Feature Request: Private messaging or email forwarding

[m3nth]

I found myself in multiple instances wanting to address someone posting a thread, but not feeling like it would be appropriate to do so on the forum (for example, writing them about things not directly related to what would be helpful to the rest of the world). It would be nice to have a way to leave them a user-to-user message that they get when they log in, or to leave them a message that is forwarded by the system to their email address on file, so as to maintain privacy but still allow people to get in touch without posting directly to the forum where it is inappropriate.

If this type of feature is already available somewhere then I've definitely missed it... I usually check the profile of someone I want to get in touch with but then there doesn't seem to be a way to.

I'll edit and add the following note:

I just went and looked at more profiles and realized that previously all of the profiles I've looked at just didn't have email addresses. I thought the email address was mandatory so my assumption was that the email address simply wasn't displayed. My request then is still to have a way to get in touch with people who choose not to enter or display (whatever the case may be) their email address.

Message Edited by m3nth on 04-28-2005 10:26 PM

[chilly_charly]

When people accept to be joined directly, they just publish an email adress. Why didn't you do so ?
I think you gave yourself an answer to your question. The concept of privacy is typicaly something personal... Do not attempt to find a bias to it ! 😉

CC

[m3nth]

First of all, I didn't realize that other people can't see my profile since when I click my name, I thought I was seeing what everyone else did (but apparently that's not how it works). You're right though... I would rather not publish my email address to the whole world.

Second, there are more in-between levels of privacy than being completely anonymous or completely not. How many services have I seen or used where you can contact people through a third party or service, so as not to directly obtain their personal information?... oh letsee... a lot. That's what I would like here.

I would love people to message me through the forum, and have the ability to do the same in reverse, but I don't necessarily want to publish my email address, as I'm sure a lot of other people don't want to either.

[Ben]

I would not think that this functionality needs built into the Dev-Exchange.

Molly (THE Web Master) may be able to help.

Send her an e-mail and ask her to forward your e-mail to the user you want to contact. They can then contact you directly if they choose.

Ben

[m3nth]

I guess it's just user preference. While you're right that I could forward through someone else, it also sounds convulted when I could just post a message on the forum. Even though I'd rather not do either. It's a feature that I like with the services I use that do have it, and if nobody else sees the need for it here, so be it--I for one would still like it though.

[Ben]

Hi m3nth,

I came across negative in my previous post.

I WAS WRONG!

Please forgive me.

I have shown myself a hypocrite in that I have many times spouted off about all ideas are good. You idea is a good one that Molly and her team may be able to implement. There have been many times when I also have wanted to contact people on the list through private channels.

Ben

[altenbach]

It is an important feature to protect the privacy of members, but I agree that there are times where a private contact is much more appropriate.

A message option is a normal feature of forum software and I am sure that Lithium contains this functionality. All that is needed is a good argument for it and Molly can throw some switch. 😉

Such a contact needs to be strictly one-way such that the recipient can completely ignore it. There must be mechanisms in place that it cannot be abused by spammers using some automated means. (It could only be available to registered users and the e-mail must then have the registered e-mail of the senders profile as from: and reply to: address.) The body of the e-mail must contain the IP from where the request has been made.

I don't mind at all to be contacted in private by select other users, but in the forum posts I insist on total privacy.

(btw: the privacy options in the profile are poorly worded. It does not seem very logical that privacy=none is "full privacy", and privacy=all is "no privacy". Very confusing.... ;))

It would be nice if the privacy options were more gradual. I would not mind if my profile is fully visible to members above a certain level (e.g. veterans), while it should be hidden to newbies and unregistered users.

[RobertoBozzolo]

In my opinion all that privacy matter can be managed well by each of us at best. I'll try to explain it: if I decide to make my e-mail public it means I accept the risk connected to it. Given this postulate, a facility to easily e-mail someone would be good. By "easily" I mean that I don't need to run through his profile to detect if his e-mail address is public: a button visible only if it is so would be great!

And I don't think the risk connected to make my e-mail public is great in this forum: some years ago I was reading the forum via a news reader and the e-mail of authors was public. In this period I had interesting private contacts with some user with no real problem of spamming and so. The discussion about a problem can deep a little more than is acceptable in the forum loosing interest for everyone but the persons involved: at such level following the discussion in private seems the optimal solution.

But I agree with altebach that some filtering on personal data can be good.

And, yes: the option to private messaging someone via the forum could be good, optionally giving in the profile the ability to accept it or not.

[Molly K]

Private Messaging is something that we can consider implementing in the future on this site. Some reasons we have not done is so far include:

1 - We are still so busy working on all the rest of your great suggestions!

2 - Fundamentally, the private messaging option seems to clash with the concept of the forum. The forums are about open communication with others where users get to choose what to read and reply to. As soon as a thread transitions into a private message, the other members are left out and threads can look "unfinished." While I understand that there are times when both channels are appropriate, I can't think of a concrete example that clearly demonstrates when a private message is really the only option. Can you all help me with this?

What types of things would you need to discuss in private with other members of this forum? (Of course I'm asking for hypothetical examples here and not asking you to make public information that shouldn't be shared.) 🙂

Do you think users would discuss things in private that should/could be shared with the entire community? Will this negatively impact the community?

Thanks so much for your input!

[Joe_H]

In my opinion this would be a bad thing. I will explain.

1. What if someone post a question, someone answers but the answer does not solve the problem but gets close, then right in the middle the two people starts to IM with each other then the post is left incomplete and the person that is trying to find the answer to his question has to post the same question again.

2. The forum is an open place were all questions and answers are shared and we choose to read them and answer. All answers shouild be left open.

3. what if someone just tries to IM somebody (Ie Dennis) what if dennis does not answer, then this person will probably be mad.

Just giving my 3 bits of info