Manage your face (and your community)

There are times that you just don't want to be noticed.  Maybe you're sneaking off to a gossip blog, or checking out what people across the political divide are chatting about.  Who knows.  Who cares.  You should be able to go incognito when you want to.  That why we've launched the ability to hide yourself from the reader roll on any site.  Just put your mouse over your face and click on the little "X" that appears.  From that point on, when you visit that site, no one but you will be able to see your face.  You'll know that your hidden because you will always see an "X" on your picture.  When you're ready to be seen again, just click that "X" and you're set.

Authors get tons of value out of this too.  If someone shows up in your reader roll -- spammer, troll, arch-nemesis -- you can hide them from your site.  You'll see an "X" over every person in your reader roll and you can turn any off that you want.  Don't worry, a member can't override your hide setting.  Authors also have this control in their communities.  If someone you're not comfortable with joins your community, you can hide them as well.

PLEASE NOTE: The relationship between the reader roll and community works differently for reader and authors.

For Readers:
Your "hide" status in the reader roll does not affect your status in a community.  If you are a member of a community and then hide yourself from the reader roll, you'll still be seen in the community's member directory.  If you don't want to appear there, just visit the community page and click the "leave" button.  We are working under the impression that membership is a less fluid relationship than showing up in a reader roll.

For Authors:
Hiding someone in either place hides them everywhere.  We are working on the assumption that when you don't want someone associated with your blog or site, that's a universal feeling.

This is the initial release and, as always, we will be improving it based upon your feedback.  Please give it a whirl and let us know what we can do to make the service even better.

Comments

[mike dunn]

great feature eric - i doubt i'll use it but definately makes sense for those that might...

[Guillaume]

Manual Trackback

Also discussed here (in french)

http://www.cybercarnet.net/index.php/2006/11/16/158-du-nouveau-avec-mybloglog

[Drew Meyers]

Nice job putting your users in control- very good strategic move.

[imphaldiary]

How do I add a mybloglog community list/photos. I really like it for my blog.

[Pearl]

So far as communities go, is there a more obvious place you can put it? Hot communities are in prime page location. Perhaps that can shift down as it rarely changes and isn't personally chosen?

[Beth]

This is a great start! Thanks for adding.

[Eric Marcoullier]

Pearl -- can you tell me some more about what you're thinking? I'm not quite understanding you.

[leigh]

so the x thing isn't really working for me bc i visit too many sites - i saw from your privacy policy that you can log in and then hit the link there - so i did that but it keeps telling me that I have to log in - even though i am logged in - am i doing something wrong or just a bug?

[Lu]

Nice... but how can I undo the "hide this person" function? Is that possible?

[Eugene]

Hmmm... in some widget formats, the 'x' does not appear. Is this a bug?

Also, there should be a way to hide yourself from the community in the community's mybloglog page itself instead of visiting the website.

[Ian Kennedy]

@Eugene - please send details of the specific sites where the opt-out [x] doesn't work. We'd be happy to take a look at it.

[Ian Kennedy]

@ Lu - go to "Edit Profile" any communities that you're hiding from will be listed under "My Hide List" - you can unhide yourself there.