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A friendly suggestion – re: private messages
Hi;
I know this topic has come up again and again, but I thought I would throw in my two cents worth.
I agree completely that private messaging is often abused. But, it has it’s place. The best way it would work is to allow each member to enable or disable PMs. That way, it is 100% the choice of the member.
Ideally, the PM feature would enable an alert to be sent via email to the recipient of the PM. I don’t routinely log into the dozens of sites and forums to which I am a member, and I doubt if most other people do. But I *do* check my email nearly every day. In other forums, the ability to see that someone has PM’d me has enabled me to quickly help that person, who had posted a reply to a thread I participated in but was no longer following.
It seems to me that CC is behind the curve on this, in that it is pretty much the only forum/site that does not have some kind of PM capability. Instead, I am forced to do “people searches” and scour the internet at large when I very, very occasionally need to contact a CC member directly – a practice that I disdain as being far, far more intrusive to the recipient than would be a simple PM.
Hope this makes sense,
Steve
Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400 MultiTB SATA 8 GB RAM Vegas 10e x64 DVDA 5.2 Sony HDR-CX550V
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2 Replies
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And why would you do that rather than simply post the question? The most helpful people in this forum are going to get hundreds of these private requests for help.
Why?
This forum gets over 2 million unique people a month now (yes, we are back over 2 million a month again).
It’s always befuddled me that people think nothing of asking people for private help when the whole idea of a forum is to ask so that others can later benefit from the answers given.
When people “hunt others down” to get their answers given privately, no one benefits other than the person doing the hunting. The hunted one doesn’t benefit, and those that might have benefited from the answer are denied the chance.
But hey, that is just my opinion.
Best regards,
Ronald Lindeboom
CEO, Creative COW LLC
Publisher, Creative COW Magazine
A 2011 FOLIO: 40 honoree as one of the 40 most influential publishers in America
http://www.creativecow.netCreativity is a process wherein the student and the teacher are located in the same individual.
“Incompetence has never prevented me from plunging in with enthusiasm.” – Woody Allen
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Hi;
Thanks for your reply. Sorry I was not more clear in my original post.
I would always follow up with a post in the forum for all to see. The purpose of the PM would be a “tickle” to get the persons attention.
As I stated previously, my goal is not to establish private conversations. Consider that I personally *want* to receive PMs, for the express purpose of allowing others to remind me to check a thread that perhaps I did not subscribe to, or forgot to check the little “E-Mail me when someone responds” radio button (as I almost always forget!) . I would enjoy being able to opt-in to PMs. Others might not want them, so they would not have to use PMs. I always like to err on the side of freedom of choice.
Anyway, did not mean to touch a nerve. I’m sure you and the other powers-that-be know that CC lack of PM capability is unique in the forum universe, and want it to remain that way.
Live Long and Prosper,
Steve
Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400 MultiTB SATA 8 GB RAM Vegas 10e x64 DVDA 5.2 Sony HDR-CX550V
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