It is important that a user’s profile remains current, especially the user’s email address, but only certain fields within a user’s profile are mandatory. Mandatory fields are marked by an asterisk. However, the level of customization in the profile can be controlled by the forum administrator/owner in the forum settings from full access to no access.
The user’s profile consists of various sections. Under the Profile tab, the user will see personal information, such as first and last name, username, email address, secret question and a field to enter a new password.
In addition, the user can enter his/her location information (city, province/state, country, time zone) and provide miscellaneous information, such as website URL, ICQ #, AIM, birth date, and signature. If the administrator has created profile questions, users will see them in this section. For example, profile questions could be: “what is your occupation?” or “what is your favorite past-time?”
Under the Personal Options tab, users will be able to enable, disable, and specify terms for certain features. These features include: profile visibility, email visibility, receive private messages, block user signatures, disable private topics, message display order, the number of days prior to the current date to view topics, the number of topics viewed per page, default layout of topic view, the number of message viewed per page, color themes, method of delivery for subscriptions, preferred language, category blocking, category subscription, and category digest.
To update the profile, make the necessary changes in one or many of the fields mentioned earlier. A user can also update his/her password by entering a new password and verifying it within the Profile section. Click on the Update Profile button that appears at the bottom of the screen.
If the user forgets his/her username and/or password, and is unable to login to a forum, click on the “Forget your login information?” link that appears in the left navigation pane where a user would enter his/her login credentials. The user will be prompted with a window requesting for his/her email address (the email address that appears in his/her profile), and the secret question and its answer before resetting the password. A new password will be generated and emailed to the email address stated in the profile of that user. If a secret question and answer were not selected when the user joined the forum initially, the user can click on a link that will reset the password automatically.