Frequently Asked Questions

This section is part of the OxfordRomance.org.uk online help system. (show contents). You can also view the entire document as a single very long page.

How do I hide my profile from a particular friend, or an ex- ?

Sometimes, people are wary of bumping into a particular friend, or an ex-boyfriend/girlfriend on OxfordRomance.org.uk. As a result, they are reluctant to write a detailed description of themselves, which in turn reduces their enjoyment of the site. To help with this, you can now control precisely who may (and may not) view your profile.

The options, which may be selected from the 'Display your profile' setting on the edit page are these:

• Yes displayed to everyone: Everyone may see your profile, including non-members. This is the default setting, and maximises "visibility".
• Only to members of OxfordRomance.org.uk: Only other members, who have an account, and are presently logged-in can see your details.
• No, unlisted. Your profile is completely hidden - only your nickname remains visible. (useful if you want to take a break)
• Custom: everyone but: [ -list- ]. Hide from people with certain email addresses. (and everyone who is not logged in).

What is an 'email-stem'? An email-stem is the part of an email-address before the '@' sign. For example, an address of 'r563rg@example.com' would have the stem 'r563rg'. To hide from multiple people, simply give a list of email-stems, separated by commas. The reason for using the stem is that often, people have multiple valid addresses; for example abc12345@cam.ac.uk and abc12345@hermes.cam.ac.uk are the same person. We match on an email address rather than a name because we don't necessarily know people's full names when they sign up; also email addresses are validated when we send out the initial password, whereas we can't check a given name is correct.

What information does 'hiding' actually hide?
This hides pretty much everything, except your nickname. Your profile page will say 'Sorry, NAME does not have a profile at the moment'. You won't appear in the list of members in a given category, nor in any search results. Also, if your entire profile is hidden, then your photo (which is part of the ad) is also hidden.

What information does 'hiding' not hide?
Your nickname is still included in the list of active of nicknames. It is still possible for anyone to send you a message. Also, the site admins can see your full profile. Lastly, your name is still listed in the top right when you log in, unless you change the (separate) visibility setting.

Aside: this is designed to preserve anonymity both ways. You can't make use of this feature to discover or verify someone else's identity: it won't leak information as to whether the block is active, or latent. So, for example, you can't use it to match an id number to an email address, or to check whether someone else is actually a member. All you can do is specify that if person X uses/used OxfordRomance.org.uk then they can't/couldn't see your profile.

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