Íæż½ã½ã

Hi,

we would indeed like to reprogram the whole contact and PM message, but I guess that won't be before 2013 ... I'll keep the idea in mind !

Hi Hericles,

While that would be a great solution for many members it wouldn't be a 'one size fits all' solution for spam. The best solution is that the rules must be enforced without exception, quickly and finally. I believe that any member who sends out copy and paste spam and gets their mailbox locked out should NOT be able to get it back. End of story!

The whole registration process needs to be changed. There has got to be a way to include a very clear warning about spam of all kinds and mostly about copy and paste in the registration itself. It should be a compulsory field to fill in during the registration a checkbox which acknowledges that you are aware your messaging privileges will be terminated or membership will be revoked for any kind of spamming.

I think another fundamental flaw with registration is that it is automatic and instant. Bad, bad, bad... all the spammers in the world come out on the weekends to wreak havoc knowing they won't get caught until the work week begins.

Here there are a number of different ways to tackle the problem. One which I'm not recommending, but is used in other expat groups is membership only by invitation of existing members or requests for membership which are reviewed by a panel of existing members, really tough these ones.

Next registration process that depends on confirmation of the registry via e-mail sent out from Íæż½ã½ã-blog witch contains a hyperlink to activate the membership - then these e-mails should be set NOT to be sent out between Friday afternoon and Monday morning. This would eliminate the flood of spammers who register on the weekend when they won't be weeded out. If a prospective member doesn't think Íæż½ã½ã-blog is worth waiting a couple of days for then I for one wouldn't want that individual as a member anyway.

I can't imagine how many members that I wouldn't have been able to give much needed help or advice if they weren't able to PM me. There are certain problems that come up for expats that you certainly couldn't post in an open forum.

While it would be very labor intensive another solution is the individual review of membership applications by a real live person, a member of the TEAM who has the ultimate say if a member is approved or not. This would involve many factors such as IP address check to confirm that it matches with member information and forum settings, etc.

Cheers,
William James Woodward - Brazil Animator, Íæż½ã½ã-blog Team

Is it really a big problem?  I've never noticed any spam PMs.

wjwoodward wrote:

Here there are a number of different ways to tackle the problem. One which I'm not recommending, but is used in other expat groups is membership only by invitation of existing members or requests for membership which are reviewed by a panel of existing members, really tough these ones.

I've been invited to some of those invitation only sites.  They all seem pretty boring to me.  I think the main problem is that they only want a certain type of person, so everyone there is the same type of person.

Hi Hailey,

To answer your question, "Is it really that big a problem?" Yes, and you have no idea just how big! It's mind boggling.

I agree with you, I've been a member of other 'by invitation' expat sites that are traditionally pretty elitist and stuffy too and, in fact, I asked them to cancel my membership and never went back. I was only putting that forward as one of the possible alternatives, and not one that I would recommend either.

If you look at the other reply you made about the private message system, I have given a really detailed response to your question about copy & paste and outlined some of the major changes that have and will continue to take place to fine tune the system.

Thanks again for your very valuable feedback, you always use your head. I don't know if Hong Kong presently has an Animator, but if they don't I'd say you would be a perfect candidate if you ever had any thought of volunteering. I think you would be a terrific addition to the Animator Team. You would sure get my full support.

Cheers,
William James Woodward - Brazil Animator, Íæż½ã½ã-blog Team

Problem with only being able to PM contacts is how do you organise an event? Yes you can post on the forum but not everyone is subscribed to that and may not look on a regular basis. It is always best to PM and get everyone together.

One feature I would like to see in PM's is that when you hit reply you can see who you are replying to and their original message.

When I am organising events I can get over 50 emails a day. I open them all in new tabs and work my way through them. Would definitely improve the emails if I could easily refer to the persons previous message.

I don't like using the quote feature on PM's as that takes up a lot of space and shouldn't be necessary. Also it always makes me wonder - "why on earth are they quoting what I only sent them 20mins ago??"

Hi all,

And instead of all the "system MUST be , HAS to, and SHOULD do that", why not having a tailor made system where I can choose if I want No MPs (already available), MPs only from my contacts, Mps only from team and animators, Mps from everyone.
Something like that would be more open and could fit almost all kind of expectations...

Cheers

Olivier

Hi everybody,

I don't know if a system with separate elements (permissions) that we can select separately could be done, but it certainly would be the perfect solution as Olivier points out.

Cheers,
William James Woodward

Good idea!

Hmm, if I am not your contact, or a team member, then it means that I can not send you a pm when I want it too and your choose to have not get pm from everybody.
In my case I get several pm from new members who want more info because they think that I am the right person for it.
I don't want have contacts who I don't know or from them who never participate.