Getting set up with Content Profile module on Drupal 6.

i'm using content profile now on d6 as well and have done the following (this may help you tweak) - to begin with, i create a new content type to call a 'content profile' (didn't want to replace any defaults like blog or story, so just added a new one that really is identical to 'blog' or story, but called it 'profile page' to make it easier to keep an eye on...

1) using friend module - displays friends, add friends, all of that AND also shows a 'corkboard' in a user profile that only common friends can see - the alternative is allowing comments on user profiles which could be a nightmare...corkboard is way cooler...friend also puts a minifeed in user profile so user can see things like 'jim and suzy are now friends' or 'jim posted a new blog' etc - this will all show up below 'content profile' by default - it's a killer module, love it.

2) using 'profile fields' in the profile core to allow a few items to be included in user registration. e.g. go to admin/ look for 'user management' and user profiles - add a field like 'favorite band' and set to public, and select 'show during user registration' and select optional or required - now when a user registers, he fills out that field and it shows up in user profile as well (below content profile text/etc) - repeat for as many items as you'd like to show during registration (and note that users can edit this in 'my account' at any time, which you might want to mention in an edited 'welcome message' (under site configuration, you can edit the message sent to users at registration) ALSO - profile fields can be grouped automatically and presented as pages (more on this in that same settings screen, very neat tool if you decide to include a dropdown field like 'favorite genre' and then a page is automagically created by clicking on 'punk rock' in a user profile - pulls up a page of all users who like 'punk rock'

3) using CCK to add fields to 'content profile' - i've added some fields, most importantly "personal links" and set to unlimited so users can add hyperlinks to a myspace page, personal blog, etc - it will show up right in the content profile - more on cck at cck page, very powerful tool...and of course, because content profile module makes all content searchable in a regular way, this is a powerful tool....you can also use this to add an open text field for an mp3 playlist or something like that...

4) using 'external links' module in my d6 - tiny tool module, just turns those kinds of links above into links that open in a new tab and inserts a super tiny icon of a little arrow letting users know that they're going offsite

5) img package module - can't rave enough about it. wrote the documentation myself that you see in the handbook from the project page for hte module. basic idea for your use: first, grab lightbox2 module (cool popup images effect), then with img package - allow users to put images into user profile, set a thumbnail size, they upload or whatever and all images in that content profile type are autogrouped into little gallery - so if you have 20 pictures of yourself, i see a row of tiny thumbnails, click one and up pops a gallery i can tab through (little right and left arrows courtesy of lightbox2, autogrouping courtesy of img package)

6) for video, i've added 'object' and 'embed' to the allowed input types allowed for input filter ('filtered html') so that users can simply cut and paste youtube type 'embed this' code right into a profile or any node on the d6 site...

7) vocabulary: now that profiles are a content type, you can actually create whole vocabularies and terms that apply to content profiles if you're interested in such a thing...e.g. five vocabularies assigned to profile only, each with something you want users to select from so when they create the profile they select from a bunch of drop downs or whatever (this is an alternative to using something like 'favorite genre' in signup, in this partiuclar case you'd create a vocab with terms for each genre, and show it as a drop down in profile creation - selection would still show up as a link/tag, so clicking will bring up not only users with that tag (e.g. punk rock) but also any content tagged the same way (if you use genres for some other content type too) - might be more interesting...

7a) freetagging: assign freetags to content profile and users can toss in all sorts of freetags too (like fender, mosh, etc)

these are some quick ideas - of course, if you need very granular instructions on how to do some of this stuff after visiting the assorted module pages, let me know and i'll try to add that level of detail....

in fact, i may actually write this up for the handbook AND specifically make it all granular for new users who totally don't get where to find this crap in the admin screens!