bcsteeve Posted July 1, 2015 Share Posted July 1, 2015 (edited) First post. I'm truly impressed with Prestashop. I wish I had opened my eyes YEARS ago rather than the daily struggle with Zen Cart. But I was just pretending to be my own customer just now, and got confused on the very first registration page. Birthday? Huh? Why in the world would a shop need my birthday? So I tried to find a simple obvious way to remove that from the registration form, and I couldn't. I googled and found how I can edit the PHP to do it... so my question isn't "how", but "why"? It got me thinking that if you're making me edit code to turn it off, that there might be a good reason to have it there. But I can't for the life of me figure out why - BY DEFAULT - a shop should be collecting this info. I imagine most customers would be quite put off with a business asking for personal info that they simply do not need. The only reason I can think of is to send birthday reminders, but really that should then be glaringly obvious to the customer that they really, REALLY don't need to put it. Not just that it isn't technically *required*. Thanks for any insight. Edited July 1, 2015 by bcsteeve (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulito Posted July 1, 2015 Share Posted July 1, 2015 Hello Well, I suppose that some people like to have an Email/Text saying " Happy Birthday" and here is you free gift from us because we value your custom. I bet Facebook and Twitter will be really jealous that Prestashop thought of this first Paul 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulito Posted July 1, 2015 Share Posted July 1, 2015 Hello It's seems you have taken umbridge at my post, I do not know why, I simply state that the large social media sites make money from collecting the data. Not only social media sites but other online stores, supermarkets, car hire companies, travel agencies, insurance companies, banks and everything else you can think of. It's a way of getting back lost business and getting a sale from existing customers. It is a fact of life, a tool that can make you money, so, I do not understand, or, to be frank, care about your intolerance to collecting this data. But, as I pointed out, these large sites are not trying to get your D.O.B to be nosey but simply to raise their revenues. Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie_Liu Posted July 1, 2015 Share Posted July 1, 2015 Aside from marketing reasons, some of our merchants asked for this field because of age restricted shops such as the sale of cigarettes, alcohol, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bcsteeve Posted July 1, 2015 Author Share Posted July 1, 2015 (edited) Julie, I figured that was a perfectly good reason to have it *available*. I'm not at all getting Paul's insistence on the matter. The "fact of life" is extremely few merchants ask for this information. Pretending they do doesn't make it so. It is rather obvious that the OPTION to collect it should be there (and in fact the option to make it required should be there), but if you are going to make something as the default it should default to protecting customer information, not violating it. So absolutely certainly the option should be there to turn it off! That's true for all the data beyond what is actually necessary for the database to function. It is conceivable that in some cases even "name" should be optional. Why not give the shop owner the ability to make every field either Shown, not shown, or shown and required? Fine, not *every* field as of course a login and password are going to be necessary, but certainly other fields. Not every shop fits into Paul's vision of the ideal shop. If it did, there'd be no point in having a customizable platform at all! What Paul doesn't seem to understand is that I fully appreciate why someone MIGHT WANT to collect it. I'm not at all arguing against that. The issue is why it is defaulted with no simple way or turning it off. Edited July 1, 2015 by bcsteeve (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naldinho Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 There is a simple way to turn it off -- delete a couple of lines and it is gone. My stores are B2B so asking for the birthday made no sense so it was one of the first things I removed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bcsteeve Posted July 2, 2015 Author Share Posted July 2, 2015 "simple" is relative. And for me, like you, it is simple. And I'm not complaining that this is necessary. It just seems this shop, in particular, is very UI based and I fully expected to be able to turn it off without using code. The problem with resorting to code edits is, without a full understanding of the software, I have no idea if I'm breaking something now or in the future (upgrades). In a system like Zen Cart - which doesn't pretend to be user friendly lol - it is just expected that I have to break out Notepad to get the job done. Clearly people here are taking my comments as a complaint. It isn't. I can handle the issue. It is feedback. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naldinho Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 I agree that having options to do it without editing code is preferable, but that would be true for a few other options as well -- product condition comes to mind and there were a few others that I can't remember now. When it comes to stuff like this I'm of mixed feelings -- on the one hand it is free software and really good free software at that so hard to complain. On the other hand having these settings as backoffice options would be so simple that it is hard to imagine why they haven't been implemented. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bcsteeve Posted July 2, 2015 Author Share Posted July 2, 2015 The whole "free software" thing goes out the window really. "OpenSource" and "free" aren't synonymous. Open source is a valid business model. The mods that are sold for this on the official site put money into the developers hands. It could be thousands, it could be many millions... I really don't know. Or care. The key to their success is to have the best product they can make. How they choose to monetize that is up to them. It doesn't make it open to any more or less criticism. Besides, "complaining" again isn't the right attitude to take on this... it is constructive criticism. It'd be different if I cam here and said, "man this software sucks. Its asking users for birthdays and I think that's stupid". That's obviously how Paul, for one, chose to take it but that's not at all what I said. Thank you for validating my point, btw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Patron Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 men are most likely to have a heart attack on or about their birthdays. I agree that having options to do it without editing code is preferable, but that would be true for a few other options as well -- product condition comes to mind and there were a few others that I can't remember now. When it comes to stuff like this I'm of mixed feelings -- on the one hand it is free software and really good free software at that so hard to complain. On the other hand having these settings as backoffice options would be so simple that it is hard to imagine why they haven't been implemented. Hi, there is an existing pathway for requesting new feature in PS. We all want the most configurable front office content so it would seem a reasonable request. Go here, open a feature request: http://forge.prestashop.com/secure/Dashboard.jspa Please then post back here link to request for others to follow/vote up/comment. This is how those that do not participate directly with source code via github can realize change. Thanks, el Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bcsteeve Posted July 2, 2015 Author Share Posted July 2, 2015 Thanks so much for pointing the way! I had no idea. Unfortunately I can't seem to log in. And I don't have time right now to figure it out (heading out). If anyone else can get that done in the meantime, go ahead. Otherwise I'll try to remember to do it when I get back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Patron Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 you would need to create new account, forum account will not work with forge. thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaniyth Posted August 13, 2015 Share Posted August 13, 2015 (edited) @bcsteeve The birthday option actually should be there because it's illegal to collect PI from children under the age of 13 on the internet. The law is called COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) and has been in effect since April 21st, 2000. . It's actually required by law to obtain verifiable parental consent in order to collect, store, use, or disclose Personal Information from Children under 13 years of age. [At least here in the USA it is, dunno about other countries.] Furthermore, since it's a Federal US Law that means that even if anyones shop is operated on a server located in the USA and you live in a different country you're still required to comply and thus required to keep the Date of Birth section available. This field really should be REQUIRED and not merely a customer choice btw and of course should have an option from the BO to be disabled so that shops who are exempt from COPPA [ex. shops not operated from a server located in the USA.] won't need it enabled. Edited August 13, 2015 by Chaniyth (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.png.022b5452a8f28f552bc9430097a16da2.png)
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now