Our feedback shows that members with good, clear profile photos and profiles that share something about themselves receive far more messages.
It can be disconcerting to spot a profile with no photo or very little text while browsing.
While we recommend that all our members fill out their profile fully, there can be many reasons why someone may not have added very much information.
- They may be a new member, or working on updating their profile, and might not have had time to add their picture or share much information yet.
- They may feel nervous about uploading a photo, or have personal reasons for not doing so. Some people in public facing roles such as teachers share that this is their reason.
- They may not feel confident about their writing skills, so their profile answers could seem short or blunt.
You don't need to report empty profiles, or profiles without a photo to us. While we recommend everyone adds a photo, we respect the reasons that some members may choose not to do so. Profiles which are totally blank will be automatically hidden by our system after a period of time, until they have been better filled out.
Having no photo or an empty profile doesn't indicate that someone is a scammer - in fact, the opposite is true.
So although it's natural to want to be able to see what someone looks like and find out more about them, please don't report these profiles to us.
However, if someone is using a photo which is not of them or a photo which only shows the back of their head, or if you have any other concerns that they may not be genuine, please do report them to us at the help desk.