up for, it does not really matter what was there, before. Wether it is a blank page or a filled out page, the user is still going to replace the content. In this sense, ensuring that the page is already blank feels like a rather insignificant feature.

I can see how the current system benefits users.

That said, for those that do like to keep consistency, the current system is great. You do not have to manually go back to your profile on another site, just to copy it over to the new site. In turn, the current system seems to support "consistent profile" users in a better way, while it does not support "inconsistent profile" users any better than your proposed changes.

I am not saying it is a bad idea. Rather, I am saying it is low on the priority queue, in my opinion. If this sort of feature was to be implemented, it should be via an explicit option the user checks to confirm that they wish to open new accounts with a blank "About Me" section. I feel it is important that we still copy the template, by default, as this retains internal consistency. The users that are use to not having to do anything to retain their template still won't have to do anything to retain their template. Users who wish to use a blank template will still have to make changes via their profile; but only once, as opposed to every time they open a new account. Even then I could only see this being slightly beneficial to users who would sometimes explicitly want a blank "About Me" section.

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  • Note that when I say low on the priority queue, I mean there are surely more important things in need of implementation.
    – Gnemlock
    Commented Jan 29, 2017 at 7:02

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