Mods a request please

Ive been wanting to make a suggestion for a while so will add to here if thats okay. Personally I would like to see peoples age at dx and age now either next to peoples names or in their bylines. I dont think its an invasion of privacy because we are not using our real names and shouldnt be able to be tracked in real life and I hope this suggestion isnt coming across as ageist as that isnt my intent at all.

 I just think it would be a good move, because then people receiving advice, especially contraversial advice will be able to tell at a glance as to whether they should pay attention or not. eg if we all have our ages noted, and a 76 year old is advising a 36 year old to take the wait and see approach to dcis and we can see at a glance that the 76 year old was dx last year, hopefully the 36 year old would take that into account and still have an open mind to advice from those people close in age, or those who were close in age upon dx and have since been treated or untreated and are successfully NED x amount of years later. This is only an example mind you. Age does make a real difference on how many of us view treatment options. It also affects the advice we would give and help us to better understand people of all ages very real concerns regarding their particular journey through BC.

Linda, members always have the option to include their date of birth in their profile, but it's up to each individual if s/he makes that information public. Although we can certainly see that knowing another member's age could give context to their posts, if members don't want to post their age or birthday, we can't require them to. Realistically, even if age were a required field, if someone didn't want to give it they would fib! Worse, if providing that info caused concern, they might not use the site at all, and lose the benefits of the main site, and of being part of the community.

Thank you for your suggestion!

• The Mods

The mods have said theyre not going to Rosemary and it sincerely wasnt my intent to make it compulsory anyway. Just thought if the dob on our profiles (in my case public) could be shown by our names or in our bylines it would make it easier, but I didnt intend to cause any distress with my suggestion so I apologise if the thought worried you.

Linda, I should have noted earlier that of course anyone who does want to show their age with each post can do so using the Signature option (go to My Profile, then Settings) to add that info. It's where many members add a favorite quotation or witty saying, or age.

rosemary, thanks for the reminder about privacy and security. We have a thread in the Welcome area of the boards (click the link to go there) to address privacy concerns and give some basic suggestions on the subject.