MetaFilter FAQ

If you contribute to other online communities, you can link to your profiles at some other sites from your MetaFilter profile page. (The feature was originally announced in this MetaTalk post.) To add a link, click on "Preferences" at the top of any page, and scroll down to the bottom of the "Customize Metafilter" page. Under the heading "Social Apps", choose a service name from the drop-down menu and then enter your username at that site. If you want to add another link, click "add another service" and you'll get another menu/name combo. When you're finished, click "Save your Preferences" to save everything.

If you want to remove a link to a site you've added, go back to editing your profile. Clear your username for the link you want to remove and click "Save your Preferences". The link won't show up on your profile anymore.

Adding a Flickr, Twitter, Vimeo, or LibraryThing username to your profile will give you the option to add a widget with your recent activity from those sites to your profile page. (Please note that only Twitter offers a secure version of their widget. If you have "Use Secure Browsing?" checked in your profile, you will only see Twitter widgets on profile pages.)

It's not always easy to figure out your username at other services, so here's a quick guide to finding your username/id at some of the more challenging sites:

Facebook
To add your Facebook account to your profile you'll need your Facebook URL Name. To find it, go to Facebook and click on your name in the upper-left corner of the page. On the following page note the URL in your browser's address bar, it should look something like this:

http://www.facebook.com/[url name]

Copy the entire url name and paste it here. Sometimes the URL Name contains periods, but keep in mind it will never contain a space.

Flickr
Your Flickr photostream URL does not necessarily contain your Flickr username, and your Yahoo! login is not necessarily your Flickr username. To find your Flickr username, sign into Flickr and take a look at the line at the top of the page that says, "Signed in as...". Whatever appears there as a link is your official Flickr username. Make sure your Flickr profile isn't set to hide your profile from searches.

LinkedIn
Go look at your public profile page (you'll have to log in if you haven't already). Your profile page will show you your public profile URL and whatever is at the end is what you need to enter. You'll need to customize your profile URL to be something memorable/personal on this page if you haven't already. When you're done, your profile URL should look like this:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/[some name]

Grab [some name] and enter it as your LinkedIn Name in your MeFi profile.

SportsFilter
Log into SportsFilter and click on your profile page. You should see a URL like this:

http://www.sportsfilter.com/member/[some number]

Jot down the number, and enter it as your SportsFilter ID in your MeFi profile.

Steam
Log into the Steam website, and click the "View my SteamID" link toward the top of the page. You should see a URL in your browser address bar like this:

http://steamcommunity.com/id/[some name]

Use the name as your Steam Name in your MeFi profile. If you see a URL like this instead:

http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/[some long number]

Go into your Steam profile settings and set up a "Custom URL". Note what you enter for that custom URL value and use that as your Steam Name in your MeFi profile.

Shelfari
For Shelfari you need to find your internal user ID. Go to Shelfari and find your profile. The URL should look like this:

http://www.shelfari.com/o[some number]

Note the "o" at the beginning of your Shelfari user ID, you'll need that. Enter the whole thing including the "o" as your Shelfari ID in your MeFi profile.

Gawker Media
Gawker profiles show all Gawker Media sites.

World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft profiles are character and realm specific, so you'll need to specify the realm name and the character on that realm. To do that, find your character at World of Warcraft and note the URL. It should look like this:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/[realm]/[name]/simple

Now that you have the URL, copy the realm and character name as it appears in the URL and paste it into your MetaFilter profile. You should have a something that looks like "realm/name". We need both pieces separated by a / to link to your WoW profile.

Blogger
Go to the blog you want to link and look at the URL. It should be in the form of [prefix].blogspot.com. Note that prefix and add that at your MetaFilter profile.

Tumblr
Go to the blog you want to link and look at the URL. It should be in the form of [prefix].tumblr.com. Note that prefix and add that at your MetaFilter profile.

Posterous
Go to the blog you want to link and look at the URL. It should be in the form of [prefix].posterous.com. Note that prefix and add that at your MetaFilter profile.

Urban Spoon
Go to your Urban Spoon profile and note the URL. It ends with both a numeric ID and name, like so:

http://www.urbanspoon.com/u/profile/[id]/[name].html

Copy everything after profile/ and paste it into your MetaFilter profile. So the bit you paste will look like this: 12345/myname.html.

Fitbit
Log into Fitbit and find your "view profile" link. Note the URL, and copy everything after user/. It's typically a short string of numbers and letters like this: 224MH2. That's what you want to copy and paste into your MetaFilter profile.

Amazon
Finding your Amazon profile ID is a little tricky. Go to amazon.com and click the "Your Account" link in the upper right corner. From there, look for the "Personalization" section at the bottom of the page. Under the "Community" column, click "Your Public Profile". Note the URL. It should look something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A6N8HSYO8DN1R?ie=UTF8&ref_=ya_56

The section you want to copy is everything after the final slash and before the question mark. In this case that's: A6N8HSYO8DN1R. Copy that ID and paste it into your MetaFilter profile.

Google+
To find your Google+ profile ID, head to the front page of G+. Click the profile icon at the top of the page. (It's the circle with the head in it.) You should see your profile, listing your posts. Click 'About' and note the URL in your browser's address bar. It should look like this:

https://plus.google.com/116227882615569825302/about

Copy the long number you see in the URL and paste it here.

Glitch
You'll need to find your Glitch URL ID to add it. Visit your glitch profile and take a look at the URL in your browser address bar. Here's what it looks like:

http://www.glitch.com/profiles/PUVRH0T8ICE28JA/

Copy everything after /profiles/ and before the closing /. That long alphanumeric string is your Glitch URL ID. Copy that and paste it here.

Userscripts
Log in and click on your name at the top of the page. From there click 'public profile' on the left and note the URL:

http://userscripts.org/users/[some number]

Jot down the number, and enter it as your Userscripts ID in your MeFi profile.

Goodreads
Log in and click on "My Books" at the top of the page. You should be at a URL with a numeric ID:

http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/[some number]

Copy the number at the end of the URL and enter it as your Goodreads ID in your MeFi profile.

Strava
Log in and click on "My Profile" in the nav at the top right of the page. You should be at a URL with a numeric ID:

http://app.strava.com/athletes/[some number]

Copy the number at the end of the URL and enter it as your Stava ID in your MeFi profile.

airbnb
Go to your airbnb user profile page. The URL should look like this:

https://www.airbnb.com/users/show/[some number]

Copy the number at the end of the URL and enter it as your airbnb ID in your MeFi profile.

(tags: social users profile userpage ) August 8, 2007 - back to questions