I think that's probably the number one thing most new members ask about. As long as we had the option to turn it off if we wanted to, I think that would be a positive addition.
As the most respected person on the board, i think you should lobby to Mr. Webby on our behalf :smt112
I think someone's been lying to you LOL! However I will mention it to the Webmaster again. Were you a member when they had PM before?
Got it, I was just curious how it worked before. If it was available to all members, or was dependent upon not being in the red on rep, and if it was something you could turn on or off individually.
This is a Vbulletin forum which means this site is weclome to the same features afforded to other Vbulletin forums. Heres a screenshot of the private messaging options for another forum im a member of. In a nutshell, theres no excuse not to have it.
Thank you Max! I believe the issues were related to certain members abusing that feature by trying to trash other members, so it was disabled. Though I have a feeling at least one of the main offenders is no longer actively posting.
Maybe it's because I've come and gone quite a bit but I don't remember private messenger being available here. I do remember discussion of it: http://whitewomenblackmen.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9084
All of the concerns regarding PMs can easily be solved by turning the option off in your user setting if you personally don't want to receive them. Also, hate messages can be sent via reps. I used to get them anonymously myself. At least with PMs theres no hiding who you are. My guess is theres some unspoken motive behind PMs being missing.
I think regardless of whether you turn them off or not, people didn't like hearing about other members talking about them all the time. It's childish, but there are some people who view the board as real life and they want to control it. As I understand it PM was turned off because a few were very actively launching personal attacks on members they didn't happen to like or agree with. Personal attacks are prohibited in the guidelines, and I'm sure no one wants to babysit the PM system and deal with lots of complaints. Ideally people should just be adults about it, but as you know, some folks just aren't capable of that regardless of their age. I know those same types of people use anonymous rep as a way to leave comments about members in other members rep, but it's not as prevalent as the abuse that took place via PM apparently. From what I understand it was a lot of 'she said, he said' type stuff and it just got out of hand.
That's why God invented a block button. People need to stop being such grown babies. If someone is harassing you block them plain and simple.
With restrictions if possible, no reds or bronze members or maybe friends can only pm. The pm might have the adverse effect of reducing participation on threads. It wouldn't for me, but I do enjoy the private convos with the one person I communicate offline on here.
