Just curious, why do some hide their complete profile?
I can understand their name and address for obvious reasons.
But when it comes to age, whether or not they are married, when they were saved, why.
What are they hiding?
At least some women probably do it to try to have as much anonymity as possible - for all of the obvious reasons.
I am doing it for a totally not-your-average-normal reason. There was a period of time a little while back when I noticed what seemed to be a sudden surge in new members doing that (over a relatively short period of time). At some point, I "got an attitude about it" and decided:
"Well - if everyone else is going to do that - I think I will just do it too."
I would really like to know if anyone else is actually doing this for this same plain-and-simple reason.
The intent of my action is actually a form of "silent protest" against what I consider to be a "somewhat" abuse of the system. (in a way)
My hope is that the trend will cause the site owner to ponder the significance of it.
Yes - there needs to be a certain amount of 'protection' built into the site for every individual; however, it needs to be balanced "in fairness" to others - it is also important for folks to have some idea about the gender and age of those who they are talking to...
If I owned this site (or a similar site), there would be two fixed mandatory items of information no user could hide - gender and age. (
And, there would most definitely be blue and pink names.)
Of course -
ideally - only logged-in members of the site should see either one - and, the outside world should
never see either one.
In my opinion -
as a consideration for an "ideal" situation in an environment such as this - every member of the site should know those two items of information about every other member of the site - so that you have some idea about who you are addressing when having a conversation with them.
Falsifying information during sign-up to the site is a separate issue; nonetheless, those two items of information being "in the open" is still the best overall way to have clear and open - and proper - communication among members.
FYI - you can still access some things associated with the member - such as their post history - from the pop-up that appears in various places when you hover over them.