Extension:SocialProfile is a potential candidate for the improvements in user profiles. Still, it comes with plenty more features than we seem to need now. And the status of current development / maintenance needs to be clearer now. We need to reach out to the developers and main users for feedback.
Topic on Project talk:New contributors/Roadmap
I think Semantic Forms (together with Semantic MediaWiki) are a better option for user profiles in this case, since they allow complete control over the set of information users are meant to enter. On that note, I also think they're the best option for storing event, task, group etc. information as well. Then again, I'm biased. :)
The chances of SMW and SF ever getting deployed in production are slim to none, especially seeing as that wikidata has a fairly overlapping set of functionality in its scope. Remember, I say this as a fairly prolific SMW/SF user.
There is no perfect solution here and now, but we need to find the best feasible option.
Yes, the aim is to use tools that one day we can move to production in Wikimedia servers but if those tools don't exist today, what should we do? For instant, the Global Profle project might be a solution for this problem one day, but that day is far from now: the project is inactive and afaik nobody has it in current plans.
Wikitech is not in a regular production server and has already SMW software installed. Is Semantic Forms an option to consider? Are there better candidates we can use now?
Sorry to dismiss that solution so quickly. SemanticForms is already installed on wikitech. We can use it as a proof on concept for what we eventually want, then when there's a long-term solution in production, we can switch this in wikitech as well.
Agreed. SemanticForms looks like the right way to go, even if only as a temporary tool until something like GlobalProfile is eventually built.
In WikiVote we have previously used Social Profile but have found it very restrictive. We have replaced it with Semantic Forms + Semantic Signup because those allows us to flexibly set up the profile fields, enables 'people search' and queries and has more attractive code structure. I don't think that Social Profile is the right way, the extension tries to do too much things at the same time, and does it in a fixed and rigid manner.
Yes, Semantic Forms seems to be the way to go.
I'm not sure about Semantic Signup for our case. An invitation to fill your profile should suffice. New users of Wikitech have to deal already with a Gerrit account creation when signing up and all the rest of fields described in the proposal are optional. Plus we have all the current users with accounts created. I imagine people adding more data (e.g. interests) over time. In fact the workflow for that might not even start in their own profiles but e.g. landing in a Group page and signing up for it.
Agreed.