The community blog

Member Directory Profiles Get a Makeover – What Can You Expect?

Name, occupation, marital status … it does the trick, but change is good! You need a better way to express yourself, connect with your buddies and show the world the real you.
We’re making some changes to the Member Directory experience that will allow you to do just that. You’ll notice some new tabs on the left-hand side of the page that allow you customise your existing profile, or create a new one altogether. What can you do with them? Here’s a quick take on some of the changes that you’ve probably already noticed.

About Me: This simple text field allows you to write a bit of blurb to introduce yourself to the community. If you love dogs, adore arsenal or prefer to sit in the pub in your spare time, this is the place to tell everyone. There’s plenty of flexibility to change your font or add hyperlinks.

My Photo: Your Buddy Icon isn’t the only way to identify yourself around here. That’s why we’ve integrated the ability for you to upload a photo of yourself to your profile. Just grab a picture right off your hard drive and you’re good to go.

Personal Details: This stuff is easy. Where do you live? When’s your birthday? Are you here looking for love or just want to chat with some online buddies? Reveal whatever you want, or just keep us guessing!

Interests: We know, we know … you’re highly opinionated. From your most loved bands to hobbies to turnoffs … this is the place to share it. We’re all ears.

Pictures: Upload away! You’ll be able to upload 24 at a time, so be patient with that 25th shot of granny. Try to avoid the racy ones, however, or we’ll have to remove them, and nobody wants that. If you’re not sure what’s appropriate check out our friendly guidelines.

Settings: How much info do you want to reveal on your profile? It’s up to you. You can also reset your profile if you made a mistake or just feel like starting all over again.


We’ll give you a heads-up soon on more exciting updates and features to come, so stay tuned. But in the meantime, get playing! Your buddies will thank you for it.


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communityteamuk at 16:58:35 o'clock BST Link to this entry | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 1 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

AIM Pages lets you create an online profile that's your face and space on the web. You can show your personality off and connect with friends, family and others like you by including photos, videos and music. An indicator on your AIM Buddy List will notify you when your buddies update their AIM Pages.

Here are some of our AIM Pages for you to have a look at:
Wendy's AIM Page
Mark's AIM Page
Theresa's AIM Page

Some Leader AIM Pages:
UKLeaderTune's page - She most certainly knows her music and is happy to talk about it all day.
UKLeaderTip's page - Tips is good at sorting out any software problems you might have and can be found on the AOL tech help message boards.
UKLeaderPlantman's page - one of the best people to befriend if you need a bit of gardening advice!

Make a page, and please add us as your buddies! :)


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communityteamuk at 12:03:18 o'clock BST Link to this entry | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 11 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

Just a quick update: as we've mentioned before, AOL's Big Brother area is your great one-stop shop for all the latest BB8 news, gossip and views.

We're now pleased to add a collection of Big Brother icons: show your support for your housemate by choosing one today!


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communityteamuk at 10:48:53 o'clock BST Link to this entry | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 1 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

Green living and environmental awareness are very hot on the agenda at the moment, and even characters in virtual online worlds may have their own carbon footprint and contribute to climate change.

Whether you're confused, concerned or curious, you may wish to check out AOL's new Go Green site. On Go Green, you can find more about pressing environmental issues, calculate your carbon footprint and get easy tips and hints that allow you to make a difference and reduce your carbon emissions.

I'm recycling, reusing, and washing at 30C - what will your pledge be?


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communityteamuk at 10:21:52 o'clock BST Link to this entry | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 4 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

Morning!

Some of you have reported issues with the AOL Member Directory (profiles) this morning, and receiving error messages when trying to access or update profiles.

I'm sorry for any inconvenience that this is causing - our technical teams are working to resolve this glitch, and I hope profiles will be right as rain soon!

Update 12:04

Well, that's good timing - I had no sooner posted than profiles were fixed. Good news - all seems to be up and running again!


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communityteamuk at 12:00:59 o'clock BST Link to this entry | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 0 comments: Add your own

TV's Marmite returns again - love it or hate it, Big Brother's here to stay and, unless you're a dab hand at reprogramming your telly, hard to avoid for the next couple of months.

AOL will have the highlights - and lowlights - online in our Big Brother 8 area, so whether you want to meet the contestants or mete out your opinions in our Big Brother community, it's all only a click away!

There are some great Big Brother blogs out there too, including AOL's great Official Big Brother 8 Blog - get the latest comment on the house, and leave your comments too.

If you're considering hibernation as a way of avoiding what could prove to be a Big Bother, why not check out AOL Show Me, where you can learn to do something new, or share your own how-to clips!

As for me, I'm off to make a tasty Thai green curry and see how long I can hold out before getting caught up in Big Brother!


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communityteamuk at 12:49:42 o'clock BST Link to this entry | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 3 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

We've created three different AOL Buddy Icons so that you can show your support for The McCann family and their campaign to find Madeleine.

If you'd like to change your icon please go to the Madeleine McCann Buddy Icon page and select the one you wish to use.

You also might have heard of a poster campaign, started by Madeleine's aunt, designed to spread the word about Madeleine's disappearance. The poster and additional information can be found at the poster campaign page.

Please pass both links on to anyone you think would be interested.


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communityteamuk at 17:00:50 o'clock BST Link to this entry | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 1 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

Thanks to everyone who's advised us recently of issues you've been having with uploading files to your AOL FTP space, which we've escalated.

Apologies if you've been discommoded by recent problems, but good news - we've been advised that a patch will be installed later in the week, which should resolve this issue. We'll let you know of any updates, so do check back later in the week!


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communityteamuk at 17:46:25 o'clock BST Link to this entry | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 5 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

Thanks for all the comments we received on our first two blog entries! It's good to know that people are reading. My name is Theresa and I've had the pleasure of working with Wendy and Mark on the AOL UK community team for almost three years now. Amongst other areas, I'm responsible for all things community when it comes to Entertainment on AOL UK, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to reach out to fans of The Apprentice. You might be interested in reading James Max's blog. James, who was a contestent on the first series of the show, writes weekly updates on the happenings in this series.

As some of you have asked questions, and made some comments on the previous blog entries, I thought I'd try my best to answer them for you:

EnrikApp - Unfortunately this team is not able to help with any kind of technical or connection based query. Your best bet is to phone member services on 0870 3 20 20 20 or visit the help pages. You should find the assistance you need there.

UKLeaderBks - You're too kind! I don't feel very young! I've gone up to the next tick box in surveys..

DjBrown1944 - We'll certainly try our best to update the Blog page more often. We're always open to suggestions for new top blogs, so if you're particularly proud of yours, or you've found one you love reading, please let us know. I've just had a read of your Wainwright wanderings - good luck with your challenge! It sounds like a beautiful part of the country.

SpidersWebHelp - I can assure you that I log onto the AOL client every day when I get to work just as you do at home. As a team we try to keep all of the users of our AOL UK community as happy as possible. We always try our best to redirect any concerns, comments or complaints we receive and can't answer ourselves, to the relevant people within the company. This blog was started as an effort to try and keep you more informed of any changes, or problems, that crop up within AOL UK's community products. If you see somethingyou feel strongly about that needs changing, tell us specifically what it is by commenting or emailing AOLUKCommunities.
I will reiterate, as Wendy's first posting on the blog states, as a team of three, our main responsibilities lie within chat rooms, message boards, profiles, blogs, groups, moderation and community leaders.


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communityteamuk at 11:59:25 o'clock BST Link to this entry | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 14 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

Hi, and welcome to AOL UK's all-new community team blog.

One of the things I love most about working for AOL is the size and breadth of our community - name an age, postcode or hobby, and I know we'll have someone that fits the bill. It makes for a really refreshing, fun community where no two days are ever the same.

We're always keen to receive your feedback, and encourage you to comment using the "Add your own" link just below this post. Your comments will be public, so please don't put anything in there you wouldn't want your granny to see!

If you want to contact us about something community-related that you don't wish to be public, you can drop us an email to AOLUKCommunities@aol.com. If you'd like to receive an alert every time we update the blog, use the links at the bottom of any post.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to seeing you around our community!
Mark :)


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communityteamuk at 17:50:34 o'clock BST Link to this entry | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 9 comments: Show Recent | Add your own