After all, they’re “public” - or have I misunderstood what that means? When I try to view them (either directly or using the “http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php?action=getinfo&username=” address) I get a message that I don’t have authorization.
I don’t really mind - it just struck me as strange.
You’re only a guest. The benifets of being a Charter Member or Member are that you are able to search the boards and do other small things like view profiles. 
So there you go. You should sign up today! 
Only a guest! <Sniff!> I feel so… second class. I shall have to break my piggy-bank.
I’m a Charter Member and I also can not view some “public profiles”. How is it possible to hide one’s profile? I wouldn’t mind that much except it means I have no way of knowing when someone signed up.
too late for edit: nevermind. didnt catch that this was so zombi-fied.
But wait: how did I even come across this? What list was it on that I saw? No one else had responded to this thread to brink it back up…
???
You can change your profile visibility by going to: preferences > interface
were we able to do that on the old board?
it seems odd to me that i can not see how long a person has been registered. no way to tell a brand new stranger from a stranger who has been posting for 5 years.
Click someone’s username to bring up their card. Unless they have a private profile, it’ll show their join date.
And from their card you can click on the “More” box, then the Summary tab and see how many posts that user has made, read, etc…
Or just click on their username on the card.
Mind expanding!
so how do you find their join date if they have a private profile?
My posts are like LSD, man. Grooooovy.
Ask a mod.
Is a poster’s location no longer available?
It was probably on the bottom of the posts under a recommended list. The system recommends posts based on key words. You might have been reading a thread on profiles or something similar when it brought up the recommended thread. The age of the thread doesn’t seem to be a factor in recommending them.
As an aside, I like the feature that told me your post was 14 years later right before your post, so I knew I was reading something old.
Is there a way to see the date of someone’s last login or post?
Yup, you posted 3 min ago and was last seen 2 min ago. Click on the person’s avatar or username, then click on the image that pops up. Under summary, there’s a bunch of stats you can view if the person’s profile is public. If it’s private, you can’t see anything.
IMO the profile should not be allowed to be set private. That is basic statistical information that was always available before.
I agree with that. On the old board, I could choose to hide whether I was online at the moment, or when I was last online but the basic stuff about previous posts and threads started was, I think, always available. This one hides everything.