Do Even More with AIM Profiles!
Posted on Nov 15th 2007 3:32AM by Joseph Manna
Filed under: New Features, Featured Items, Community Info, What's New, Profile Tips, Member Directory, AIM Profiles Blog, Profile Features
Now that AIM Profiles are here, many of you wanted to know how to customize them. I'll cover the basics and show you around eight different sections of your profile including how to add videos, music and slideshows.
The Basics
We couldn't have the fun of advanced stuff without understanding the fundamentals. You can manage your profile from one easy to remember address: editprofile.aim.com. Once you get there, you will have eight areas in your profile to fill in. Everything is all optional, of course. 
• About Me -- This section is self-explanatory. Enter anything you want, except for fancy HTML codes and stuff. You can put just about anything you want here.
• My Photo -- You can upload your favorite picture of yourself, a favorite pastime time or hobby. This will become the "minipic" which is the picture that will be displayed along the upper left corner of your profile.
• Personal Details -- You can choose to let people find you by name, display your first name on your profile, list your age and birthday, specify who you're looking for, your hometown, occupation, three favorite hyperlinks and up to four different quotes. If you really liked the old Member Directory format, this section is for you!
• Interests -- If you love lists like I do, then you'll like this. You can list your favorite music, TV shows, books, activities and more. The terms you enter are turned into links. You can click on these to search for other users with similar interests.
• Pictures -- You can upload all your favorite fun, wild and crazy pictures here. Do us all a favor and make sure they fall within the AIM Profiles product guidelines. This area uses the newly refined AIM Photos service instead of the AOL Pictures product.
• Themes -- No one wants to be plain and boring, that's why we have over 190 different themes that you can choose from. No complicated codes to mess with, just point, click and save to see the changes.
• Code Snippet -- This is where you are can add Web-based widgets like videos, music, slideshows, Wimzi's and much more! This is the only section that accepts plain-text HTML code.
• Privacy & Settings -- You can manage your profile settings to make your profile private (the default is public), display the date that you became an AOL or AIM user, latest updates you made to your profile, hit counter, comment and buddy request preferences. Additionally, if you want to delete your AIM Profile and start again, you can click the "Reset Profile" button at the bottom.
As you can see, AIM Profiles are easy to customize and offer you the ability to add cool things. You can check out my profile, where I'll always be tinkering around.
If you have questions about how to do something on your profile, let us know in the comments and we'll help. :-)
[Update: 12/5 4:24PM] I've responded to a lot of comments you've posted below in this follow-up entry. Thanks everyone for posting their thoughts and concerns.
~ Joseph
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 8)
1. are you serious? no one wants it to be boring? IT IS BORING! we can do anything, and it looks terrible!!! Everyone hate it! we don't have any freemdom, the comments are ugly, and we cant use advanced edit mode!!! fix it PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!
Posted at 3:50PM on Nov 15th 2007 by mintyfreshtictac
2. mintyfreshtictac,
Sorry to hear that you find it boring. I understand that the Advanced Editor did offer some compelling features; however, it did come at a price: performance and usability. A large number of users often were confused by it.
You can use the Code Snippet feature where you can add anything you want to your profile like videos or anything else.
It may take a short while to adjust to AIM Profiles, but you are still in control of it with many themes.
Thanks for your feedback,
Joseph
Posted at 3:56PM on Nov 15th 2007 by Joseph Manna
3. that's not the point joseph manna the point is everyone liked the old profiles better and they were easier to manage and they looked better so please change them back!!!
thanx.
Posted at 5:29PM on Nov 15th 2007 by luv2swim0061
4. Is there any way to use any of the features of advanced edit mode, because i really want to change where the modules are on my profile. I really liked the old profiles better than they are right now.
Posted at 6:56PM on Nov 15th 2007 by joe
5. OK.. care to tell me what you did with my pictures? The ones that USED to be behind the tab marked "pictures"? Or for that matter, what happened to everyone's pictures? WTG AOL.. you are going from bad to worse in record speed.. and you still have not answered my question about how to get my first name OFF the public picture page that I'm afraid my pictures are going to end up on. Will you quit messing this up and take some time to answer a few questions?
Posted at 7:23PM on Nov 15th 2007 by Snoopy0315J
6. OKKK NOOO THIS IS NOT OK!!!! i hate the new AIM page mine as perfect before and now it is absoulutly stupid idk what is rong with you people because i agree with the other people this is just plain fricken boringggg! I HATE AIM PAGE NOW!!! i used to love it but now that you changed it i hate it so if you dont change it backkkk than you are weird and you have no sense in what to change and what not to chnage...because AIM page was good and now it suckks!
sooo yeahh goooodbye
Posted at 7:32PM on Nov 15th 2007 by xxallieexo
7. I FREAKIN HATE HOW YOU THINK THE " ADVENCED CRAP" OR WHATEVER THE HELL CALL IT, WORKS BETTER THAN THE OLD VERSION!!!! BECAUZE THE NEW VERSION SUCKS BIG TIME!!!! CHANGE IT BACK!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted at 7:33PM on Nov 15th 2007 by j25odie
8. yeah okayy listen i relle relle want my aim page bak it took me 4evar to make. when i went on my aim page and saw that it was changed i got relle upset. can u change mine bak to the old one. i mean all of my other friends still have their aim pages and i dont. compared to theirs its relle bad. come on i relle want/need it bak how i had it.
Posted at 9:40PM on Nov 15th 2007 by j
9. These new AIM pages as profiles are a dumb idea. It is a poor imitation of MySpace. At least when these crappy AIM pages were first introduced, members had the option to keep their classic profiles. Now, it seems that users have no option other than to use these lame AIM pages that totally suck and nobody likes in the first place. Stop tryna keep up with the Joneses. Simpler IS better!
Posted at 10:44PM on Nov 15th 2007 by nasir
10. why did the old profile info delete? I upgraded my AIM and POOF my profile info was GONE. WHY!? BRING IT BACK.. PLEASE! =[ it took so long to put it together
Posted at 11:44PM on Nov 15th 2007 by HAPoop
11. I had a really nice div overlay and now it is gone if people do not know how to use features let them choose between boring page style and the stuff we use to be able to add custom html to
Posted at 10:35AM on Nov 16th 2007 by Versa
12. I have recently taken a poll of six chat rooms, it's pretty much agreed upon that this new profile format is unliked and unwanted. As a paying customer i find it annoying that aol continualy changes anything they please without notice or even ASKING if a different version is wanted! Aol, get a clue, none of your customers are happy with this, put things back the way they were, if i wanted an Aim profile i would use Aim!!!!
Posted at 8:07PM on Nov 16th 2007 by Dj Landry
13. Hey joseph? Facts are facts, no one likes this, so why doesnt aol put things back they way they were? PAYING customers should be allowed a choice, the Classic Aol profile, or the CRAP Aim one... I'm thinking the Aim profiles would vanish overnight. Please send this to the board of directors or who ever the idiots in charge are.
Posted at 8:14PM on Nov 16th 2007 by Dj Landry
14. mintyfreshtictac,
Sorry to hear that you find it boring. I understand that the Advanced Editor did offer some compelling features; however, it did come at a price: performance and usability. A large number of users often were confused by it.
You can use the Code Snippet feature where you can add anything you want to your profile like videos or anything else.
It may take a short while to adjust to AIM Profiles, but you are still in control of it with many themes.
Thanks for your feedback,
Joseph
Posted at 3:56PM on Nov 15th 2007 by Joseph Manna
You call that an answer? You know I have had AOL accounts for more than 10 years. This has to be by far the worst "upgrade" that you have done. If people don't know how to use the advance section then let them have this version, but for those of us who did enjoy really customizing an AIM page at least give us the option. Your idea of themes on these new profiles consists of a very small stripe of color, if you are lucky, at the top of the page and then HUGE white boxes. You can't even see the theme around the boxes. There is no way to really customize these profiles. It's sad, truly sad, that you can say that this is some kind of improvement.
Posted at 8:27PM on Nov 16th 2007 by Iktome
15. what is the function of the current status box at the top of the profile? it does nothing and sometimes it disappears
Posted at 11:48PM on Nov 16th 2007 by Albiondon
16. ok I seem to have a few problems. To begin with when the AOL profiles were switched to the AIM profiles. I seem to have lost all my pictures. Unfortunately, I don't have many of these pictures on this computer. Also I spent a long time working on my AIM profile in the advance mode to get online and see it has been change back to the generic AIM. So again, I had to change it once again. It's really too bad you arent giving your AOL clients a choice in the kind of profiles some would like to have. I hope you rethink taking away the advane mode. It really is easy to work and if there are those that can't manage it. They can stick with the simpler form.
Posted at 3:53AM on Nov 17th 2007 by Deborah
17. Joseph, get a clue, will you? Stop "smiling from the wrists down" and acknowledge the fact that we HATE this crap. You, and AOl have been told we don't like these changes. I've been a member for many many years, and not once was I ever asked my opinion on what I wanted, so who are you asking? Obviously you have been talking to the kids from MySpace. I don't want an AIM page, I don't want an AIM profile (or whatever it is you are calling this crap now), I don't want a wannabe MySpace page, I WANT my old AOL profile back. Others here want their old AIm Page back.
I too have polled people in chatrooms. Maybe you should try listening in to the comments in the chatrooms. We simply do not like what you have done, at least have the guts to admit it - AOL screwed up.
You've told us all how much we are going to love it. Well, we've had to deal with this crap, and if you're reading the same comments I am, you'd admit we simply "ain't buyin" your lame excuses about how wonderful this all is. LOL, and as long as you are going to keep this blog going, I'm sure you'll hear more gripes. Hope you enjoy being the AOL scapegoat!
Posted at 8:43AM on Nov 17th 2007 by Snoopy0315J
18. ALL MY LINKED AIM PAGES ARE TURNING INTO PROFILES!!! I CAN'T REMOVE THE BUDDY INFO OR ANYTHING!!!! WE SHOULD HAVE A CHOICE BETWEEN THE 2. THE ONLY ACCOUNT THAT DOESN'T HAVE A PROFILE IS THIS ONE. AND MY AIM PAGE BETTER STAY AN AIM PAGE!!!! I DON"T UNDERSTAND THE CODE THINGYMAJIGGY!!!
Posted at 10:36AM on Nov 17th 2007 by sgafanzpm15
19. wut the heck no one likes this it is so stupid u cant even have a good backround i hate it plus it looks gay♥ jordan
Posted at 2:48PM on Nov 17th 2007 by wcandygirl21
20. ok..why do you need my password to post a comment?? and what the heck did you do to my profile?? i had it the way i liked it.. you people seriously have a problem .. it's messing something up that people like and enjoy. you think you are improving on it.. ever think.. LEAVE IT ALONE?!?!? maybe that's why you are charging for aol more and more.. you keep hiring idiots who think they know everything to fix things that are not broken!! fix the problems with these "BOTS" that come into the chat room's and people who harrass others in the chat room's that keep coming back with newer names over and over again!
quit messing with profiles and programs
sheesh..
Posted at 7:34PM on Nov 17th 2007 by xxxrikycxxx