PMs are ending Monday at 5pm ET

[Marcie]

Hi all - due to an unfortunate abuse of the PM system by spammers, the Private Message feature is going to be disabled this Monday Feb. 15 at 5pm ET. We wanted to give you some time to retrieve anything you may want to keep.

Please feel to leave other means of getting in touch with you in your profile. Thanks!

[networkmemetics]

There has to be some kind of forum plugin that limits the # of PMs per day, or the time between PM's.

Its going to be hard to make connections with fellow muse makers if there isn't a quick and private way for us to get in touch.

Killing the PM system will take a big bite out the feeling of 'community' here.

[dcjoey]

Agreed. Tighten up the registration process/minimum posts required if they're automated spammers, if it's human they appoint more mods.

We definitely need to retain PMs.

[phil]

+ 1 for keeping PM's

Not sure what access you have to the server to implement these changes, but

Some ideas:
* Only allow PM's if they have a certain number of posts
* Only allow a certain number of PM's to be sent within a certain period
* Add CAPTCHA on PM sending

[DaveinHackensack]

Anyone who wants to contact me after Monday can do so via this form (http://launchinginnovation.com/work-with-me) (it's got a captcha, so I'm not worried about spam).

[Monkiii]

Personally I'd rather keep the spam and the ability to PM other people.

It all seems a bit silly though, when a simple "must have posted 3+ times to pm" wipes out 99%+ of this kind of thing. It did on our site with a 5 figure number of members, at least.

Sounds like time for a campaign:
"Save Our PM's!" ;-)

[Marcie]

I've sent your feedback to Tim, it's his call! :)

[webgal]

While the software has post counts for membership to forums, we've not been able to identify one that works for PMs. I believe we addressed this right off the bat. I have always found forum software lacking in regards to PM monitoring, post counting etc. of some kind. It's offered for other forum functions but not this. And I have even installed such a feature on other forums (not vbulletin) and it did not work.

I know this is an unpopular decision. And quite frankly, it's not a decision we came to easily. But many forums have done away with the feature since it is so problematic and little we can do to control it and still allow you privacy. Most of you do not abuse it. I do get messages about PMs from time to time. There is simply so much spam lately and too great a chance that unfriendly links will be inside a PM in addition to other problems.

However, there is that direct message board in your account. (It's called visitor messages). We have kept this feature. You can communicate using that. And we don't have to go look at anyone's unless there is a member abusing it.

[networkmemetics]

Here is the solution

Found on VBulletin.Org

Copy the default "Registered Users" usergroup into another group (say "Fully Registered").

Now set the "Maximum Recipients to Send PMs at a time" permission on the Registered Users group to zero to disable sending PMs.

Add a promotion to upgrade users from Registered to Fully Registered at X number of posts.

You may also want to rename "Registered" to "Newly Registered" or so.

Network Memetics

[Marcie]

Thanks all - we are working on it. There seems to be a problem for some with posting today, and we are looking into that as well. Thanks for your patience & feedback!

[Marcie]

Wanted to update to let you know that PMs were removed, except for those with 100 posts or more. Hopefully this is a fair solution. Thanks again for your relevant & helpful posts!

[networkmemetics]

Marcie,

Thank you so much. I have networked with some great people here and the PM is the most efficient way for me to do so.

NM

[willtagr]

I just got to this forum today, does this mean I need to post 100 times before being able to contact anyone?.. that doesn't seem very useful.

[webgal]

I know it doesn't. But we're removing spam by the bucketload and the offenders are people with posts under 100. There is a direct message board available. We had to do something and this was the best alternative.

[jackson]

What about sending a password to all the real people so we can send PMs?

[theglen]

--I sent a few PMs and they are just sitting in my outbox....why are they not in my sentbox. I get a confirmation that the PM was sent.

Were those messages sent or not?

Please help

__________________
Bonded broadband (http://www.pro-net.co.uk/connectivity/bonded-adsl.php)

[Marcie]

PMs were disabled, except for those with 100 posts or more, so they should not have been sent. You can use the message feature in someone's profile or the email feature if it is enabled. Thanks!~Marcie

[janicejryan]

oh now I understand why. Thank you for the explanation.

[idahusker]

Can users with 100+ send PMs to under 100 users? Please PM me the answer :)

[idahusker]

It appears the 100+ users can send PMs to under 100s. Thanks for the PM!

[Marcie]

Actually I sent a VM (visitor message) not a PM (private message) ...anyone can see a VM on your profile page. It appears that people with 100+ posts *cannot* send PMs to people with <100.

[idahusker]

Actually I sent a VM (visitor message) not a PM (private message) ...anyone can see a VM on your profile page. It appears that people with 100+ posts *cannot* send PMs to people with <100.

You are right, I was just tickled to see a message. Thanks for helping Marcie.