Setting up your profile

Once your account is created, you can complete and update your profile at any time. Go to Settings and open the General tab.

How to reach your dashboard

Click the circle with your avatar, at the top right. A menu opens with access to your Account, your Contests, your Associations and Sign out. Go into Account to open the dashboard.

Personal information

You can edit the following fields:

• Nickname — public username (must be unique)
• First and last name — cannot be changed once set
• Email — changed with the Change button beside the field, verifying the new address with a code (explained below)
• Address — required, with street and town or city; the number is optional. Never shared publicly: it is only used to send you the medals if you win a prize, as the (i) next to the field explains. How to fill it in is explained below
• Address 2 — floor, door, apartment (optional)
• Phone
• Date of birth
• Preferred language — changes the language of the whole application (Spanish, Catalan, etc.)
• Description / Bio — free text about yourself
• Social networks — e.g. Instagram. They will appear as an icon on your public profile and let people navigate directly to your account

Your address

Your address needs at least the street and the town or city; the number is optional. A city on its own, such as "London", is not enough.

Searching on Google Maps. Start typing your street with the number and pick your full address from the suggestions. Only addresses in the country you chose under Country are suggested. If you pick a street without a number, the field asks you to add the number and pick again.

Typing it in yourself. If you can't find your address among the suggestions, or your home has no number, turn on Manual entry and fill in Postal code, Province / State, City and Street. Number is optional:

• When you type the postal code, the province and city are filled in for you. You can change them if they aren't yours.
• Each field suggests options based on what you have already entered: the provinces or states of the country, the cities in that province and the streets in that city.
• If your home has no number, leave Number empty.

Once everything is filled in, we look the address up on Google Maps:

• If it is found, you are asked Is this your address? Press Yes, that's it to keep Google's version, or No, keep mine to save it exactly as you typed it.
• If it isn't found, you get a warning and the address is saved exactly as you typed it. Check the spelling first.

You can't save your changes until you answer that question.

If your saved address has no street, the field marks it in red and you will need to complete it before you can save any change to your profile.

Changing your email address

The address you sign in to Picstar with is changed from Personal information, using the Change button beside the field. We check the new address is yours before anything moves:

1. Type the address into New email address and press Send code.
2. A 6-digit code arrives at that address. Enter it and press Confirm the change.

Nothing changes on your account until you enter the code: you keep signing in with your usual address.

• The code expires after 10 minutes. If you miss it, request another with Send another code.
• You get 5 attempts per code. On the fifth failure you need a new one.
• There is a one-minute wait between one code and the next.
• If you typed the wrong address, Use a different address takes you back to the first step.
• You cannot use an address that already has a Picstar account.

Once the change goes through, we let the previous address know it is no longer linked to your account. From then on you sign in to Picstar with the new one.

Memberships

If you belong to a photographic federation or confederation, you can store your membership number here:

The fields are grouped into International, National and Regional, just like contest sponsors.

All of them are optional, up to 20 characters. They are worth filling in: when you enter a contest sponsored by one of these organisations, that number is what allows it to award you its points. The organising association can see it in its participant list.

Not every organisation that sponsors contests on Picstar is listed here. Some, such as FAFIBA, do not keep membership numbers for entrants, so there is nothing to save for them.

Photos

• Profile picture — image that represents you on the platform
• Cover photo — header image that appears at the top of your public profile

Honours

In the Honours tab you keep your photographic distinctions, such as EFIAP/g, MCEF/p or PSA 4*. They are listed in a table with their organisation and year. This tab is only there when you edit your profile: the sign-up form does not ask for honours.

To add one:

1. Press New honour.
2. Type the Honour, which is the only required field.
3. If you like, enter the Organisation that awards it and the Year. As you type the organisation, FIAP, PSA, GPU, RPS, CEF, FCF and FAFPV are suggested, but you can enter any other.
4. Press Add or the Enter key.

To correct one, press the pencil on its row: the same window opens with its details and the button becomes Update. The bin strikes it through, and until you save you can bring it back with the circular arrow on its row.

The table shows your honours five at a time: if you have more, change page with the numbers below it. You can have up to 50, and the same honour cannot be added twice.

None of this is saved until you press Save changes, like the rest of your profile: if you leave before, new, corrected and struck-through honours are lost.

Your honours appear below your nickname on your public profile and, in brackets after your name, in contest minutes and on the contest wall, when the viewer turns on Show honours from the eye icon. Only the text of each honour is shown: the organisation and the year are not.

Preferences and notifications

In the Preferences tab you can manage which email notifications you want to receive:

• New contest available
• Notice that a contest is about to end
• Publication of a contest's winners
• Notice of pending voting (if you are a juror)

Save your changes when you're done.

Privacy

In that same Preferences tab, the Privacy → Section visibility block decides which parts of your profile everyone else can see. There are four switches and all of them start on: by default your profile is public.

Turning a switch off hides that section from other visitors: you still see it whenever you visit your own profile.

Seen from outside, a profile with hidden sections behaves like this:

• Hidden tabs (photos, contests, leagues) show a dash "–" instead of the number, and are left with no content.
• If you hide your statistics, "The Statistics section is private" appears in their place.
• If you turn all four switches off, the notice is not repeated section by section: "This profile is private" is shown once.

Save your changes when you're done.

Your public profile

Once your profile is saved, anyone can visit your public page, where they will see:

• First and last name, with the nickname below
• Profile picture and cover photo
• Your honours, below your nickname
• Description and social networks (with a direct link)
• Average score of your submitted photographs
• Number of contests you have participated in
• Contests and leagues you have participated in
• Awards obtained

Any of these sections can be hidden from Preferences → Privacy.

If your changes aren't saved

• Check that every required field is filled in: the form won't save until they are.
• Make sure you're still signed in.
• If the menu doesn't open when you click your avatar, reload the page.

If the problem persists, write to us from the Contact page.