# Member profiles

> What a member's profile shows, following and unfollowing, starting a chat from a profile, and the admin options in a profile's menu.

Source: https://support.estage.com/community-profiles
Part of the ESTAGE Support help center (https://support.estage.com). Full knowledge base: https://support.estage.com/llms-full.txt

---

Every member has a **profile** in the community: who they are, what they've posted, and how
active they've been. It's where you get to know someone, follow them, or start a chat.

Select a member's name on a post or comment, or a member in search, to open their profile. To see
your own, open the menu under your avatar and choose **View profile**.

> **Note**
>
> Profiles are for signed-in people. A visitor who isn't signed in is asked to sign in first.

Hovering over a member's name on a computer shows a short card with their followers, **Follow**
and **Message**. On a phone, tapping the name opens the card first; **Profile** on it opens the
full profile.

## What a profile shows

| Part | What's in it |
| --- | --- |
| **Cover** | The banner at the top, if the member has added one. |
| Name, level and badges | The member's name, their current level, and the badges they hold. |
| Activity | *Online now*, or **Last active** with how long ago. |
| **Followers** / **Following** | How many members follow them, and how many they follow. |
| Profile card | Name, @handle, bio, **Last active**, **Joined** (month and year), **Location** and social links. On a phone it shows under the header. |
| Stats and achievements | Their posts, comments and other activity counts, their streak, and the **Achievements** they've earned — see [Levels, points & leaderboards](https://support.estage.com/community-gamification#streaks-and-the-progress-widget). Shown to members. |
| Posts | The member's posts, newest first. More load as you scroll. |

The bio, location and social links come from the member's
[profile settings](https://support.estage.com/community-your-account#your-profile-in-this-community).

## Following a member

1. Open the member's profile.
2. Select **Follow**. The button switches to **Unfollow**.

You get a notification when someone you follow publishes a post, and a push notification when they
post a story. Select **Unfollow** to stop.

To see who follows a member, select **Followers** on their profile; **Following** lists who they
follow. Select a name to open that profile.

## Starting a chat

Select **Chat** on a member's profile. The conversation opens in
[Messages](https://support.estage.com/community-messages).

**Follow** and **Chat** show on other members' profiles, for members of the community.

## Editing your own profile

On your own profile you can change a few things in place:

- **Photo** — the button on your photo: **Upload photo** or **Take a photo**.
- **Cover** — **Add cover** (or **Edit cover**): **Upload photo** / **Change cover**, or
  **Remove cover**. Best at 1600 × 360 px.
- **Name** and **Description** — the pencil next to each. The description can be up to 255
  characters.

Everything else — handle, location, social links, theme — is in
[Your account in a community](https://support.estage.com/community-your-account).

## Admin options on a profile

Admins, and roles with the **Assign roles** permission, see a **…** menu next to **Chat** on other
members' profiles:

| Item | Who sees it | What it does |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Assign a role** / **Change role** | Admins and roles with **Assign roles** | Gives the member a role, or changes it — see [Community roles & permissions](https://support.estage.com/community-roles#giving-someone-a-role). The current role shows next to it. |
| **Ban all future purchases** / **Unban all future purchases** | Admins | Stops the member from buying anything else in this community, after a confirmation, or lifts that — see [Blocking someone from buying](https://support.estage.com/community-moderation#blocking-someone-from-buying). |

Roles with **View the member list** also see a member's role as a label next to their name.

## Things worth knowing

- **A profile belongs to one community.** If someone is a member of several communities, they have
  a separate profile in each.
- **Following is one way.** Following someone doesn't make them follow you back, and they aren't
  asked to approve it.

Related: [Members & join requests](https://support.estage.com/community-members)