Setting condition to allow one send PM/DM?

[Heatman]

Have you ever been in a forum where upon registeration, you're not going to be able to send messages to anyone in the forum until you have meet some conditions set by the owner. Some owners set the condition of making a number of post or being on the forum for a specific period of time.

Have you been on such forum?

 

[Grant]

I have a setting like that set for all users. If you're a new member, you're not going to be able to PM users until you reach 15 posts. I also have it set that you need to make at least 5 replies to post topics. And once you get the privilege of posting, you will still have to go through admin approvals for the first 5 topics you make. After that, and we see you're a good user, we'll give the user full reign to post in all topic areas.

I've had issues in the past with bad users, and we allowed users to comment day one of signing up. But we got some unruly users and the site owners never made it possible to set limits on new users.

 

[Kane]

Generally speaking, I do not see a lot of PMs on forums, I always try to communicate with users on the main forums and I usually avoid private conversations. Therefore, I am not even aware of any limitations on sending PMs on the forums. I send PMs only for two reasons, one, I want to work for someone (user) or want to hire someone. In order to do that I first try becoming popular on the forum.

 

[Busybee]

While private messaging (PM) functionality is available on many forums some forums may have restrictions on PMs to prevent spam or misuse, while others may encourage private conversations for personal or sensitive discussions.

 

[Heatman]

While private messaging (PM) functionality is available on many forums some forums may have restrictions on PMs to prevent spam or misuse, while others may encourage private conversations for personal or sensitive discussions.

I have been in a forum where a member was constantly bugging me in private messages to do this or that for him especially things that have to do with joining forums using his referral link. It got too much I had to report his PM to the admin.

 

[Ja sa bong]

It's only few forums where I've joined had this conditions to have sending PM privilege. It's not worth the hassle because you choose to ignore a PM if you're not interested in it. If you're being harassed with so many PM from a member, you can force ignore them. It should stop them from sending you PM.

 

[Heatman]

Generally speaking, I do not see a lot of PMs on forums, I always try to communicate with users on the main forums and I usually avoid private conversations. Therefore, I am not even aware of any limitations on sending PMs on the forums. I send PMs only for two reasons, one, I want to work for someone (user) or want to hire someone. In order to do that I first try becoming popular on the forum.

The first forum where I joined and found out such a thing exist was on Forum Coin. You should be familiar with the forum because it's one of oldest paid to post forums I know. Although, it wasn't too difficult for me to pass the requirements to be allowed to PM. They just needed a little activity from users before they are allowed to send PM.

 

[Kane]

I know Forum Coin, and I understand why they had that limitation on the forum. A lot of people join forums just to advertise their products and services, in order to be banned by posting on public forums, they start sending PMs. I think forum owners limit sending messages just to stop spam.

 

[Heatman]

I know Forum Coin, and I understand why they had that limitation on the forum. A lot of people join forums just to advertise their products and services, in order to be banned by posting on public forums, they start sending PMs. I think forum owners limit sending messages just to stop spam.

Yeah that's very correct. I was later able to catch up what was the reason why Fregal set up everything that way in his forum and I believe that it worked. I don't blame those guys who joined to advertise their products and services in the forum because Forum Coin had lots of activities going there. It's what kept making them look for other means to promote their brands.

 

[akinlolu99]

I don't think there's anything bad with it. I feel like different platforms have different needs for PM/DM for example a platform that has to do it education obviously communication is of high importance most especially when colleagues are going to be communicating one way or the other on the side. So you just depends on the kind of platform of forum

 

[Shortie]

I have in the past been on forums that have implemented this. I think the requirements were 10 posts on most forums I was on before you could use the PM feature on the forum to prevent people from registering and spamming members with links and such to their websites.

I at the moment do not have this implemented on my forum but it is something I would consider if I ever found out it would be best due to the PM system being abused in such as way.

 

[Debashis]

Yeah! I've been into forums which had this feature incorporated. I feel it is a good one to have as spammers can be identified easily. Similar feature I found here at Bizdustry where our first 10 posts required approval from the staff before making them publicly visible. I feel it is a good feature again to identify spammers.

 

[Cory1]

I have been on such forums, but I don't limit members to sending PMs under certain conditions on my own forum. They may need to contact a staff member for a specific reason or someone else they need to get in touch with. I can understand spamming or PM advertising being an issue, but if the user was caught they would likely be banned.

 

[Heatman]

I at the moment do not have this implemented on my forum but it is something I would consider if I ever found out it would be best due to the PM system being abused in such as way.

This is a very good call because I have known and seen so many crazy people out there who only joins forums to abuse it for their personal gain. They don't care about the damages that their actions might cause for the forum owner. Such users need to be put in check at all times.