Alteration to team roles
 

Just a thought, as I was recently editing my profile information. Would it be possible to break the list of roles into adjectives (CAD, Marketing, Mechanical, etc.) and nouns (Student, College Student, Engineer, Mentor, Parent)? It might help make the field more useful when trying to figure out what exactly a user does.

Re: Alteration to team roles
 

Are you suggesting making the user have two titles?

-Whom the user is? (Position in team)
-What the user does? (Sub-team)

If so, that would not be a bad idea.

Re: Alteration to team roles
 

Maybe something like ______(position) on the ______(sub team) sub team.

Re: Alteration to team roles
 

I dunno, it might make it a bit hard for people who fill multiple roles (or are on multiple teams).

Re: Alteration to team roles
 

Not to offend, but how is the current system any better?

Re: Alteration to team roles
 

You can't do it on the current system, either.

I imagine the team role as two words--"Marketing Mentor", "Mechanical Engineer", "CAD Student".

Re: Alteration to team roles
 

Maybe they don't have to be a list of options. Maybe the user can type in what he/she wants to post. That way, the user can say what he is on, without the restriction of...

- having to choose only one sub-team (in case the user is on multiple teams)
- having to choose a sub-team they aren't a part of (in case their sub-team wasn't an option, which kinda happened to me this year)

Re: Alteration to team roles
 

Or let people write in whatever they want with a certain character limit.

Re: Alteration to team roles
 

In all honesty, I really don't know what you do. I know your a mentor, and that your well-known. It might be nice to know if you can CAD or program or whatever.

A thought this lead me to: What if they have a place to list your skillset in the expanded profile page?

Re: Alteration to team roles
 

I suggested this a while back, but Brandon said that the fixed choices allow statistics to be taken about the data (how many of each type are on CD, etc.)

Another idea, however, would be to allow somebody to select multiple options. (I might select CAD, Mechanical and Driver)

Re: Alteration to team roles
 

My profile isn't accurate, either.

I'm not really a "Parent", since my student is now in college and not on any team. "Alumni Parent" would not be technically correct; I believe "Alumnus Parent" would be better, since I only had one student on the team. "Robotics Widow" would work, too, though "Mentor Spouse" would sound happier. :)

I don't want to leave it blank, since I still have some involvement with the team (sewing Spandex this season--let's see, that's "Seamstress"--I certainly hope this title wouldn't apply every year).

I didn't really want to torment Brandon with the zillion possibilities available, but since someone else opened the discussion, this is my 2 cents' worth.

Re: Alteration to team roles
 

What are those stats even used for?

I like the idea of the blank, it gives everyone the flexibility to accurately describe their role and better explain in which areas they could best assist others while navigating the site.
ex.
You'd probably prefer having someone that works with G-code tell you about programming a mill vs. a new mechanical guy doing it. ::ouch::

Re: Alteration to team roles
 

No I mean like this: on 1219 I mentored primarily mechanical and programming. With the proposed system, I would have to pick one of those instead of just saying "mentor." If the system had the option to opt out of putting an adjective, and thus make a more general team role, I'd be happy.

Re: Alteration to team roles
 

Its a good idea, but like said earlier, I have multiple team roles(Electrical, Programming, CAD). could there be a way to pick more than one team role?

Re: Alteration to team roles
 

First drop-down: "Jack of All Trades"
Second drop-down: "Master of None"

Re: Alteration to team roles
 

i like the idea of giveing a person x amount of characters to type what they want

Re: Alteration to team roles
 

It'd be cool if you could have X number of roles, each with name and prefix.

"Former Student Driver"; "Former Student Animation"; "College Electrical Mentor"; etc.

Or just a "Custom..." option or three.

Re: Alteration to team roles
 

I like this idea.

Re: Alteration to team roles
 

Personnally I'm not a fan of the free writing section or the multiple roles section. It just takes away from the uniformity. I think that many of the signatures are already too varied in the colors and the format. If we open the user roles section to the same sort of set up, then it could easily become the same. Many people would start using this section to say that their team role is the '1337 baller' or 'designated nerd' or some other nonsense. It seems to me that if we opened it up, we would actually learn less. A bit more opend idea as Billfred suggestedc would be welcome, but much more then that would make it rather annoying.

Sorry, if this is a bit harsh. It's just what I've experienced in the past and what I suspect would be the future.