How To Configure Your Friendica Profile
The first time you log on to friendica you will be prompted to upload a photo for your profile.
Click “Choose File” locate a photo that you would like to upload then click the “Upload” button. You may also select “skip this step” for the time being if you choose. A later note will provide the steps to updating your profile picture. Those steps will apply whether you are changing your profile picture or uploading one for the first time.
If you upload an image you will be prompted to scale, crop, or use the image as-is:
Click the appropriate button to “Use Image As Is” if you choose not to crop the photo or “Crop Image” if you choose to use a portion of the uploaded photo.
If you are not taken directly to your profile page click the “Profile” link at the top of the page:
Your profile will be very boring at the moment - but we’re about to fix that. Click the “Edit profile” link:
On the edit profile page you can change your display name, enter a description of yourself, and enter your birthday if you choose. If you enter your birthday then friendica will be listed in your friend’s feeds as a tagged birthday event. I have set Surfer Ken’s birthday so I can get an example of that to show in a different article.
Click the “Submit” button to save the information entered so far.
Next click the “Location” drop-down link to optionally enter information regarding where you live.
If you choose to enter some or all of your address information click the “Submit” button to save what you have entered then click the “Miscellaneous” drop-down link. The “Miscellaneous” section is very powerful in helping others find you when searching for keywords (keywords are very similar to hashtags and used in much the same way).
I will cover “Homepage URL:” “XMPP (Jabber) address:” and “Matrix (Element) address:” in a later note. For now - if you know what those are for feel free to populate the fields. Otherwise, focus on “Public keywords” and “Private keywords.”
“Public keywords” will be listed on your profile for anyone who can view your profile to see. “Private keywords” are never shown to others but are used when searching profiles.
Don’t worry about whether or not your keywords are valid. Just list things that are interesting to you. You will discover keywords in a number of ways (primarily by watching your feeds) and you can always return to this screen to update your keywords as you tune your profile and your friendica experience.
In a later note you will see that there is a “Friend suggestions” link on your contacts page. The keywords that you enter here (both public and private if I understand correctly) will be used to suggest friends via that link - but again private keywords will never be displayed. This is one way that you will be able to discover friends without friendica constantly serving up a list of “people you may know” in your feed. When you ask friendica for some recommendations it will provide them - otherwise it does not.
Once you have entered your keywords click the “Submit” button to save what you have entered and then click the “Custom Profile Fields” drop-down link. This is a place where you can add additional information to your profile page and you can optionally secure the information in a number of ways. I will only scratch the surface of the permissions model in this note.
On this screen enter a label and some content to go along with that label then click the “Submit” button to save the current field and have the opportunity to add another field. You may add as many fields as you like. By default the fields are public. If you wish to restrict who can view the field click the “Field Permissions (reveal/hide)” link associated with the field you wish to secure.
As noted above, profile fields are public by default. This means that the field will be visible to all your followers and can be seen by anyone who can view your profile. If you wish to limit who will see the field then you should click the “Limited / Private” option:
Enter as many custom profile fields as you like (saving each one by clicking the “Submit” button)
Permissions can be applied to many items in friendica - profile fields and posts being two examples. I will publish another note that will cover the permissions model in more depth. For now you can see that it is possible to limit a field to only “Followers.” You are able to show to or exclude groups and / or individuals. The power of this model will be more apparent as you learn more about friendica and now to organize people into circles.
Be sure to click the “Submit” button for the last field that you enter.
Fields may be re-ordered on your profile by clicking the header for the profile field you wish to re-locate and then dragging it to the new location.
Once you have clicked “Submit” for your last profile field you can view your profile by clicking your profile picture in the upper right corner of the page and then selecting “Profile.”
Now you will finally see the profile page that you have been building along the way.
Now that you have your basic profile setup it is time to change your password!