Is it good to have access to a user's personal details and ability to change it ? I'm afraid will it not affact the security of members ?
Currently, you can just suspend/delete their account and force them to change the details, that'll make a good reputation of your community. What if someone make random profiles with fraud details ? will you change all theose details by hand ?

yes it is good to have admin access and the ability to edit a user profile, spam/fraud accounts will be suspended but what about when someone makes a typo on their email address and cannot validate it because of the incorrect email.

If they have been in contact with you about the typo (otherwise how yould you know) then you can mark their account as verified using the admin panel and they can then go in and fix the typo themselves.

You need to perception that even admin cannot change things. OK you can do it in the database but each person is responsible for their own profile.

+1 on Michael.

I have another proposal :)
What about to allow admin to quick login as a user. So admin will be allowed to anything as user (customizing profile, content and etc)?

@Addenster
That's good idea. But, I take the side of the users' here, It should be a special login. admin should not have permission to see users' password, though admin should be able to reset the password and mail it to the user.

>What about to allow admin to quick login as a user.

Which means...Switch to User

Good Idea ! That's a basic feature implemented in some CMS scripts . Hope it will be implemented at Oxwall:)

I still feel that in a social environment you are meant to try and keep your member base BUT the attitude should be you are Admin, not their friend. If you want it removed then as Admin, tell the user to remove the offending content.

It would be a better option from admin where the member account could be set to RESTRICTED VIEW or INVISIBLE where only the member AND admin can see it. Then the member can make the changes and admin can re-enable the account when satisfied.

My opinion...

I like the reset password and email function. As to editing user's profiles... Im still on the fence. I can see the worth in it but also some dangers!

I don't agree on security issue, no website admin wants that their website name goes down, issue about the member or user security is not your problem,it is the problem of site admin and the user, if site admin doesn't secure the website then surely user will delete the profile and leave the website.

Profile Edit and password change shall be available on website, as SQL server can easily edit it for admin.

@AL BALOCH
You are right. Of course you don't want to lose members. I know 95% of the members on my site and I have corrected problems on their profile which they were more than happy for me to do. I have also logged in as them and changed their password or to see what errors they were getting. Again they were more than happy for me to do this.
That is because my site is small. Imagine if you had a much larger userbase. Even if you had tools for editing profiles or changing passwords, if you had 10+ requests a day for a password reset and 20+ Profile edits to do you would quickly get annoyed with it all or you would need to employ more "admins" and hope to trust they have the same values and ethos as you and don't abuse their position.

For the short term and a small userbase then yes I would love to see the tool. For a larger userbase, if my site is popular I would not be worried about losing the odd members. Usually the ones who forget passwords are the infrequent visitors.

These are my opinions. If you are in need of tools like this then that's OK.

Every social script I've ever used has allowed me to modify fields and I always find it useful. I highly agree with the 'no admin wants the name to go down' comment. We want the feature so customer support will be even BETTER. Don't be sloppy and have them ask to use the password and what-not. Just have the admin do it. I picture an administrator as a manager of the website and one to help others solve problems. This would just make the support department stronger and more efficient.

I'm all for it.

@Leo I agree! It can be dangerous! A user contacts you saying they forgot their password AND the email address they registered is no longer in use and they ask you could you reset the password and send it to the new address... Simple answer there is, IF you are 100% sure of the person making the request do it but otherwise NO.

Other sites have secret passphrases like Last School attended, or Town of birth etc. Maybe to adopt that into the signup so IF password is forgot AND email account used for registering is down they then have an automated recovery based on a secret passphrase.

With editing profile content. It can be done anyway, if Anthony needs/wants a tool or way of doing this easily then OK but tread carefully!

Agree Leo, The site is missing a forgot password secret question portion!

Topic was moved from Core.

l think personally you as admin should be able to enter a users profile through some form of backdoor you should not be able to see their password btu you should be able to have the ability as admin to remove links they may have placed on there profile or maybe you dont want your members to easily be able to send email address through the site as this defeats the object of having them pay to message members etc. there should be a way to stop people posting links most websites can keep your account open but make sure all links disappear so you cant advertise through your profile, it could just be me but l see no way of stopping a member putting a link in there profile in order to avoid paying for your site. 

we need to look at the facts that to be able to monitor your site suspending a profile does not necessarily help site growth and how does a member know why they been suspended, just a few points to why l feel having access to member profiles should be a must 

this is madness...   

Even in the most stupid free forum you can edit user profiles in 1 click...is a BASIC feature u need to admin any community..... omg..Groups are useless.. now I find out you cant edit profiles in 1 click... come on... 

How do you remove links?