This member limits who may view their full profile.

[GGJstudios]

What is the point of this functionality?
What do they have to hide?
If you are nothing but proud of what you have contributed to this forum, why contributing at all?

Limiting who can see profile details does not hide contributions made to the forum, nor does it indicate that someone is trying to hide something. Why don't you post your social security number and bank account info online? Are you trying to hide somethng? While profile details are quite different from financial info, the concept is the same: there may be information that some prefer not to be made public, for various reasons.

The question is, why does it bother you so much that others choose to handle their profile information differently than you might?

 

[rm5]

In plus, and I mean no disrespect, but why is this important to you? Why do you care so deeply about how randos like me and everyone else manage their privacy?

 

[Wando64]

In plus, and I mean no disrespect, but why is this important to you? Why do you care so deeply about how randos like me and everyone else manage their privacy?

We are talking about a site functionality in a site feedback sub-forum.

Why do I care so deeply? I don’t.

You‘ve basically just told me to mind my own business and frankly I am much inclined to take your advice.

Thanks to those that have engaged constructively.
This discussion has at least highlighted the limitations of this functionality, and there are a few.

 

[boss.king]

What privacy are you expecting when all of your posts are public on a forum?

If that's your argument, why use a pseudonym when posting?
What is the point of this obfuscation?
What do you have to hide?
If you are nothing but proud of what you have contributed to this forum, why not do it under your full government name with a clear image of your face?

Your "if you have nothing to hide" route is forever a losing argument. The point is that we all have differing limits of how public and accessible we want our online activity to be. What is it about this feature that bothers you anyway? Why do you feel the need to trawl through people's posting history?

 

[japanime]

Also worth noting is that DMs can be reported to the moderation team, just like posts to the public forums can be reported.

 

[rm5]

What privacy are you expecting when all of your posts are public on a forum?

Okay... okay... stop for a second.

"Part 1" of this post:
When you registered for the forum, you had the option (and the obligation) to set a username. You could choose whatever username you wanted, so long as it was between 3 and 32 (???) characters in length.

If your full name is between 3 and 32 (or whatever the maximum is) characters, then you could put your full name as your username. But there are any number of reasons why you would NOT want to do this, but namely, it's because you have no privacy. This has several implications:

1. Everyone on the internet knows your full name
2. Everyone can (and will) therefore refer to you by your full name
3. When someone in real life contacts you, they might know about EVERYTHING you've posted on the forum. This can have negative effects on a job application. Say you're suspended permanently for doing something stupid. Who knows if someone you know irl is going to notice that and hold that against you?

"Part 2":
"But I see all these people with YouTube channels under their full name!!" It's the same thing. Some people make a play on their name to avoid publicity around it. However, you can change the name of a YouTube channel, while you can not change your username on many forum sites.

Here, let me tell you a story about how I screwed up in this same way one time: I once created a YouTube channel that wasn't meant for professional purposes. I just uploaded a few random videos to it. In the channel description, I listed all the stuff included with my occupation, including that I was a musician. The YT channel was under my full name. So, a couple years later, a promoter reaches out to me about a gig—a high-paying gig for a high-level event. In their initial email, they asked me to write a bio for myself, and as an example, they reference my YouTube channel description verbatim. WORD FOR WORD. I of course wasn't happy about this, for two reasons:

1. I had never intended my channel to be used in this way
2. I was also upset at myself for making this horrible mistake.

So that's why, for everything that's non-professional, I never use my full name anymore. I learned that lesson the hard way.

So by creating an account that's NOT under your full name, you are completely avoiding issues like I just described.

tldr: Sure, your posts are public, but no one knows you you are unless you WILLINGLY tell them.

 

[Wando64]

Why do you feel the need to trawl through people's posting history?

Your posting history remains browsable regardless.

Okay... okay... stop for a second.

I agree with pretty much everything you’ve written.
My only comment at this point it that apart from the username there is nothing else that you have to mandatorily share on this forum.
Until a few days ago my profile was absolutely bare. Completely visible, but with nothing written in it other than my user name.

By looking at how other people are using their profile I found out that some block it altogether and that prompted me to start this thread.
I now wish I never did as some people feel very visceral about this.

Fair enough, if people finds it useful then good for them.
I am not advocating for its removal. In fact, in light of the limitations that have become clear in this thread (I.e. posting history remaining completely browsable) it sounds like many people would prefer if the function’s privacy was stronger.

 

[boss.king]

Your posting history remains browsable regardless.

Yup, but only if people know how to access it. Not everyone does. The semi-obfuscated posting history seems to be enough to deter the trolls and losers from being a nuisance on my past posts, so I find it beneficial. I'd prefer my posing history not be viewable at all outside of people finding it organically in threads, but until that becomes an option I'm happy with the solution MacRumors currently offers.

 

[I7guy]

Yup, but only if people know how to access it. Not everyone does. The semi-obfuscated posting history seems to be enough to deter the trolls and losers from being a nuisance on my past posts, so I find it beneficial. I'd prefer my posing history not be viewable at all outside of people finding it organically in threads, but until that becomes an option I'm happy with the solution MacRumors currently offers.

Even if your posting history wasn’t accessible within macrumors there is always google.