New site setting to hide user profiles by default

Product Support

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The discussion revolves around a new site setting in Discourse, default hide profile and presence, introduced in version 2.9.0.beta12, which enables the ‘Hide my public profile and presence features’ option by default on users’ profile settings 1. This setting hides a user’s profile and typing indicators from non-staff and anonymous users by default. JammyDodger clarifies that this is a default behavior change, not a modification to the underlying privacy logic. thoka seeks clarification on the term ‘public’ and whether visibility can be restricted to specific groups, such as those requiring approval. JammyDodger explains that while related settings like allow users to hide profile and hide user profiles from public exist, they do not control avatar visibility, and the current implementation does not support group-based restrictions for profile visibility.

1

Continuing the discussion from 2.9.0.beta12: Security fix, bug fixes and more:

Thanks. Could you provide more information about that feature ?

2

It’s the new default hide profile and presence admin setting that sets the “Hide my public profile and presence features” on a user’s Profile/Interface page to be default enabled (thus hiding their profile and presence by default)

default hide profile and presence
default hide profile and presence1366×377 10.6 KB

It was proposed in this Contribute > Feature topic - Opt-in to show user profile instead of opt-out

3

Could you elaborate a bit on the meaning of “public” in this context?

Who can see the user profile if the user has not opted in?

Is there a way to show profiles only for members of shared groups or more restrictively, for shared groups that require approval?

I have explained my reasons for requests like this here:

4

I’m afraid it doesn’t change the behaviour of the setting in any way, only what is marked as the default.

If a user has ‘Hide my public profile and presence features’ enabled it will hide their profile and ‘x is typing’ indicator from anon and all non-staff users.

There are a couple of connected admin settings that also have an effect - allow users to hide profile and hide user profiles from public (which disables user information features for anon), but neither would limit avatar visibility.