Thursday Tip: Your Profile Page

October 23rd, 2014

Your profile page is the place to introduce yourself to Ravelry! You’re in charge of that space and there’s no wrong way to use it. Today we’re going to cover all the fields on the profile page to help you fill it out to your comfort.

 

The link to edit your profile is on the left side under your username. We’re going to go through the edit page section by section.

your ravatars

On the left side of the page are your Ravatars.  You can click the button to upload a new profile picture (if you want help with that check out my blog post on that process).  The Ravatars below can be deleted, or dragged into a new order.

important stuff

  • Email Address: The first field is for your email address.  If you click the change link you’ll be able to update it and select whether you have your Ravelry private messages forwarded to your emails.  We only use this if you use contact us to send us a message, pattern links are emailed to the email address associated with your Paypal account.  And so you know, we never sell or share your information.
  • Blog URL:  The blog URL is the place to enter the web address for your blog if you have one.  Once that field is filled you’ll have the option to enter an RSS feed to link your blog entries to your Ravelry profile – we’ll show your posts in your profile and if you mention Ravelry projects we can link to a thumbnail of those, too (you can see an example on Sarah’s profile page).
  • I measure yarn in: Choose what units you prefer – metric or imperial.  We’re still working on supporting this option everywhere across the site, but in places where we show only one unit, we refer to this field to figure out what to show you.
  • Privacy: These checkboxes allow you to configure how much you reveal about the time you spend on Ravelry.  While there’s a checkbox to allow people to chat with you, we don’t have one-on-one chat right now.  If you’re looking for a place for that, I’d recommend finding a group with their chatroom turned on!

password

  • Update your password: Enter a new password here and you can change your password after clicking the submit button at the bottom of the change.
  • Change your username: Click the link to change your username.  You get 3 changes, so use them wisely!
  • Apps with access to your account: If you have used any of the mobile apps that link to Ravelry, you can control whether they can access your data here.

personal bits

  • First name: This shows up when people hover over your Ravatar across the site so tell us what you want us to call you!
  • Birthday: If you fill this in your get a little cake icon on your Ravatar on your birthday.
  • Where are you?: Filling in your location helps customize Ravelry for yourself.  It lets you see local yarn shops near you that carry certain yarns and anywhere on the site that you can search nearby (users, yarn shops, etc) we use this information.  It also shows up when people hover over your Ravatar.  If you don’t feel comfortable naming your actual town, you could try your county, or another town in the area.
  • Years knitting, crocheting: Just for fun, a place to let us know how long yarn has been in your life.
  • Any pets? Kids?: Again, a fun way to share a bit of your life with other users.
  • Favorite colors: If you engage in swaps, this is a great piece of information to fill out to help your swapee learn about you.
  • Fave curse word: Some folks put a real curse word, some a funny phrase.  I like punctuation since it lets you use your imagination.

social sites

This is where to let people know where else they can find you on the internet.  We have a long list so check it out if you want to be linked elsewhere in the online world.

about me

The about me section is totally free-form.  You can enter links, images, videos.  If you think there’s a question we should be asking, answer it here!  This is really your space to tell us what you want Ravelry to know about you :)

delete

We hope that you love Ravelry and never want to leave, but if you do, this link at the bottom of your profile page is the way to do so.

Now you know all about your profile.  Everything in there is optional, but whatever you want to share we want to see!