1. navigate through [gr]avatars straight to a user’s “About page” if available, or his main blog’s homepage.
COMMENT: not all users have a blog on wordpress, i have a few friends who registered simply to have a username to comment. i think what he means is for each user to have a “profile page”.
2. standardizing the about page.
COMMENT: on a new WP[.com] blog, i believe the “About page” is there by default; should a user rename/delete it, it should redirect to the (user’s blog’s) frontpage instead. But what if: makes a new about page later (or makes an “About page, only he calls it something else, in another language?) i think this can be solved if wordpress adds to the Options page. Now we have a way to declare which page does the blog posts go, and which is the homepage; additionally make a way to declare the “about page” if available.
3. creating a list of contacts.
COMMENT: we already have one, the blogroll and it’s XFN markup. the problem is not everyone uses it (it’s a bit difficult to use, make it accessible through the navigation bar at the window’s top?); and not everyone might want to share that contact information. Again, make it optional like the about page solution (declare under Options tab, if unavailable, redirect to user’s blog’s homepage).
Not too keen on the idea of going as far as suggested. WordPress.com and WP as a standalone are popular because users can make of them what they wish. Not everyone wants a standardized social network site. I tried myspace.com and facebook and hated both sites.
Perhaps some people would like this option? I can’t say. I just hope that it won’t be implemented across the board.
I don’t like the ideas for the about page being standardize as it quite subjective.
I’m with Jeremy ↑ ideas. Extending the author page with hCard (vcard/vcf) would be good improvement. You could export this schema to others medium quite easily.
i second all of the above, i’m not really for social networks unless their focus is something else other than simply being a social network (as myspace/facebook is).
@Jeremy+@ChaosKaizer: i think that’s a good way to do it, that is IF we want to… because we chose standalone WP so WE can choose how WE want it to be..
Well, of course it might or could be used as a social network. But I do agree with Mary.
Facebook, and other social network sites such as Myspace etc are currently very hot….until the sh*t hits the fan. There is a big discussion going on in Europe regarding storing personal information such as finger prints and other personal information. Sooner or later people will start to become worried about the social network sites as well.
People are really not happy about this. On the other hand, people ARE putting their entire private life on the web including photo’s, pictures of you and just about everyone.
So, since I think that WordPress has the great possibility of just being individual and doing what you like with the software, e.g. you can choose to stay relatively anonymous, I think that is a great choice. A VCard could be an option. Joomla uses this as well on the contact page for example.
On the other hand, I do think that if you would like to use a social network, use one of the sites that has been made to do so.
#1 link to about / profile page – This would be cool. It would not really effect the people that don’t want the functionality and it is good for the people that do.
#2 standardized about page – no comment 😛
#3 contact list – I thought the same thing as Gray regarding the blogroll being there already. It will probably be more populor when it gets named links instead of blogroll.
about what Rashmi describes:
1. navigate through [gr]avatars straight to a user’s “About page” if available, or his main blog’s homepage.
COMMENT: not all users have a blog on wordpress, i have a few friends who registered simply to have a username to comment. i think what he means is for each user to have a “profile page”.
2. standardizing the about page.
COMMENT: on a new WP[.com] blog, i believe the “About page” is there by default; should a user rename/delete it, it should redirect to the (user’s blog’s) frontpage instead. But what if: makes a new about page later (or makes an “About page, only he calls it something else, in another language?) i think this can be solved if wordpress adds to the Options page. Now we have a way to declare which page does the blog posts go, and which is the homepage; additionally make a way to declare the “about page” if available.
3. creating a list of contacts.
COMMENT: we already have one, the blogroll and it’s XFN markup. the problem is not everyone uses it (it’s a bit difficult to use, make it accessible through the navigation bar at the window’s top?); and not everyone might want to share that contact information. Again, make it optional like the about page solution (declare under Options tab, if unavailable, redirect to user’s blog’s homepage).
Not too keen on the idea of going as far as suggested. WordPress.com and WP as a standalone are popular because users can make of them what they wish. Not everyone wants a standardized social network site. I tried myspace.com and facebook and hated both sites.
Perhaps some people would like this option? I can’t say. I just hope that it won’t be implemented across the board.
It is relatively easy to implement “standardised profiles”. Just like to author permalinks more often, e.g.: myblog.wordpress.com/author/myuser/
Obviously, themes would also need to implement author templates in
author.phpwhich could grab some neat stuff from the usermeta table.I don’t like the ideas for the about page being standardize as it quite subjective.
I’m with Jeremy ↑ ideas. Extending the author page with hCard (vcard/vcf) would be good improvement. You could export this schema to others medium quite easily.
Typo in my previous comment: s/like/link
i second all of the above, i’m not really for social networks unless their focus is something else other than simply being a social network (as myspace/facebook is).
@Jeremy+@ChaosKaizer: i think that’s a good way to do it, that is IF we want to… because we chose standalone WP so WE can choose how WE want it to be..
Well, of course it might or could be used as a social network. But I do agree with Mary.
Facebook, and other social network sites such as Myspace etc are currently very hot….until the sh*t hits the fan. There is a big discussion going on in Europe regarding storing personal information such as finger prints and other personal information. Sooner or later people will start to become worried about the social network sites as well.
People are really not happy about this. On the other hand, people ARE putting their entire private life on the web including photo’s, pictures of you and just about everyone.
So, since I think that WordPress has the great possibility of just being individual and doing what you like with the software, e.g. you can choose to stay relatively anonymous, I think that is a great choice. A VCard could be an option. Joomla uses this as well on the contact page for example.
On the other hand, I do think that if you would like to use a social network, use one of the sites that has been made to do so.
#1 link to about / profile page – This would be cool. It would not really effect the people that don’t want the functionality and it is good for the people that do.
#2 standardized about page – no comment 😛
#3 contact list – I thought the same thing as Gray regarding the blogroll being there already. It will probably be more populor when it gets named links instead of blogroll.