Suggestion: User profile application/languages list

How many threads have been started where the poster asks a question which could have potentially different answers depending on the version of application/language x?

At the moment you usually see someone posting the usual reply of "what version are you using?" or even replying with a solution that would of worked in version 3 but isn't applicable to version 1.

I think a neat option would be to allow users to have a list of applications and languages in their profile that they can select from. Then when you look at a users profile you can see a short list of the applications/languages they currently use and what version. I'm under no delusions about how long a list this might be especially since listing the version number for each thing will make it even bigger but I think if it's used by alot of members it can help with posting helpful replies (plus Dev Shed can get some neat stats from it).

With my idea in place you could view the users profile and see the short list of things they have selected i.e:

• Flash CS3
• Photoshop 7
• PHP 4.4.6
• Apache 2.0.48

ok so going into minor versions is a bit extreme but still you see where I'm going with this. Alot of job agency sites have this sort of thing setup so you can list what you use and I think it would be really handy here.

Could go one step crazier with the idea and link applications/languages to forums so that if you go into the PHP forum it automatically displays the version of PHP you use next to your name or somewhere in your post.

I'd have a really long list, I think.

If it was broken down into sections then it would still be easy to jump to the relevent bit if someone wanted to check which version you used. Even just alphabetically sorting the list would let someone do that.

It would only be useful if members did fill it in and I bet 9/10 new members posting one question wouldn't.

I bet your figure is low-balled. 99/100 ... ?

Yeah the list would be huge.

What if it was limited to just forum related apps/languages? Could put it on the registration section as an optional fillout thing, that would encourage new posters to use it.

I have an idea!

We could deal with this problem with a forum hack.

When a user posts a new thread, they get a drop-down containing relevant applications. If they select one, then their Thread Title is prefixed with the relevant prefix.

E.g.
They choose Flash 8 Pro, their thread title is prefixed with [F8]

We really need this in the Flash forum as it is used as a catchall for all Macromedia/Adobe applications (e.g. Flash, Dreamweaver, Director).

Whenever someone posts a question about one of these apps. in the Flash forum, they rarely get an answer. This kind of hack would greatly improve their chance of a response.
E.g. if a Director expert is surfing the forum, they would easily miss a post about Director (unless it had a prefix).

that's a spankin great idea :¬)

It would be very easy to implement. I would hardcode the application names into the script.

I don't mind coding it if no one else wants to. I have experience of hacking/modding IPB and SMF - but not vBulletin. Although it's probably pretty similar.

Check the vbulletin forum site. Chances are there could already be a hack out there that could be implemented to do this.

You'll have more chance with this if there is a hack already there that can be installed rather then the admins having to code it from scratch.

oooo im liking the way this conversation is going :¬)