Why do people disable their profiles?

[Maddy McCall]

The only thing that shows is date joined and number of posts.

Why do people disable their profiles so that this info won't show?

I have an opinion, but I'll keep it to myself until I hear others' opinions.

[seabeyond]

1. i dont know if mine is disabled or not

i dont care about my profile and i never mess with those things when i get on a board. i never fill out info or anything. i am here to read the board and interact. have a question ask. but i dont do them

so if mine shows disabled that is why. if it doesnt, who is to know

[MissB]

It is there.

:D

[seabeyond]

5. hm, lol lol. ok, i dont use them, can you tell. thanks n/t

[MissB]

7. .

You can see it by clicking on the person's head next to a member's post count.

[seabeyond]

18. i am an undeclared gender. i am fickle that way, lol lol

and i have more posts than you. and you became a member before me. that is cool. thanks

[Vektor]

29. I was shocked at how many posts I had

when I finally enabled it. Woo-hoo!

[Arugula Latte]

45. Jeez. I joined DU in fall of 2001 and you have three times as many posts

as I do.

No fair! I'm telling! ;)

[seabeyond]

51. ya welll.....

just got two more posts, bah ha hahah

[Quixote1818]

36. WOW Seabeyond, I was just looking at your information page

I didn't know you were a convicted felon? And the part about your first kiss being when you were ten years old in back of the school yard in the big tractor tire!!! Cool! AND YOU CHEATED ON YOUR TAXES IN 1999!!!! OHHHHHHH! and you voted for RONALD REAGAN!!!! YOU NAZI!








Just kidding
:silly:

OK, I said Nazi but it was in sarcastic terms. :shrug:

[seabeyond]

50. it was kindergarten, the boy was joe,

on the school bus on the way home. the kiss.....nazi came later

[MissB]

2. My opinion is

probably the same as yours. :evilgrin:

[blondeatlast]

3. I wonder too, but...

many times they end up exposed anyway. Sort of.

:evilgrin:

[Horse with no Name]

4. I don't know why this is

But I rarely look at profiles unless I "get that feeling" ya know?
Generally, when I "get that feeling", the profiles are usually disabled.;)

[devilgrrl]

14. You betcha!

I "get that feeling" too!

[Lone_Star_Dem]

6. It does make me curious, too.

It such a small amount of information... And they are almost always such crabby people... I know! They're anti-social? :D

[DemBones DemBones]

8. I think it's for privacy reasons. Many

people don't want to be stalked, want to give out minimal info about themselves.

What do you think?

[Maddy McCall]

11. How can you stalk someone when all that is mandatory to be displayed...

is date joined and number of posts.

I don't have my home city or state listed. I don't list my gender. But I do have my profile enabled, and all that shows is the date I joined and the number of times I have posted.

You can't stalk someone on those bits of impersonal info.

Why do I think that people completely disable their profiles? Because they know that DUers associate freeperish activities with newer members.

[DemBones DemBones]

37. Maybe people don't realize that's all that's mandatory?

My profile has the same sort of info as yours.

Edit: And part of one of those little Irish blessing-poems under Comments -- the other part got cut off! I should fix that. . .

Not everyone with a disabled profile acts freeperish, and I don't know why anybody cares much about post count, we've certainly had plenty of posters banned after racking up thousands of posts. I'd guess we've had as many long-term posters banned as we've had members with low post counts actually turn out to be freepers. I've seen people attacked as freepers because their user name sounded TOO liberal.

:shrug:

[2Design]

9. from what I have seen in last month

the ones with only date joined and post count are not the nicest on the board - so I can only assume why they hide

I can see leaving out some locations - just because some people could put together where you are by what you write - and not everyone is good upstanding citizens who visit this board - some have malicious intent

if you use google and search on your id - you will see it pulls up stuff you have posted.

so I go back and forth on what to post or not post

[Gyre]

10. I think there are more important things to be concerned about.

And there are as many reasons as there are people w/no profiles. :)

Gyre

[Maddy McCall]

12. Please don't dictate to me the list of things I about which I must be...

concerned. The brain is a complex organ and can consider more than one topic at a time.

[Susang]

46. Says the person who's disabled their profile

Some of us are capable of being concerned about many different things at a time, but appreciate that others aren't as talented and might need to narrow their focus to fit their abilities. ;-)

[justinsb]

13. I don't know, but if you hear a good reason let me know

so I can disable it, or cover it in duct tape or whatever you're supposed to do in these kinds of situations.

[Vektor]

15. Ehh..mine's disabled.

Not for any other reason than I haven't added anything interesting to it...

Honest! I'm not a weirdo. :-)

[seabeyond]

20. i see you though you too are an undeclared gender, n/t

[Vektor]

21. Yeah...or undecided!

:-)

I guess I could fill in some of the goodies.

[Maddy McCall]

22. I'm undecided, too.

Don't feel bad. :D

[Vektor]

24. Ok. I have a real profile now. But I am still of dubious gender!

I never thought my disabled profile would arouse suspicion. I just thought "I have nothing interesting to put in it."

[Maddy McCall]

28. I've never clicked on your profile.

I never had reason to suspect that you might be a disrupter. :hi:

[Vektor]

34. Sometimes I click

just if the person says something really interesting or different. Also if they appear disruptive. I am always amazed at how many tombstoned freepers have pretended to be either homosexual, an ethnic minority, and from either San Francisco or New York City. I guess they think they are being real stealthy, and that all liberals MUST be gay minorities from S.F. or NYC, and by pretending to be that too, they will NEVER be outed.

They also love to use the cat avatars. Because all gay minority liberals from S.F. and NYC love cats.

:sarcasm:

[Kerrytravelers]

16. I'm thinking it's the same reason you're thinking, when I get that feeling

Know what I mean?

[Catherine Vincent]

17. I think some posters just like being mysterious to others.

In actuality, no one really gives a damn. :-) But very few are freepers, all they have to do is make up shit.

[Vektor]

19. Ok - you all made me feel weird about my disabled profile.

So I enabled it. It's boring and I haven't added anything to it, but I will soon.

[Catherine Vincent]

25. Why is your gender undeclared?

Just kidding, you don't have to answer.:-)

[Vektor]

26. HAHAHAH...

I was still trying to maintain a TINY bit of mystique. :-)

[Swamp Rat]

44. Thank you

Now I know you are not a freeper and can be trusted. :D

[Vektor]

47. Tee-hee...

Freeper, NO.

Trusted? Hmmmmm...:-)

[Swamp Rat]

48. >:-D

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

23. To remove prejudice.

:shrug:

[Quixote1818]

27. So they can empathise with disabled people!

Democrats are such kind people! :bounce:

[DemBones DemBones]

38. LOL! All of us with disabilities need to disable our profiles

as a statement!

Not Dead Yet!

[Solly Mack]

30. I never understood why people put stock in profiles

You can put anything there...it's not like you have to tell the truth in them. So having one enabled really doesn't prove anything either way.

(oooh...they don't have a profile...they must be a freeper)...Oh yeah, now that's conclusive...Regular Sherlock

Maybe it gives people a sense of comfort to see a profile...kind of like thinking not being in the house alone means they'll be ok...or pulling the covers over your head protects you from the monster under your bed...or never walking under ladders....or avoiding black cats...or...

well... anyway....

[Endangered Specie]

31. why do people enable their profiles?

[Bouncy Ball]

32. If I were trying to

er, fool people, I would intentionally HAVE a profile, just to do the opposite of what is expected.

But yeah, I hear ya.

[ConfuZed]

33. I do it because I can

Until DU admin changes things my profile will remain disabled.

[Quixote1818]

35. I have never even looked at that info on any profile. It's meaningless

as far as I am concerned.

[hfojvt]

41. yeah, what she said

Um, or maybe it is helpful to look at a profile before you use a pronoun?
Often in the lounge a person might be talking about the weather, or the traffic, or their neighbors, or the housing market, and you wanna know where they are talking about. Instead of having to ask, you can check the profile. Or you wanna compare post counts since there is little information for people over 1000 or how long they have been a member, which are the only two reliable pieces of data. It saves time and avoids some inane conversation.
I seem to be seeing more disabled profiles these days, and was going to post a thread about it in the lounge, but I do not have the freeper suspicions because alot of them have stars and over 1000 posts. Not that those are any guarantee either.

[DemBones DemBones]

42. Oh, I look since we no longer have

post counts on our posts.

I so often see people I don't remember ever seeing at DU but they have 1000 posts and I wonder how many over 1000 they have and when they joined. I'm so old I remember when it was almost impossible to get over 1000 posts and not be a familiar name.

I also have to look at my own profile from time to time to see how many I have.

[Oversea Visitor]

39. Good to see

you are ok Maddy, how is all you furry and feathers friends hey.

[sleipnir]

40. Oh, I know.

It's not like we're the French Resistance here people. Your profile isn't going to get you killed. But not having one might be a sign that a tombstone is not too far off.

I, too get that, shall we say, "jeepers, creepers, fre----" (fill in the blank) feeling when I don't see a profile.

[enigmatic]

43. It's a non-issue to me

I can understand why people disable profiles because of stalkers; the internet is full of whack-jobs. But it doesn't matter to me one way or the other; in the scheme of DU, this is pretty low.

[American in Asia]

49. I never really checked mine or thought about it

But I am usually careful about what I display. Some of us have jobs where we're not supposed to publicly take political positions, and it's just safer to fly beneath the radar that way as much as possible -- that way, I don't have to hold back on what I think of the current crappy Administration, ya know? :hi:

[Bridget Burke]

52. Lack of imagination?

There's rarely enough info to allow real-life stalking. Besides, you can always invent something interesting. (Am I really a guy in Manitoba?)

One thing I've noticed: So many who start threads abusing certain regions or states either omit location from their profiles--or disable them altogether.