How can I hide my age in Yahoo chat?

[Ratri K]

When visiting any Yahoo chat room, there is a list of people present and chatting in that room. The list is located in the right margin of the chat room window.

Whenever I am in chat, people can mouse over my name and see my location and age. I have tried and tried to disable this.

I checked and changed all my Yahoo account information, my profile info, my Messenger settings. I have disabled, enabled, and disabled my profile, changed all my settings, jumped through hoops, stood on my head, pushed ever button and pulled every switch and still cannot disable this feature.

Two of my girlfriends have been Yahoo members as long as me. We are all the same age, yet their ages do not appear when mousing over their names while they are present in a Yahoo chat rooms. We have compared all Yahoo account info, profile settings, and Messenger settings- step by step. Their setting are all the same as mine.

It is not a matter of being a minor. I am 26 years old and Yahoo has my actual birth date. All my account information with Yahoo was confirmed years ago.

Can someone help me to hide my age and location when I am in chat?
This has been bothering me for months. Searches within Yahoo Help are fruitless. I'm about to pull my hair out!

Please tell me how to hide my age and location when in chat. There must be something we missed.

 

[♫True Colors☺]

I can answer your question but it is not one that you are going to be happy about so sorry about that.

The ability to add information about yourself to show in the chatters list was only part of the old Yahoo Profile system that is not longer used. The new Yahoo Profile system that Yahoo! users now, has nothing to do with the chat room information shown on the chatters list.

This information from the old Yahoo Profiles included such things as a chat room nickname, age, location, and sex. And it was just up until 2 or 3 months ago that people could still access the one remaining link to the old profile system. So people could still create or edit a chat room nickname, or the other personal information, if they knew how. I helped scores of people do just that. But then sadly, yahoo closed that last remaining link. And now there is nothing that can be done.

And they did not leave a method for editing or removing the information that was already there. I think that when they totally disabled the old profile system (if you remember it was through yahoo members directory which is also now defunct) they should have erased all that personal information but they did not. Actually even better is they should have tied the new Yahoo Profiles to the chat room info but make it optional. Hmmm I might just see if there is a feedback form and suggest this to Yahoo.

So your only option if you have information (your age and location in your case) showing and you do not want it to show, is to create an Alias and use that in the chat rooms instead.

Well even though I could not give you the answer you were looking for, at least now you know the reason. I do wish I had better news for you and for all the other people wondering the same thing.

HOW DO I CREATE AN ALIAS
For every Yahoo! ID you can create 6 aliases.
1. In the Messenger menu at the top of Y!M choose My Account Info. You can also use this link to sign in: https://edit.yahoo.com/mc2.0/eval_profile?
2. Under Account Settings click “Manage your Yahoo! Aliases. It will take you to the page to add or delete an alias. Just click the blue Add an alias link to add an alias. Then click save on the right.
3. To delete an alias click Delete on the right.
Yahoo recently redesigned the whole Account Info page so it will look different than you are used to.

One major thing that is different in the new Yahoo Profile system is that aliases cannot have unique profiles. If you want an alias to have a profile you will have to link it to your main Yahoo ID. Only link your alias to the main Yahoo ID if you do not mind that they share a profile.

You might need to exit Yahoo! Messenger before the new alias you have created becomes available in the drop down menu of the Join a room window for chat rooms or the drop down menu under Send As in the IM box.

You can also choose to sign into Yahoo Messenger with your Alias instead of your Yahoo ID and then you will not have to change the name in the IM window or if you go to a chat room because it will already be set as your Alias.