Public vs Private Profile Confusion
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Howdy! Could staff please help clarify the definition of what WordPress.com calls a “public profile” as currently mentioned at the bottom of our Account “My Profile” page.
Screenshot from My Profile page That link leads to the Reader which AFAIK can only be accessed by people logged into WordPress.com. To me that means it’s not Public because it can’t be accessed by the web at large.
Compare that to our Gravatar profile at gravatar.com/yourusername that was previously linked in that same space on our My Profile page and which indeed can be seen by everyone, logged in to WordPress.com or not.
Thanks for any insights.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi JenT,
Could staff please help clarify the definition of what WordPress.com calls a “public profile” as currently mentioned at the bottom of our Account “My Profile” page.
Great question — I can see how the wording might feel a bit confusing.
On WordPress.com, we refer to it as your public profile because the information shown there (your display name, bio, profile photo, and any sites you choose to share) is visible to anyone who is logged in to WordPress.com. In other words, it’s “public” within the WordPress.com community and the Reader, rather than being a private or hidden profile.
Even though someone needs to be logged in to view it, it’s still considered public because:
- Anyone with a WordPress.com account can see it
- It’s attached to your likes, follows, and comments in the Reader
- It’s not restricted to only you or a specific set of users
Think of it like a community profile — open to all members, but not indexed by search engines or visible to the general web.
If anything is still unclear or you have more questions about how your profile appears, feel free to ask. I’m happy to help!
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Hey there, thanks for clarifying. Yes, the wording is misleading. What this is is a WordPress.com community profile, as you said.
My thought is that if I share a public profile elsewhere on the web, say Meetup, LinkedIn, Insta, etc., I want everyone to be able to see it.
Now I’m concerned. Is Gravatar no longer a member of the Automattic family? Thanks again for clarifying.
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Just coming back to say thank you for changing the wording in our Account>My Profile from “view your Public profile” to “view your Reader profile” which more accurately describes what it is. Happy holidays!
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Can anybody clarify that if we can get views on articles written on a free WordPress account? I have not got any views on my articles written on the free account. What changes should be made to get maximum views?
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