What's in your profile?

September 3, 2021 3:21 PM

MeFites are one of the most consistently interesting groups in which I am allowed to hang out. Some MeFites write or have written books. Hook us up, wouldja? And, in general, I like to check out profiles and am always happy to find links to blogs, updated or not, music, articles, stories, whatever stuff ends up there. Please consider populating your profile. p.s. There's no fact-checking.

I guess I should tidy up my own. Also, I finally started reading Twitter during the Plague Times, and love when I can follow MeFites.

posted by theora55 to Etiquette/Policy at 3:21 PM (32 comments total)

Reminder as ever with stuff involving personal information: while we no-index user profile pages from search engines, and offer an option to show a minimal profile to non-logged-in readers, it's still a reasonably easy page to access (and MetaTalk threads are publicly viewable and indexed) so as always do take into account your personal privacy/identity needs.

That being said: I love looking at folks' profile pages, and also feel like every time I look at my profile I realize it's out of date; this is a good reminder to go refresh things a bit.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:23 PM on September 3, 2021 [2 favorites]

Mine is mostly links to some of the (least worst) posts and comments I've previously made on here. This is more of a self-reference (hence the odd categorisation); started doing it after creating a post which was a double ... of a previous post I had written and (somewhat alarmingly) utterly forgotten about. I'm hoping this will reduce how much duplication occurs and, like pictures on Flickr, sometimes acts as a personal memory bank.

{checks} and it's a bit out of date, dammit.
posted by Wordshore at 3:56 PM on September 3, 2021 [6 favorites]

I meant to do this a while ago but got fraught with "Metafilter is not your blog" about what to actually put there.
posted by zengargoyle at 7:51 AM on September 4, 2021 [1 favorite]

The front page of MetaFilter is not your blog, but your profile page is free-form, go wild. (I mean, people should not be like assholes on their profile pages or anything, but there's no rules against talking about personal stuff or posting whatever in general.)
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:03 AM on September 4, 2021 [1 favorite]

My profile page is filled with misdirection because I'd prefer to be anonymous but it also contains a brief summary of an important figure in the history of fools.
posted by Stanczyk at 8:55 AM on September 4, 2021 [5 favorites]

doffs coxcomb
posted by clavdivs at 10:17 AM on September 4, 2021

I was thinking that "ooh, I should update my profile with a link to my blog" but it already is there, so yay.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:08 AM on September 4, 2021

I liked Wordshore's idea so much that I did the same thing to my profile. So now I've listed all of Wordshore's posts! [rimshot]

Of course I listed my own posts, which was easy since I've only made a handful. As a consequence I just had to go back and re-read them...now I'm hungry for potatoes.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:47 AM on September 4, 2021 [3 favorites]

profile updated with my new job (!!) and my frankly jaw-dropping barnet
posted by scruss at 4:33 PM on September 4, 2021 [1 favorite]

It's had more in it, but to make it marginally more private, it's currently pretty sparse. I do, however, explain who Thomas J. Wise is.
posted by thomas j wise at 6:12 PM on September 4, 2021

I've cut out some of what I had in there, and removed as much non-logged in info as I can, I think, partly in response to an acquaintance (not a MeFite) essentially facebook stalking me (screenshotting my public posts and sharing them for a laugh, I guess).

Aside from that, though, I've linked to the articles I had the luck to write for the main English language newspaper here. Those are the first things I've ever been paid to write, and I'm proud of them, and what I learned about writing in a new style, and for an editor. Feeling pride in my writing is something that has had a pretty strong effect on me, and I have a lot of gratitude towards Metafilter for being one of the main outlets I've had for writing. I have no idea what my wordcount here is up to (is there a way to find that out?), but I know I've become a better writer by being here.

Also, my crouton garden. Man, I should visit them. They probably need some petting.
posted by Ghidorah at 10:50 PM on September 4, 2021 [2 favorites]

Oof. Just thinking about it now, I went to see what my page looks like when not logged in.

A couple ponies, if those are still available:

Would it be possible to have a link to what your profile page looks like to people not logged in? It's a bit lazy, I know, but it'd be nice to have a one click solution to otherwise logging in and logging out to check.

The big one: would it be possible to have a toggle for the "About" information that would let us choose whether we want that public facing? Somehow I'd missed that the About stuff is visible to non-members, and, since I've got links to my work with my name, if that's not a doable thing, I'm probably going to have to delete those.
posted by Ghidorah at 10:57 PM on September 4, 2021 [2 favorites]

Yep, I like Ghidorah's public/private toggle - this is where I'm more me on this web, I twit, but a lot I don't say there about how I work with the world, whereas here is my community, I don't have to site astride multiple fences here.

Just realised @xurizaemon is only 84 miles away - amazingly I know them (there's 350k people even down here, and I'm one of the least social, also one of the most networks, but still that's amazing - within my working neighbourhood/4 hrs drive)

I just changed website link from very outdated w3 site to slightly less outdated blog.
posted by unearthed at 12:48 AM on September 5, 2021

When all the information about people using mefi profile pages for stalking first broke on MetaTalk, I scrubbed my profile. I'm not at high risk, but it seemed like the reasonable thing to do in solidarity. You can probably figure out a lot about me through public data, but no need to make it too painfully obvious.

My thought is "if your threat model includes strangers on the internet doing bad things, don't assume those strangers can't log in to MeFi."
posted by Alterscape at 8:02 AM on September 5, 2021 [2 favorites]

Alterscape, I’m with you as far as understanding that I’m not going to stop anyone particularly determined to find me, and I’ve made sort of peace with that. On the other hand, I kind of like this place, and the people that make it. I’d like to be able to share what I’m doing with them (though I can’t honestly say if anyone has ever clicked any of those links).

The thing is, I’ve taken the opportunity to remove my irl name from the non-user facing version of my profile page, and (up until today) has sort of assumed that non-users wouldn’t see my “about me” information as well. Otherwise I wouldn’t have linked to things written under my real name after removing that from my profile.

All I’m saying is I’d like the option, as I would like to be able to share what I’ve done with people here, and specifically only the people here. If that ends up not being an option, I guess it’s to the scrubbing.
posted by Ghidorah at 8:23 AM on September 5, 2021 [1 favorite]

Hey Ghidorah, I’m sorry my post came across as disagreeing or criticizing your request. I didn’t mean it that way, though in hindsight I can 100% see how you read it that way. I meant no judgement towards your choices/desires, and agree that what you’re after is a good middle ground for a lot of people.
posted by Alterscape at 8:52 AM on September 5, 2021

I've changed my profile pic to my 2002 LJ icon. That's all I feel comfortable sharing.
posted by betweenthebars at 9:17 AM on September 5, 2021 [2 favorites]

In the past year, I realised that what I love so much about User Experience Research & Design is getting to know people, their motivations and their journeys. So I decided to cut the products and services out of the equation and go direct to the people. I left my corporate job and am now a Transformational Coach. My profile here contains various links to my website and blog, where I share what coaching is, and how I help beanplaters and other types of overthinkers with career and life changes. I am especially keen to help MeFites, as you all are the people that have supported me in so many ways throughout the many years.
posted by iamkimiam at 9:38 AM on September 5, 2021 [3 favorites]

I realized that my profile links were somewhat out of date, so I've tidied them up; thanks for the reminder, theora.

Over the last year I've switched from web development to 3D: you can see my work on Artstation. I've also put in a request for Artstation to be added to the social media options.
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 1:13 PM on September 5, 2021 [1 favorite]

Been meaning to fill it in since ... checks notes ... 2004. I'll get around to it some time in the next 20-40 years
posted by jjray at 2:29 PM on September 5, 2021

Alterscape, I didn’t take it as criticism at all, sorry for seeming like I did. I just wanted to clarify what I was hoping for is all.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:02 PM on September 5, 2021 [1 favorite]

I was thinking that "ooh, I should update my profile with a link to my blog" but it already is there, so yay.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:08 PM on September 4 [+] [!]

I don't know how long it has been there, but I am definitely glad it is there. I enjoy your movie critiques.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 12:45 PM on September 6, 2021

My profile picture shows me in a house that we haven't lived in in >10 years. The baby in the picture just turned 15. Huh. Maybe I should update that thing.
posted by selfmedicating at 6:12 PM on September 6, 2021

My pic is just some random PWEI image I grabbed from somewhere decades ago.

I once pissed someone off on Mefi so much that they memailed me about it and said, roughly, "What you said was terrible, but you've got a Poppies image on your profile, so everything's cool".

I'm sure as shit not changing it now.
posted by pompomtom at 4:10 AM on September 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

(...and this username is probably so very easily doxable that if I cared to do anything about it, I don't even know how I'd start. So far, being a very boring person has seemed to work.)
posted by pompomtom at 4:13 AM on September 7, 2021

I've got a link to my blog and my published books there. Finally.
posted by kyrademon at 5:38 AM on September 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

Would you mind noticing that 98J is not my last name? I just made that up for reasons of anonymity. My friends call me "mule."

I like to browse user stats--I'm curious to see where Mefites call home. Profiles often have subtle event-horizons, and my morning passes quickly. Mefites span the globe. You all are awesome to the max.

I have edited my profile a few times--what to leave out? What to leave in? The paradigm shift leaves few clues and fewer remnants for geezers like me to cling to.
posted by mule98J at 8:56 AM on September 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

When I first joined it was … was because I had no friends - no local friends. We had moved and I was pretty far out at sea. Actually we were across the sea and on another continent. And I wasn’t integrating.

(pithy, come on, be pithy)

When I first got to Brooklyn, in the late 80’s it was after a period of not feeling like I understood the US, yet I’d committed to stay, at least in NYC, and so I decided I would adopt Brooklyn… adopt myself to Brooklyn? Can you do that? Why not. And Brooklyn back then was like a forest. You could wander around lost and stumble upon something astonishing. (A junk yard that only dealt in the left front-panels of cars - across the street from his brother, who he despised, who only sold right front-panels: a bar with a circus theme that was last spruced up around 1963, a men’s clothing store that was still selling stock from the 70’s.)… it was what I needed.

And Spalding Gray is was so deft and clear about New York that I’ve always thought he put it best: ‘… an island off the coast of America.’ (Which is also literally true) and I was feeling like an island off the coast of that island.

When people ask now if I miss Brooklyn it’s really only that Brooklyn, before the explosion, that I miss. I sometimes wonder if we haven’t outrun Whitman, who of course as patron saint, watches over us all sons and daughters adopted or native born offspring of the borough
posted by From Bklyn at 5:02 AM on September 8, 2021 [3 favorites]

This motivated me to put some actual info on my profile just now. It feels friendlier and I like that.

I try to straddle a line when it comes to personal information on here and on Twitter. My goal is to be open about discussing my life such that anyone who knew me and ran across me could recognize me easily, but I don't want to give up the handful of details that would make it easy for a casual Google user to tie these accounts to my name. I'm old and boring and no one is stalking me, so I can play fast and loose. But I also prefer that people talking to me professionally can't just run a quick search and then see my opinions on the carceral state or see me swearing and rending my hair about how bad the Cubs are this year.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:02 AM on September 10, 2021 [2 favorites]

DirtyOldTown, I've been trying to play that game for years... dropping breadcrumbs waiting for that day that never comes when I bump into somebody who recognizes me from some random MetaFilter (over)share. Still hasn't happened. Or they'd rather not let me know for whatever reason. Seems less likely every day as the chance for some old friend to suddenly discover and join MetaFilter grows less and less likely. Sigh.
posted by zengargoyle at 12:35 PM on September 10, 2021

My profile is basically never updated because I just update my own profilish website instead. (Oh, for a web where you can update your own website and have other website profiles just pull in data from there.) I just now looked at it for the first time in awhile and yikes my "Status” line is kind of dark.
posted by bixfrankonis at 12:54 PM on September 10, 2021

I got to share a mefites hike of the Pacific Crest Trail this summer, from Mexico through Washington State. Was beautiful. They passed within 30 miles of me.
posted by Oyéah at 7:23 PM on September 13, 2021