Visitor messages

[Bacon]

I know moderation is a pain for this,but what if there was the following:

-Disabled links and pictures etc
-a pop up telling the user they are about to post a public message

The first point stops people from flooding the vm's with innumerable pictures and links to moderate. The second would stop someone from posting something which should be privately said. Buuuuut I'm not a techy guy, so these things might be impossible. :/

[Jonesy]

It would be great if there were visitor messages. Maybe there could be a team that could moderate the messages, so they make sure nothing illegal is being posted.

[J-Sun Tasogare]

I still don't think we should bring them on here, imo. If they'd work anything like user notes not even SMods can edit them, and they can't be infracted for. Plus there's a lot of stuff to monitor, and I'm sure a ton of flame wars would break out. Plus I really don't get the use for them, if you wanna talk to the user do it in PM's or in a chat thread.

[Leafy]

Besides, VM's work better on larger forums.

[Noctis Arashi]

Still, if the opportunity were to present itself, I wouldn't mind being one to moderate them. Not by myself of course.

[Jonesy]

I don't see why we can't have VM's when all of this other stuff is being added. Today's Top Thread Starters, random picture album, etc. etc.

That's just my opinion though.

[Kreegah!!!]

Visitor messages are an encumbrance. They give us trouble and no benefit--not even simple fun. Discussions running peripherally to forum topics are carried out in PMs or groups. Things about a user are in user notes. Visitor messages are just a way to publicize a friendship or enmity. It is not as easily moderated. They suck.

[Shikamaru Nara]

As for mods, we just got a new batch. Employ them and have them moderate VMs. Full mods+ maybe FAIL and just give infractions to the profile who posts it. They're easy to edit, and that's that.

I still think we should have them.

[Sagepain]

I'd love for VMs to be added. It isin't all that hard to moderate them either, though with a lot of members its different. Of course this site has a lot of mods as well though how active they are and timezone differences I don't know.

Some users might stay up past the time the mods decide to go to sleep and bam..........try to post whatever they want. But if Links and images are disabled then it becomes much less of a problem.

Anyways, I definitely would like for a VM system to be added.

[Kingsnoke]

Originally Posted by Kreegah!!!

Visitor messages are an encumbrance. They give us trouble and no benefit--not even simple fun. Discussions running peripherally to forum topics are carried out in PMs or groups. Things about a user are in user notes. Visitor messages are just a way to publicize a friendship or enmity. It is not as easily moderated. They suck.

Kingsnoke completely agrees with Kreegah. All they will do is allow for more drama to happen publicly.

[Wooster]

Drama increases the hate in which I fed, and finally, leading me closer to taking over the world.
I am all for Visitor Messages.

[Red]

I don't see the point in adding Visitor Messages. Like previously stated, the only positive things the would come from their addition are already available in PMs and regular threads. VMs would only make friendships more prominent (which could possibly make people feel like they are excluded, especially if no one leaves them VMs), or incite ways to publicly target users in negative ways (which is bad in itself). Even if they are easy to moderate, there's no good reason to have them and there are plenty of reasons not to have them.

[Shikamaru Nara]

Weeeeak.

What's the point of having private messages then? It's just another medium for people to pick on other users and solicit porn to minors, no?

What's the point of posts? Just a way to break rules.

Geez, lighten up. There doesn't have to be a point all the time.

[Bacon]

I think the forum should be shut down so no one has anymore drama or talks to people they consider friends on the forum. Or we can ban people and let bots post all they want, they have no bias or need to break any rules.

In all seriousness it's kinda sad how everything said in this thread happens or has happened in some way shape or form before. But if people are so abstinent, guess there's no way it'll happen.

[Red]

Originally Posted by Shikamaru Nara

Weeeeak.

What's the point of having private messages then? It's just another medium for people to pick on other users and solicit porn to minors, no?

What's the point of posts? Just a way to break rules.

Geez, lighten up. There doesn't have to be a point all the time.

You're not getting it, though. Yes, bad things can happen from all of those functions, but good things can too. Good things can come from visitor messages, too. However, all of the good things that come from visitor messages are also good things that can come from other functions we already have available to us. Adding visitor messages also adds bad things that can't come from other functions, as well. Therefore, adding visitor functions results in adding only negativity.

[Kreegah!!!]

Originally Posted by Shikamaru Nara

Weeeeak.

What's the point of having private messages then? It's just another medium for people to pick on other users and solicit porn to minors, no?

What's the point of posts? Just a way to break rules.

Geez, lighten up. There doesn't have to be a point all the time.

Originally Posted by Bacon

I think the forum should be shut down so no one has anymore drama or talks to people they consider friends on the forum. Or we can ban people and let bots post all they want, they have no bias or need to break any rules.

In all seriousness it's kinda sad how everything said in this thread happens or has happened in some way shape or form before. But if people are so abstinent, guess there's no way it'll happen.

Adamant, not abstinent. Few people are abstaining from chiming in. I didn't shoot this down the way I did because I'm negative or hate you. I shot it down because of what Red said:

Originally Posted by Red

You're not getting it, though. Yes, bad things can happen from all of those functions, but good things can too. Good things can come from visitor messages, too. However, all of the good things that come from visitor messages are also good things that can come from other functions we already have available to us. Adding visitor messages also adds bad things that can't come from other functions, as well. Therefore, adding visitor functions results in adding only negativity.

We already have plenty of privileges given or earned that people abuse exhaustively. And more are rolling in as the overhaul hauls. So even if we go against sense and implement it, I advise that we wait. We needn't flood the forum with too many cool things at once.

[Bacon]

We already have plenty of privileges given or earned that people abuse exhaustively. And more are rolling in as the overhaul hauls. So even if we go against sense and implement it, I advise that we wait. We needn't flood the forum with too many cool things at once.

I honestly understand where red's coming from,but it's more along the lines of people being inherently bad. Other than a few select bad eggs, there's not much flaming or drama as a late. In fact the viewpoint purely draws from past events which no longer take place because people have already moved on or find no reason to do so. Even the battlegrounds have become tame as of late.

Anyhow I know visitor messages are kinda pointless and may be hard to moderate,but if the cons were really that bad. There'd be no nice things coming, period.

Why not give them a run for their money? If it's too overbearring to manage, we'll shut them back off.

If moderation options are that big of a deal, I'd argue SG's are as bad if not worse.

As for activity, I don't think we'll see a drastic enough drop in activity for it to matter. From what I've seen VM's are only good for one-on-one conversations, group conversations will still end up taking place in the forum.

People who mistake VM's for PM's are more or less idiots, and I'd hate to see us not implement something people have been wanting because there's an idiot or two out there.

Why not give it a shot?

Honestly this is the only reason I even posted the suggestion.

[Shikamaru Nara]

As far as I'm concerned, this feature still isn't enabled, and we still haven't seen the negative impact of it on the forum. Like Ashen said, we can always turn it off if we see fit.