I would’ve asked for this in ATMB, but I’m pretty sure all I would get is a “No. End of discussion.” So I’m putting this here so I can bitch and complain when I do get that response.
This message board is huge. Not the biggest on the internet, but it’s up there. Tens of thousands of members. Used to be pay-to-post. Yet it’s one of the least customizable boards I’ve ever used.
Over the past few months, Jerry and TPTB have been trying new features. Some have stuck (like edit windows and multi-reply), and others have not (like seeing who has viewed your profile). The Administration has basically made decisions for every single user across the board whether we want something or not. Why can’t we decide for ourselves?
I really liked being able to see who was viewing my profile. Others might not have (I’ve heard that people thought it was creepy*… I can’t for the life of me understand why), but I did. So why not allow every user the ability to toggle it on their CP? This all-or-none mentality really handicaps the board. If a feature is available, let US be the ones who decide for ourselves whether we want it or not.
Some Dopers seem to have an overly inflated sense of self-importance. No offense, but nobody on this board really cares about you enough to want to stalk you. Have you really felt threatened at any point here? Really? Please get over yourselves.
It all depends on whether vBulletin supports that being a user configurable feature. I’m not sure that it does, based on my dealings with other vBulletin boards. It’s not easy to see how it would be implemented in the software, since users would still be able to visit people’s pages but then the system would have to keep track of who has the feature turned on or off, then track it over time so that if a user changed their preference the tables would need to be updated. It could be coded to allow that, but it could very easily not.
The all-or-none mentality may be in the underlying software. And in this particular case it wouldn’t surprise me if it was.
Dude, I don’t know what you are trying to get at here, but you are starting to annoy me. What I wrote was clearly a joke (and if it wasn’t clear enough, I’ll tell you now…it was a joke). Please do not use it as some kind of evidence that there are stalkers around here.
ETA: On afterthought, I think you may still be kidding, but it’s not that funny.
(I have no more control over the configuration of vBulletin options than any of you, so I have nothing to contribute to the thread, but that doesn’t mean I won’t post on request.)
By continuing the joke it’s starting to look like you’re the one stalking Sarahfeena. I’d find it very vaguely creepy personally, but maybe that’s just me.
Though I’m not in any way a SDMB official by any stretch, I can tell you as an experienced vBulletin admin that this isn’t a default capability of the software. The ability to view who’s viewed your profile is either “on” or “off” depending on the board admin’s control panel.
It’s possible to get around this by creating a usergroup (e.g. “Can View Profile Visitors”) that has this function turned on, and then add a conditional in the template related to this member profile that gives this usergroup (and only this usergroup) permission to view visitors, and finally to allow people to join this “Can View Profile Visitors” usergroup if they choose.
… Okay, it seems complicated but it’s actually not that difficult. However, I’d guess (again, not intending to speak for anyone behind the scenes) that this is probably more work than Jerry is likely to do at this point for a very small benefit to the few members here interested in this particular function. Maybe I’m wrong and it’ll be a more popular suggestion that leads to a groundswell of support, the likes of which would make the admins decide it’s worth Jerry’s while to implement!
It is kinda weird to be so interested in the names of the last 10 people who accidentally clicked on your name while attempting to click on something else, or who wondered about your location if you’re a guest member.
