Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with profile

Why is PHOTO B showing up instead of PHOTO A?

crossoverman — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 16:11:26 -0800

How/why is my Facebook profile pic turning up on emails I send from my Gmail account to Hotmail/Outlook? I have a gmail account, the email address that's associated with my Facebook account. My gmail account has PHOTO A assigned to it. My Facebook account has PHOTO B as a profile pic.

Now, for some reason, when my mother (who has a Hotmail/Outlook account) receives email from my gmail account, instead of the photo/icon attached being PHOTO A, she sees PHOTO B.

I'd rather people receiving my emails only get PHOTO A - and not whatever profile pic I've randomly assigned to Facebook that week. What settings do I need to change? At what end - Gmail or Facebook?

"You have been logged on to a temporary profile. You cannot access your files and folders. You must fiddle with system reg in the dark now. Please hold while we wipe your computer clean. Thank you and have a nice day."

ruelle — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 11:14:04 -0800

Windows 7: "You have been logged on to a temporary profile. You cannot access your files and folders ..." Whoa. An empty slate. But I reboot and my old profile is suddenly back up and running. So, what just happened there? What can I do to make sure this doesn't happen again? Several related questions inside. I've googled around a bit and the "solutions" techs propose revolve around messing with the register key, deleting the corrupted profile and uploading all the data again. I'm not too fond of this "solution".

Why do these errors happen in the first place? Is it because my main profile is too bloated?
I realize that I save everything to about 4-6 folders that are sitting on my main profile's desktop.
Should I be using win7's libraries? Can libraries be shared amongst profiles? Should I make another profile just for my music and films? What can I do to make this mind-blowing bad disaster never come back (or minimize the pain, if/when it does.)

Thank you in advance for all your ideas and help. I feel like I dodged a bullet but I'm too stressed to log off my profile now..

How to "move" an iTunes profile to a new desktop profile after Win 8 installation

chris88 — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 20:12:19 -0800

How do I get iTunes to sync to a new desktop profile (on Windows PC) I'm a non-Apple user/unfamiliar with the ecosystem - so I'm thinking the answer to this might be simple. Still I wanted to ask just to make sure.

Updated our PC to Win 8. No problems there.

Thing is, my wife has an iPhone and iTunes account which was synced to our shared desktop.

Since the upgrade to Win 8, she's got her own profile, own desktop, etc.

But what has happened is that her iTunes profile, songs, apps, etc, hasn't "followed" her to her new desktop. She clicks the shortcuts and there is nothing there - no apps or songs.

Yet the apps and songs appear on my desktop when I click shortcuts there.

For information, what is now "my profile/desktop" was formerly our shared one - has retained sign in details, etc.

I'm thinking that we need to do something to tell iTunes to "send" her profile to her "new" desktop, but I can't figure out how.

Can anyone here help me?

Thanks so much -

Suggestions that may improve my OKCupid profile or conversation initiations?

Willpower — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 16:37:28 -0800

Suggestions that may improve my OKCupid profile or conversation initiations? I still haven't been having much luck with my OKCupid profile. Any thoughts regarding my profile? Or regarding pictures (do I need better pictures or take pictures differently; should I swap my default pic; etc)?

By the way, for a while, I had my default picture the one where I'm laughing at my goofball cousin. I recently changed it to my current one where I'm wearing my fraternity jacket at the zoo. No significant difference in my profile views or OKCupid success.

Next:
The way that I normally initiate a conversation is by finding something interesting on a woman's profile, and then asking her about it. Here are some example initiation attempts I've made:

"How's it going? It's awesome that you love adventure and travel. It's always interesting to explore, or see different lifestyles. I definitely have wanderlust. Where are some places you've been?"

"How's it going? You mention that you're going to school for your bachelor's in nursing... I'm curious, what draws you to that major?"

"How's it going? You mention that you like hiking. I just picked up on that hobby a couple months ago. Where are some placed you've been? "

More than half the time, they don't even check out my page. And the ones that do still don't respond to my message.

I've been on this website for 7 months. To date, I've had a real conversations with only two women. Really starting to feel like I'm wasting my time.

Any suggestions that may improve my OKCupid success?

Once they've responded, what next?

CrystalDave — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 23:16:25 -0800

On dating sites/OKCupid: Once I get past the initial introductions, where do I go in the conversation? Alternately, could it be something in my profile that encourages people to not respond past the initial reaction? My profile, for reference/questioning purposes.

I've been following the other questions on here related to profiles, photos, and messages; so I know to make what I say on my profile more descriptive of what I'm like and to make messages personalized (rather than scattershot). I also know not to get too bogged down in initial responses/response rates. So, here's where I'm at:

1 out of 3 messages get an initial response, but half of those end after I get a response and reply myself. I keep each message pretty short (a few sentences), and specific to things they've noted on their profile as common interests. I also try to make sure to have something in each message to keep the conversation going. (I'd post an example but for privacy concerns)

In theory my goal is some sort of meeting in person, or at least live conversation of some sort. (No success on this front either, yet)

Are there specific things I can make sure to do/to avoid in order to get a cold message to turn into a more organic/flowing conversation? Alternately, are there things which I can improve in my profile which are currently keeping me down? Or could it be that I'm looking at this all wrong by thinking 'conversation' when I should be thinking 'ask them out quickly' or something like that?

I'm currently in the Portland area for an internship, but the same sort of thing happened when I was in Eugene (where I'll be returning in the Fall).

Suggestions for my OkCupid profile, and on how to initiate conversations with women?

Willpower — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 00:09:11 -0800

My OkCupid profile--any suggestions? And what's the best way to initiate conversations with women? I haven't been having much luck with my OkCupid profile. Any thoughts regarding my pictures (do I need better pictures or take pictures differently; should I swap my default pic; etc)?
Any thoughts regarding the length or content of my profile?

Also, any comment regarding how I should initiate conversations with women on the site?
I normally keep it brief; 3 sentences: I'd say something like "You seem cool," then I make some observation about something cool or a mutual interest found about their profile, and last I'd conclude by asking them a general question that's related to that thing I found.

I've been on the website for like 4-5 months, and I've made a little over 40 initiation attempts, yet I've only had one person give me a response after I initiated a conversation in that way. I don't know if it's my profile, the way I started the conversation, or what. Please help!

nerdy overthinker needs a highlighter, heart and cold eye

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 11:49:13 -0800

yet another request for feedback on an OkCupid profile. Complex, nerdy overthinker in search of an editor who may be able to help focus an online persona. I've been on OkC for a few months with middling success (a few message exchanges, four dates with different women) but returns seemed to have been diminishing as of late. I'm happy with how my Q&A has setup my matches, and I'll send out four or so messages a week to new people, but over the past two months it seems that half of those messages will vanish into ether, the other half will result in someone looking at my profile, but none will result in a response.

I have tweaked and revised my profile a few times, but I'm struggling with the quandry of what to keep and what to cut. I look at the wall of text and know that it's overwhelming, but I struggle with feeling like cutting something out might omit a potential connection that someone might spot.

So, I'd like hard-eyed feedback about what works and what doesn't. What feels fake and forced and what feels natural? Or should I just stop thinking about it and just get better photos?

Make with the arrows.

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 13:32:37 -0800

Another "what the hell is wrong with my OKCupid profile" question. The profile in question.

A couple of months into my third spin on OKCupid, and I'm having a lot less luck than I have in past go-rounds. It seems like I'm getting fewer replies, and of those replies fewer conversations, and of those conversations no dates at all. I doubt I've changed in the past year or so into someone this much less datable than 2011 me, so what's wrong with my profile?

Critique my profile?

SollosQ — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:59:17 -0800

Disregarding anything weird on my part in my OKCupid messages: what criticisms or observations do you have of my profile and pictures that might be able to explain my response rate? I hear the response rate on OKCupid is pretty low, but I read in a few places that a lot of people do more of a shotgun-style contact method, and don't bother to read the other person's profile. Out of the three people I've contacted since joining, I only got one message back and they didn't reply any further.

So, disregarding anything weird on my part in the messages: what criticisms or observations do you have of my profile and pictures? I'm generally very curious as to how I come across (physically speaking, and personality-wise) as well. Although we are who we are, and we know ourselves as ourselves, it's nice to know how other's see ourselves since there's a lot of explanatory power in such perspectives.

http://www.okcupid.com/profile/osagemaclura

can't get tasker profiles to import

Lucinda — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 10:48:54 -0800

I can't import any profiles in Tasker. Help! (I am running Tasker version 1.2.1u1. I have a T-Mobile MyTouch 3G Slide running Froyo.)

I found a profile I would like to use - (http://tasker.wikidot.com/local--files/nightsmsresponder/NightSMSResponder.prf.xml). I download the file (by using "Save Link As", otherwise it takes me to a web page with what looks like code) and it goes into my ./sdcard/download directory. I move it (using AndroZip) to ./sdcard/Tasker/profiles directory.

I open Tasker, go to "import profile", go to /sdcard/Tasker/profiles, and NightSMSResponder.prf.xml is not there. It does not show me anything to be imported.

I have double- and triple- checked the paths (because I have a "Downloads" and a "download" path and can't find them. I created a folder called "Test" in the Tasker directory, and put the .xml file in there. In Tasker, I see the "Test" folder but nothing is in it.

I've had this problem with other .xml files on this site, so it's not a one-off fluke.

JDate, block these creeps already.

These Birds of a Feather — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 00:34:55 -0800

JDate Filter: Am I being rude/off-putting by including a semi-terse "I'm not for you if you're older than X" message at the top of my profile? I joined JDate a month ago and I've gotten a lot of pestering messages from men that are old enough to be my father, and from some who are just very much out of my age range. With most of the super creeps I've just blocked them and moved on, but some of the younger ones are persistent and have circumvented JDate's weak blocking protocols by keeping tabs on my profile and visiting it over, and over, and over (which is actually rather distressing).

I now have a gentle, but kind of terse disclaimer at the top of my bio that explains I don't want to date anybody that's outside of my explicitly stated age range, and that I am absolutely not the right match for men who are 35+. I am still getting messages from older men who say really condescending things like, "You just need an older guy to show you around the world, honey" and crap like that.

In the long run, am I going too far by being up front about my age preferences right away? I am not flattered by the influx of interest from men 10 to 30 (!) years my senior. Is there a way to set this boundary but still present myself positively or should I just ditch my profile and move on from the whole site in general?

(Please don't suggest OkCupid as an alternative. That's where I was when I met my last boyfriend and I am super, super over it as a result.)

"Unlike" really doesn't communicate my level of disdain

The demon that lives in the air — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:36:17 -0800

What is hijacking my facebook profile with unwanted "likes?" Every once in a while, fan pages for companies and products smarm their way into my facebook feed. Going into my profile, it says I've "liked" these pages -- when I have done no such thing.

When this happens, I follow the advice in this "clickjacking" thread -- I unlike all the offenders and report all posts in my feed as spam, but it doesn't stop it from coming back.

I've changed my facebook password as well, but to no avail.

I'm not clicking on any sketchy facebook links - this problem is different than those SEE WHAT THIS DAD SAID TO HIS TEEN spammy links. Companies I don't recognize just start showing up in my feed as if I've made them my friends.

My profile is pretty minimal, but there are a few fan pages I legitimately want to follow. Could there be a vulnerability there?

What could be editing my profile without my permission?

Random searches for misdirection

Xhris — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:54:21 -0800

Please help me find .... it was a program or maybe a FireFox add-in that constantly submitted random search-engine searches - the idea being to prevent google/bing/whoever from building any kind of meaningful profile of the user. Thanks

how to use job research to land an interview

These Birds of a Feather — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 12:13:08 -0800

Job Search: How do I make use of some research I've done about the company I most want to work for in order to GET an interview? I am taking my job search very seriously and am doing everything I can to have a competitive edge. I recently struck a goldmine of documents from the company I most wish to work for and I am not sure what to do with said data prior to an interview. Most of what I found is very specific branding data as well as some insider info on the way the company's subdivisions operate in relation to its consumer demographic. Bottom line: this is some really awesome stuff and I have no idea what to do with it.

I am fairly certain I will be able to demonstrate understanding of the facts and figures contained within this collection of docs if asked during an interview, but what can I do that will help me in the preliminary application round? I feel like I should demonstrate some level of knowledge in my cover letter, but how? What can I do on LinkedIn, as well? Is there some way to use some of the stuff I've learned for SEO too?

If it's relevant, I work in digital media/publishing and I am applying to a well known movie/animation studio's consumer products division.

Ring ring BUZZZZZZ

prefpara — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 21:12:47 -0800

I'm looking for an android sound profile app that won't crash my phone. Ideally, I would be able to create a profile that had my alarm and ringer at full volume while disabling all other sounds. The last one I tried made my phone run really slowly and freeze intermittently, and a few of the other ones I've looked at don't seem to distinguish between notification types - I need the alarm to be a different control from email alerts and stuff. I'd really appreciate a recommendation! My googling has failed. Thanks in advance, MetaFilters.

LinkedIn Endorsements - Trim to the few "best" or show them all?

meinvt — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 13:37:03 -0800

I've often called my career in architecture glorified itinerant work. The fact is that I need to go where the jobs are. So, despite having confidence in my position for the next six months to two years, I recently decided to start brushing up my public facing networking tools. In particular this means LinkedIn, and I decided to send a request for recommendations to many folks I have worked with over the past decade and a half at several positions. The result has been pretty gratifying to my ego, but now I realize I need to better understand the etiquette and strategy of how best to post them. The endorsements vary from simple two sentence, very positive, notes from individuals of significant influence, to more detailed pieces from a few direct and indirect managers. I'm just not sure if I should be trying to choose the top three or five overall, two or three for each of the four positions I've had since college, or whether I just list them all despite the number approaching fifteen, with more coming in every few days.

I'm definitely in an industry where it is up to me to hustle to find great quality work, but I also don't want my profile to come off as overly boastful or like I'm just "trying to impress". Honestly, one of my challenges in editing the list down is how much regard I hold for some of the people who did endorse me. Which is why I can really use the third party input on approach.

Right now I'm showing 2/3 of them which feels a bit like an unsatisfying compromise.

Also potentially relevant is that whenever I wrap up this job I may consider a lateral move into something more like facilities/campus planning. That would mean dealing with more corporate structured HR at larger organizations that may not be as familiar with what the specifics of my job experience mean. So, advice to tune for those viewers is particularly appreciated.

How to maintain online privacy

mintchip — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 20:35:46 -0800

How to maintain online privacy and NOT be searchable as someone else's friend social networking friend? I have my friends lists hidden on social networking sites like Google+ so that they aren't viewable on my profile page. In addition, my profile is set so that only friends can view my profile.

However, a recent web search of my name revealed that my name comes up in Google searches under OTHER friends' lists. Why does Google reveal friends lists??? It is odd. Is there any way to prevent this?

How can I keep my online info. private? I would prefer that zero social networking stuff shows up in Google searches.

What's wrong with my okcupid profile?

Azazel Fel — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 18:10:17 -0800

I have been using OkCupid for a few weeks with no luck. And I do mean no luck -- meaning, nobody will even talk with me. Is there something wrong with my profile? Something wrong with me? I opened up an OkCupid profile a few weeks ago. You can see it right here.

I had heard good things about it from others here on Metafilter and elsewhere, so I decided to give it a shot. I was pleasantly surprised at how many other people in my area share similar interests, personalities, goals and so forth.

One of the neat things about OkC is that it kinda forces you to contact people, almost making it kind of a game ("Contact three new matches to upgrade your profile!" and stuff like that). By my count, I've contacted about 30 close matches in the past few weeks with fairly typical ice breakers like "Hey, I see you like X! I like X too! Isn't it cool when..." etc.

So far I have had exactly two replies, both of them terse "Thank you for your interest" quasi form-letter responses followed by silence.

This kind of bugs me in a way, perhaps because I had higher expectations for myself going into it. My friends tell me that I'm handsome, intelligent, funny, de-lightful to be around and so forth, but apparently 90% to 100% of my matches so far seem to disagree?

This is also bringing up some feelings of inadequacy that I have been nursing most of my life. Growing up, I was the nerdy fat kid and the butt of all classroom jokes. The target of quite a bit of bullying as well. I've lost a lot of weight as I've gotten older and matured a bit more, but those feelings of rejection and self-hatred seem to linger. Could some of that be coming through in my profile somehow? I guess you could say I'm terrified at the idea that I might be sabotaging my own OkC profile.

Here are my questions for the hivemind:

1) Is this a typical OkCupid experience?
2) Is there something glaringly wrong with my profile?
3) Be honest here: Am I ugly? Unattractive? Seriously?
4) Is being "bisexual" off-putting to most women? Am I going to have to lie about myself to have a normal dating life?
5) What am I doing wrong here? What can I do right?

Thanks.

How can I make Adam's profile in to Bobs profile?

MrBobaFett — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 13:13:04 -0800

How can I migrate a local Win7 profile that is associated with a domain account? Two users Adam and Bob. Bob was hired to replace Adam. Adam spent two weeks training Bob on his computer. I created a new user account for Bob in Active Directory on the domain server. Bob already has all of his preferences, short cuts, etc set in Adams account that he has been using.

Of course if he logs in as himself he has a fresh desktop and default settings in all the apps. How can I migrate all that profile information? We are not using roaming profiles.

I tried just copying the contents of Adam's profile directory into Bob's profile directory but then when Bob tried to log on it generated an error, "The Group Policy Client service failed the logon".

I'm sure I'm missing something obvious, but Googling around this morning did not produce anything useful for me.

Tracing you by the hole you make in the world

Diablevert — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 15:24:05 -0800

How many people would have to sign up for facebook before facebook can infer the existence of the rest? This is something that I've been wondering about lately, and I suspect there's math that could tell me: how many people have to sign up for facebook before facebook could effectively profile the remainder of the people who haven't joined its network?

That is to say, it's known that sites with like buttons have cookies that track IP addresses, and when facebook collects emails from people who join it cross-checks and retains emails from people who haven't joined. Both of these practices are so that, if you then go to sign up later, they can link you up with this info, hooking you up with friends who's already joined and sites you might like and so forth. Also, they have facial recognition software built in to their photo ap and people can tag you in a photo even if you don't have an account --- I understand that these photos can also then be picked up as part of your profile if you join at a later date.

So I'm thinking, even if I don't have a facebook account, at this point, given how many of my friends and family have joined, it would probably be possible to infer my existence from my email address turning up in their address books and photos of me on their profiles. In effect I have been captured by the network even though I don't have an account.

What I'm wondering is, what percentage of people would have to join facebook before FB could effectively capture the remainder in this way? Granted that there are exceptions --- people who aren't that linked in to society itself in ways that would make it less likely they would be captured (infants, homeless people, the elderly, etc.). And obviously much of this depends on the connected to the internet-ness of one's real life society as a whole --- a country with a big chunk of it population living in remote villages, etc., is not going to be well captured (or not for some time). So absolutely 100% of people is an impossible goal.

But for, say, the English-speaking and/or developed world, I'm wondering what the tipping point would be. Is there anyone who's aware of any branch of mathematics/social science/computer science that's looked at this type of network effect?

Removing fake FB profile?

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 15:36:31 -0800

My father is a relatively well-known public figure. Someone has created a fake Facebook profile in his name. It's pretty much impossible to contact FB directly to complain. Suggestions? My dad is a government official, he works in a rather dangerous country, and he's pretty controversial in the public media there. (As in: security is a big deal for him.) He doesn't use any social media sites, although much of his biographical info is available online. Someone created a FB profile in his name -- not a "public figure" page or an organization/concept/band/etc. page, but a regular old personal profile -- and has been sending friend requests to my family and friends. Some of whom, despite email warnings against it, have accepted.

FB has a "report fake profile" section in their "report abuse" interface. However when I do that I have to select between:

- impersonating me - clearly not the case
- impersonating a friend - okay, but then I'm supposed to select the impersonated party from my list of FB friends, and he's not on FB
- impersonating a public figure - okay, but then I'm supposed to choose from a list of public figures, and he's not on it.

I've actually tried all of these options anyway, but other than automated email responses, nothing's happening. I also sent a bug report in explaining that the impersonation didn't fall into the three categories in their abuse reporting interface. (Also nothing.) FB has no phone number, no email address, so not sure what else can be done.

Nothing on the profile now is harassing or even wrong -- it's all bio info culled from elsewhere on the web -- but I don't like the idea of someone getting information on the friends and family members who accepted the friend request. And yeah, at the end of the day, it's fake!

Whither the home page?

cairnish — Tue, 03 May 2011 10:50:28 -0800

These days, what sorts of URLs are people likely to put in a "home page" field for their online directory listing? While some folks do indeed still have what I think of as an old-school home page, what other sorts of places might such a link lead to? Some possibilities I thought of so far are a flickr account, facebook account, linked-in, a business page rather than a personal page, 404's, and the occasional unintentional link-farm or porn takeover of expired domains. I'm looking for other landing page types that may be joining old-school home pages as increasingly common personal web address identifiers.

Help me find the right web app for my project.

ufris — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 13:51:26 -0800

What is a good web application to help me set up a site where users have their own public profile page with photos? I offered to help a friend implement a website idea he has. It's basically a site where part-time freelancers (carpenters, electricians, web designers, etc) can set up a public profile page explaining what they offer. It will need to allow them to edit their own content and upload photos of their work. Obviously they shouldn't be allowed to edit any other parts of the site. Visitors to the site would then search through the profiles to find someone they'd like to work with.

I've worked with Wordpress quite a bit in the past, but it doesn't seem to fit this project quite as well. I've also considered a wiki, but that seems a bit clunky. Anyone have any suggestions of a web app that might fit the bill? My preference is Open Source, but I'm willing to consider anything.

Thanks in advance!

What should I do to set up an XP user profile for a little kid to experiment with?

No Shmoobles — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 12:55:45 -0800

What should I do to set up an XP user profile for a little kid to experiment with? Being a computer repair tech I always receive salvage units that just need a little TLC to be coaxed back into running. I have stacks of PCs around the house right now and would like to let the three year old tinker around with mousing and clicking, etc., so I am going to set up a laptop for her.
I don't care at all about deletion of system files, mucking things up, etc. as I have the restore discs and can reload XP with all the drivers at any time (it won't even connect to the internet or ever update). However, what are the best practices in setting up a user profile for young'uns?
How would you set up a PC for a little kid to use it (such as, certainly connect a mouse for ease of use)?
I was thinking she'd enjoy having a bunch of video files on the desktop that she could click on and watch? What else might she enjoy?

Thank you for contributing to my daughter's future nerd status and dominance as a user.

dating profile curiosity.

achtland — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 18:54:54 -0800

why would someone log in to an online dating website multiple times a day when their profile is mostly empty, besides age, sex, etc. and a picture of themselves?