private profiles

I've kept mine private for a while now. I wish I felt comfortable leaving it open. At least then people could see my 'send message with FR' note but there's too many pervs on here. I like to choose which pervs see can my pictures . (not that my pictures are that interesting anyway)

My profile was open but I had this one person on my friends list that I'm (now) convinced was trolling me. Every/any time my food was over (usually by 50-200 cals) they would post really strange comments about how I'm building up my fat stores and I'm not going to be able to lose weight etc.. I thought It was really strange and annoying so just set it to private.

I'm pretty sure it's open again though.

If a topic of similar nature has already been posted before, I'm not aware of it. Which is why I've posted it. This is for all you guys (mostly ladies I see) with private profiles. Now before you all jump at me and cut my head off, let me first say I'm not judging at all. This is just me being curious, a very normal human trait.

So, why do y'all keep your profiles private? Just a straight to the point question motivated purely by curiosity. Nothing more, nothing less!

Most of them don't want others to see their personal motivations, life stories that they put in it etc. Also, many of the active folks on MFP get creeped up and often annoyed too. This keeps that away.

If you have a private profile, the others cannot see your pictures besides the main one. They cannot see who your friends are or the threads you've made. So its a bit of a security. Many girls keep their more revealing pics hidden from non-friends this way and keeps the creepers at bay.

I think its good. The only bad thing about it is folks cannot see messages such "Please add a message to the Friend Request" or "I'm not adding anymore friends" etc.

Good answer...some very valid points. Profile creeping is often joked about but I imagine like the rest of the internet there are some real CREEPS out there.

Yup, I know a few creepers

Ha!!

If a topic of similar nature has already been posted before, I'm not aware of it. Which is why I've posted it. This is for all you guys (mostly ladies I see) with private profiles. Now before you all jump at me and cut my head off, let me first say I'm not judging at all. This is just me being curious, a very normal human trait.

So, why do y'all keep your profiles private? Just a straight to the point question motivated purely by curiosity. Nothing more, nothing less!

I realize that everyone on MFP a mostly strangers to each other, and everyone adding friends tend not to know each other in real life, my profile isn't private, but if you think about it, the bigger picture, any public profile on the internet is available to everyone in the world.

There are lots of trolls/nuisance makers who join this website just to annoy people. I think you are making yourself open to things like that and also if you are posting photos of your actual self, it wouldn't take too much searching to maybe then find your fb or tumblr etc.

And some might just want to get on with logging on their own

I like a bit of anonymity.

Plus, my eating is all over the place and I've seen plenty of judgement around here so would rather not have that open for public viewing.

I agree with this statement, I would prefer not to be judged for my diary, but for my successes in consistency and dedication. baby steps....

roflol 2 many pervs out there i only want the special pervs to see my page hahahahaha

this.

Is mine set to private I couldn't figure it out. I know I keep my diary closed because I just feel comfortable with it that way but my pictures r not a big deal

My profile was open but I had this one person on my friends list that I'm (now) convinced was trolling me. Every/any time my food was over (usually by 50-200 cals) they would post really strange comments about how I'm building up my fat stores and I'm not going to be able to lose weight etc.. I thought It was really strange and annoying so just set it to private.

I'm pretty sure it's open again though.

Ummmm yeaaahhh... rude!

Lol I was mostly just super confused. They even did that thing that people do where they say things like 'in my opinion' in an effort to not sound like a *kitten*.

I had an MFP friend or two like that when I had my diary open to friends. I don't add people to be the food diary police. )