Anatomy of: User Profiles

Here is an explanation of the various fields in your user preferences, from top to bottom.

Username:
* This is the name by which the system identifies you internally.
* You can use this name to logon to the website.
* If another user mentions your username as @username on a post, then the system can notify you of this.
* You can change your username, but please don’t without contacting an admin or a moderator first.
* Your username is visible to anyone able to view the site.

Name:
* This is the name meatbags prefer you to use.
* It doesn’t have to be what your mother called you, but something that other humans would be comfortable using in normal conversations would be appropriate.
* Your name is visible to anyone able to view the site.

Email:

  • The email to which your account sends reset_password mails, notifications, and digests to.
    
  • You can change your email, but make sure that you can read the mails at that address before you change this.
    
  • Other than yourself, only Administrators and Moderators can see your email. 
    
  • Please do not include your email in any public posts, unless you want the world to know what your email is.
    

Password:

  • That with which in combination with your Username or Email the system allows you to log in.
    
  • You cannot  set your password on the website itself, all you can do is trigger a reset_password email..
    
  • Never tell anyone what your password is, nor include it in an email or such.
    
  • Anyone who knows your username or email, and your password IS you. (That is how the systems sees things, and I and the other admins and moderators agree).
    
  • To change your password click on the "Send Password Reset Email" button.
    

Profile Picture:

  • An image which the system displays to indicate your account
    
  • The default image is just a coloured circle with your initial.
    
  • You can upload an image of your choice, click on the pencil symbol to do so.
    
  • Your profile picture is visible to anyone able to view the website.
    

Profile Background:

  • Your user profile is the  page which users can see when they view your account
    
  • The background image is displayed in the background of your user profile.
    
  • Visible to anyone able to view the site.
    
  • You can upload an image of your choice, click on the grey picture icon to do this.
    

User Card Background:

  • Your User Card is the small info card which is displayed when a user clicks on your user symbol.
    
  • The background image is displayed in the background of your user profile.
    
  • Visible to anyone able to view the site.
    
  • You can upload an image of your choice, click on the grey picture icon to do this.
    

About Me:

  • A descriptive text about yourself.
    
  • Visible to anyone able to view the site.
    
  • Use the composer window to edit this text.
    

My Cars:

  • A descriptive text about your Jaguars.
    
  • Please include enough info in this field that people know what model, series, engine etc you are asking questions about.
    
  • Visible to anyone able to view the site.
    
  • You can edit this text.
    

Location:

  • Visible to anyone able to view the site.
    
  • You can edit this text.
    

Web Site:

  • Visible to anyone able to view the site.
    
  • You can edit this text.
    

User Card Badge:

  • No idea what this is for.
    

Email:

  • Only visible to you.
    
  • This section configures how email notifications work (this is different from Mailing list mode)
    
  • notifications are sent to your email account, depending on how you configure this section.
    
  • Email notifications are skipped if you are logged on to the website.
    

Email: Include previous replies at the bottom of emails
Never: Don’t add any previous context to the email, just the post itself.
Unless previously…: Add previous context which is new since a previous notification email.
Always: Add the previous context of the post with every notification email.

Include an excerpt…; Provide some context.
Send…messages me: Alert me via email when someone sends me a PM
Send…quotess… me: Alert me via email when someone quotes, mentions, or invites me.
Send…even when…: Alert me via email even if I am logged into the site.

Mailing list mode

  • Only visible to you.
    
  • Enables the sending of a daily digest of forum activity to your email address.
    
  • This setting is only on or off, configuration of the content of the mail is done below via what topics you watch, track or mute.
    

Desktop Notifications:

  • Only visible to you.
    
  • Makes your computer beep or otherwise indicate that something has happened on the forum.
    
  • On or off, the setting applies to each browser/computer individually.
    

Other:

  • Only visible to you.
    
  • This section is a collection of various settings
    

Consider topics new when:

  • configure what "new" means to you personally.
    
  • Settings are pretty self explanatory (though I personally miss "Since the invention of the synchromesh transmission")
    

Automatically track topics I enter:

  • Only visible to you.
    
  • Configures how the system determines what you find interesting, and adds those topics to your tracking list.
    
  • You configure how long reading a topic means you are interested, the system adds these to your tracked topics based on that, and how long you spend actually reading a topic.
    

When I post in a topic set that topic to:

  • Only visible to you.
    
  • Value can be either watched or tracked.
    

Notify when liked:

  • Only visible to you.
    
  • Notifies you if someone clicks "Like" on your post.
    
  • 4 settings, depends on your ego.
    

Open all external links in a new tab:

  • Only visible to you.
    
  • Leave this on.
    

Enable quote reply for highlighted text:

  • Only visible to you.
    
  • Setting this On will allow you to highlight the text in a post and the system will pop a grey "Quote" symbol up, clicking on that grey symbol will open a reply window and include the text you marked as a quote in that composer window.
    
  • You can still use copy with this setting enabled.
    

Show new / updated topic count on browser icon

  • Only visible to you.
    
  • Only should affect the way your browser icon displays when minimised.
    
  • Apparently this doesn't work on all browsers.
    

Don’t jump to my post after I reply:

  • Only visible to you.
    
  • [quote="pne, post:1, topic:349558"]
    

I expect that this makes a difference when you have a topic with lots of posts and you’re replying to one in the middle – say, post 25 of 67.

Then when you reply to post 25 and post the reply, you might either wish to stay around post 25 and continue reading in that topic, or jump down to the bottom of the topic to see your newly-written reply, perhaps to check that everything looks all right – in which case you would now be at post 67 rather than still at post 25.
[/quote]
Categories:

  • Only visible to you.
    

Watched:

  • Only visible to you.
    
  • A list of all the categories you are watching (for new posts or topics)
    
  • You can edit this list to add or remove categories.
    
  • "Show watched topics" will change to show you that list (so don't click on this while you are adjusting your preferences)
    

Tracked:

  • Only visible to you.
    
  • Similar to watched. (not quite sure what the difference is myself)
    

Watching First Post:

  • Only visible to you.
    
  • List of the categories for which you wish to see new topic creation.
    

Muted:

  • Only visible to you.
    
  • List of the categories which you do not wish to see activity from.
    

Users Muted:

  • Only visible to you.
    
  • List of the users which you do not wish to see activity from.
    

Topics:

  • Only visible to you.
    
  • Automatically unpins topics once you have read to the bottom of that topic.
    
  • Discourse doesn't do "Sticky threads" like some other forum software does. You get to decide what appears at the top of your topic list 
    
  • You are responsible for knowing the implications of what dire warnings or advice you have been offered and read, so it might be a good idea to uncheck this setting.
    
  • We endeavor not to overuse pinning of topics, but please read them when we do create one.
    

And finally…

Save changes

  • There is another one of these at the top of your preferences page.
    

Nope this helps, if I’ve got something wrong, or you’ve figured out the meaning of some setting that I haven’t, then give ma a bell and I’ll update this.

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