Okay! Okay! I Surrender!

[Patrick Chappelle]

For a long time, Ning network creators have been begging for the ability to edit members profiles. I have been one of those who not only thought it useless, but unwise. I have since had a change of heart, starting this very minute. LOL

Being a social network that's opened to Metal bands from all over the world, not all of my members are versed in English. Even the ones who are, don't spell very well at all. My blogs are moderated, I've removed my forum, and I can always edit video and photo information. The one thing I can not do is edit my members profile page. I don't mean the layout and design, I mean the basic information. A band from India just joined, and his (their?) profile info is not well organized. I would love nothing more than to go in there and edit his page.

So, yes, I surrender! I will admit we do need this capability.

Thanks for listening to my rant.

[Josh Hall]

agree!

[Patrick Chappelle]

Thanks!

[SweetPotato]

I'm resistant to it to be honest. Imagine if Facebook suddenly had the power to edit your profile? You'd rightly wonder where the hell Mark Zuckerburg gets off. I understand the reasoning but I think that NCs would lose credibility if they decided to go down this root.
SP

[Patrick Chappelle]

Totally different than Facebook, SP, but I do kind of see your point. But what harm could come of correcting grammar errors? If they're not savvy enough to notice they're lacking in grammatical skills, what are the chances of them noticing the corrections? We currently have the ability to edit blogs, discussions, videos and photos, I don't see the difference in this regard.

To be honest, I'm extremely anal about typos, I would be eternally grateful if Facebook had a team of editors fixing mine. LOL

[Ed]

I think it's a slippery slope to be honest. Although having said that, if the feature wasn't hard to implement then it would simply be a case of NC's and administrators showing restraint.
But I'm with SP in that, on principal, it requires some serious discipline to resist the temptation to start "fixing" everything. Inevitably you end up going that little bit further.

But hey, free to choose.

[Patrick Chappelle]

Not at all. I would leave it at fixing grammatical errors. I barely have the time it manage my network now, I couldn't imagine having to agonize over every minute detail.

[Robert]

I agree I have wanted this for years

[Patrick Chappelle]

I'm sure I was one of the voices against your suggestion over the years, Robert. Haha!

[Jeff Bean]

Agreed. Whether it's wise or smart to edit a member's profile is another question that each NC can answer for him or herself. Right now Ning has decided the question for us. A bit patriarchial, to say the least: Ning looking out for us NCs to save us from ourselves. I think NCs can be responsible for making those choices themselves. It's not Ning's job to "protect" some network members from a NC's bad choices. There's no risk to Ning's reputation if some NC makes stupid choices.

Yet I wouldn't use this much. What I would use is the ability to see a member's settings. I get a lot of complaints from folks claiming that they're not getting our email notifications. When I sit at their machine with them logged-on, we see they don't get them because they've turned them off.

[Patrick Chappelle]

You actually can view whether your members have their email settings turned off or on. I learned this morning from J Farrow that you can export your.csv file into Google Docs spreadsheet. Of course, you can always create a tutorial video explaining how to use your network (which I am in the process of doing), this way you can refer them to your video tut whenever they're at a loss as to how to do something.

But I do agree with your other points, Jeff.

[JFarrow]

you can tighten this information by thinking deeply about required questions* the answers you choose to feature and by sending a friendly message to let them know how bad a wack profile can impact on their future ability to get signed.  send out a broadcast and say "you can pay someone to make you look professional when you get signed, but until then, tighten up and look sharp"  send them a link to the settings link from account box in sidebar (same link works for every profile) and tell them that you can't help them if they do not help themselves..

hope this help buddy

[Patrick Chappelle]

Yep. That sounds like an plan, J. We'll see how it works out.