Is there any chance that we could enable personal messages for the forum?
 

I think personal messages would greatly reduce the annoying "YGM" and "Get on AIM" type posts that show up pretty regularly in the Other Forum and keep things much cleaner overall.

This has been suggested in the past and considered. From what I understand, the reason it was never implemented is that it consumes a large amount of resources and slows the other server functions.

Although the vBulletin software developer posted on here that PM no longer evokes a speed hit in newer versions of the software.

I remember that, and I believe it would be a wonderful way to foster a stronger community.

Ooops, sorry, I didn't realize this. :o

I agree. It would give people a chance to talk to each other quickly and easily without cluttering up the board or revealing their email addresses to the world.

I have absolutely no interests in it as I don't come online to meet people, but if it won't increase the server load any what the hell?

If it does slow the site down, then it should be immediately disabled. There's no reason to slow the whole site down with a feature that a relative small percentage of the readers will use. I mean it will clearly bu used by "otters" and there's no reason to make people that only read DVD Talk, or any of the other forums, suffer with a slower site because of feature they don't care about.

But like I said, if it doesn't slow the site down, then there's no reason not to turn it on.

Actually, this can be a useful feature for any of the forums. It can help from keeping threads from going off topic with questions not related to the thread's topic.

But server speed is paramount. It'd be nice to see if it will work for us now.

-David

Focker, YGM!

haha sorry, had to do it :cool:

I simply love the instant messaging feature on my board (<a href="http://sd-6.com/board">here</a> - and I could have used it earlier when @home went down and the only way I could contact a user was through this board (a private message would have been really nice)...

Plus it should cut down on the personal threads that were a problem in Other and I really don't see how it could be a huge resource consumer. A user is either viewing threads eating up resources of reading his private messages. The only thing that could be a problem is when surfing the boards, the messenger checks to see if you have new messages, but who knows??

I am in favor of it (assuming no performance hit).

How can adding hundreds of PMs not affect the server at all? Sure it might not bother the server speed, but what about bandwidth DVDTalk will need? I know that's been a problem for Geoff in the past.

Well, the server's on a new host, on which bandwidth usage is hopefully not a problem?

Maybe we can convince Geoff to give PM a one week test run to evaluate server performance and bandwidth usage, and then decide from there to keep it or ditch it?

If you're viewing a private message, you aren't viewing threads (most likely). I would wager that threads take up MUCH more bandwidth than simple private messages.

Also, if it's that much of a problem, we can always add "Punch the Monkey" banner ads to every PM. :D

I was just about to suggest this feature but since it is already suggested I'll bump this thread.

The good thing about private messages
1. If you don't want them you can turn the feature off( at least on other forums you can) For example I'm not interested in hooking up horny shemales but do visit their forum so I turn private messaging off. Though it was probably regular horny guys that wanted me.

2. This is a much better way to trade friend codes for games if you don't want the world to know your code.

3. Games. There are a number of forum games that can be better played using private messaging. If I wanted to start such a game here I would have to use email and made other people wouldn't want me to have their email but don't care if I can message them.

4. The guy said there would be no bandwith hit so why the hell not.

5. The other forums with private messaging is making this forum look bad. Those bastards think their better than us.

the bad
1. People that like complaining will have one less thing to complain about.

But it's not just about bandwith. I assume you also want the server to store your personal messages, right? So then in addition to the hundreds of thousands of threads freely available on this forum (which make up the bulk of this forum's content), you also want to add in hundreds of thousands of PMs (which would make up none of the forum's content). Every message sent, received, retrieved, deleted, etc., makes up a database hit, which eats up server resources.

And then you get into the personal side -- it's been my experience that adding in personal messages just gives forum members one more (unregulated) place to get pissy. So unless Geoff enables this option for Premium Members (let me know where to send that $30 check)... I'd vote no.

whats wrong with just putting in your email address? it works fine.

I don't think we need them. Between thread notification emails and emailing each other thru our profiles, PMs seem superfluous.

Besides, I have enough email to (not) keep up with, I don't need another form of communication to track.

we may upgrade the forum software to a more updated version, if so I'll revisit this issue then :)

<----would gladly pay $30 a year for the PM system to work. :D

You should make PMs mandatory and sell our "Forum Usernames" to like Expedia and Procter & Gamble so they can research consumer habits. So we can all get customized messages.

Fantastic vs Doom can get a message regarding new toothpaste that's superior to Aquafresh: http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showpost.ph...0&postcount=17

Kitty can get an email link to a photography tips for dummies book, etc.

Rake in the money.

Then... Charge us $30 if we don't want to be on the list.

:lol:

I didn't realize that he meant you should sell our actual usernames. -eek-

You know, technically that should be "[p]eople who like complaining..." :D

:lol: That's awesome. :up:

Whatever it takes!


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