note from staff about new profile pages

Customize, customise.

i have faith that the testimonials and comments and such will be removed from the front page (or we will be able to move them) - as i don't see any support for that particular set up at all.

i am worried about the "Top Ten" lists sticking around, though. so i'm just registering my vote against that format - it's too damn restrictive, even with character count concerns aside. i'd like to be able to be a bit more free in how i present myself.

What I really wish was that SG would put up a screenshot of what the changes are going to look like BEFORE they make them, or something like that. I mean, yeah, it's your business and you can run it however you like, but you do seem to care about what we think, if Sean is posting about it like this.

No, it's not enough to confine the discussion to the Beta group. No, it's NOT enough to have a very brief (not to mention extremely vague) stickied post in a board that a lot of people don't even look at most of the time.

If you really do care about us (and I really hope you do, or I might want to rethink my membership here), you ought to be more open with us and communicate about the direction the site is moving in, so we can have our say BEFORE you guys spend hours making a lot of changes that a ton of people end up hating. You know?

As for my individual problems with the new design, I really hate that I can see my friends' comments on their profiles. It's actually encouraging me to comment stalk, which I think is really stupid and creepy (both comment stalking, and SG encouraging me to do so). It's just right there in my face when I leave a comment, so I can't help but look, and, honestly, sometimes I really don't want to know.

Same deal with testimonials, pretty much. I feel kind of embarrassed reading what people have to say in praise of their friends. Does anyone ever actually read other peoples' testimonials to get an impression of what a person is like on here? No, I'm really asking.

And, of course, group membership. I really DO NOT want to know that someone is in the SG masturbation group or anal group or whatever, you know? What about the sex workers group? Does someone really want all their friends to know they're in the sex industry?

i already see alot of changes implemented since the original big change two days ago. it looks better everytime i log on! thank you staff for listening to us and being so responsive!

Does the staff actually read any of these comments, or are we just pissing in the wind?

I know I speak for a lot of people when I say that I was okay with the site the way it was. Sure, I'd like to see a couple changes made, but this... this just looks like a dog's breakfast.

Something else: I DO NOT LIKE MYSPACE! I have a page there, but I refuse to pimp it out, and it annoys the fuck out of me when I look at someone else's page and they've made a huge mess of it. There's such a thing as giving the user too much control.

Please, please, please do not turn SG into another MySpace.

Hi, I'm not going to whinge, I appreciate the good work of the developers too much, but I would like to give some feedback about the changes to the profile pages because I was happy with them before they changed, and would like to see them change back a bit if enough people feel the same way:

1. I liked the way the persons profile was completely on the first page... that is the column at the side with all their answers to all the profile questions like favourite bands, age, wishlist etc. I tended to save those with my favourite sets.

2. I also liked the way I could see my entire self description up the top - half of it is gone now, so I have to write a new one, even though I don't want to.

3. I also liked the way I managed to fit 18 of my favourite bands in before, where now I can only have ten.

That's all. Cheers.

I'm ok with some stuff getting moved around. but do we really need testomials? (yes I can't spell)

what was the idea behind that? I also don't like how the comments and groups are displayed right away

I don't care for the new layout and could give a list of what is wrong with it but you seem to have your heart set on doing it. My criticism is for how you made the change.

User Interface 101 says you don't surprise the user. You let them know changes are coming and give them as much of a preview as possible.

You also don't implement in stages unless each stage is a valid change by itself. Moving things around to allow for future changes always fails. Finish you changes. Make it clear that was there was method to your madness by showing a "completed" product. Being able to read everything the profilee wants to say on one page is very easy to use and keeps the comfort level high. As it stands right now all you have accomplished is to make it more work for the reader to see everything without giving them any obvious benefit.

Why don't you go back to the previous layout and introduce the new tabs and placement when you are done changing the main page then introduce it all at once?

I have seen many an improvement in UI and efficiency fail simple because it left a bad taste in the users mouth and they didn't bother to see that what had been done to make things easier or "better" for them.

My profile doesn't have sex!

Is the site trying to tell me something?

can some one tell me what a "FLICKR" is??

Flickr is a photograph-sharing website.

thank you

iterative design ftw.

Would be nice to have at 175 characters instead of 125 for the Top Ten. My "top 10 tv shows" reflect this!

YES!!! I wasn't able to enter my top ten books *or* movies because of that limit... it seems kind of arbitrary (and low!).