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Feedback ยท Profile completion should be changed to help us feel "done" at a high percentage, and to remove pressure to hit 100% (implemented)

Profile completion is a pretty helpful thing up until we hit platinum or close to it - it encourages us to build a pretty fleshed out profile. At a certain point in the high percentages though, it reaches a significant problem: it gets counter-productive.

It's generally acknowledged by Wrecked Avent that profiles aren't expected to hit 100%, and extremely few will. Profiles will often be "done" at 70% or 80%, and not need to be developed any further. It's intended that it's okay to stay there.

For some profiles, such as my own, if I actually pushed past that "done" point to reach 100% I'd be making my profiles worse by adding traits and preferences which don't fit or are simply better off not added.

However, if it's a goal to make people feel okay staying at that high-% "done" state, profile completion runs contradictory to that goal. It sends a very clear signal we're not done yet, that our profile needs more work. Completion systems are designed to convey that feeling, and push us to get to 100%.

This shows up in suggestions like half-heart preferences, where someone naturally wants a feature so they can get to 100% without degrading their profile's quality.

The profile completion system needs to change to make our profiles feel complete at a high percentage "done" state. I think that could be accomplished by:

  • de-emphasizing the profile completion system once we hit platinum, like moving it to the bottom of the profile.
  • outright stating in the profile completion something to help us feel complete: "You're done! Great work. You can keep going if you want, but you don't need to."

Or maybe there's some better approach?

What do you think?

meta info

endorsement points: 1

created: 05 May 15 at 12:52 AM (build: 4/12/2015 6:11 PM beta)

closed: 01 August 16 at 02:57 AM (build: 8/1/2016 2:13 AM beta)

Pascal

I agree with this. There are OCD completionists out there who are going to be bothered endlessly by that. Perhaps a Profile could be seen as 'Complete' at around 50%? A lot of people would still have more then that, and it wouldn't show, but it would at least motivate people that to fill out something to be at 100%.

Wrecked Avent Site Administrator

Well, there are a lot of completionists out there, and for them, nothing past 100% matters. So me saying "Good job you're done!" isn't the same as saying "good job, you've filled out your profile completely!". That is why it has multiple levels now.

Velus

This isn't just about people with OCD or completionists. I am definitely not either of those, and still I feel a distinct pressure to hit 100% that I resist. We have no evidence anyone else talking about completion is necessarily a completionist so much as someone operating on the pressure the system is putting on them.

Velus

So me saying "Good job you're done!" isn't the same as saying "good job, you've filled out your profile completely!". That is why it has multiple levels now.

Sure. Tell us we are done anyway. I'm not asking it to say we've filled it out completely, that's neither here nor there.

And yeah, I get it has multiple levels, but that's a secondary detail to that big % bar that has all of the emphasis.

Wrecked Avent Site Administrator

Well the big % bar is to the next level, not to 100%. The only time that bar is encouraging you towards 100% is when you're at platinum.

Velus

Oh hey, I forgot about that.

Still, I'm sure the issue remains: we have a system that has the purpose of compelling us to do more, which at a certain point becomes unhelpful because we know "done" involves doing and ignoring its pressure at some point. That pressure should be relived somehow.

Wrecked Avent Site Administrator

Discussion has died down, so I am unblocking.

Wrecked Avent Site Administrator

100% and platinum have been removed in the testing server. We can tweak the exact levels further as need be.

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