Frequently Asked Questions tagged with users

7 FAQ tagged with users

Can I have more than one account? Can I change accounts?

The guiding principle here is that we expect you to have one main identity on the entire site, at a given time. It's not okay to pretend to be multiple people. Lots of detail in this MetaTalk post.

Changing to a new primary account:
- If you need to move to a new account name, it is okay (in most cases) to open a new account and close the old one. Some people choose to note on their userpage who they used to be, but it's not required. Note, this kind of account switch was allowed as a courtesy for people who felt strongly that their old name wasn't okay anymore, but it should not be abused. Contact the mods if you have questions.
- Some previously banned users may be allowed to open a Brand New Day (BND) account. This is only okay if the new account is not causing the same problems as the old account. Please contact the mods if you are unclear on this.

Second accounts:
Having a second active account (known as a sock puppet) is generally discouraged, but is allowed as a courtesy for two purposes:
- Privacy, for example asking an occasional question on a sensitive topic or giving an answer in Ask MetaFilter that is not linked to your primary account
- Jokey comments from clearly one-off joke accounts, for example usernames like baby jesus or Official Mefi Head Complainer

It is against the rules to use a sock puppet account:
- to get around the time limitations for AskMe, MeFi and MeTa posts. The time limits are per-person, not per-account.
- to harass other members or otherwise be an asshole on the site
- to comment with more than one account in a single thread, hop between accounts arbitrarily, or otherwise appear to be using multiple accounts to seem like two separate people

Violating the rules for spare accounts is grounds for banning the spare account and potentially your primary account as well. While moderators generally know which accounts are sock puppets, we will not reveal that information to users. That said, it is the responsibility of the user to maintain the privacy of that account if they want it to remain private. Contact a moderator if you have any doubts about appropriate use of a second account.
(tags: users sockpuppet accounts privacy anonymous ) April 20, 2006 - permalink - back to questions

How do I find someone's profile page if I only know their username not their user number?

There are three ways:

1. You can search for their username in the search box, then click on the tab "Users" within the search results.

2. You can find a comment or post by them, and click on their username in the byline.

3. You can do it manually, by adding their username to the end of a string like this:

http://www.metafilter.com/username/cortex

This will still work with usernames with spaces, and with some special/punctuation characters, and is not case sensitive.

http://www.metafilter.com/username/me & my monkey

Please note that this does not work with a small subset of usernames using special characters; for example c:\awesome would not work with the above URL format.
(tags: usernames users profile ) March 23, 2007 - permalink - back to questions

What sort of RSS feeds does MetaFilter have?

What are contacts? Someone made me a contact, now what?

Adding someone as a contact is a simple way to keep track of their contributions on the site or to just note that you've met them or enjoy their participation. To add a contact, go to that person's profile page and click on the "Add user as a contact" link there. You can choose what your relationship is with this user, or leave that part blank.*

Making someone a contact allows you to easily see some of their site actions in your Contact Activity sidebar on the front page: you can see if they make a new post, make a comment that gets more than 12 favorites, get a "best answer" in AskMe, or add contacts. You can also see their activity on the My Contacts page. If you have made someone a mutual contact—you have linked them and they have linked you—you will be able to help add tags to each other's posts as well.

The most common reason to add someone as a contact is that you enjoyed a comment or post they made, and you want to see future things they post. There is no obligation to be reciprocal if someone has added you as a contact.

When you add a user as a contact, this information will be visible on your own user page as well as your usercontacts page. Contacts you have added are listed in your profile with the phrase "Links to", and people who have added you as a contact are listed under "Linked by". If you want to edit or remove a contact, click on their name and on their profile page you'll see the option to Edit/Remove them as a contact.

*Note that a few users like to select jokey answers for the "what is your relationship" question, for example "crush" or "spouse" for people they don't know. Do not be alarmed if someone does this; it is a common friendly joke. It is also fine to ask them not to do that.
(tags: contacts usercontacts tags tagging linkedby linksto users ) April 20, 2006 - permalink - back to questions

How do I link to my other online communities/social sites in my profile?

If you contribute to other online communities, you can link to your profile at other sites from your MetaFilter profile page in two different ways.

The first way is using the link button in the "Blurb about you" box. Just click on "Preferences" or "Prefs" at the top of any page, and scroll down to the bottom of the "Personal Info" section. Click inside the "Blurb about you" box and follow these instructions on how to use the link button that appears at the bottom of the box.

The second way is by using the Social Apps widget. Note this widget will let you link to some of the major social media sites. Links posted via this second way will appear in the "Also On" section of your profile, with a clickable icon of the link.

To add a specific link that appears in the "Also On" section, click on "Preferences" or "Prefs" 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, 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.

(The "Also On" feature was originally announced in this MetaTalk post.)

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

How do I see if a user is online or not?

You can't. MetaFilter doesn't automatically disclose that information about members. Moderators can only see the last time a member visited the site, not whether a member is currently online.
(tags: online activity privacy users ) September 7, 2010 - permalink - back to questions

How do I see who else belongs to a given online community/social site?

Use the handy Mefi Social Explorer.
(tags: social users twitter facebook google+ etsy ) October 21, 2012 - permalink - back to questions