New PM policy?

[jackson33]

I had been sending PM's to another member of this forum and find that the conversation had been deleted, but the final post was forwarded as email. Are you all, discontinuing PM's, or editing PM's for content and deciding which should be sent Email or as PM's....I don't mind direct emails, but have long learned, if direct emails are used either party then developing a problem, will blame a new email sender.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

As per our privacy policy (under section 6), we do not read PMs unless we have reason to believe someone has violated the rules. We also do not delete messages unless they are known to be advertising.

 

When you say "forwarded as email," do you mean that the system sent you the message as an email, or that the member you were communicating with was forced to send the message as an email?

 

If there's a problem where messages are unexpectedly deleted, give me as many details as you can and I will investigate to determine if there's a problem.

[jackson33]

(He/She) has sent you this email from http://www.scienceforums.net/index.php. [/Quote]

 

I received this on 7/26 in response to a 7/25 PM and the sender, said the previous PM was sent as EM, which I received as, (He/She) has replied to a PM. I could call this an miss understood event/action or a system error, but when I signed in (today 7/27) to reply under PM, the entire conversation had been deleted. (The message board on signing in, still had the PM message reply, which I replied to the sender as, I assume as a PM.) There had been no selling going on, no foul language, frankly congenial discussion or any reason for deletion.

 

If (he/she) replied to a PM, as had been the previous 2 or 3 messages and it was forwarded from there as a EM, SOMEONE must have changed the process, then deleting the message board. I certainly hope, my Email address is not known to staff, other than the owners or maybe administration, but if PM's can be monitored by any staff member, or my email address is known, this should be made known. Personally, I have never felt there was anything private about PM's, nor had the person I was discussing an issue (Science) with, felt was private. That's the main reason, I rarely (five members in 4 years, two were moderators) use the system...on any forum, for any reason.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

That's the email generated by the "send email" form on a user's profile; it means they opted to email you through that form rather than sending a private message.

 

I'm not sure what could cause a conversation to be deleted. I am not aware of anyone deleting private messages recently; the last messages deleted were a mass spammer when we were still using vBulletin. Now, I'm not yet familiar enough with IPB's system to know how conversations could be deleted; I don't know if the other party could possibly delete the conversation.

 

Regarding email addresses: Email addresses are visible to all moderation staff. The software makes profile information visible to moderators so they can remove objectionable content. However, as per our privacy policy, we do not reveal email addresses or share them with anyone. The only staff who can read PMs are those with direct access to the server to make software changes -- that would be the administrators only. The forum software itself gives no provisions for reading PMs unless they are reported by a member.

 

Now, I did recently receive an e-mail from a member who had been experiencing troubles with the PM system after spending an hour composing a message -- the system logged him out before he could send the message. Perhaps something similar happened with the person you're conversing with and they used the email form instead.

 

Again, I'm sorry your messages seem to have vanished. I don't believe any of our staff deleted the messages. Perhaps you could check to see if the other participant can still view them; if so, there may be some software glitch that I need to take care of.

[Sayonara]

If PMs were deleted it would have to be by an admin.

I am not aware of any such deletion occurring and I'd like to think that if something like that were about to happen then it would be as the result of admin consensus.

 

It is much more likely that this has happened as an unexpected result of the platform change.

[jackson33]

It is much more likely that this has happened as an unexpected result of the platform change. [/Quote]

 

Of course this was my first thought and I am still having a great deal of trouble navigating the system. However my questioning comes from the fact, under "unread notifications" the conversation remains, while on my profile (whatever called today) it has been deleted....

 

Since I have the other persons PERMISSION to use anything he has said and that CR, has inadvertently released the parties user name (only one person upset about spending an hour, forming a lost post), I'll give you the link and this conversation is not in my PM profile.

 

 

 

Let me make one thing quite clear; I don't think the other person involved, nor do I feel 'Administration' is involved. Frankly the moderating staff and myself, have been getting along just fine and I feel that hour spent forming a post (while signed in) can be explained under several scenarios. The main ones, he could have been cut off and reconnected or he clicked/pressed a wrong key while thinking the post was being entered. I've experienced both, more than once and why I no longer form any post on any forum, today.

 

What does worry me slightly, is that I was unaware that since Email Addresses had been dropped from profiles (for reason), think three/four years ago, that any past or present moderator since could have my address (have had the same one 8 years for business reasons and have an extremely sensitive filtering system...Since moderation is limited to most enforcement, I don't see a need for them to have this access. I'll be more explicit, there are at least two Administrators on other forums and maybe a half dozen moderators, that would love nothing more than causing me problems. I don't believe this has in fact happened, but it could.

Edited July 28, 2010 by jackson33

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

I will investigate and let you know if I find out what the problem is.

 

As for email addresses, it's unfortunate but necessary. Staff can edit profiles to remove objectionable content, and while doing so they can view the member's email address. I have a zero-tolerance policy for any abuse of staff privilege, so if a problem ever occurs, I'd like to know.

[Moontanman]

Hey cap'n while you are at it what happened to our pic galleries?

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Of course this was my first thought and I am still having a great deal of trouble navigating the system. However my questioning comes from the fact, under "unread notifications" the conversation remains, while on my profile (whatever called today) it has been deleted....

Hmm. I see that there are eight total messages in that conversation. Is that what you see? If there's a message that appears to be deleted, tell me where it appears in the sequence (it should be after the 4th, or the 7th, or whatever) and I'll search around to see if something's missing.

 

Now, I know what problem you may also be encountering. When we converted, many old messages were marked as "unread" for some reason. When you visited your messenger page, the system would recount, go "wait, there's unread messages!", and list them even though they were months old. (This is a bug I reported to the software manufacturer.) Is it possible that you're seeing the unread message notification (saying you have 8 new messages) even though there are no new messages?

 

Hey cap'n while you are at it what happened to our pic galleries?

Well, the new software doesn't do galleries unless we pay for an add-on. Now, if you want to get your pictures back, I can move some stuff around so you can get back into the old site and see your pictures. If you'd like to have galleries in this software, give me a convincing sales pitch on how SFN would benefit and maybe we can fork out the money

[Zolar V]

Why not just have an enthusiest write the add-on?

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

If someone wants to write it for us, I'm fine with that. But the gallery add-on already exists and is rather nice:

 

http://www.invisionpower.com/products/gallery/

[Moontanman]

Well, the new software doesn't do galleries unless we pay for an add-on. Now, if you want to get your pictures back, I can move some stuff around so you can get back into the old site and see your pictures. If you'd like to have galleries in this software, give me a convincing sales pitch on how SFN would benefit and maybe we can fork out the money

 

 

Well for one thing i can't keep people up dated about my paddlefish as effectively with out pics..... paddlefish are pretty special, I might be only one of three or four people who are keeping these endangered primitive fish in the entire world. I am discovering some really exciting things about them and being able to down load pics from my computer. I post about them on five fish forums and two science forums. Pics seem to be the best way to get across the idea of their unique behaviors. Video would be nice too, i am trying to upgrade to high speed so i can upload videos of them... maybe videos would be even better....

[jackson33]

Is it possible that you're seeing the unread message notification (saying you have 8 new messages) even though there are no new messages?[/Quote]

 

It still does show all messages as unread (new)...

 

 

Ok, I've done some playing around and it may be in relaying. At the top of this page it says 7 New, assume messages and when clicked the entire questioned conversation does NOT show up (assume it thinks I've read). However if I go to my profile, at least today (my mind says I went directly to profile the day I complained) it does show 8 including the conversation in question. There are at least two post maybe three that are not currently shown (deleted), two by the other party and one of mine (not sure), in #8...

 

As for system conversion, all that conversation took place after the conversion. Anything before seems normal to me. On one message, same poster it seems my reply is missing...I have deleted the conversation link and will cease in this discussion, thanking you for any time in checking this out. You have plenty to worry about, with this new system from where I set...

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

One more tip: When you're viewing the list of PMs, on the left there is a box titled Folders. The "New" folder only shows conversations marked as unread. The "My Conversations" folder shows everything. If something doesn't show up in New, check My Conversations.

 

And again, if you have specific issues with how the new system is laid out or how hard it is to find certain things, let me know and I can try to improve things. I can't make improvements until I find out what people don't like.

[iNow]

Well for one thing i can't keep people up dated about my paddlefish as effectively with out pics..... paddlefish are pretty special, I might be only one of three or four people who are keeping these endangered primitive fish in the entire world. I am discovering some really exciting things about them and being able to down load pics from my computer. I post about them on five fish forums and two science forums. Pics seem to be the best way to get across the idea of their unique behaviors. Video would be nice too, i am trying to upgrade to high speed so i can upload videos of them... maybe videos would be even better....

You might consider doing it via blog instead...

[Mr Skeptic]

Yes! Blog seems like an excellent place for a long-term paddlefish thread. The staff have been wanting to get more people using and visiting the blogs.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

I might even try setting up one of the photoblog plugins to make it easier to show off pictures.

 

I think the newer WordPress versions support in-post galleries though. Give it a shot.

[jackson33]

CR and rigney; I just went through one of those timed out message in Politics, was not signed in 5 minutes and happened to have had it stored elsewhere. It happened while trying to enter an additional word, coincidentally after an ie Spell Check. Since CR, we have discussed this before and you have had similar experiences, you can imagine what rigney, must have felt when an hours work, was timed out. I don't think there is anything that can be done, since this has happened on both the old and new system, but thought worth noting.....

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Wait, it happened while you were typing? As in, you were typing in an additional word, and suddenly you got the error message?

 

Something's wrong if that's the case.

[jackson33]

CR; I had never seen that timed out message, always assuming those mentioned were the "this page has expired", which I see all the time after posting, clicking the back arrow.

 

Yes; I copied my post from Jarte to Quick Message, in reading a portion decided to change one word, deleted that word and with my first letter was forwarded to a "Timed Out" message, the message lost. At most this was five minutes after signing in...

 

I can only guess, but would bet the same thing happened to rigney, not necessarily when the post was completed and attempted to post, which is what I had thought. You should know, but does this new system actually have a time limit, remembering he apparently uses the systems posting process (activity).

 

 

If you would, please allow googleads, after I'm registered. Frankly I sign out or don't sign in until I'm ready to post, because navigation is easier, while unregistered. Maybe it's confusing the system, I don't know....

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

That is weird. In no case should it give you the error while you're typing. I'll investigate.