So today i was reading the forums, and i saw one person (in their signature) was offering an unpostable book if you offered something off their shelf. I was kind of interested, so i was going to check out their shelf, and the button was gone! I clicked their name, and they are no longer showing their profile.

Out of curiosity, i know people have closed up their profiles for fear of people from 'the outside' sneaking a peek... but when they do that, does it automatically close their shelf to viewing, or are they doing this on purpose? Maybe she forgot to change her signature?

I think people don't realize the implication of shutting off their profile, but they should have been able to leave their shelf up.

I also think people are worrying about nothing.....you could still have a profile up but limit what information is there.  If someone really wants to find you they will find you and hiding your profile here isn't going to keep you invisible

I agree, Leslie!

Leslie is right.  The best thing for everyone to do is to actually read what they have up on their profile.  Then make a determination as to what you want to keep there and what should be removed.  I think too many people panicked.  I reviewed my profile, made some changes and are happy with what you can/cannot see.

I agree too. You can limit what is views by not writing what you don't want seen. I don't understand the panic either.

I don't think people really thought it through far enough to realize what hiding everything did to their offers with orders from their shelves. It makes me sad that so many people in the forums have hidden their profiles, Wish Lists and bookshelves. I like to browse shelves and peek at WLs to see if I have something for someone who has had a hard time lately or a dry spell on WL. It also makes it hard to be a credit fairy if the gives credits buttons aren't there because everything is hidden.

I went to see what happens when you make your profile Private, and there are options for making every individual thing private. So i do NOT understand why they would make it so you can't see their bookshelves and Wish Lists... that's very weird. How can you order something directly from someone you like if you can't see their stuff? Maybe they have it so their Buddies can see their stuff, but honestly, i am not going about friending everyone to find out. That would take up too much time.