What are Public Profiles?
The Public Profiles panel is where you can define a wealth of options relating to the user-experience. These settings are managed within the Community User Account Application Settings within the Public Profiles panel.
General
Enable email confirmation: If you want new users to confirm account creation via email, check the Email Confirmation box. If this setting is enabled, the user will be sent an email containing a link they must click to confirm registration. The link in the email will be valid for 72 hours.
Disable welcome email: Will not send users a welcome email on signup.
Enable reactions: This enables Emoticons to be displayed on Assets where users can react to the story.
Profanity filter: Use the dropdown menu to select a profanity filter to filter submitted comments through.
Account Removal
Notification Recipients: A comma-delimitated list of emails that will be notified whenever a user account has been removed can be included.
Avatar
Maximum dimensions: Specify the maximum width and height dimensions allowed for user avatars. Avatars that exceed these dimensions will automatically be sized to fit the maximum dimensions.
Gravatar
Use Gravatar: Gravatar is a service that allows users to use the same avatar across multiple sites that support Gravatar. When enabled, and a user has a Gravatar account matching the email address they use for your site, their Gravatar image will display for their avatar. If the user does not have a Gravatar account a randomly generated avatar will be assigned to their profile when they register. Users can upload a new avatar to overwrite the default one.
Default style:
Specify which Gravatar library to use for creating default avatars. The default is none.
Avatar rating: Use the dropdown menu to specify the avatar rating. Only avatars with ratings of what you specify and less will display. Options include: G, PG, R, X
Note that Gravatar users can specify the rating for their avatar themselves within the Gravatar admin.