Display BirthDAY, hide age [Archive] - vBulletin Community Forum

Tralala

Wed 15th Mar '06, 11:51am

Seems like a fairly common complaint and one that vBulletin should be more socially minded about. A user might be okay with entering their birthdate and age while registering, but that doesn't mean he/she wants to broadcast it to the whole forum (and potentially, Internet.) Ladies are especially sensitive to this, it seems.

There should be another option in the Edit Profile pulldown:

Display birthday, hide age

Making the entry of a year "optional" (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showpost.php?p=781888&postcount=10) is certainly a hack (as the user might not even realize that they can do that, nor should they have to.) Mods might like to force birthdates to be entered but allow the users the courtesy of dictating how much of that they feel comfortable sharing.

So allowing the user to display birthday (Month and day) will allow folks to acknowledge their special day, but keep their age private. The lack of this option has some of my female members hiding all. This seems like an unfortunate vB oversight to me.

Scott MacVicar

Wed 15th Mar '06, 12:18pm

There are 3 options for profile for specifying the date in the profile already, its a menu under the part of entering your date.

Tralala

Wed 15th Mar '06, 12:28pm

There are 3 options for profile for specifying the date in the profile already, its a menu under the part of entering your date.

I am aware of that, but that's not what I am requesting.

Please let me clarify.
What you are referring to is the choice of these 3:
Hide Age and Date of Birth (this hides everything)
Display Age (this just shows age, no dates)
Display Age and Date of Birth (this show everything)

There is no option for:
Display Day of Birth (ie: show March 15 as birthday, but no birth year nor age.)

...and that fourth option is what my female members request most often. In the absence of that, they end up simply choosing to "hide everything," which is a shame.

My goal is to allow BirthDAYS to be shared, via the calendar, so birthday wishes can be extended, but not share that "Melinda was born in 1958 and therefore is 48 years old today."

Ideally this option in Edit Profile will be presented differently, with checkboxes.

Show:
__ Birthday (required for inclusion in calendar)
__ Birthyear
__ Age

(You could allow mods to dictate what's default, or allowed to be checked/unchecked.)

But right now the choices make little sense, and omits the most likely desired option.

gopherhockey

Fri 1st Dec '06, 12:27pm

But right now the choices make little sense, and omits the most likely desired option.

I agree with this completely. Most want to show their birthday, but don't want the age showing.

I am very surprised this is not an option. It should be.

I searched vbulletin.org and found no way to change or hack this.

Tralala

Fri 1st Dec '06, 5:52pm

I agree with this completely. Most want to show their birthday, but don't want the age showing.

I am very surprised this is not an option. It should be.

I searched vbulletin.org and found no way to change or hack this.

This will sound snarky, but I honestly believe this oversight is because the vBulletin developers focus more on the geeky/tech/security side of things, and not the "real world, how normal people interact" side of things. Especially when it comes to dealing with, um, women. (Oops. Did I just type that? :D ) They seem to instinctively shoot down ideas that they didn't think of themselves.

The fact is, on a forum of friends or coworkers conversing (not strangers debating videogames or something) this scenario is common. A gal would like to acknowledge her birthday with friends (in the calendar and/or a birthday thread) but doesn't want to announce to everyone that she's turning 40. That's how it works at an office party, for example. Most gentlemen know, would be considered uncouth to ask a lady how old she is, right? This online paradigm should be no different.

I can understand birthdate (month, day and year) being required for registration on sites that have age restrictions. But we're talking about what's PUBLICALLY shared. And the members should have the ability to dictate -- "share my birthday, but not the year of my birth."

Why the forum software (still!) doesn't allow for this is a bizarre oversight. Why the developers argue it's not appropriate or requested... is misguided.

Grover

Sat 2nd Dec '06, 9:10am

Seems like a fairly common complaint and one that vBulletin should be more socially minded about.

This will sound snarky, but I honestly believe this oversight is because the vBulletin developers focus more on the geeky/tech/security side of things, and not the "real world, how normal people interact" side of things.

To be honest, I agree with this. And I also agree with your initial suggestion about hiding the age.

I was one of the 2 people that suggested more display-options for Birthdays in the first place a while ago : Suggestion for more display-options concerning 'birthday' (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=125382) and I can completely understand your additional suggestion about this.

Further, I am also with you that vBulletin should really be more focussed ON THE USER. With vBulletin I always had the feeling that I was more aimed at the geeky/tech/programmer/admin side of things, exactly like you say. This side -ofcourse- is very important aswell and vBulletin is the best in this area.

But I -and many other people- have said it many times : there should really be more focus on the normal USER of the vBulletin product. With vB 3.6 we have seen some improvement on this matter, but there's more to be done. I hope in the future vBulletin will become the best from a user's point of view also...

Almost all of my suggestions are focussed on improving the USER-friendliness. I will do my best to keep putting suggestions overhere in the hope that vBulletin will improve on this essential matter.

BassX

Sat 2nd Dec '06, 2:05pm

I would like to see this feature added as well.

Tralala

Sat 2nd Dec '06, 4:13pm

I'd be curious to hear from someone who DID NOT want this feature. It's such an obvious request, it's almost puzzling to see it overlooked in a mature product like vBulletin.

Stilgar

Tue 5th Dec '06, 5:19pm

I still want to see this option added.

I have an "all age" forum and it would be nice to not allow Age to be shown or ever chosen by the user. Giving them only the option to either display or hide their birthday.

:)

RedWingFan

Tue 5th Dec '06, 8:06pm

Tralala

Tue 5th Dec '06, 8:11pm

A workaround that I think works: have members leave the year blank. We have some members displaying their birthdays with no age after them--those are the ones that left the year blank.

Having it from a drop-down selection might be a neat addition. "Show birthday, hide age."

Workarounds like that don't really address the core problem though, and wouldn't help a forum where they want to restrict certain forums based on age, for example. As admin I might want users to enter their birth year... but that doesn't mean the users should be forced to publicize their age to the forum as a whole!

Still, I appreciate the feedback. I'm curious to hear from a vB developer, to hear why they've left something this basic out of the core product.

Simetrical

Thu 7th Dec '06, 2:09am

Tralala

Sat 9th Dec '06, 12:02pm

Well, clearly no one thought to add it. Or maybe they meant to have "show birthday only" instead of "show age only" and got slightly confused. I can't think of any reason someone would want to hide their birthday but tell their age, at any rate.

Maybe they were thinking about the paranoid/security angle. Some folks freak out when a web site asks for their birthday, like criminals would be able to use that for identity theft or something. Still, registration should make it very clear, on boards that allow it: "this info is used for age verification only. Members can choose what is shared publicly." (or something like that)

I've seen women shy away from signing up on a vB social-networking board, the minute it asks for age and birthday, without any indicator of how it will be sharing or publicizing the answers.

And THAT is a problem with the software.

Can we get a vB developer to comment on this? Where's a better place to post?

osirisjem

Sat 9th Dec '06, 7:04pm

Onimua

Sat 9th Dec '06, 7:25pm

I wondered why this isn't in here...

Why don't we have an option to display our birthday, but not our year? :confused:

Simetrical

Sun 10th Dec '06, 2:06am

Can we get a vB developer to comment on this? Where's a better place to post?
This is the right place, but often devs don't comment. It should be quite minor to fix, though, so I would hope to see it in the next release now that it's been brought up.

Polgara

Tue 12th Dec '06, 7:01pm

It would be a wonderful feature to incorporate.

Please make it so ;)

gengar56

Thu 14th Dec '06, 5:18pm

I agree. I think more agree but they don't think it's necessary to demonstrate how much desire there is for more age/birthday options.

Freddie Bingham

Thu 14th Dec '06, 8:13pm

3.6.5 will have the option to just show Day and Month.

Onimua

Thu 14th Dec '06, 9:30pm

3.6.5 will have the option to just show Day and Month.
Excellent! Thanks for the update, Freddie. :)

Stilgar

Fri 15th Dec '06, 3:06pm

3.6.5 will have the option to just show Day and Month.

Great news! Thanks for letting us know in advance. :)

Grover

Sat 16th Dec '06, 12:17pm

Great news! Thanks for letting us know in advance. :)

Indeed! Thanks Freddie, it's appreciated this kind of feedback!

Mazinger

Thu 21st Dec '06, 1:20pm

3.6.5 will have the option to just show Day and Month.

Great! I wish one of my suggestions come true. ;)

hirlas

Mon 1st Jan '07, 1:47pm

this is one of the reasons I decided to go with VB, the developers actually listen to the people using their software. Hats off to you guys!

-and happy new year!

:D

Mazinger

Mon 1st Jan '07, 1:54pm

this is one of the reasons I decided to go with VB, the developers actually listen to the people using their software. Hats off to you guys!

-and happy new year!

http://images.vbulletin.com/images_vb3/smilies/biggrin.gif

It's Freddie... He's actually so co-operative. :)

He also fixes all bugs, whether Scott & Mike always mark them as Not a bug. :D

Alteran Ancient

Mon 8th Jan '07, 5:28pm

Great to hear! I was waiting for this functionality.

Is it just me, or does Onimua have some kind of liking for Freddie?

Floris

Mon 8th Jan '07, 6:55pm

Great to hear! I was waiting for this functionality.

Is it just me, or does Onimua have some kind of liking for Freddie?
What's not to like about Freddie? :)

feldon23

Tue 9th Jan '07, 1:38pm

If there was a woman on the vB development team, this feature would have been in 1.0. ;) ;)

Stilgar

Tue 9th Jan '07, 6:04pm

If there was a woman on the vB development team, this feature would have been in 1.0. ;) ;)

Ok.. now I'm laughing... but it's so very true! :D

Mazinger

Tue 9th Jan '07, 6:15pm

There's Boxy. I think she just do sales... and not very knowlegeable with vB. :p

Freddie Bingham

Tue 9th Jan '07, 6:18pm

There's Boxy. I think she just do sales... and not very knowlegeable with vB. :p
Oh, she is quite knowledgeable in regards to vBulletin.

Steve Machol

Tue 9th Jan '07, 6:23pm

There's Boxy. I think she just do sales... and not very knowlegeable with vB. :p
:mad: On the contrary she is very knowledgeable and provide a lot of support both on the forums and in the Support System.

Mazinger

Tue 9th Jan '07, 6:25pm

Well, this might have been my first impression since I saw her answering only very easy questions by customers. :rolleyes:

Floris

Tue 9th Jan '07, 6:35pm

Well, this might have been my first impression since I saw her answering only very easy questions by customers. :rolleyes:
And your impression was utterly wrong.

Mazinger

Tue 9th Jan '07, 6:37pm

And your impression was utterly wrong.May be. But you're very knowledgeable, Floris! I like the way you treat people here, and your answers are always professional. ;)

mrsmac1974

Sun 4th Mar '07, 7:29pm

3.6.5 will have the option to just show Day and Month.
I'm running 3.6.5 and I'm not seeing this* option. Am I missing it, or is it still to come?

Thanks!

*This option:
What you are referring to is the choice of these 3:
Hide Age and Date of Birth (this hides everything)
Display Age (this just shows age, no dates)
Display Age and Date of Birth (this show everything)

There is no option for:
Display Day of Birth (ie: show March 15 as birthday, but no birth year nor age.)

Onimua

Sun 4th Mar '07, 7:35pm

That's one of the things that will come in 3.6.6 I believe; 3.6.5 was just purely security patch, so nothing else was included.

feldon23

Sun 4th Mar '07, 7:36pm

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=221905

A Note Regarding vBulletin 3.6.6

The publication of this exploit has required a swift release of an updated version to fix the published problem. The original intention for vBulletin 3.6.5 had been to include a number of other bug fixes and improvements that have been reported since 3.6.4.

Unfortunately, the necessity of bringing out a version quickly to fix the exploit has meant that many of these fixes have not had sufficient time to be fully tested to the extent that we would like and have therefore been kept back for vBulletin 3.6.6.

Floris

Sun 11th Mar '07, 4:29pm

That's one of the things that will come in 3.6.6 I believe; 3.6.5 was just purely security patch, so nothing else was included.
feldon and oni are correct. Sorry that we didn't have time to slip it in 3.6.5, should be in 3.6.6 as promised..

MattGreer

Sun 11th Mar '07, 4:49pm

Floris

Sun 11th Mar '07, 4:52pm

On my board, people put in a fake birthdate. I have several users that are 99, and I know for a fact they ain't 99...

But this might violate some sort of COPPA thingy or something.

I agree with this thread. Show the birthday, but not the age.
vBulletin can't force them to enter their real age, everybody has the choice to lie. If someone enters a false age and it shows on the forum, it's not my problem (in my idea) but the user who did it.. they're simply exposed and their reputation is up for grabs.