I will add that I look at a user's location or if that isn't available, time zone, to try to work out where they are located. Sometimes that is extremely important, and repeated requests for such information don't get answered. For example, when talking about EPG sources in TV functionality, it is of little use talking about American solutions to a European, or indeed Australian. It also helps if there appears to be a language issue. If someone from America can't string a sentence together, I am unlikely to seriously try to help them, because it is usually just that they are lazy and don't care enough about their post to read what they wrote before hitting reply. But if someone from Japan is asking a question, and the language is difficult to understand, I will make the effort.
I have used some forums that insisted on the location field being filled in on sign-up just to make responses to their posts more relevant. In fact, I think it would be great if JRiver made that field mandatory in user profiles. People who don't want to say where they are just lie, and hence suffer worse assistance, but most people are willing to divulge their location at a state level at least.
I also look at when a user joined, when they first posted, and how often they posted. It all goes to whether a person asking a question is worth answering. Without that information I would answer less posts, or give up on people if they couldn't answer a few questions, and just keep asking them.
With few exceptions, people don't share what they don't want to share on a forum. In most cases their identity is fake and anonymous. I don't think there are any privacy issues with seeing a user's profile. It would also be possible to find all a user's posts without this function, but it wouldn't be as efficient.
Finally, when I am looking for answers to a problem, if I find someone who has discussed the issue but the answer isn't in the thread I found, I often look at their other threads for more information. That often leads to a better result.
So yes, please turn the functionality back on.
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Topic: The new JRiver Forum look (Read 23422 times)