Do you reply your member's DM swiftly or do they feel being ignored?

[Heatman]

I have been in forums where the forum owner doesn't always reply their DM fast even when they have been online. Sometimes, they will stay 2 to 3 days before feeling like replying but when they first start a DM with their member, they will be expecting a fast response.

This is a very bad way to manage a forum. A DM shouldn't stay more than 24 hours especially when the owner been online posting and doing some other things until he's being called out publicly on his profile wall to reply his DM.

Do you reply your member's DM as quickly as possible?

 

[Shortie]

If a member DM's me on my forum, I always get to the message and reply as soon as I can.

A lot of the time I see the email come through on my phone and if I can, I will log into the forum and reply but if not, I will wait until I can log in and reply.

 

[~ True Legend ~]

If a member DM's me on my forum, I always get to the message and reply as soon as I can.

A lot of the time I see the email come through on my phone and if I can, I will log into the forum and reply but if not, I will wait until I can log in and reply.

yea i agree it’s bad not to reply to a PM esp if it’s a new member of someone is having account issues

 

[Heatman]

yea i agree it’s bad not to reply to a PM esp if it’s a new member of someone is having account issues

Some forum owners are very good at doing this. I've witnessed it countless times. They won't care about replying their DM especially when it's a member needing their assistance until they're called out publicly, then they will start complaining about you not being patient. But they can go 4 days or more without bothering about replying.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I would try my best to reply to a private message as soon as I can, especially if the member is having technical issues with their account. It doesn't look good if you leave your members left either on unread or read with no response.

 

[Nomad]

I might not be always online on my community, however, when I log into my community, I try to reply the private messages as soon as I can. I don't want members to feel ignored.

 

[Debashis]

I have a habit of replying to people instantly. I don't feel it's right to keep them waiting. If I need time to collect some information before replying to them, I inform them regarding the same and come back with a meaningful response when ready.

 

[x-te]

there are a lot of external influences to consider in relation to this topic. you are stating that the owner is online and posting/or doing other stuff. if the owner is an owner of a "big board" than they will have countless private messages to respond to. do you expect the owner to sit there for hours and hours and reply to private messages, just because you expect a reply instantly? that's unreasonable as not only may they have several messages before you, life happens - they have not have the time to contend to private messages that day because there is an important situation either irl or on their site that they need to contend with.

let me spin it this way. if a forum owner spends all their time answering their private messages and not interacting with their community, how would that make you feel? we need to exercise some common sense here. if you private message the owner over a highly important manner (that isn't of a sensitive nature) than you could just as easily make a thread in the appropriate sub-section, detailing your problem as the thread won't be buried (potentially like their private messages).