Birthdate Suggestion & a few other things too!

[Chris W]

Hello,

I'm a former vBulletin user who has just converted over to IPB.

I have a few suggestions to make.

With vBulletin, upon registreation, members have to enter their birthdate as part of the sign up process. This birth date is then stored in their membership profile. Members then have the ability to either make this date public, or to make it private within their profile settings. I really like this system for a few reasons...

1-I think it's a better way to comply with COPPA as you always have the registered date in a members profile area.
2-It is a really good piece of information to have on file, as it allows an admin a reference point for identifing memberships. Meaning, if a member loses their membership login info and has changed their email address, asking for their birthdate is a really good way to verify ownership.
3-I like the idea of members being able to toggle on and toggle off various parameters within their profile area, as some members want to display personal information and some don't.
4-It also integrates with the member birthdate gretting email which is built into vBulletin.

Also, when I converted my site from vBulletin to IPB, all of my members birthdates (which is everyone with vBulletin) became public when switching to IPB. One member pointed this out and the only way for me to hide this for him I discovered, was to erase it from his membership profile. Which I was really reluctant to do.

My other suggestion relates to the "Members List". With vBulletin, there is a area in the admin panel, where an admin can choose various parameters that will be displayed on the member list. The way it works with vB, is that there is a small box with various parameters that can be displayed and then an admin simply clicks on the parameters that will show on the list. Again, I really prefer this method, as it allows me more control over what gets displayed on the "members list". Unfortunately, with membership listings, it's rather important to have control over this area, as it can be the target of spammers looking for information, or also, for displaying information like links to their sites etc.

Thanks for reading and I apologize if some of the features that I've asked for already exist and I've just missed them. :)

-Chris

[bfarber]

Neither feature exists, no.

COPPA compliance is supported in IPB, however the birthday is not stored with the registration. That's a small niggle we could fix in a future version I suppose.

There isn't a way at present to hide your birthday. A member can optionally not include the year of birth at present, so that their birthday can be honored with exposing the year. There isn't a way to hide the data outright if it is entered, however. The suggestion is a good one.

As for memberlist, I'm a bit up in the air on it. I understand where you are coming from, but I'm generally reluctant to add checkboxes and settings that control what is displayed and what isn't. It severely bloats the interface in the ACP and is already possible by modifying the skin, so then you have 2 areas to worry about with relation to what is displayed. It can also make skinning more difficult because you don't have the same control over the interface with a system dynamically building the data that is to be displayed (i.e. if you wanted to show something floated in another box, you might not be able to if the backend system has to determine what to show). Just some thoughts.

[optrexnz]

Something needs to be done here. I am also a vb convert. The birthdays is a nice feature and I always get a positive response when a happy birthday email goes out to a member. It also helps us confirm registration age and its used as an anti spam measure - ie when the 1st Jan gets selected.

However, I have members who's data was hidden on vb, now complaining that age and DOB is visible. I also have moderators and members complaining that "banned" or in there terms ghost accounts now show-up in the birthday list.

An admin may need the info, but a user may need the privacy and I think the option does need to be addressed sooner rather than later, if its at all possible.

[Adriano Faria]

Also include a new setting on 3.1.0 to exclude banned users from birthday members on index: http://community.invisionpower.com/topic/301818-banned-usergroup-display-on-birthdays/

:thumbsup:

[Garthilk]

Neither feature exists, no.

COPPA compliance is supported in IPB, however the birthday is not stored with the registration. That's a small niggle we could fix in a future version I suppose.

There isn't a way at present to hide your birthday. A member can optionally not include the year of birth at present, so that their birthday can be honored with exposing the year. There isn't a way to hide the data outright if it is entered, however. The suggestion is a good one.

As for memberlist, I'm a bit up in the air on it. I understand where you are coming from, but I'm generally reluctant to add checkboxes and settings that control what is displayed and what isn't. It severely bloats the interface in the ACP and is already possible by modifying the skin, so then you have 2 areas to worry about with relation to what is displayed. It can also make skinning more difficult because you don't have the same control over the interface with a system dynamically building the data that is to be displayed (i.e. if you wanted to show something floated in another box, you might not be able to if the backend system has to determine what to show). Just some thoughts.

Bfarber,

I hope that the date of birth gets moved to the registration data. I'd love to be able to prevent people under the age of 13, or under the age of 18 from accessing my site. This would ensure COPPA compliance and place the burden on the registrant. In addition, making this data able to be private is also important if you're going to require it. I would very much like to see this added to 3.1.