Since WordPress version 2.9 it is actually (finally) possible to get rid of the highly irritating (and always empty) fields of AIM, Yahoo IM and Jabber / Google Talk under the Contact Info of your User Profile (in the Dashboard).

Most of us don’t even know why these fields come standard with WordPress, we have stopped thinking about it, never fill them in anyway, what’s the point?

Well, just a few days ago Dave Kinkead pointed out the solution on his website (the original idea actually came from Yoast back in September 2009) and not only that, his code also includes alternative fields that you can use for all sort of reasons, for example to include in a Member Directory!

    add_filter( 'user_contactmethods' , 'update_contact_methods' , 10 , 1 );

    function update_contact_methods( $contactmethods ) {

    // Add new fields
    $contactmethods['phone'] = 'Phone';
    $contactmethods['mobile'] = 'Mobile';
    $contactmethods['address'] = 'Address';

    // Remove annoying and unwanted default fields
    unset($contactmethods['aim']);
    unset($contactmethods['jabber']);
    unset($contactmethods['yim']);

    return $contactmethods;
    }

The only thing you have to do is add the few lines above to your functions file and with that you will forever have gotten rid of those “annoying and unwanted default fields”!

Will you change the default fields and if so, with what?