Why a public announcement of a Private Message?

[Ned]

Is it necessary for Member A to post in a thread that he's sent a PM to B?  B should see an indication when he logs on, or get a copy sent to his email if he's set his account that way.

It's not a huge issue, but announcement posts like this waste other readers' time.  We see there's been activity on a thread, we check it, and discover it's really just two guys announcing a private conversation.

Ned

 

[Eli]

Often a member's message box can be full, preventing the receipt of a message. The indicator that you have a new message is relatively small compared to the size of the entire page, and sometimes people miss it. Those are just two reasons and I can think of two more easily.

 

[Bob Childress]

Often a member's message box can be full, preventing the receipt of a message. The indicator that you have a new message is relatively small compared to the size of the entire page, and sometimes people miss it. Those are just two reasons and I can think of two more easily.

Oh, Eli. You get an e-mail notification of PM's. If the box is full, that's different. I've seen posts saying xxxx clean out your inbox. That's okay. I mean, it's not a big deal to me because nobody loves me or sends me any PM's around here. But I can see Ned's point. Sort of. 

 

[Matthew Schenker]

Is it necessary for Member A to post in a thread that he's sent a PM to B?  B should see an indication when he logs on, or get a copy sent to his email if he's set his account that way.

The way I have the forum set up, when you have PMs there is a flashing "envelope" beside the "MY MESSAGES" link in the top menu.  Other than that, PMs are not supposed to be "announced" in any other way.

It's not a huge issue, but announcement posts like this waste other readers' time.  We see there's been activity on a thread, we check it, and discover it's really just two guys announcing a private conversation.

Can you point me to a place where this has occurred?

Matthew

 

[Ned]

The way I have the forum set up, when you have PMs there is a flashing "envelope" beside the "MY MESSAGES" link in the top menu.  Other than that, PMs are not supposed to be "announced" in any other way.

It's not a huge issue, but announcement posts like this waste other readers' time.  We see there's been activity on a thread, we check it, and discover it's really just two guys announcing a private conversation.

Can you point me to a place where this has occurred?

Matthew

Since I have no personal beef with the latest guys I noticed doing this, I don't want to point to them in public.  I've sent you a PM with the info you requested.

Before someone can point it out, this message is not an example of what I'm talking about.  Matthew asked me a question in a public forum.  We're not the only ones reading this thread.  I want the other readers to know that the conversation continues, rather than "Matthew asked, Ned didn't respond, guess it wasn't true."

I want to say again that I regard this as a small thing, but worth mentioning.  Etiquette is made up of small things.

Ned

 

[Forrest Anderson]

The indicator that you have a new message is relatively small compared to the size of the entire page, and sometimes people miss it.

The way I have the forum set up, when you have PMs there is a flashing "envelope" beside the "MY MESSAGES" link in the top menu.  Other than that, PMs are not supposed to be "announced" in any other way.

I agree with Eli that the "you have a PM" indicator is pretty small, and the first time I was sent a PM it took me a week to even notice it was there     I had to apologise to the sender of the PM, who was probably thinking I was ignoring him.

The indicator we've got at the moment is discreet and tasteful, but I'd like something a bit less discreet

to tell me that there was a message waiting for me to read 

Forrest

 

[Matthew Schenker]

...The indicator we've got at the moment is discreet and tasteful, but I'd like something a bit less discreet

to tell me that there was a message waiting for me to read 

Well, as always, I am open to member suggestions.  Why don't we open a little design contest for the PM indicator.  Yours can be the first entry.  We can discuss it and choose the one we like best.

Of course, we can always try one, then, if we want, change it later.  That's the beauty of this forum software -- it allows all kinds of tweaking.

What does everyone think?

Matthew

 

[Matthew Schenker]

...I want to say again that I regard this as a small thing, but worth mentioning.  Etiquette is made up of small things.

I understand now what you're saying.  At first, I thought you were talking about something the forum software was doing.
I can't do anything about people mentioning PMs "in public."  Perhaps a flashier PM indicator, like the one Forrest posted, would help?
Matthew

 

[Ned]

Matthew--

I didn't and don't expect you as Forummeister to take action.  In fact, your largely hands-off attitude toward FOG behavior is one of the best things about FOG.

I was explaining the side effects of a particular FOG behavior, in hopes that we'd all choose not to do it.

Forrest's flashier PM indicator might help.  Also people cleaning out their mailboxes so mail can arrive.  As a result of this discussion, I removed a bunch of old PMs.

Ned

 

[Matthew Schenker]

...I was explaining the side effects of a particular FOG behavior, in hopes that we'd all choose not to do it.

Well, let's see what happens...

Forrest's flashier PM indicator might help.  Also people cleaning out their mailboxes so mail can arrive.  As a result of this discussion, I removed a bunch of old PMs.

So it's a beneficial discussion!  I'd be interested in hearing from people what they think of Forrest's PM indicator, or if people want to create their own and post it here.

Anyone good at designing animated GIFs?

Let's see what people come up with.

Matthew

 

[Eli]

Ned you have a PM. Just kidding. 

Made you look though!

 

[Forrest Anderson]

...The indicator we've got at the moment is discreet and tasteful, but I'd like something a bit less discreet

to tell me that there was a message waiting for me to read 

Well, as always, I am open to member suggestions.  Why don't we open a little design contest for the PM indicator.  Yours can be the first entry.  We can discuss it and choose the one we like best.

Yay - a competition! However, since it's possible that it'll be the only entry(!), here's another one to keep it company...

If anyone has another idea - either a modification of my two suggestions, or something brand new - please post them and hopefully someone will be able to create a graphic for you.

Forrest

 

[Matthew Schenker]

Forrest,
I like your second suggestion.  It's got the envelope and the green thing going on.
There's no harm in trying it out.  If people don't like it, I can switch back to the old one.
Another thing I can do is move the "MY MESSAGES" menu entry between "GALLERY" and "LOGOUT" to make it more visible.
Matthew

 

[Lou Miller]

Often a member's message box can be full, preventing the receipt of a message. The indicator that you have a new message is relatively small compared to the size of the entire page, and sometimes people miss it. Those are just two reasons and I can think of two more easily.

Oh, Eli. You get an e-mail notification of PM's. If the box is full, that's different. I've seen posts saying xxxx clean out your inbox. That's okay. I mean, it's not a big deal to me because nobody loves me or sends me any PM's around here. But I can see Ned's point. Sort of. 

Aahh, come on everyone, let's fill Bob's message folder up for him so he feels loved around here.  ;D Just don't everyone do it at once, we don't want to crash the server.

 

[Brice Burrell]

  Matthew, other forums have a pop up that tells you a new message waiting, how about something like that?

 

[Matthew Schenker]

  Matthew, other forums have a pop up that tells you a new message waiting, how about something like that?

There is something like that in this forum as well.  You just need to go into your forum profile and activate it.

While you're at it, set your e-mail notification preferences as well.

Here's how to do it:
1. Click "PROFILE" from the main menu.
2. Click "Personal Message Options" in the "Modify Profile" area.
3. Check the box for the option, "Show a popup when you receive new messages?"
4. To activate email notification, choose an option from the "Notify by email every time you receive a personal message:" pull-down menu.
5. Click the "Change profile" button.

The screen shot below illustrates what I'm talking about:
[attachthumb=1]

Matthew

 

[Brice Burrell]

Matthew, I never saw that before, thanks.

 

[Matthew Schenker]

Brice,
There are all kinds of goodies in the SMF settings, many I have never tried.  Then there are hundreds of "modifications" that can be installed to customize the way it functions.  Then, because it's open source, I can go in and rework lines of code, which I've done a few times.

So, considering the pop-up and the e-mail notification, what do people think about a flashier e-mail notifier?

Matthew

PS: If you're a technical type and want to see the potential modifications, click here.

 

[Forrest Anderson]

So, considering the pop-up and the e-mail notification, what do people think about a flashier e-mail notifier?

I was one of those who thought the current PM notification icon in the bar at the top of the page wasn't noticable enough, but I wasn't aware that there were pop-up and e-mail options. I didn't have either of these set, so I was relying totally on the tiny notification icon, and was missing PMs as a result.

Given the existence of the pop-up and e-mail notification options, and the lack of anyone else grumbling about the tiny notification icon, I'm happy to drop my idea for something a bit more in-your-face, like a flashing or animated icon.

Forrest

 

[Matthew Schenker]

Forrest,
I'll leave this open for discussion, to hear other opinions.

In the meantime, I'm going to copy my above post into the "tutorials" section.  I'll be you are not the only one who was unaware of the pop-up and e-mail notification options.

Matthew