It would really be neat — and in some cases, valuable — to be able to find other Drupalists who are also members of any given professional association. In my field, there are CHI, the Society for Technical Communication, ASIST, the Usability Professionals Association, IxDA, and so on. There are others in other fields.

Could we add that field to the user profile and simply let each user populate it if they wish, much as has been done with "Companies Worked For"?

Comments

gerhard killesreiter’s picture

gerhard killesreiter commented

Don't see why not.

cliff’s picture

cliff
he/him
commented

What would it take to make this happen? Would it necessarily have to wait for a major change to the site?

gerhard killesreiter’s picture

gerhard killesreiter commented

I think some support from other members might be good.

frank ralf’s picture

frank ralf commented

+1 from me

dddave’s picture

dddave commented

+1 generally

Do we need to have a policy in place in case people proudly show off their membership in organizations like "White Pride", "Pedophiles United" or something like this?

dave reid’s picture

dave reid
he/him
Primary language English
Location Nebraska USA
commented

Is there any reason we can't just expand the purpose of the existing 'Interests' field?

avpaderno’s picture

avpaderno
he/him
Primary language Italian
Location Brescia, 🇮🇹 🇪🇺
commented

I think Dave is right.
Actually, it would be possible to use the field as it is; the field title should be changed to be more generic, maybe, but I think it can be used for this purpose too.

cliff’s picture

cliff
he/him
commented

Expanding "Interests" wouldn't really work for me. Interests are hobbies or avocations. Professional organizations reflect a focus on and expertise in a field.

I have an interest in what I consider to be whitewater canoeing. You might want to invite me on a trip, but no one should want my advice on running class IV rapids.

On the other hand, many people would want my advice on the things I've studied seriously enough to make a living at them — usability, accessibility, and so forth.

Everett Zufelt’s picture

Everett Zufelt commented

+1

Agree that a separate field is preferable, but I woul also be content with expanding the purpose of the interests field.

mgifford’s picture

mgifford
he/him
Primary language English
commented

I'd also agree that it would be useful to have a separate field for this. +1 for Cliff's suggestion.

andy_read’s picture

andy_read commented

I don't have a problem with this idea, as long as it doesn't get too exclusive - there are some people who just love joining professional associations and there are others of us who prefer to get on with real work ;-)

avpaderno’s picture

avpaderno
he/him
Primary language Italian
Location Brescia, 🇮🇹 🇪🇺
commented

If you are member of an organization, it means you have an interest in that particular field. That said, I am not against creating a new field; I still understand the objection made from Dave Reid.

If the field is added to the user profiles, then we should not make any distinction of which organization users can report to be members; if we are interested in particular organizations, then that should be reported in the field description, and be clear since now which organizations are allowed (or which type of organizations are allowed).

cliff’s picture

cliff
he/him
commented

To make it clear that we're talking about professional groups, perhaps the new field, if created, should simply be called "Professional Organizations."

I'm not sure we can police what people add to this field, but hopefully people will realize that the field is not a place to add fetish-based groups and the like, just as they seem to have not added the corresponding information to "Interests."

avpaderno’s picture

avpaderno
he/him
Primary language Italian
Location Brescia, 🇮🇹 🇪🇺
commented

Is there the approval of some other site maintainer / administrator?

cliff’s picture

cliff
he/him
commented

Hree's a real-world example of how this feature could be useful.

In late 2008, Bojhan took an interest in doing more usability testing of Drupal. At one point, he wound up turning to the IxDA for help, which is kind of like taking your car to a body shop to have its engine, transmission, and steering checked out. Yes, they probably have some familiarity with the subject, but they aren't the experts.

Had we had this feature in our profiles, then he could have searched for users whose profile included membership, either international or local, in the Usability Professionals Association. I, for one, would have loved to have been contacted for help designing and carrying out the usability tests, or even for help with interpreting the results.

cliff’s picture

cliff
he/him
commented

Oops — I've been entering comments in discussions, and that issue field looked just like a title field to me.

tvn’s picture

tvn commented
Status: Active » Closed (won't fix)

Closing old issues. Please re-open if needed.