A few people have asked for a way to temporarily hide their profile, without having to remove all the pictures and text, or leave BLUF and then rejoin.
This has now been added, in the form of the Visibility option, which appears at the bottom of the profile update page.
When you tick the box next to 'Hide your profile' and then click Update, your profile is marked as hidden.
What actually happens is that when someone visits your profile, they will still see your name, and location, together with information such as when you last signed in to BLUF.
All the profile text, pictures, tags and the BLUF messaging link will be hidden, and replaced with the message "This profile has been temporarily hidden"
The link to your email address will still be visible in the Quick Info box on the right of the page, unless you also choose the Email privacy option on the Preferences screen.
Additionally, your profile will still be shown in search results, with your thumbnail. The "temporarily hidden" message will appear when someone points at the thumbnail, instead of the usual pop-up info box.
So, this is not a complete way of hiding yourself - consider it more a way of indicating that you'd rather not be contacted at the moment.
Also, please note that this is not intended to be used so that you can look at the site without people knowing anything about you. You will still have to sign in at least once a year to remain a BLUF member, but if you are signing in frequently and keeping your profile hidden from other members, I reserve the right to make your profile visible again.
Nigel.
PS. If anyone wants to translate this into German and French for me, that would be good.
