Profile visibility is binary: public (anyone can see it) or private (only you and admins). Default is private.
What changes when you go public
Your profile at /wheelers/your-username/ becomes accessible to anyone with the URL, including search engines. The following becomes visible:
- Your display name, location, and bio
- Your stats (runs, countries, ratings, reports, contributions)
- Your badges
- Your rigs and rig photos
- Your recent runs (trail name, region, date, rig)
What stays private regardless
- Your saved trails and places (the personal “want to do” list)
- Your trips (only you and your invited crew see these)
- Your email address (never shown publicly)
- Any DMs or private messages between you and other users
- Your activity history beyond the run log (drafts, deleted items, etc.)
Toggling visibility
Account → Profile tab → check or uncheck Make my profile public. The change takes effect immediately. If you make your profile private after it was public, search engines may take a few days to drop their cached version of your page.
The owner toolbar
When you visit your own profile page (whether it’s public or private), you’ll see a thin gold “owner toolbar” at the top with a quick Edit profile button. If your profile is private, the toolbar also notes that — useful reminder.
What visitors see when your profile is private
If someone navigates to your URL and your profile is private, they see a brief stub page that just says you keep a low profile, with no other details. They can’t tell if your profile is rich and just hidden, or empty — only that you exist as a username on the site.
Should you go public?
Up to you. The site works fine either way. Reasons people make their profiles public:
- So other wheelers can verify them as legitimate before a group run
- To get credit for trail contributions and condition reports
- To build a wheeling reputation over time
Reasons to stay private:
- You just want to use the site as a planning tool, not as a social network
- You’re cautious about web presence in general
- You contribute a lot but prefer pseudonymity