PM feature.......why off?
 

I did a search as good as I can do but came up with nothing.
So sorry if this has been asked before.

I was wondering why the PM feature was turned off?
If its a privacy issue,then why is your email visible?Wouldn't that be more of a privacy issue than a PM that could be harmless as email is not?
Alot of times a PM would be better for such things as not having a threadcap or hijack of a thread.
Some threads go off because someone might ask......example:

Thread title:Thunderbirds DVD skipping
ZIP:Hey,blah blah blah.......
Reply from ZIG:Hmmmm....I had the same happen to me but with another title.Was Fight Club.
Reply from ZAG to ZIG:hey,how is that title,I was going to get it.
Reply from ZIG to ZAG:It was great!You should get it...........

The thread then goes off on another subject.
With the PM feature,ZAG could have just PM'd ZIG instead of making the thread go off into oblivion from the original question at hand.

I hope this makes sense.
If one chooses not to answer a PM,then fine,but better to get a PM rather than a buttload of email IMO

Re: PM feature.......why off?
 

It does. :) Except, I don't see what's the difference between having PM's here on DVDTalk vs. having email on your PC...just location.

I too think the PM feature could be useful...it would make it much easier to communicate with people who don't want their email to be shown.

Unfortunately, the reason it's not activated is because of concerns over server load...not so much bandwidth (as I understand that's not supposed to be so much of an issue) but more, I believe, a storage problem...this would be like turning DVDTalk into an email server, and with our larger membership, and already high server usage, that's just not a good thing.

Perhaps with the next server upgrade? But that's up to Geoff.

Re: PM feature.......why off?
 

I could be wrong, but I think email addys are only available if you (as a user) choose to make them available to the the world...

PS: And your email is not visible as far as I can tell.......

OK.....fisrt thing............
I just typed up a massive post here stating I agree with the both of you on your points.
My knee then grew a mind of its own and hit my reboot button on my tower :grunt:

So here goes. :D

BLADE:
Totally understandable and agree.
DVDTalk is a very popular place and it has bandwidth issues I wish I could help resolve if I had the money.
I enjoy coming here as people either agree or disagree,like me or dislike me,its still a fun place to come to and wouldn't leave for anything ;)

COW:
You are very right.
But some users may not pay attention to that option and not know(I know its very obvious in a post)and might wonder where they are getting emails from.
That is why I have mine not shown though,some people are just stupid and do stupid things.Iv had it happen to many times.

CONCLUSION:
Both points taken and noted ;)
I still believe the PM issue would be helpful in ways and would be a neat feature to have.
I do however see the reasoning behind not having it as well as BLADE stated.
Maybe GEOFF could find a Vb hack or tweak as you may call it that could limit the users PM box?

Anyhow,was just a thought and you both brought up good points and maybe the PM feature will rise one day to make things easy and safe for both user and DVDTalk servers ;)

The DVD Talk Server is already quite loaded, adding the traffic and load of Private Messages would be quite significant. Just not something I see us doing in the near future

Totally understandable :)
I just thought I would ask :D