I've implemented a number of things that users can do with their profiles on Atlantic: they can adopt an avatar and a flag, choose a "house" a la Harry Potter, show icons for their favorite media franchises or sports teams, and so on. I got the idea from the old days on LiveJournal, when users would constantly put up lists of interests and tiny banners to personalize their "space", so you could tell a lot about them at a glance.
There are also a couple of forums which are opt-in. These are the more controversial ones, like Politics, News, and Sex.
New users especially, however, just don't seem inclined to use these enhancements. I have a private message describing all of them and how one can request them that's automatically sent to every new user. I've also moved the User Control Panel right out on the front page to allow easier access, just in case people didn't know about them...but there's been no attempt by users to "decorate" their profiles or join other boards - or in some cases even put up an avatar.
There are three possibilities. Either they somehow still don't know about these things, or they are simply not willing to use them - or they actually want something different which I'm not providing. I don't have any idea what it might be.
Do any of you have insight into this?
There are also a couple of forums which are opt-in. These are the more controversial ones, like Politics, News, and Sex.
New users especially, however, just don't seem inclined to use these enhancements. I have a private message describing all of them and how one can request them that's automatically sent to every new user. I've also moved the User Control Panel right out on the front page to allow easier access, just in case people didn't know about them...but there's been no attempt by users to "decorate" their profiles or join other boards - or in some cases even put up an avatar.
There are three possibilities. Either they somehow still don't know about these things, or they are simply not willing to use them - or they actually want something different which I'm not providing. I don't have any idea what it might be.
Do any of you have insight into this?
