Display BirthDAY, hide age

[Tralala]

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" 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]

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]

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]

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]

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? ) 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]

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' 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.

[osirisjem]

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.

I agree. The best option is not currently available.

[Onimua]

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

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