# We plan to disable "Hide my profile" option **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [July 8, 2024, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-plan-to-disable-hide-my-profile-option/1003903 "2024-07-08T19:26:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2024, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-plan-to-disable-hide-my-profile-option/1003903/21 "2024-07-09T13:48:18Z")
Sounds good. ---
**Author:** ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2024, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-plan-to-disable-hide-my-profile-option/1003903/22 "2024-07-09T14:21:22Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > It occurs to me – is it possible for the mods to pm the people with currently hidden profiles, to make sure they get a chance to remove any personal information they’ve put in there? > > It’s not clear to me why someone who wants to hide their profile would have entered such information in the first place; but maybe somebody did so. Maybe they didn’t realize fields in the profile could be left blank. We’re not aware of any way to send a notice solely to those with hidden profiles, and if we emailed everyone there’s a good chance we’d get flagged as a spammer. We agree it’s unlikely anyone would have gone to the trouble of putting sensitive info in their Profiles and then hiding them. We’re thinking that, if we decide to go ahead with this change - and the reaction seems positive so far - we’ll post a global announcement a few days in advance of implementation to give people a chance to review what they put in their Profiles. We’ll provide detailed instructions on how to do this. That ought to be sufficient. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2024, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-plan-to-disable-hide-my-profile-option/1003903/23 "2024-07-09T14:29:09Z")
> [@Ed\_Zotti](#): > > If you’re concerned a stalker might see you’re online and send you nasty messages, you can easily block them using the Ignore function. Then report them to us. If someone is harassing people, we’ll ban them. Just to expand a bit on this: We moderators can’t ordinarily read private messages. But if one of the parties to the private message flags it (which works just like flagging public posts), then we can. So if someone’s violating the rules in a PM, please flag it, because we would have no way of knowing otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2024, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-plan-to-disable-hide-my-profile-option/1003903/24 "2024-07-09T14:30:51Z")
I’ve pinned this thread in ATMB until next Monday. The announcement thread will be pinned Globally instead as mentioned by **Ed\_Zotti**. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2024, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-plan-to-disable-hide-my-profile-option/1003903/25 "2024-07-09T16:56:19Z")
> [@Ed\_Zotti](#): > > We’re not aware of any way to send a notice solely to those with hidden profiles, and if we emailed everyone there’s a good chance we’d get flagged as a spammer. We agree it’s unlikely anyone would have gone to the trouble of putting sensitive info in their Profiles and then hiding them. We’re thinking that, if we decide to go ahead with this change - and the reaction seems positive so far - we’ll post a global announcement a few days in advance of implementation to give people a chance to review what they put in their Profiles. We’ll provide detailed instructions on how to do this. That ought to be sufficient. That makes sense. I didn’t know whether the mods had a way to easily sort by whether the profile’s hidden; if not, figuring out who needed to be PM’d would be a whole lot of work. And pinning it globally should indeed get nearly everybody notified. And, as I posted earlier in the thread, I agree that the change is a good idea. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2024, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-plan-to-disable-hide-my-profile-option/1003903/26 "2024-07-09T17:24:49Z")
Great idea ---
**Author:** ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-plan-to-disable-hide-my-profile-option/1003903/27 "2024-07-11T20:38:09Z")
Hearing no objection, we’ll implement the change described above on **Sunday, 7/14/2024, at roughly 8pm CDT**. Profiles for all users will be publicly accessible after that time. If your profile is now hidden and you put something in it you don’t want others to see, now’s the time to edit or delete this material. To access your profile, click on: Your avatar (graphic or initial at upper right) \> Preferences icon (bottom of list) \> Profile This calls up a page where you can enter information about yourself. This is optional. You’re not required to enter anything, and can edit or delete previous entries at any time. I’ll be posting all this in a global announcement soon. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-plan-to-disable-hide-my-profile-option/1003903/28 "2024-07-11T22:15:53Z")
Is there a way to share this announcement _ **without** _ covering half of every page I open between now and Sunday? [![](https://i.postimg.cc/VvRn0rS5/Screenshot-20240711-181333.jpg) ](https://i.postimg.cc/VvRn0rS5/Screenshot-20240711-181333.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-plan-to-disable-hide-my-profile-option/1003903/29 "2024-07-11T22:18:08Z")
To be fair, on most other popular forums, anything less would get howls of outrage about how they had _no idea_ this was happening and screaming why wasn’t this announced sooner… ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-plan-to-disable-hide-my-profile-option/1003903/30 "2024-07-11T22:28:20Z")
Wow this giant blue announcement completely fills the entire screen of my phone on **every** **single** thread. I’ve seen it, can I make it go away now so I can actually read the board? ---
**Author:** ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-plan-to-disable-hide-my-profile-option/1003903/31 "2024-07-11T22:46:39Z")
OK, I deleted it pending consultation with folks more technically savvy than me. ---
**Author:** ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-plan-to-disable-hide-my-profile-option/1003903/32 "2024-07-12T00:47:40Z")
Fixed. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-plan-to-disable-hide-my-profile-option/1003903/33 "2024-07-12T01:43:45Z")
I know my “vote” is not asked for but I very much like this change. ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-plan-to-disable-hide-my-profile-option/1003903/34 "2024-07-12T02:11:11Z")
Will the email address in my profile that says “never shared” after it still be hidden? ---
**Author:** ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-plan-to-disable-hide-my-profile-option/1003903/35 "2024-07-12T02:17:01Z")
Yes, it will. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-plan-to-disable-hide-my-profile-option/1003903/36 "2024-07-12T11:38:03Z")
I fully support this change to a condition I was completely unaware existed. Signed, A Tech Doofus who couldn’t even figure out how to determine my join date until another Doper helped me ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-plan-to-disable-hide-my-profile-option/1003903/37 "2024-07-12T13:05:17Z")
> [@Ed\_Zotti](#): > > To access your profile, click on: > > Your avatar (graphic or initial at upper right) \> Preferences icon (bottom of list) \> Profile This info doesn’t actually appear in the banner nor is the banner a link to this thread - the wording in the banner stops at “click on:”. I had to dig this far into this thread to find this information. Is there any way to get this into the banner and or add a link to this thread there? I don’t typically frequent ATMB but I’ve been around long enough to come here to hunt for more info. That may not be true of everyone. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-plan-to-disable-hide-my-profile-option/1003903/38 "2024-07-12T13:34:36Z")
> [@Lsura](#): > > Is there any way to get this into the banner and or add a link to this thread there? That info and a link to this thread are both already in the banner. You just have to scroll down a bit. If you are on a PC, then the scroll bar is on the right side of the banner. If you are on a phone, just swiped down on the banner. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-plan-to-disable-hide-my-profile-option/1003903/39 "2024-07-15T02:02:43Z")
The change is done. If anyone has any issues, please let us know. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2024, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-plan-to-disable-hide-my-profile-option/1003903/40 "2024-07-15T02:03:00Z")
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