Is there a way to hide a profile or profile info?

You can come and go as you please. You can go onto your account and, one by one, hide every question and every answer. Why does it matter?

Are people who aren’t super active on this site looked down upon?

No more or less so than the blabber mouths, although I am not really sure what you mean by “looked down upon.” We all have our fans, our detractors and our neutral observers.

If you are scrupulous about your privacy, simply lurk.

Up at the top of your screen, you will see a “My Account” tab. There you can adjust the privacy of who will see the answers you provide when they look at your profile. That is also where you can delete your account if you ever needed to.

As far as deleting your questions and answers once they are posted, you would have to flag them and ask the moderation team to remove them for you. This is not done often though because we try to keep the questions and answers up so that they may help other users in a similar situation.

Overall, if you are concerned about your privacy, you probably shouldn’t post something you don’t want others to see. Once it’s out on the internet, there is no real guarantee of privacy.

I have come and gone over five years on this site, and no one has given me the impression that it is frowned upon; in fact, a few folks will make a point to express that they’re glad to see me. However, I have not deleted my account in that process.

As for privacy on the internet, there really isn’t such a thing. As noted, you can Hide your activity from your profile, but it is still a part of the Fluther content and your posts will still be there – just not linked through your profile page.

And personally, I am hopeful that you will stick around. You seem like a nice, intelligent young lady. Another option might be to choose a different username for yourself, if you think that this one might be recognizable by others. Or if you’re concerned about the photos on the Brandy post, maybe the mods will take that down for you.

I know there is no such thing as “privacy” on the interwebs, I only ask because there are occasional times where I like to kind of “take down” my account and go on a bit of an internet fast lol. I don’t like the feeling that people are trying to message me or answer questions or things like that when I know I’m not going to respond. That’s why in the past I have closed my facebook account or locked down my wall. Sorry to give the wrong impression, I’m more curious if I have the capability to do it than anything else lol

You can deactivate your account and that would make it so that others wouldn’t be able to message you, but they would still see the questions and answers you gave on the site (with your username attached to them) and would still be able to answer those questions or respond to your answers.

okay, thanks. I think I got an idea of it now :)

Think of it as your questions belonging to the community once you have asked them. You can’t go back and change them, and you can’t control how people will answer them, nor can you control where the discussion will go. People will say what they think, no matter what you might want them to say or think.

It’s kind of like tossing a pebble into a pond. You have no idea what the ripples will be like. All you can do is let go of the stone and see what happens.

Some of the most valuable members of our community come and go over time. It’s certainly not looked down upon- everybody has a different amount of time they can or want to contribute to the community, and any contributions at all are valued! You may not be as well-known as some of the more regular jellies are, but then again, neither are most of the members here. You will be welcomed with open arms whenever you are able to stop by!

If you decide to go on a break from the internet as you stated that you like to do, a better solution than repeatedly deactivating and reactivating your account might be to write on your profile that you are on a hiatus. Users will generally see this before sending you a message, so that would help to address that concern, and it is much easier to return that way. If deactivating your account helps you to avoid the temptation to participate while you are on your break, temporary deactivation is certainly an option. Either way, any questions or answers that you have given will remain, and people will likely be unaware that you have left and will be able to see your contributions and to respond to you regardless.