23

Currently, when editing my profile, I have two options:

  • Save it for just the current site, or
  • Save it for all sites.

However, this doesn't really fit my use case: I like to keep the same profile on every site except I have a couple of sites with site-specific profiles.

This makes it very difficult for me to update my "default" profile that I use on the majority of sites:

  1. First I have to go to the one or two sites I have a custom profile on, and copy the profile text to a text editor or whatever (and save the avatars if I'm changing my avatar).
  2. Next I edit my profile and save it for all sites.
  3. Then I have to go back to each of the custom sites and paste the profile text back in (and change/upload the avatars if needed).

It's super unwieldy.

To that end I propose a checkbox in the profile tab of each site that reads something like "Lock this profile", that is unchecked by default. When it is checked, "save profile for all communities" will not apply to that site (unless, of course, the "save for all" button is pressed from that site, in which case it should be applied, of course, to that site in addition to all other non-locked sites).

I think this would be really helpful. This is for the same type of control that Allow "Save And Copy Profile To All Stack Exchange Accounts" to exclude selected sites asks for but, specifically, I'd like it to be implemented as a checkbox on each site rather than some dropdown selection list of sites to copy profiles to, I think it's easier to manage that way, since you can just check the box and forget about it.

Improve this question
26
  • How many users have different profiles across sites?
    – rene Mod
    Commented May 13, 2017 at 19:44
  • 3
    This is definitely a problem (although, for me, much less of a one after I realized that basically nobody looks at user profiles anyway, so it doesn't really matter what mine says). An alternative solution, which I think I've suggested before, would be to let you have a network-wide "default profile" (say, editable at your network profile page on se.com) that would be shown on any sites that you haven't set up a custom profile for.
    – Ilmari Karonen
    Commented May 13, 2017 at 19:48
  • @rene: I'd expect that most people who are active on several SE sites with unrelated topics would like to, if they happened to care about customizing their user profiles at all. Of course, most people probably don't, and in any case the current system makes maintaining site-specific profiles so inconvenient that most people probably don't bother, and either just write a profile that makes sense for their "home site" and use it everywhere, or just fill in something random.
    – Ilmari Karonen
    Commented May 13, 2017 at 19:56
  • @ChrisF Negative. I do not want that implementation. I do not support that feature request. I thought I was clear about that. This is a very specific request.
    – Jason C
    Commented May 13, 2017 at 20:28
  • @JasonC Implementation details do not a different feature make. You're asking for the same feature. How it's implemented is up to the team.
    – ArtOfCode
    Commented May 13, 2017 at 20:30
  • 1
    @ArtOfCode No. I'm asking for a checkbox on each profile. That's a feature. This isn't an open ended request.
    – Jason C
    Commented May 13, 2017 at 20:31
  • 2
    No, @JasonC, the feature is the generic ability to lock a profile or exclude a site from updates in some manner. The checkbox is an implementation detail.
    – ArtOfCode
    Commented May 13, 2017 at 20:32
  • 3
    @ArtOfCode You're conflating "implementation details". I'm asking about the user-facing "implementation" (the checkbox). The "how it's implemented" is under-the-hood stuff regarding that checkbox, which is up to the team. By your logic virtually every specific feature request is an "implementation detail", which isn't true. I want a checkbox on each profile page. I don't care how it's implemented. If a dropdown "apply to these sites" list was added I'd still make a feature request asking for it to be changed to a checkbox on each site, and we'd be fine with that, wouldn't we.
    – Jason C
    Commented May 13, 2017 at 20:34
  • 1
    @ArtOfCode Never, ever have we closed feature requests for changes to a site's feature as a duplicate of an original request for the feature requesting to be changed. That wouldn't make any sense. It's not a strawman because it illustrates that this is sufficiently different, as this definitely wouldn't be closed as a dupe in that case ("fr: change dropdown to checkboxes"). I'm not requesting a general solution for managing profiles. I'm requesting a checkbox on each profile page. The linked feature request is not doing that. Not sure how this isn't clear, or why you're invested in arguing.
    – Jason C
    Commented May 13, 2017 at 20:38
  • 2
    @ArtOfCode Then there was really no need for you to start discussing it at all (I wasn't even addressing you, your vote is fine, it's ChrisF's hammer vote I was addressing). :P In any case, like I said, I do not support the linked feature request. Not sure how to reconcile this being a dupe with that being a feature request that I don't want.
    – Jason C
    Commented May 13, 2017 at 20:53
  • 1
    @ShadowWizard What I want could not be achieved that way. Dropdown with remembered selections would be terrible UX. It would mean the first time you changed a site's profile to be different than your default, instead of just checking "lock", you'd have to: 1. Save the profile. 2. Switch to a different site (just so you can do step 3). 3. Click "save all" on different site and unselect the site you just edited so that that's saved for the future. Otherwise you'd have to remember to unselect that box possibly much later when you edited your default profile. So no I would not support that either.
    – Jason C
    Commented May 15, 2017 at 9:17
  • 1
    And if that was the chosen UI I'd put in an FR to change it. Because it's different. I don't care about "implementation details" of locking a profile, you did the same conflating I mentioned above.
    – Jason C
    Commented May 15, 2017 at 9:18
  • 1
    I would definitely use this if it were implemented, @rene.
    – MTL
    Commented May 16, 2017 at 2:05
  • 1
    Can we have two checkboxes: Lock your avatar and lock your profile (which is basically everything else except your avatar).
    – Berry Holmes
    Commented May 16, 2017 at 5:39
  • 1
    Good one! In Travel it is very typical to have a map with the visited places in the profile description. Whenver I want to change my profile, I always have to remember to copy the profile from that site, perform the network-wide change and then restore in Travel. It is very tiring (and I just noticed I failed to do so the last time :O).
    – fedorqui 'SO stop harming'
    Commented May 16, 2017 at 12:51

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
3

I agree, but I definitely would want two separate checkboxes:

  • The first checkbox would be for your profile picture, because it is somewhat inconvenient to first download a picture from imgur and then re-upload it (not to mention for a higher quality pic I need to change the ?s=32 attribute to a higher value.

    This would specifically be beneficial in case you use the same profile picture for all your accounts but a different profile bio (that's everything other than your display picture).

  • The second checkbox will lock the textual aspects of your profile.

Improve this answer
0

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .