Sara - can you please tell me why private messaging isnt enabled anymore?
Thanks
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Bumping so I get an answer
Sara does seem to answer some and not others...
Perhaps she'll see this:
Sara - can you please tell me why private messaging isn't enabled anymore?
R2
Perhaps she'll see this:
Sara - can you please tell me why private messaging isn't enabled anymore?
R2
Why ask why?
Did Adam and Eve have navels?
How come wrong numbers are never busy?
How long is a short story?
Did Adam and Eve have navels?
How come wrong numbers are never busy?
How long is a short story?
Why do you insist on not answering questions?
Is it really that hard?
Sara - do you realise how destructive your attitude is for Auction Sniper?
Oh well, I guess AS doesnt care if it loses a few more members.
I suspect she wants to avoid the argument that follows any explaination.
The two extreems are
1) It was being used by too few.
2) It was being abused by too many.
Perhaps a mix of both... Guess we'll never know.
The two extreems are
1) It was being used by too few.
2) It was being abused by too many.
Perhaps a mix of both... Guess we'll never know.
quote:Ding ding ding, we have a winner! No reason would have been good enough. I could say leaving it enabled would result in the end of humanity and people woulda still wanted it left on. The feature was used 9 times in the past 3 months. Taht's 3 times a month. It wont be missed by many.
I suspect she wants to avoid the argument that follows any explaination.
It's fairly easy for anyone to contact anyone else. Put in your email address along with something like GetNoSpam and there you have it, private messaging.
i.e. To email me remove "GetNoSpam" bartelbyGetNoSapm@blabblahblah.com
Alternately register with your eBay userId here and then tell people just to contact you through eBays contact system using your userId.
Thank you for the explanation Sara, I appreciate it.
Not starting an arguement, just correcting the never ending grossly exaggerated statistics from this site.
Incorrect. The 9 times in the past 3 months is incorrect.
Don't bother coming back with where you got those figures from, I KNOW they are incorrect.
quote:
The feature was used 9 times in the past 3 months. Taht's 3 times a month. It wont be missed by many
Incorrect. The 9 times in the past 3 months is incorrect.
Don't bother coming back with where you got those figures from, I KNOW they are incorrect.
Sara posted:
I'm with Lexie on this one. 9 uses in 3 months??? While I've cut back on my private messaging, I think I've done more than that just myself!
Sara's question dodging notwithstanding, maybe it boils down to a money issue? Maybe having the private messaging feature as part of the forum costs AS more money?
I really wish I had downloaded some of those old messages before they disappeared
....
quote:Truly one of the oddest replies from a support person to a legitimate & reasonable question I have ever seen.
Why ask why?....
I'm with Lexie on this one. 9 uses in 3 months??? While I've cut back on my private messaging, I think I've done more than that just myself!
Sara's question dodging notwithstanding, maybe it boils down to a money issue? Maybe having the private messaging feature as part of the forum costs AS more money?
I really wish I had downloaded some of those old messages before they disappeared
....
Oh, and for the record:
quote:To learn something.
Why ask why?
quote:No, but who cares?
Did Adam and Eve have navels?
quote:They sometimes are! You just don't know they are a WRONG number until they are NOT busy!
How come wrong numbers are never busy?
quote:No longer than what will fit on 5 full-sized newspaper pages.
How long is a short story?
quote:Are you being sarcastic or were you genuinely satisfied with that response?
Originally posted by jakedduck:
Thank you for the explanation Sara, I appreciate it.
How the beep does Sara keep her job - AS seems populated with some of the rudest, most unprofessional support people I have ever met.
If anyone asks, I say 'Great Product, Crap Support'. Imagine how great it would be if support was better...
R2
quote:That changes nothing, the point was never about the number. And now you see why I didnt answer to begin with.
Don't bother coming back with where you got those figures from, I KNOW they are incorrect
The report shows 14. 5 of which are jibberish subjects hjkjkghjk, hgfjyt, tretwertrte, trewert, and wert. Which I didnt count.
Here's what it boils down to... we made a business decision to do it. That's why. It's none of your business as to the exact details. I attempted to leave it at that but you bumped the thread, then when you didnt get your answer there you created a new topic.
quote:The private topics report shows you created 0 topics in the past 3 months. Did you create any or only join ones invited by others?
I'm with Lexie on this one. 9 uses in 3 months??? While I've cut back on my private messaging, I think I've done more than that just myself!
Perhaps if you create them, then later close them the system deletes them. Or maybe all the closed ones get deleted by Infopop after a certain time. We've never deleted any.
Don't know, don't care, doesn't matter. I was merely trying to point out it wasnt a widely used feature and now I basically get called a liar on this and all the other "grossly exaggerated" statistics which I usually share to try and help people get a gauge on things. Oh well no more of that cause I'm just a big fat grossly exaggerating liar anyways and the numbers dont mean squat.
quote:Nope. Maybe it did, but it if so it would be maybe 25 cents a month or something for the extra bandwidth.
Maybe having the private messaging feature as part of the forum costs AS more money?
quote:
Originally posted by Sniper Sara B.:
Don't know, don't care, doesn't matter. I was merely trying to point out it wasnt a widely used feature and now I basically get called a liar on this and all the other "grossly exaggerated" statistics.
The best response would have been "Our business folks took a look at the private messaging function and opted to remove this feature from our forum package, since it really was not used that much, or at least not enough to justify having it. Sorry.
"You would have given an accurate and informative response. Had any arguments started after that, you would have had the high ground, since all you did was accurately report what decisions were made by AS management. You could then have stayed out of the fray. Glib responses do not accomplish that, nor do they reflect well on the employee who makes them.
quote:The reason wasnt the low use. Not many people use the polls but we didnt turn those off. Heck private topics were probably used more than the poll feature. Fact is there wasnt a reason that we cared to explain and it was best to just let it be. Which I tried hard to do. Perhaps my delivery wasn't the greatest but I'd rather not answer then give some stupid reason that would basically be a lie then let everyone argue while I sit back.
The best response would have been
Maybe you're right, maybe I should give that stupid unsatisfying answer and be done. That's what most companies do, people hate it but they accept it. Somehow I thought giving a less than half truthful answer was worse than none at all.
So that's 9 threads started, not 9 posts and that doesn't include deleted threads...
I think it has more to do with abuse than use. I can think of at least two scenarios that would warrant turning privates off. I'd like to know if my suspicions are correct, but if they are, I wouldn't expect an answer for all to see. That said...
Sara,
Some like surprises, but not when it comes to how things work. It's fairly easy to anticipate when a change might be made and the questions that might come up.
I suggest you add one more step to your business meetings and ask yourselves, Is there anything we should post in the News and Updates area of the forum. That area is sadly neglected. If the 'why question' comes up and you don't want to share, so be it, but ignoring the question is not the way to go. (IMO)
I think it has more to do with abuse than use. I can think of at least two scenarios that would warrant turning privates off. I'd like to know if my suspicions are correct, but if they are, I wouldn't expect an answer for all to see. That said...
Sara,
Some like surprises, but not when it comes to how things work. It's fairly easy to anticipate when a change might be made and the questions that might come up.
I suggest you add one more step to your business meetings and ask yourselves, Is there anything we should post in the News and Updates area of the forum. That area is sadly neglected. If the 'why question' comes up and you don't want to share, so be it, but ignoring the question is not the way to go. (IMO)
Lexie, as a customer, asked a civil question about a feature she obviouly likes using.
It would appear that someone at AS decided to restrict private messaging. The reason would appear not to be financial so I guess it was a political reason - maybe the natives were getting restless...
Rather than give a straight answer, an AS employee decided to try to be clever but failed miserably.
I suspect that if AS were 'up-front' and gave the real reason then all would have been well - instead it appears that AS are determined to pi55 off the 'regulars' on this forum. Shame, as often it's these 'regulars' who answer many of the questions and help AS make money...
R2
It would appear that someone at AS decided to restrict private messaging. The reason would appear not to be financial so I guess it was a political reason - maybe the natives were getting restless...
Rather than give a straight answer, an AS employee decided to try to be clever but failed miserably.
I suspect that if AS were 'up-front' and gave the real reason then all would have been well - instead it appears that AS are determined to pi55 off the 'regulars' on this forum. Shame, as often it's these 'regulars' who answer many of the questions and help AS make money...
R2
Sara posted:
Why wouldn't AS notify forum users of private messaging issues? What private topics issues were causing AS to consider shutting the feature down, before actually doing it? What's wrong with giving forum members a say on the matter -- perhaps using that forum POLL feature that hardly EVER gets used, yet is still available?
This whole thing was handled rather ham-handedly, I think.
quote:I've only ever created a couple private topics, all now inactive. One (Linda & the Lamp) had HUNDREDS of posts before it finally fizzled. I participated in 2 other private topics fairly regularly. I didn't realize your measure of the utilization of the feature is the number of private topics CREATED rather than the number of POSTS MADE to existing private topics.
quote:
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I'm with Lexie on this one. 9 uses in 3 months??? While I've cut back on my private messaging, I think I've done more than that just myself!
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The private topics report shows you created 0 topics in the past 3 months. Did you create any or only join ones invited by others?
quote:Yes, I think that's how it worked. The originator has (had) to delete topics.
Perhaps if you create them, then later close them the system deletes them.
quote:Yep.
Don't know, don't care, doesn't matter.
quote:Nope -- your words, no one else's -- but if the shoe fits! If your usuage figures refer to only topics CREATED, I think I could buy that, but if your figures are supposed to represent number of posts made to private topics (a better utilization measurement of the feature, IMO) -- NO WAY!
I was merely trying to point out it wasnt a widely used feature and now I basically get called a liar
Why wouldn't AS notify forum users of private messaging issues? What private topics issues were causing AS to consider shutting the feature down, before actually doing it? What's wrong with giving forum members a say on the matter -- perhaps using that forum POLL feature that hardly EVER gets used, yet is still available?
This whole thing was handled rather ham-handedly, I think.
quote:
Originally posted by R2:
Are you being sarcastic or were you genuinely satisfied with that response?
I was not trying to be sarcastic and no, I was not satisfied with her response. I was however, pleased she finally came through with an answer, such as it was. I started a private message in the past 3 months and know of another one started on Aug 10 as well. That leaves only one other. The stats seem a little hard to swallow if you ask me. If the service only costs about 25 cents (which you can bill me for) why take a useful feature away even if it is only seldom used. I like AS but tend to agree with R2 regarding support.
I guess AS were reading the 'private' stuff and didn't like what was said - it's a hell of a way to run a railway!
R2
R2
Hopefully AS has more integrity than to stoop that low.
Well, think about it - why else close down a utility that costs nothing and is private?!
R2
R2
How about spam? Did most have email notification turned on? I did, because of all the trouble checking privates all the time since the BIG forum change.
*I* never got any, but perhaps someone or a few did and complained. This is the kind of thing that only gets worse if you ask them to stop.
*I* never got any, but perhaps someone or a few did and complained. This is the kind of thing that only gets worse if you ask them to stop.
R2, I have thought from the beginning that what you are saying is pretty much on target. And, before I get attacked for saying this, how many noticed that the view numbers would climb on a private topic without anyone in the topic viewing it? For this reason, I began deleting my topics as soon as possible. I am not accusing anyone in paticular, but I did notice this and mentioned it to a few.
quote:They arent viewable by anyone other than the participants, not even by admins.
I guess AS were reading the 'private' stuff and didn't like what was said
quote:No, just paranoia.
how many noticed that the view numbers would climb on a private topic without anyone in the topic viewing it?
quote:
The report shows 14. 5 of which are jibberish subjects hjkjkghjk, hgfjyt, tretwertrte, trewert, and wert. Which I didnt count.
Interesting.
quote:
quote:
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how many noticed that the view numbers would climb on a private topic without anyone in the topic viewing it?
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No, just paranoia.
I am not parinoid, Sara. I have never written anything in a private message that I needed to be parinoid about. I was however curious and just like when you are talking on a phone and someone is eavesdropping, I found it a little rude. I did watch the count climb as did some others. We watched and wondered and discussed it at the time. Sorry.
But, of course, this has nothing to do with why it was closed so never mind.
quote:If the "never mind",
Originally posted by Mrs.M:
But, of course, this has nothing to do with why it was closed so never mind.
then why take the time?
Oh! Never mind.
Hope you like my rhythm (oops - s/b rhyme).
You might if you give it time.
quote:Topics and the originator are visible. The messages themselves, the other participants, and the number of messages in the thread are not.
Interesting.
quote:From Infopop (forum provider) regarding admin's access to private messages:
Originally posted by Sniper Sara B.:
They arent viewable by anyone other than the participants, not even by admins.
Note that admins will NOT be able to read. Only users who have been specifically invited to a private topic can access/read it.
When the private message search results are displayed, you will be given the following information: Topic Subject, Status (Open/Closed), Topic Starter, and Last Post Date. Note that you will not be able to read/access private message from this control panel. You will be able to see the topic subjects in the search results here, but only users who have been invited to a private topic can access/read it.
Infopop's documentation supports the quote.
Sara, I'll accept that. I have used private messaging somewhat, but really could care less whether it is there or not. Kind of reminded me of AOL! It certainly tends to isolate some and it is much nicer to see them on the forum. But I will stand on the statement that the views did fly up! Perhaps it was a glich in the program! It did spook me a little! A couple of us tested it and sure enough! ... Rick, I am just sure someone will tell you this is so.
So Sara, now that it's all out in the open, please tell us the real business reasons behind your decision to close 'em down?
R2
R2
The real reason...
Region2 asked us to. So we did, blame it all on him. Bad R2, bad!
Region2 asked us to. So we did, blame it all on him. Bad R2, bad!
Sara - why not just answer the question without trying to be a smartarse - all you're doing is digging a huge hole for yourself and you're impressing.... no-one!
R2
R2
(My inner- most feelings on the subject)
quote:Good advice. Something we could all learn from.
Originally posted by Chatter:
You would have given an accurate and informative response. Had any arguments started after that, you would have had the high ground, since all you did was accurately report what decisions were made by AS management. You could then have stayed out of the fray. Glib responses do not accomplish that, nor do they reflect well on the employee who makes them.
Agreed!Just plain common sense and courtesy!