//Nathan Posted June 22, 2005 Posted June 22, 2005 Do we need PM moderation? Heck, do we even want it? Private messaging or private topics are just that. As for spam, I encourage members on my forum to report spam. I've had someone spam via PM on my forum, and that person is now banned. I have a neat little PHP script that allows me to quickly read the PMs... Every now and then I upload it, access it, and then scan the titles... If I see one thing going out to a lot of people, I check into it. Or newbies using the PM system. I also have a second account which I use to test the board (make it a member, log out, log into it, see what the site looks like to a member), and I leave it as a Member when I'm not using it, hoping it gets spammed as well. I actually have it logged in with IE, so I don't have to log out... I just access my board via IE. ;) Oh, and I take that script off my server when I'm not using it, lest it be found and abused. I see a lot of PMs between known couples, using that thing... but it only shows the titles, which are clickable links. Maybe people should stick to email for that, but is a forum not a communication tool? If you're building a real community, private messaging is important, should not be discouraged. It goes back to what I was saying about the purpose of a forum... THIS forum here should have PMs as IPB currently has them. It's a board supporting a company and its product. It has a community which partially exists outside its business (and involves some of its employees) but the focus is the company and its product. On the other hand, my board is a "fun site". We have a few couples, we're all pretty much friends... we had a hater for a while, but he's gone. ;) So a private topics system would be more beneficial. It's the same reason I use Arcade. Sure, if people are PM'ing each other or playing in Arcade, they're not posting, but then, my site isn't about postcounts or hits or views, it's about having fun with a forum in a forum environment. If we wanted email, we'd go to Gmail for our recreational community/communication. But no... Some of us use Gmail or Hotmail, but we prefer IPB. In fact, one of the reasons I made my board is because I knew a lot of these people on a crappy and outdated forum system. It's funny... One outdated forum system has private topics and the floating Fast Reply, and one outdated freebie forum system has built in chat. I won't use either (might as well ask an XP user to go back to 3.1, or an OS X user to use At Ease in System 7) but those are three features I want. But when you look at the whole thing, IPB comes out on top. No question about that.
lancefiasco Posted August 8, 2005 Posted August 8, 2005 I wish Matt would give us some input on these things...
Dream On Posted August 9, 2005 Posted August 9, 2005 i wish 2 waiting for him for so long he just answer about the group a few manth ago that will be add in IPB3 but not sure about this feature :)
Wolfie Posted August 9, 2005 Posted August 9, 2005 I wish Matt would give us some input on these things... In a morbid way, I'm glad he doesn't..By NOT knowing, when the whole list of new features becomes available, it'll seem that much more exciting. Every time he makes a post, a reply, starts a topic, answers an IM, reads an email, takes a sip of a drink, eats SubWay, sleeps, showers, etc, he's not working on IPB. :devil: Some people would get their feelings hurt when being told that a feature will NOT be included Some people would get their egos rubbed way to much if he said a feature WILL be included You think the feature requests are packed now, imagine the stampeed if people were able to get a dialog with him in here. :blink:
bïöµï¢ Posted November 29, 2005 Posted November 29, 2005 I honestly hope if there ever is such a 'feature' built into IPB, that it can be turned off. They are called community boards for a reason; not private boards ;)
Coastie Posted November 29, 2005 Posted November 29, 2005 I'd like to see threads as PMs as well. It would take less space in the DB as quote after quote after quote would not need to be stored.
jenolan Posted November 30, 2005 Posted November 30, 2005 Could I add a me too .. quite often in a priavte discussion it becomnes difficult. Also, the ability to add people to the 'topic' makes for a nice utility when doing things like a software discussion or something else cooperatively. Larry
//Nathan Posted December 2, 2005 Posted December 2, 2005 Regarding public versus private conversation, I think the question is not whether the boards are communal or private, but whether the board is supporting a company or a community. For a company, PMs aren't even needed, they're just a convenience. For an active community, in which you will have friendships and rivalries brewing, and maybe even relationships starting (my girlfriend and I met on a message board), private topics are simply a better choice. I mean, we already have email, so PMs are just redundant. You could remove the PM system, as it is, and you wouldn't be taking anything away, but a redundancy... it's no different than email really. Private topics help to cultivate an active community. And people don't "stick to" private topics, on boards that have them. They use them, but the public forums get a lot more use. Space? How is this an issue? We're talking about text. How much space can text take up? In any case, I'd say allocate X amount of space per user. Show them, like with Gmail, how much space in the DB they're taking up. If they start a PT and it gets big, their space goes up, and they can either maintain it or remove it. The topic starter can delete the whole topic, but the individual members can leave at any time. And hey, certain groups could have more space, so paid-subscriptions could be offered.
Sonic98 Posted December 13, 2005 Posted December 13, 2005 Wow, I had been thinking on a way to avoid all the quotes-mess, but never thought at this. Yes, it is very good idea ! Can it accept more than 2 users, if you forward it to a third person for example? Really nice idea ! Maybe you can make it where you can select certain posts in your PM thread just like you can select certain ones to be deleted in a thread.
Dream On Posted November 10, 2006 Posted November 10, 2006 Mmm i was think this feature going to be add in IPB2.2 /!!!
McQ Posted November 11, 2006 Posted November 11, 2006 As I just posted in another thread, this type of idea was implemented in other forum software that I used to use and it was a GREAT feature.The creator of the PM would select members to "invite" to the thread. Their acceptance or declination would be noted in the thread header next to their user names (for all participants to see). Participants could post in the thread and it would essentially act like any other thread, except that it was only accessable via the PM link for the participants. Participants could also "exit" the thread, which would also be noted next to their user name near the top of the thread.While I could not view any of these threads as an admin, if ANY participant complained about a post via the "report this PM" link, the offending POST (unedited) would be forwarded to me.For PM administration, I would periodically delete these private threads via a tool in the ACP which allowed me to prune private threads with no activity since a date that I selected. This particular tool would allow me to see the topic titles prior to making the deletion (but nothing other than the titles).
.KX Posted November 11, 2006 Posted November 11, 2006 It'd be nice if we could get a reply from an IPS staff member. I'm just wondering if this is something you'd consider doing for 3.0.
Jaggi Posted June 11, 2008 Posted June 11, 2008 i would like to see the ucp revamped or removed all together and pm's definitely removed from there as its one of the most cluttered and confusing part of ipb. I'm for this as it took a long time to get basic features from topics into the pm area so if it were the same it would simply be a case of using the existing same functions.
W13 Posted June 11, 2008 Posted June 11, 2008 i would like to see the ucp revamped or removed all together and pm's definitely removed from there as its one of the most cluttered and confusing part of ipb. I'm for this as it took a long time to get basic features from topics into the pm area so if it were the same it would simply be a case of using the existing same functions. Jaggi, I'm glad that despite you being here for many years, you can still see IPB from the eyes of a newbie. And yes, I think the whole UCP is the most confusing part of IPB (specially for people that have never used a forum in their lives before). This idea is a no-brainer.... it needs to go in. It will make skinning easier too.
Jaggi Posted June 11, 2008 Posted June 11, 2008 Jaggi, I'm glad that despite you being here for many years, you can still see IPB from the eyes of a newbie. And yes, I think the whole UCP is the most confusing part of IPB (specially for people that have never used a forum in their lives before). This idea is a no-brainer.... it needs to go in. It will make skinning easier too. i'll make a new topic so it doesn't get overlooked and maybe you can drop in with some ideas.
Millar Posted June 11, 2008 Posted June 11, 2008 Yes, a marvelous idea. I have recently been integrating this type of private comunication into my developments and it's definately the way forward for PM'ing. :)
Brandon D Posted June 11, 2008 Posted June 11, 2008 Awesome idea. Four pages long and not one staff member comments? =(
Dlf Posted July 27, 2008 Posted July 27, 2008 Any Commants from Matt about this Feature ? biggrin.gif If I recall from reading some blog post (comment?) Matt wrote, he said this is comming in IPB. See attached image.
Velvet Elvis Posted July 27, 2008 Posted July 27, 2008 This is a great way to get all your users to create content google can't get at. I would lead to cliques and a balkanization of user communities. New users would show up and think the board is dead because everyone is chit-chatting in private. In short, this is a horrible horrible idea that would kill many communities. Doesn't the private club function in the blogs already do this kind of thing? I know my users who frequent private club blogs seldom post in the forums or on public blogs. Since they are not producing any new content for me to stick ads on, they are leeches. I really wish I'd never enabled private blogs in the first place. EDIT: If the feature could be restricted by usergroup I suppose it would be OK. Really, what it sounds like people want here is the ability to let users create forums and usergoups that they can add people to, or the ability to let users set permissions to topics they start. Doesn't the phpbb3 permission system allow for something like this? It could be used as a model if it's how I remember it being. I've not fiddled with it since the early betas so I could be wrong. I do remember thinking that the permission system was absurdly powerful. You can give guest users the ability to create new forums and faeces like that.
Amy T Posted July 28, 2008 Posted July 28, 2008 OCF uses this type of system and its great and Private topics count on the board stats as posts, which is nice. It also makes it easier to have a conversation and keep track of every thing that was said.
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.