Time out for new members to send private message?

[Ja sa bong]

I joined a forum recently which I won't be calling out and I found out I'm not allowed or have the permission to send private message to anyone on the forum until I either been on the forum for a certain period of time and made a certain number of posts.

Have you experienced this on any forum? Do you see it as something encouraging to set in any forum?

 

[StateDOG]

I believe it's probably in place to discourage someone from signing up to the forum and immediately spamming members with DMs. MOST would never do that. But it has happened before.

 

[Shortie]

I have seen this done on a forum before and their reason for doing it was that they'd had a few accounts register just to spam members through PMs and it was something that they brought into place to prevent that.

 

[Cory]

I think I've come across this on a few forums, and if it's a feature, they should at least make it so that you can PM staff members still. I can understand the significance of such a feature to deter spam, advertising, and trolling, but in reality, anyone will probably stick around long enough or post enough to combat this.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I don't see this that often anymore, but on some of the forums I've joined in the past there were limits on new members. I understand why certain boards would prevent new members from sending private messages, you never know if they're going to spam or troll members.

 

[Reverie]

I used to see this frequently! People used to PM advertise frequently and it just came off quite spammy. I think if you do this, you must send an automatic message at registration where it states this and also the purpose to make it clear that they can not advertise. I would only make the limit 5 posts though - because otherwise it might become slightly annoying for people who don't post too much, but may want to send you as an admin a private message. Another option would to also include another way to contact you if they have a concern - perhaps provide that also in the automatic message if you did this.

 

[ClicketyKat]

We had to change our settings recently because we had a new member on Christianity Haven that had signed up with a Christian type username and then didn't make any posts for a month. Then that member returned to PM spammed everyone but staff.