It finally happened: People who didn't explicitly opt to make their profiles public have become anonymous. Former Member now shows up wherever their names had appeared automatically before, and a grayish ghost has replaced their avatar pics.
This change doesn't mean their profiles have given up the ghost for good, however. (Nice segue, huh?) Unless these (former) members have been away from the SAP Community for several years, they can still come back as active participants with their profiles!
Contrary to some recent assumptions, the switch to the default privacy settings was not permanent. So if you have unwillingly found yourself within the Former Member ranks, you don't need to kiss your progress goodbye and create a new account. To return triumphantly as a visible community member, simply update your privacy settings at
#privacy.
Once you grant permission to display your profile publicly, your contributions will be attributed to you again. You'll also be able to participate fully in the community -- posting content, liking comments and responses, and so on. Otherwise, as a Former Member, your participation is pretty much limited to read-only activity.
Note that the freedom to update privacy settings works both ways. You can change your public display from "allow" to "don't allow" to "allow" to...well, you get the idea. The point is that you're never locked into your decision. You can always change your mind later and switch your privacy setting as often as you want.
At any rate, if you're now a Former Member, please don't be a stranger! We love seeing your name and face in the SAP Community.
Here are some resources to help get you back in business.
- This blog post originally announced the changes to profile policy -- explaining what was planned, why it is was happening, and how members could continue participating in the community. It remains a useful source of information about the privacy topic.
- If you're not looking for background and you just need some instructions about updating your privacy settings, this video walks you through the process, step by step.
- Got an older profile for an inactive account? Want to make sure you don't lose any of your acknowledgments and contributions? This blog post provides details about how to keep that profile from disappearing.
- If you still have questions, the SAP Community Privacy FAQs should offer answers. If they don't, feel free to ask me in the comments section below!
