Introduction / Profile Forum?

[polygone]

I think there should be an introductions forum here. But I am thinking of it being for of a 'programming experience profile' rather than for actual introductions.

In their post people would give an overview of their experience with programming: what languages they know, for how long they have been learning those languages, what programming education they have had, their date of birth, what major projects they have worked on outside of Enigma, what their primary goals are regarding the use of Enigma, etc, then a section about themselves at the end.

I think there should be a standardised form that everyone fills in regarding what questions they should answer. Of course a user can opt not to answer one of the questions in this case they could just leave the answer blank. If possible it would be great if their post could then be linked to their main profile page somehow.

The reasons I propose this. Well firstly I think it would just be nice to know some information about people but I think it would also be highly useful also. Especially when it comes to dealing with Q&A topics. A person answering a user's question could view the users profile post (if they have made one) and then gain a perspective on the user's relative experience level. This will the person a much better scope on how they should present their answer to the user, ie what language to present their answer in, what terminology they could use, what detail they would need to go into in explaining their answer etc.

If a forum was made I would suggest discouraging responses such as "welcome to the forum" that you see for a lot of welcome forums but encouraging discussion about the user. It would also be a nice place to thank people and help to increase positivity within the forum, if someone helps someone out for example they might want to post a little something in their profile topic like "This is guy is great, he really helped me out ". A little thing like this gives a lot more sense of reward for people who help than any sort of karma system. It would also give some sort of indication about how helpful a user actually is.

I suggest making a forum for this rather than just  having people put information in their profile because I think a lot of people do not bother filling in profiles whereas if there was a forum for introductions people are much more likely to post their information.

[IsmAvatar]

Actually the wiki might be part of the solution here. First off, if it's not already the case, we're highly interested in linking up the wiki login with site login, so you don't have to create a new account. Once on the wiki, every user has a user page, which is kinda your blank slate profile information which other users can also edit and contribute to.

[polygone]

Although a wiki page is easier to set-up and has some other benefits I have a feeling it will be less effective and beneficial overall for the general user than a forum would be. It's a lot more natural and common for people to make and respond to forum topics than it is to write up a wiki page.

[Josh @ Dreamland]

That's why I implemented our current policy on bullshit. People make up nonsense about what they need to know about a system, and the developer fills it in.

[polygone]

That's why I implemented our current policy on bullshit. People make up nonsense about what they need to know about a system, and the developer fills it in.

How can someone fill in information of someone's programming experience other than the person themselves? How will the person know there is a wiki page about them unless they specifically look?

[Josh @ Dreamland]

Oh, haha. I thought you were talking about docs in general. I saw something about replies being useful, and figured you were thinking that discussion on a particular piece of ENIGMA would promote understanding for future readers.

Anyway, what you're describing is what SourceForge has. A competency level for each language. We could tailor it to ENIGMA, giving a competency level for each system or function set, I suppose. And by "we," I mean someone who isn't me. I despise PHP.

[polygone]

OK I've thought bout it some more and I think a wiki page will probably be alright. As long as there is somehow a direct link to your own wiki profile page from the forum.

[IsmAvatar]

That's what I was thinking from the start.

[polygone]

OK. I'll wait and see how it turns out. There is still some part of me that is a little dubious though.

[IsmAvatar]

Skeptical, not dubious. If a part of you is dubious, that means that it's hard to believe that part of you - e.g. questioning part of your existence... On the other hand, skeptical indicates that the part of you is still questioning things. Dubious applies *to* something, skepticism comes *from* something.