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A member's profile/account includes details about the member and allows them to manage their forum preferences. A member may have the option to add their own signature, upload an avatar, set a display name, and enter personal contact information. Usually, other members of the forum will be able to view your profile unless the admin specifically disallows this permission.
A member viewing their own profile will find a many differences when comparing their profile to that of other members, unless they are an admin or have been granted the required modify profile permissions.
An administrator will see members' profiles in the same way as the member would see their own profile, with even more settings than those which the member would see themselves. This allows the admin to control all of the settings of any member.
The profile, aka My Account, is broken down into (3) three categories of settings and options which are described below.
The Summary screen (in the section Profile Info) displays basic forum information about a member, as well as any additional information that they may wish to share. An ElkArte forum may be customized extensively by its administrator(s), so the information displayed will vary between sites.
A member may view their own profile summary at any time simply by selecting My Account from the main menu. A member may view another member's profile summary by selecting the member's name wherever it is displayed on the forum. The following areas are commonly displayed.
- Display Name - A member may choose a display name that is different to their username. The Display Name appears next to a member's posts in the forum, so it is the name that is visible to the public. After registering at a forum, the display name is usually set to be the same as the username, but you can change this in the section Profile > Account Settings. Change the text in the field Name and then click on Change profile at the bottom of the page in order to save.
- Username - A member uses their username to login. This entry is listed only when members are viewing their own profile.
- Posts - The forum keeps track of the number of each member's post, as well as an average per day.
- Custom Title - If a member has been given a custom title, it is displayed.
- Karma - If Karma has been enabled by the forum administrator it is displayed.
- Likes - If Likes has been enabled by the forum administrator, the members given and received totals are displayed.
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Activity - Allows to quickly view a members most recent posts, topics or attachments
- Show Posts - All of the posts of a particular member.
- Show Stats - A member may view various stats related to another member.
- Membergroup - If a member has been assigned a primary membergroup, it is displayed above their avatar. Otherwise, their post-based membergroup is displayed.
- Online Status - If a member has not chosen to hide their online status, it is displayed below their avatar.
- Email - A member may choose to hide their email, in which case it is not displayed.
- Add To Buddy List - If the forum administrator(s) have enabled buddy lists, members may add each other as buddies.
- Send PM - A member may send a private message to another member.
- Social Icons - Various communication methods such as web site, Facebook, Twitter, etc. it will be displayed here in the form of icons.
- Personal Text - If a member has chosen to enter personal text, it is displayed.
- Gender - A member may choose not to disclose their gender, in which case it is not displayed.
- Location - If a member has chosen to disclose their location, it is displayed.
- Age - If a member has filled in their birth date, their age is displayed.
- Date Registered - The forum remembers when each member first registered.
- Last Active - The forum keeps track of when a member was last active.
- IP and Hostname - This is displayed to administrators, and to moderators who have been assigned the necessary permissions.
- Local Time - Since a member may be from any part of the world, their local time is displayed.
- Language - This is displayed if it has been enabled by a forum administrator.
- Signature - If a member has created a signature, then it is displayed here.
- Warning Level - If a member has been warned it is displayed to administrators, and to moderators who have the necessary permissions.
- A members most recent forum activity, including reply's, topics and attachments, can be quickly viewed by selecting the Recent Activity tab
- A member can quickly access their friends/buddy list by selecting the Buddies tab. Here an avatar view of each friend is displayed where you can quickly send them a PM or view their profile. If they have provided other contact information, such as facebook or twitter, those links, shown as icons, will also be displayed.
All of the posts of a particular member, excluding those that have been deleted, can be viewed by selecting Show Posts from the member's profile info summary. There are three sections that can be used:
- Messages - A list of all the member's individual posts is displayed.
- Topics - A list of the first posts from each of the topics that the member started is displayed.
- Attachments - A list of all the attachments the member has uploaded is displayed.
All of the drafts of a particular member can be viewed by selecting Show Drafts from the member's profile info summary. These are only available to the member, there is no admin or moderation access to a members drafts.
The profile stats screen may be viewed by selecting Show Stats from a member's profile info summary.
- Total Time Spent Online - The forum keeps an approximation of the total amount of time each member has spent browsing the forum.
- Total Posts - Excluding removed posts, the forum calculates the total number of posts made by each member.
- Total Topics Started - Excluding removed topics, the forum calculates the total number of topics started by each member.
- Number of Polls Created - Excluding removed polls, the forum calculates the total number of polls created by each member.
- Number of Votes Cast - Excluding removed votes, the total number of votes cast by each member.
- Posting Activity By Time - The forum calculates the percentage of posts made by a member in each hour of the day.
- Most Popular Boards By Posts - The forum generates a ranking of the boards most posted in by the member, relative to the member's total post count.
- Most Popular Boards By Activity - The forum generates a ranking of the boards most posted in by the member, relative to the board's total post count.
This page is shown only to members who are in membergroups that are allowed to manage permissions. The page shows all of the permissions the Member has, along with the boards that the member cannot see. By means of the drop-down list, it is possible to see which permissions a member has for a specific Board.
Members may modify basic account settings by default. These settings control the member's access to their account, as well as when and how they are visible to other members browsing the forum. The following options are available to be modified:
- Name - While the username cannot usually be changed, a member may change their display name at any time. Other forum members see the display name instead of usernames.
- Preferred Language - If enabled by the administrator, a member can select their preferred language for the forum.
- Email - The email address associated with a member's account may be changed, however a valid email address is required. If this is changed the site may require you to approve a change notification sent to the new email, so be sure it is valid and accessible or you may lock yourself out of your account.
- Allow users to email me - A member may choose to allow other members to contact them via email. The forum does not reveal the member's email address, but instead provides a contact form.
- Show others my online status - If selected, a member will be displayed in the forum's Who's Online list.
- Change Password - A member's password may be changed at any time.
- Secret Question - The secret question is used in the event that a member forgets their password. Providing the correct answer aids the member in remembering the password.
- Current Password - The member's current password is required to make any changes to their account settings.
In addition to basic account settings members also have the option of filling in additional, more personal information. None of these fields are required, and users often choose to leave some or all of them blank:
- Avatar - An avatar is a small picture or graphic associated with a member. Some forums may allow members to upload or link to external avatars, while others may only allow members to select from a provided set of images. Avatars appear below the Display name in posts.
- Personal Text - The personal text is usually displayed directly underneath a member's avatar when they post.
- Birthdate - When a member provides their full birthdate, their age is calculated and displayed on their profile. If the calendar feature is enabled, it is also placed on the calendar. Members can choose to omit the year of birth, in which case their birthday will still be displayed on the calendar, but their age will not be calculated.
- Location - A member may choose to give a general idea of their location. It is not encouraged (or wise) for members to give their specific location in the form of an address or lat/lon coordinates.
- Gender - If desired, a member may have their gender displayed. Selecting the blank line will prevent any gender from being displayed.
- Messengers - Members may provide their various messenger usernames or numbers for clients such as Twitter, Facebook, etc
- Custom Title - Forum administrators may allow a member to choose their own custom title. Custom titles are displayed below the member's display name when posting.
- Signature - If provided, a member's signature is attached to the bottom of each of their posts.
- Website - A member may advertise their own web site by providing its URL and a title.
By default, members may change many different options that affect the look and layout to make their forum experience more enjoyable. Some forum administrators may choose to limit these options, but here are a few basics.
ElkArte provides the ability to create and use different themes. Provided there is more than one theme installed, a member may choose the theme that they prefer. They may also customize the time format that the theme uses to display dates and times. Additionally, setting a time offset allows the forum to display dates and times in the member's local time. The forum provides an auto-detect feature in case a member does not know what their offset should be.
The following options may be enabled or disabled by selecting their corresponding checkboxes:
- Use sidebar menus instead of dropdown. - If side menus are preferred, they can be used instead of the dropdown menus.
- Use click to open menus, instead of hover to open. - If you prefer a mobile menu interaction
- Don't show users' avatars.- Some users find avatars annoying, especially animated ones, so they may choose to hide them altogether.
- Hide the poster information area. - Some users don't want the side bar poster area, this will hide the avatar and all other sections.
- Don't show users' signatures. - As is the case with avatars, signatures may also be hidden.
- Leave words uncensored. - The admin my censor naughty words, but some members may find them delightful.
- Return to topics after posting by default. - If enabled, a member will be returned to the end of the topic in which they have just posted. Otherwise, they will be returned to the message index for that particular board.
- Don't warn on new replies made while posting. - When other users post while a member is preparing their post, a warning is generated. With this option enabled, those warnings will be hidden.
- Show WYSIWYG editor on post page by default. - The WYSIWYG editor removes the need to know BBCodes. It may be enabled by default when posting.
- Topics to display per page - Allows you to choose how many topics are displayed before a "next page"
- Messages to display per page - When viewing a topic, determines the number of posts to show before a "next page" is required.
- Enable automatic saving of drafts - If you want the system to periodically save a draft of your post/pm.
- Use quick reply on topic display - Quick reply allows members to post to a topic without actually using the posting page.
ElkArte provides notification options that may prove useful to many members. In addition to the options available below, a member may choose to be notified instantly, daily, or weekly about replies in topics for which they have requested notifications.
- Receive forum newsletters, announcements and important notifications by email. - Newsletters, announcements, and other notifications will be delivered to the member's email. Even if this option is disabled, forum administrators are able to override it in some instances.
- Turn notification on when you post or reply to a topic. - When a member posts a new topic or replies to an existing topic, notification for that topic will be turned on automatically when this option is enabled.
- When sending notification of a reply to a topic, send the full post in the email - Email notifications will include the contents of the posts. If the admin has enabled reply to email option, then these emails can be responded to and appear as a normal reply on the forum.
If enabled by an administrator, users can choose to ignore any boards on the forum. When a board is ignored, it is still shown on the Board Index, but the New Posts icon will not show up for this board. In addition, new posts will not be shown for an ignored board when using the link Show unread posts since last visit. Neither will they be shown when using the link Unread posts next to the category names in the Board Index. However, when using the link Show new replies to your posts, new posts in an ignored board will still be shown. Also, when entering an ignored board via the Board Index, topics that have new posts will still be indicated with an icon.
Personal messages allow private communication between two members. ElkArte provides a variety of options that allow a member to control how private messages are displayed, who is allowed to send them, and how a few more of the features function.
The first two options address how private messages are displayed. If a member chooses All at once, a list of messages is displayed at the top with all of those messages displayed below the list. Selecting One at a time results in only one message being displayed at the top with a list of messages below it. As a conversation mimics the forum functionality, creating a topic-like list of replies. It is highly recommended that a member save their messages in their outbox if they choose to display messages as a conversation. The second option controls the order in which the messages are displayed.
- Receive personal messages from - Members may control who is allowed to send them private messages. It can be limited to members not on their ignore list, buddies and administrators, or only administrators.
- Notify by email every time you receive a personal message - Notification may be enabled in order to receive emails when private messages are received on the forum. If you received them via email, and the administrator has enabled the option, you can reply to those emails and have them sent (via the sites PM function) as a reply (just like replying to a PM on the site)
- Show a popup when I receive new messages. - Additionally, a popup message may also be enabled to notify a member of new messages.
- Save a copy of each personal message in my outbox by default - When sending a message, a copy of it is saved in a member's outbox automatically. This option should be enabled when viewing messages as a conversation.
- Remove the inbox label when applying another label - When a new label is applied to a message, the inbox label is removed.
Inevitably, there will be times when members get along great and times when personalities clash. ElkArte provides a way to handle both instances. The buddy list allows members to keep track of users they enjoy talking to, while the ignore list hides users they do not want to see.
- Edit Buddies - Members may add or delete other members from their buddy list.
- Edit Ignore List - Members may add or delete other members from their ignore list.
Should a member decide that they no longer want to be part of a forum, they may delete their account. The member's current password is required to carry out this task. Administrators can also restrict members' ability to delete their accounts, as well as delete members' accounts themselves. If an administrator wishes to delete a member's account there is also the option to delete a member's posts and topics by selecting the appropriate option from the drop down menu.