Support Center

Identity Badges & Rep Sigils

When you browse Mallnline's community — reading reviews, Q&A threads, or chatting via uChat — you'll see identity badges next to every user. These badges tell you who someone is and whether they're acting in an official capacity for a Malet.

What Are Sigils?

Sigils are the short prefixes before a handle that tell you what kind of entity you're looking at:

Sigil Meaning Example
v| Visitor — a regular user v|meekdenzo
r| Representative — Malet owner or staff r|sarah-luminara
m| Malet — a Malet (outlet) m|luminara-crafts
o| Organization o|acme-corp

TIP

If you see r| next to someone's name, they're responding as a Malet representative — like spotting a staff member in a uniform at a physical mall. Their reply carries official weight.

How Identity Badges Work

In Community Threads

When a Visitor asks a question or leaves a review, their badge shows their handle with the v| sigil:

v|meekdenzo — This is a regular Visitor.

When a Malet Owner or staff member replies, their badge changes to show the r| sigil and an affiliation label:

r|mdenzo · Owner — This person is the owner of the Malet, responding officially.

Affiliation Badges

If someone is affiliated with a Malet, you'll see an affiliation badge that shows their role and which Malet they represent:

  • Owner · m|luminara-crafts — The person owns this Malet
  • Staff · m|luminara-crafts — The person works for this Malet

This helps you know who to trust for product-specific questions and official support.

Hover Mini-Profile

Hovering over any identity badge reveals a mini-profile card with:

  • Profile picture and display name — click to visit their full profile
  • Handle with sigil — e.g., r|mdenzo or v|meekdenzo
  • Affiliation badge — shows which Malet they represent (if any)
  • Action buttons:
    • Follow — Follow this user for updates
    • uChat — Start a direct message conversation via uChat

NOTE

If you hover over your own badge, you'll see an Edit Profile button instead of Follow and uChat — since you can't follow or message yourself.

Privacy & Anonymous Users

Mallnline never exposes internal account IDs. If a user's profile hasn't been fully set up, their badge will show "Mallnline User" as a safe, anonymous placeholder. No raw database IDs or technical identifiers are ever shown.

Users who have set their profile to private will appear as Anonymous with a ? avatar.

uChat Integration

Clicking the uChat button on someone's mini-profile takes you directly to uChat with a conversation pre-addressed to that person. This uses their public handle — never an internal ID.

IMPORTANT

You must be signed in to use the uChat button. If you're not signed in, you'll see a Sign in prompt instead.

Recognizing Official Responses

When browsing community content, look for these visual cues to identify official Malet responses:

  1. r| sigil — The handle prefix changes from v| to r|
  2. Role label — An "Owner", "Member", or "Collaborator" badge appears next to the name
  3. Affiliation badge — Shows which Malet they represent with the m| prefix

These elements combine to make it immediately clear when you're reading an official response from a Malet representative versus a fellow Visitor's opinion.