A funny idea just popped into my head whilst I was in the Lets meet up forum. There was an advert for a social and I didnt know where the location was so I went to the users profile in case that gave a clue i.e. by post code. The profile was full of N/A so I still dont know where the venue is. I then recalled that JudyTv (sorry judy this is not aimed at you personaly) when addressing newbie's who have left an out of place thread/post often brings into the topic the number of N/A on thier profile. This seems to be unacceptable for newbies however I have noticed that many experienced and very experienced users have a whole host of N/A attributes on thier profile in some cases not even correctly identifying sex or sexual pref.
Before anyone starts beating me up I am not having a go I am just making an enquiery. I have my own ideas on why this is but I would also like to hear from others as well to see if there are any reasons I have not considerd.
Mr Tweeky
I think the profile is designed to help people make a start and simplify the process of getting online and into the site. If people omit things its usually because they don't like the actual choice of category, so they choose n/a, which actually is one of the optional choices, isn't it?. Although it appears as a -- mark in the box. Its not the basis to form an 'assessment' of someone, particularly if they are new.
I get loads of "new members you may like to meet" emails.
I don't do meets. On the very few accasions I have, I am very cautious.
Now, as to the N/A thing, which brings me back to the "no meets" thing, if you have no intention of meeting then the info given is of no use anyway.
For those who are active in the swinging area, or who use the dogging part as as a swinging extension, the use of profiles will be useful for people to chose who they fancy...but I use the dogging forum for infomation , and giving loads of info about me and then arranging meets in car parks and woods seems a bit silly....not to say insane !
I would also like to point-out that the "media" still regard swinging as a perverts activity, there was a large story a few weeks ago about "wife swappers" in one of the sunday toilet-paper-sheets.
I have had a few pms' in the past commenting about my lack of personal email address, my response is to ask why they need it ?
Does the PM system not work for them ?
Oh, and one of the pms' was from this site saying I needed to update my profile and put some more info in so people could meet me (?)
I don't do meets, and I don't do shagging....and there are still plenty of couples about who also do neither, but just do shows.
It has been pointed-out, many times, that on occasions your chosen name on here can be googled with good effect, to find out what other sites you use (with the same name).
Each person will have their own reasons for missing sections or placing NA...
examples
Sexulaity:
They haven't worked it out yet.
There are not enough options
Are not comfortable selecting bi
They want to keep their options open
They feel selecting one may narrow the chances
They put NA so they can say they are whatever potential meets want them to be
They couldn't be arsed to choose
They hope it will put people off
They don't meet people through the ads, chatroom or LMU so they don't think it is any ones business
I can understand people filling them in with a load of rubbish - at one point I was a 104 year old male standing a proud 5"1'. I find it strange though when people fill-in just about everything and then leave one or two out, like build and assest. Even though it may not be the case - it kind of implies they are not comfortable with some aspect of size.
But, at the end of the day it is a brief profile and not a great deal of use information wise if used in isolation.
I don't want to speak for Judy, but I don't think the word "unacceptable" is right here. It's perfectly acceptable. It's just that the more information you provide (both on who you are and what you're looking for), the more chance you will have of success.
If you're not looking for a meet, there's no need to provide any personal information. If you want to get to know people well first, you might prefer to make hundreds of posts in dozens of forum converstations over a few months.
I have closen not to post exact location on my profile, as I think it's irrelevant. Most of the SH members I have got to know well live some distance from me. I hardly know anyone from my own area!
Mike.
Must admit I detest the emails I get from Admin telling me to fill my profile in.
When the site got taken over I posed the question that a number of non-swingers visit the site purely for it's value, I was reassured that there would still be a place for these people and yet it seems increasingly less so.
Anyone who knows my real name and area can find my home details on the web with very little effort, so I'm deliberately vague. I have nothing to hide in the scene but having young children, don't fancy any Tom Dick or Harry recognising me and putting them at risk.
I make friends ... then if it goes further it does ... I don't need emails telling me who is close by! I'm less likely to pick close liaisons for fear of repercussions! It's less of a swinging thing and more of a contacts site in that respect. It's one of the few changes I dislike about the site, but it's the biggest.
I'm 33 years old .... I can pick who I want to meet ... I don't need someone who doesn't know me pushing me to add more details than I already have to a site so they can make money out of it. If we could have the option to remove the Admin emails I'd like to do so.
Calista x
In our case, the reason that there are a string of N/A's in the other half of our profile is that each time I try to fill it in, the sytem says that the profile has been updated, but then when I check back later - there are all of those N/A's again! So, it's not for want of trying, but the 'system' just isn't letting us update the other half of our 'couple' profile. I'll have to email admin about this one day, i guess... *sigh*
The other point is, as has already been said, locations can be quite narrow. In London, you could conceivably hang out in a location stated by postcode and have a fair chance of spotting someone who has filled in their postcode correctly if you have a face pic of them - particularly near tube stations, for example. This is why we haven't put our correct postcode into our profile.
On the other hand, as a peruser of ads, I do tend to think that more info is better, and N/A's certainly put me off...
let those that wish to advertise their needs do so let the rest of us go about our own business in peace, the way we we used to on here,
those that no us seem to understand our life style those that dont want to put us in a bracket ,
nb our profile will change regularly just like our tastes and habits do.
I've just been to look at my profile.
I'm full of N/As. I've no idea why.
Mollie
Thaanks for your views so far all. Seems the title debate was realy quite a good one.
Mr Tweeky
calista and staggy both kind of summed up why my profile is a string of N/As. i did fill it in when first given the option, and had a brief flurry of PMs, at which point i changed it to something nondescript. since i do not really meet people i don't know, and aren't interested in random emails, it seemed pointless to fill in a profile which is primarily designed to encourage people to contact you if you match what they are looking for.
it may seem misleading to leave it blank . . . i actually feel in my case it is more misleading to fill it in.
neil x x x ;)
agree with WRATS and Calista on this one evry1 to there own ........
there was one thought I had not considerd so you have enlightened me.
:wink: 
how naive 