The Quickest Way To Get Taken Seriously on BiggerPockets Before You Make a Post

[Jonathan Greene]

I stumbled onto this subconscious thing that I do on BiggerPockets, and I think it would help everyone who is new to the site before they make their first post. When I see an account without an actual photo or with a truncated name, I immediately give it less credibility. Right or wrong, my subconscious tells me it could be a fake profile, and I weigh it as less than one with a photo and a complete profile. It's the same on social media. If someone has an Instagram account and doesn't have a picture, will you follow them if they have no photos or bio? It's a no for me.

When you see someone's photo, you inherently humanize them. However, since this is an internet forum, it's easy to dehumanize people to accounts because they are text-based. I get a viscerally different reaction to an account with and without a photo. I trust it more. What about you?

On sites like Twitter, I understand why people use pseudonyms or alt-handles, but here, I think it would be in everyone's best interest to add a photo and a short bio and follow the steps that BP sets out for new accounts before posting. It's harder for me to take an account with no photo seriously. Wouldn't you opt for that if you could interact only with verified profiles on any site instead of unverified ones? Maybe not on Reddit, but still.

So, if you are new to the site and have not posted or have had little success posting, it might help to add your photo and a small bio and fill out the whole profile. As someone who has been around here for a long time, when someone says something good (or bad) in the forum, I first go to their profile to see what they are about.

I can soft guarantee that you will get better results by doing this.