Curious why some CAF users hide their profile

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I hide my profile for several reasons, but primarily because I don’t want to accidentally offend or hurt somebody by seeming to have seen a post or PM and not responded. I first set my profile to private during a busy period in my life when I was on-and-off the forum frequently; I was not able to reply to everyone immediately and worried that someone might think I was ignoring them. I have kept it private ever since. I actually forgot that it was private until a couple of weeks ago when I suggested a good friend who was looking for a thread find it in my profile as I had recently posted in it, only to be informed that that was not possible.
 
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Tommy999 said:
Good point. I think this is indicative of the increased polarization (in general) of society.

Nowadays, some folks seem to have adopted more extreme and less tolerant positions towards other people with whom they disagree, resulting in the stance, “If you don’t see things my way, you’re not only wrong - you’re evil and must be silenced”.

It’s sad but yet another sign of the times, in my opinion.
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I’m not so sure that we’re more polarized now. For example, no one (in western cultures) believes in slavery, forced conversion, etc. - various things that our ancestors had to actually, physically fight against.

What we have now is people willing to bicker every day about what they think the other guy thinks. Yet only on the internet. We’d pretty much physically avoid the same cranky people if we were in the vicinity, or would at least avoid a known topic that cause verbal argument with the individual. Partly due, perhaps, because we realize that the specific misconceptions involved really aren’t that grave a matter.
 
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Buks said:
I’m not so sure that we’re more polarized now.
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I tend to agree…the polarization is no worse than in years in the past…its the internet and social media that has made it so ugly.

Facebook, twitter, and even some categories on CAF just embolden people to be argumentative.
 
Perhaps you’re right. It just seems to me that the US social and political environments are more polarized and it bleeds over to forums.

For example, I’ve lived through many decades of US political cycles and it used to be where there were conservatives, moderates, and liberals. Compromise was necessary and was often achieved for the common good.

Nowadays, to me anyway, moderates have become extinct and compromise is virtually non-existent. The moderates are either hibernating or went to the land of the woolly mammoths and the extremes are in charge.
 
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Tommy999 said:
Nowadays, to me anyway, moderates have become extinct
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In my opinion, nothing can be more true…far more claim to be than really are.

I learned years ago to be skeptical of those who call themselves “centrists” or “middle class”.

In my experience, (take it for what its worth) both political centrists and members of the economic middle class usually don’t make such claims, but those who lean left or right, or are lower or higher class like to hide behind the facade of what they think others think is the norm.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
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Beryllos:
… forum Search with advanced options (with @username).
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This works relatively poorly…
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Now that you mention it, I recall that it also lists replies quoting the user’s posts, which adds a lot of chaff to search results.
 
I am curious, if your profile is hidden, does it show if the member is suspended or banned or not show up?
 
Good question. I have no idea. Perhaps someone else can answer.

The reason I asked the original question was because I was curious what certain people’s religious affiliation was - usually people who responded to my posts who I didn’t recognize - and it said ‘User’s public profile hidden’ or something similar and I was curious why people did that.

I’ve since learned there are some CAF members who apparently have been harassed, and these members hide their profile in order to make it more difficult for their stalkers to bother them - at least that is my understanding.
 
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Because some people are extroverts in real life, and introverts on the interweb. I’m the other way around.
Or, something.
 
Yes, I have searched for someone’s religion in their profile before only to find their
profile hidden. However, I also have questioned a few profiles and the religion
listed - so one has to make their own judgment as to the accuracy of what is posted.
 
True. I guess my premise is based on the honor system in listing what their religion is.

I was also informed that a member can’t just list their religion only and hide the rest of their profile. It’s an all or nothing deal.
 
7_Sorrows said:
I am curious, if your profile is hidden, does it show if the member is suspended or banned or not show up?
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For me, this is the hardest part of the hidden profile option. When someone has hidden his profile and then gets suspended indefinitely, no one will know why he just disappeared.

FWIW, I’ve successfully used the advanced search feature to find out the last post date of various users who vanished. And a Google search would be even easier to run on any user with a hidden profile.
 
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