We all realize that humor is most often best appreciated in groups rather than alone. The challenge of a humor-themed web site like Tom Nob is to provide features and functionality that help to facilitate group interaction. We’ll go through these features and functionality, explain how to use them, and offer our rationale for including them. Are you still awake? Great! Let’s go.
The best place to start is, of course, at the beginning. As we described in The Privileges of Membership – Part I, when you sign-up to be a member on Tom Nob, the only information we require is a user name of your choosing, a valid email address, and a password that you provide. After you complete the registration process, you will be able to sign on to the site and add more information to your profile. Please note that you can always access your profile while signed on to the site by clicking on My Account in the upper right hand corner.
The next item that you can add is an avatar, also known as the user image. We highly recommend that you upload an image because a unique image is much easier to remember than a user name. This becomes an important component of creating a more social atmosphere which we will be discussing in more detail.
The next items on our profile are city, zip/postal code, country, and date of birth. These are optional items similar to your name and gender that can be added at any point when you feel comfortable. Please note that other users will only be able to view your country of origin if they click on your user name or avatar.
The next item is My Website which can include a personal web site, a business web site that you run, a blog, or any other site which if reflective of you and/or your interests.
Next in your profile is Favorite Style(s) of Humor. This is the first of three sections of your profile that can promote real social interaction and make the site more useful for you. By clicking on Click for Humor Styles on the right side of the box, you will see a list of humor styles. Click on any of the items on this list that represent you favorite style(s) of humor and they will automatically be added inside the box. We strongly recommend that you add at least one style of humor to your profile for two reasons. The first is that is helps members who like the similar style of humor to find each other. The second is that we are building the functionality that will allow you to search for items on Tom Nob based on humor styles. For these reasons, we prefer that all member select from the same list to keep things uniform.
The next important section of your profile is People Who Make Me Laugh. Like the previous, adding information to this section serves a dual purpose. As long as you include well-known people/performers, you help other members to gain a better understanding of the humor you appreciate the most. Second, we have developed the functionality to quickly perform a search on these people. Click on Search For These People and a new screen will appear with each of these names appearing in a box with a check box next to it. Click on search and you will see a list of items personalized for you based on these people. (This is an early glimpse of the functionality we will roll out to search based on humor style.)
The next item on the profile is Favorite Quote(s). This is really just for fun and doesn’t serve much purpose other than to give other members an insight into your own sense of humor.
The final item on the profile, Send Me New Reviews From My Friends, is the one that can potentially be the most valuable for you. By clicking on this box, you set up the system to notify you by email any time one of your friends on Tom Nob submits a product review. While we go into more detail in Why Can’t We Be Friends, this functionality allows you to discover new items as well as opinions from other members whose views you respect or who simply share your sense of humor.
When you have entered all the information in the sections detailed above, click on Submit and your updated profile will be available to be viewed by yourself and other users of Tom Nob if they click on your user name or avatar.
In The Privileges of Membership – Part I, we detailed the steps required to submit a review/rating and add items to lists. All of these actions are summarized in your profile.
The first section you will see is labeled My Reviews and includes all the reviews you have submitted. These can be sorted in a variety of ways, and you can edit or delete any of them at any point in time. This list of reviews can also be viewed by other users of Tom Nob if they click on your user name or avatar.
The second section you will see is labeled My Favorites List and includes all the items you have identified as your favorites. You can delete any of these items at any point in time. This list of favorites can also be viewed by other users of Tom Nob if they click on your user name or avatar.
The third section you will see is labeled My Wish List and includes all the items you have added to your wish list. You can delete any of these items at any point in time. This wish list can also be viewed by other users of Tom Nob if they click on your user name or avatar.
The fourth section you will see is labeled My Other List and includes all the customized lists you have created. You can edit or delete any of these lists at any point in time. You can also modify the contents of any list at any point in time by clicking on the name of the list. These lists can also be viewed by other users of Tom Nob if they click on your user name or avatar.
The next two sections are labeled My Friends and My Friends Lists. You can learn more about both of these sections in Why Can’t We Be Friends.
The final section that appears before your profile is labeled My Added Items. If you ever search for an item that has not yet been added to the Tom Nob database, you will have the chance to add it yourself. Just click on the Add Product button and fill out the short form. The items you have added in this manner are listed here.
See also: The Wonderful World of Widgets which illustrates how widgets are used on Tom Nob and the joy they will bring to your life.
