Howto: Set profile info in Oregon State WordPress Blogs

Having blogs.oregonstate.edu managed through ONID credentials makes sense for many reasons, but the resulting default username isn’t the most human readable. Here’s how to fix that.

First off, why should you care?

Simply stated, readers will be more likely to trust your content. Readers are more likely to emote and connect with Julie Thomas than with thomasj. It may seem minor, but the more a reader connects to the author the more the reader will connect to what is written.

Also, it’s your work. Take pride in it.

If you have some free time – pick up a copy of ‘Blink‘ by Malcom Gladwell, several of the chapters cover how seemingly minor details of an inanimate object will affect the perception of the experience of that object, or what is contained in that object.

Step 1 – find the setting

When you first log into OSU WordPress you’ll be at the WP Dashboard. (I’ll assume you don’t have the left menu collapsed). Mouse over the “Users” menu and select “Your Profile” from the flyout.

Step 2 – Fill out your information

Take special note to fill out an email address you will be most likely to respond quickly to. This is where comment approval requests will be sent.

You want to respond quickly to legit comments. A commenter’s experience decreases if they have to wait for their comment to be approved.

You want to respond quickly to a comment that has made it through the spam filters, yet is such that it needs to be addressed. Perhaps it is some sort of negative comment or is potentially abusive to you or to your community. Being notified is important.

Also, fill in a brief description of who you are. This is used by search engines and is partially how you build your authority in what you are posting – so make it simple but significant.

Step 3 – select how your name will be publicly displayed

Pretty straight forward. I choose to just display my first name, but I’m kinda informal that way. I suggest for most use, use however you state your full name.

Now what?

The second part of setting up your profile will be setting up an avatar with superpowers at gravatar.com so that your smiling face will automagically appear in comments and other useful place across the web. Yes, that is a good thing.

I’ll walk through that in another post. – which of course I’ll link to :-)