Why your profile says 'not available' when you are signed out

My profile opens normally when I am signed in but shows "This profile is not available" when I sign out. Why?

A profile that has nothing on it yet is hidden from signed-out visitors. If yours returns "This profile is not available" in a private window but opens normally when you are signed in, that is the reason. Your account is not banned, restricted or broken, and nobody has reported it. The page is waiting for something to show.

The gate applies to empty profiles, and only to signed-out visitors

Three things have to line up for the message to appear: the visitor is not signed in, your profile score is still zero, and none of the activity below is on your account. Any signed-in member opening the same address sees your profile normally, which is why it looks fine to you.

Any one of these lifts it straight away

These are checked live, at the moment somebody opens the page, so the effect is immediate:

  1. A published journal.
  2. A published publication.
  3. Being on any project team, which includes every project you create yourself.
  4. A competition entry.
  5. A discussion you started.
  6. A bookmark, on a project, a journal, a publication or a competition.
  7. A bio on your profile.
  8. An About section.

One is enough. Adding a bio is the quickest of them, and bookmarking a single project you like is the next quickest.

Filling in your profile lifts it too

Your profile score rises above zero the moment you save any of these, and the recalculation happens on save rather than overnight:

Education, work experience and an achievement are the heaviest items on that list, at ten points each. A published publication, or a project with you on its team, is worth twice that, so the list above is the faster route and this one is the more valuable. None of it needs to be long.

How to check whether it is fixed

Open a private or incognito window, go to uni.xyz/profile/your-username, and load it without signing in. That is exactly what the gate sees. If the page renders, the gate is lifted for everyone.

Search and the profile page are separate

Your profile can still be returned in search and on the People tab of a results page while the page itself is closed to signed-out visitors. That mismatch is what usually makes this read as a fault rather than a rule. Adding any single item above fixes both at once.

A hidden profile is a different thing

There is a separate hidden state that returns the same message. It is set by UNI, not by you, it applies to signed-in visitors as well, and no amount of activity lifts it. It is rare, and it is not what is happening if your profile opens for other signed-in members. If you believe it applies to you, contact the UNI team.

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