CUNY Academic Commons

There are a couple ways this could work.

1) When a user of the site visits who has not filled in the field, redirect them to the profile page with a message that says "You must do this to continue". When they're done, ideally they will be sent back to whatever page they were trying to view.
2) Similar to #2, except with a popup.
3) For users who have not yet filled in the field, show an in-page message (something like the "Notice Anything Different?" message, except it would show on every page of the site. See http://redmine.gc.cuny.edu/issues/show/645#change-2518) urging them to go to their profile page and fill in the field. Users could continue to use the site without filling in the field, but they wouldn't be able to get rid of the annoying box unless they filled in the field.
4) Like 3, except we also provide a "No thanks" button that allows users to get rid of the dialog without filling in the field.
5) Like 3 or 4, except that instead of having a link to the Edit Profile page, the checkboxes appear right in the dialog for easier saving.

1 and 2 are far too annoying for my taste - involuntary redirection is a terrible way to treat users, unless you have a really, really, really good reason. 5 would be fine, but in involves a bit of extra work to put a proper html form that can be submitted from any page. I lean toward 4, as it is minimally invasive, requires a fairly small amount of dev work, and gives the user the freedom to opt out, which I think is friendlier.

I think we should discuss this at the next Subcommittee meeting. My preference is for #3, which doesn't allow users to opt-out, for the following reasons:

-- we already have required fields in the Profile (college, name)
-- the information is pretty vital to us as we analyze site usage, which in turn helps us demonstrate the importance of the site to various communities, which in turn gets us funding.

But I do think we should discuss this as a group, so let's do that at the next meeting.

Bump. Matt, this feature depends on #642 being finished. Perhaps it's something to talk about at the next meeting.

Just noting that profile fields have now been created, so we are free to begin creating this mechanism.

How are we moving forward?

Good question. My preference is for #2 above, since I think it's important that we get people to fill this out and I don't think we're asking too much of them. However, I'm willing to reconsider or, at least, to give them a "no thanks" option.

I've added Chris as a watcher so that we can get his take on this from a usability standpoint.

I think that forced redirects/actions are very annoying. If this were an important change in our TOS or something, maybe it would be warranted. But given that it's just a small (and perhaps important, but even there I'm not clear on how it's vital in the short term) piece of information on a profile, I am against such an intrusive technique.

I understand your concern, and it's one that I share. On the other hand, this is a new required field, and it's required because it will help the Commons provide pretty important statistical information that will give us a better picture of who is using the site and how, possibly leading toward new site improvements. It seems to me that the field will be useful pretty much to the extent to which we can get all members to fill it out.

Right, but #2 forces users to fill it out before continuing any other business on the Commons, while some of the latter options allow people to put it off until a time when it suits them, while still reminding them that it is to be done.

But in the end it's up to you, so just let me know what to go ahead with. Whatever the annoyance factor will be, it's probably not enough to warrant the effort of a drawn-out discussion.

But I love drawn-out discussion!

My concern about the latter options is that I've recently seen two different people who have not yet dismissed the BuddyPress docs alert. Some people seem to look past it and just leave it there.

What about #2 (pop-up) with a chance to say "Remind me Later" but then having it come up again when users next log in (repeated until they do it). Too intrusive?

What about #2 (pop-up) with a chance to say "Remind me Later" but then having it come up again when users next log in (repeated until they do it).

That's fine.

Here's the placeholder text I'm using for the popup. Please let me know what you want in there.

<h3>Hello, Commons user!</h3>

    <p>Your Commons profile now has a field for your Role, where you can tell us which hat(s) you wear at CUNY. This information will help us learn more about who uses the Commons, and make it easier for potential collaborators to find you on the site. Please take a moment to fill out this new data.</p>

    <a href="<?php echo bp_loggedin_user_domain() ?>profile/edit"><strong>Sure! Take me to my profile now</strong></a> | <a href="#" id="role_popup_remindmelater">Remind me later</a>

Thanks, Boone. The mechanisms sound great. Two quick thoughts on the message itself:

-- I don't think there should be a comma before "and make," since "make" is linked to "This information will"

-- I'd rephrase it thus this sentence as follows:

"Your Commons profile now has a required field for your Role, where you can describe the hat(s) you wear at CUNY. "

-- finally, the message talks about hats worn at CUNY, but we're now accepting non-CUNY memberships for CUNY projects, and have done so for some time. Any thoughts about an edit that would address that? Or maybe it's fine to leave it as is and just leave the working assumption that the great majority of our members are part of CUNY.

maybe it's fine to leave it as is

Anyone using the Commons wears a hat at CUNY, regardless of whether they have a formal affiliation. So I say leave it. If you disagree, give me the text and I'll change it to whatever you'd like.

Text modified in https://github.com/castiron/cac/commit/b0d7d9d91ea36266bf6c6ccb0581ca91bc44290e

Okay -- fine to leave "CUNY" as is. Thanks for your work on this.