PM's and profiles

[RichLockyer]

Is there a way that the forum software can be configured to allow someone to respond to a PM sent to them when the person that sent the PM has their profile configured not to accept PMs?

I've lost count of the many hours that I've completely wasted typing out a detailed response to a PM, only to be informed AFTER I hit "send" that the user is not accepting PMs. Just had another one this morning.

At that point, my attitude changes to F-them. I'm not going to even TRY to send them an email... they are probably blocking that too.

[rbentnail]

+1. I'm sure I've not had to deal with it as much as Rich has, but it is thoroughly aggravating. If someone wants advice, pics or whatever and sends a PM the least we can do is to force them to receive a reply. If someone doesn't want an original PM then fine, but a reply should be sent no matter what the personal settings.

[RichLockyer]

Originally Posted by rbentnail

+1. I'm sure I've not had to deal with it as much as Rich has, but it is thoroughly aggravating. If someone wants advice, pics or whatever and sends a PM the least we can do is to force them to receive a reply. If someone doesn't want an original PM then fine, but a reply should be sent no matter what the personal settings.

Yup... and the most irritating thing is the time spent, and once you hit "send" it's GONE!

Hitting the "Back" button goes back to the blank message so it's impossible to copy and paste the message into an email or onto the open forum.

[Thunder Lizard]

Just a thought, gents? I always, when posting, or pm'ing, "select all" and "copy" right before I hit send.. that way, if the 'Net hiccups, or the website sneezes, or the browser freezes... I still have the text of what I said.
Just a thought!

[RichLockyer]

I'll do that if I've been having "iffy" connections, but not in general.

[jap4lvr]

you can block all PM's?
and why would you want to. I only ever get help through pm's.
odd.

[trikebubble]

No idea, but it makes sense. If you do not want to accept pm's, you shouldn't really have the capability to send them either.

We'll see what the Admin's have to say.

[RichLockyer]

Originally Posted by jap4lvr

you can block all PM's?
and why would you want to. I only ever get help through pm's.
odd.

I don't think you can block them from the mods and admins, but there are two settings in your profile (that default to "on") to allow PMs and to allow email.
The email settings are variable... from anyone, hide address but allow email, allow email only from mods and admin, allow email only from admin, or allow no email.
Generally the only reason to allow NO email is to conceal activity on a "not so family friendly" forum ... but still no reason not to accept PMs.

So if a user does not accept PMs or Email, they have made a conscious decision to put that setting in their profile.

Then they have the nads to PM another user asking for advice or help.

Another thing I encounter from time to time is emails sent through the forum where the reply-to is an invalid address.
They registered and activated their membership, so they EITHER changed the email in their profile to a bogus address, or they changed providers and never updated the forum profile. Now... which one would it likely be for a 2-post newbie who registered a week ago?

[SilverBullet]

Originally Posted by trikebubble

If you do not want to accept pm's, you shouldn't really have the capability to send them either.

agree 110%

That sucks especially since I know from personal experience that rich responds with one hell of a PM when you ask for help. **** guys like that off then you are going to start loosing people that are willing to help.

[Box]

Originally Posted by RichLockyer

Yup... and the most irritating thing is the time spent, and once you hit "send" it's GONE!

Hitting the "Back" button goes back to the blank message so it's impossible to copy and paste the message into an email or onto the open forum.

Does it appear in your Sent PMs or does it just disappear?

[RichLockyer]

Originally Posted by Box

Does it appear in your Sent PMs or does it just disappear?

It's gone. Unless it actually transmits, it's lost.
Just checked... last saved "sent" PM was on the 12th.

[RichLockyer]

Originally Posted by SilverBullet

agree 110%

That sucks especially since I know from personal experience that rich responds with one hell of a PM when you ask for help. **** guys like that off then you are going to start loosing people that are willing to help.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that... but it DOES tend to make you ignore PMs from newbies.

[mwmalotte]

It would prolly behoove everyone to check their settings... I was getting PMs with no issues then, all of the sudden, I wasn't. Turned out, my profile had somehow been reset to not accept them except for those on my buddy list.

I have no idea how it happened, I guarantee ya, I wouldn't have done it. I use PMs too often

[kopcicle]

Originally Posted by mwmalotte

It would prolly behoove everyone to check their settings... I was getting PMs with no issues then, all of the sudden, I wasn't. Turned out, my profile had somehow been reset to not accept them except for those on my buddy list.

I have no idea how it happened, I guarantee ya, I wouldn't have done it. I use PMs too often

it was the Tequila Mike ....


~kop

[sebastian1000]

+1 on copying the PM before sending...just in case. After about the 30th lost PM/posting, it's about enough to drive ya nuts. YouTube used to drive me up a wall with that.

[V2K_CCTX]

shouldnt be hard to configure or at least provide a flag saying the person doesnt accept PMs before even typing one out

[Freakinout]

I can change the settings for individuals, but I'm not sure if it can be setup to show you if they accept PM's or not.