oooh I got a great idea!

[Misty]

Mike,

I have the bestest idea. This occurred to me as a way to make this group very user-friendly for special groups (help get them out of yahoo).

I know v-bulletin give the option of creating buddy lists. Is there a way to make special profile information accessible to buddies? The reason I ask is if I wanted to dump yahoo and bring the bunko group over here for meeting coordinations, it would be great to be able to add particular members to a buddy group that would be able to click on a link and see address/phone number information--only viewable by buddies.

Let me know if that is possible to set up. If you can get the special interests over here, they'll start looking around and find they can meet all their needs in this forum alone...

[lupe]

*Maybe* something could be figured out. Mike's the one with all the tricks, but maybe something like a separate user group for those people, then you creat a forum just for them. It wouldn't even be visible to other users. Then you could have sticky posts for all the addresses and personal info that you normally put in the files section. One big problem though, would be what happens if he does create these user groups, has more than one of them, say 5-10 and you have someone that needs access to 2 of them, say like me who would want Bunco and wine club, and another that needs access to bunco1, bunco2, and wine club. Then you have to create separate user groups to have access to all the different combinations. An admin nightmare, i'm sure. i guess i talked that idea out. there might be a different way???

[Misty]

Originally Posted by lupe

*Maybe* something could be figured out. Mike's the one with all the tricks, but maybe something like a separate user group for those people, then you creat a forum just for them. It wouldn't even be visible to other users. Then you could have sticky posts for all the addresses and personal info that you normally put in the files section. One big problem though, would be what happens if he does create these user groups, has more than one of them, say 5-10 and you have someone that needs access to 2 of them, say like me who would want Bunco and wine club, and another that needs access to bunco1, bunco2, and wine club. Then you have to create separate user groups to have access to all the different combinations. An admin nightmare, i'm sure. i guess i talked that idea out. there might be a different way???

That's why buddy list accessible profile would be better than special groups. I think having the group forums available to the public is important, such as with bunko, when we need subs. Someone who has nothing to do on a Friday night might come looking to see if we need anyone (as we ALWAYS do) can read the SOS. Send a pm and get the info. The people in the buddy list who can click on special profile information will always have that access. This would work for anyone that we know personally, we could add to this buddy list...not just the people in your group. Say, for example, Karie (you be my whipping boy, Karie) isn't in our bunko group, but you have no problem with her having your address and contact information (she's gonna find you anyway LOL). So she's in your buddy group, and can click on your profile and see your address and phone number, but say user "JohnQposter" you don't know, you don't want him having that access, is not on your buddy list...

Make sense. I think something like this would be easier than setting up lots of private forums because this is something lots of people could get use out of.

It would also really make this forum a place to be...so much information at the click of a mouse.

[Misty]

I did some digging, and it looks like my idea may already be a possibility.

It seems you can make your whole profile viewable only by the people on your buddy list. There is an additional information box in the profile which might work for addresses. Of course, a contact information box put in there might be helpful (hint hint). It still might be better, though, if a special contact profile could be made viewable by buddies only.

[Mike]

Currently, you can limit whole profile viewing to buddys only or everyone. You cannot segment out info. There are usergroups, like admins/moderators that can look at address information for example. I think the PM System can be used to send contact information, but I think I know what you are talking about. Let me think about it and I am sure we can accomidate within limits of the software.

[Misty]

Originally Posted by Mike

Currently, you can limit whole profile viewing to buddys only or everyone. You cannot segment out info. There are usergroups, like admins/moderators that can look at address information for example. I think the PM System can be used to send contact information, but I think I know what you are talking about. Let me think about it and I am sure we can accomidate within limits of the software.

Thanks. The thing with it as it stands is that someone might want their blogs viewable to the public, but not the contact information. PM's are good for "can I get your address" right now, but for an all-purpose accessible information thing, it is limited to such a purpose, and if they needed it right away, and that person's not online, it's SOL.