Your Profile Page

Your profile page is where you can tell other members a bit about yourself. NicaLiving is an on-line community and for us to function as a community we need to know a bit about each other.

The more you tell us, the more helpful we can be. That said, some people are concerned with privacy. Let me put that in perspective. First, if you are doing anything over the Internet, if someone wants to find out who you are, they pretty much can do it. Thus, NicaLiving disclosures should be the least of your worries.

If you are seriously concerned, here are some options:

• You don't have to disclose your real name. Using something "realistic" may make sense because, someday, you may meet in person. But, if your legal name is "Harold Lloyd Chest Fur", disclosing that you are "Harry C." or just "Harry" doesn't give much away.
• Date of birth is being asked to get an idea how old you are. Talking to a 10 year old or a 70 year old is different if for no other reason than life experience. If you are really scared we will know too much, just put in your birth year (or something close).
• Your address information and country of birth is, again, to know a bit about who you are to better be able to communicate. Someone born in China and living in Thailand is not likely to have the same perspective on Nicaragua as someone born in El Salvador and living in Jinotega.
• Finally, that photo. There are lots of reasons why having a real photo is a good thing including being able to recognize you when someone needs to pick you up at the airport. On the other hand, it is a big disclosure. If you really don't want your photo here we understand but adding a photo that tells us something about you is a big help. For example, if you life's passion is to train dogs, putting up a photo of a dog helps.

Due to popular demand, a phone number field has been added to the "Personal information" part of your profile. It is optional and the intent is for Nicaragua phone numbers. We will add a report that displays all members with information in that field at some later time--to more or less create a NicaLiving phone book.

Private Message vs. Personal Contact Form

While both offer ways for other members to contact you, they work quite differently. The Private Message option allows another logged-in member to leave you a message in your "inbox" here. These messages go from "screenname to screenname" and do not disclose anything about you.

If you enable your personal contact form, members are able to send you email by filling out a form here. This goes directly to your (not otherwise disclosed) private email address. This will cause the sender's email address to be made available to the recipient. If the recipient then replies this will, of course, send back the original recipient's email address to the original sender.