How do you qualify to send private messages?

Thanks, Jeff

IIRC, you have become a contributing member.

this might be something that's worth a feature request...so it's not just for contributing members.

but since u can send email (if the user has opted to allow it) i guess it's not too much of a big deal.

on that note...how about a link to "Send a message via email to <user>" in the menu that appears when u click on a user's nick*; instead of having to do it from his/her profile page...? and that could replace the "Send a private message to <user>" item if u aren't a contributing member...if it doesn't take an extra query to do that. or just add it like "view hcl entries" which appears even if the user has no entries.

*: assuming the user allows it.

anirudh

s/user/member if that makes more sense.

Well restricting it to contributing members is a good idea. Because if you *really* need it (and the other perks of being a contributing member) you will help pay towards LQ.org maintenance.

Regards.

aneroid- when I click on your name I can opt to email you- but of course for other users I can't, because they've turned it off (or is that not turned it on?)

Users don't have the option to turn off PMs- it is displayed whether you are a contributing member or not- but it only works for contributing members.

I love LQ and would contribute if I could- but still, email is better.

titanium_geek

It's just one of the few small perks you get when you contribute to help support the site.

@titanium_geek: ah yes. since i didn't c it for jlgreer1 and microsoft/linux but there was a link their profile pages so i thought it's generally not available. just checked those links and got the "Sorry! That user has specified that they do not wish to receive emails" message. verified it's availability for urs, Harishankar and trickykid.

it's turned off. the default when u register is on. checked from uncookied browser. :P
same here...on all 3 counts.

anirudh

Thanks for the replies. PMing and emailing each have their advantages. I get hundreds of spam email per day and have a trigger finger on the delete key. A PM is nice for a comment that shouldn't be broadcast to the entire forum community.

I'll check the donation fee structure.

Thanks, Jeff

The problem with having PMs as a contributing members only feature (not that it should be made available for everybody, this is just an observation) is that only contributing members can use it to send messages to each other, so since most people aren't contributing members, you either have to post where everybody can see it or send an email and if you get into the habit of doing one of those anyway, it is unlikely that you will suddenly start using PMs instead if they can't reach everybody who you would want to send one to anyway.

Orkie,

You are certainly right. If very few have PM capability. It is of very little use. The ability to turn off the abominable advertising is a much more attactive reason for subscribing to the forum. I do think $5/month or $35/per year is a little high though.

Jeff

The reason they were enabled for Contributing Members only is that I would have never even considered doing it site wide. We want the knowledge here to be accessible by all and if PM's were enabled for all, people would start asking questions via PM's. Some Contributing Members wanted it enabled more for the social aspects, and that I don't have a problem with. One thing I really try to stick by is that I *never* take things away from members so that Contributing Members can have them. FWIW, I still think the main motivation should be a desire to help LQ (with the extras being icing), but that's up to you. As for the ads being "abominable" here - we serve relatively few ads compared to most sites and 90% are contextual content relevant text ads. I'd hope they're not seen as *that* bad.

--jeremy

Hi Jeremy,

Thanks for the thoughtful reply. You have a very nice and educational site. I agree, your site has enough participation to make the knowledge base broad enough to be useful to linux users in general. I'm sure that large user base requires a large investment in server space and bandwidth. I intend to join both to support the site and to remove the adds.

I am a low vision user. I have to use a screen reader or use magnifiers that cause me to see things through a 1" square window. Chasing the mouse pointer frequently activates the banner ads causing a lot of frustration.

Thanks, Jeff

oh man- if LQ is bad, I can't see how you can surf some other sites.. *wide eyes*

I agree- for a regular visioned person, the ads are not that intrusive at all- I am proud of google for the text ad system they have in place.

Email is removed from the forum, forcing you to think about what you are saying, and not ask questions via email.

titanium_geek

no, not at all. they're placed smartly so as not to interfere with the content/thread. comparing that to sites that place ads right in the middle of articles this is fine.
at least that seems to work well here. dunno about other parts of the forum but the slackware and hardware (sub)forums are quite free of the kind of crap forums in general tend to attract.

anirudh

the only gripe I have is about banner ads with white backrounds. I tried to click on the page to bring it into focus to scroll with the arrow keys, and I accidentally clicked on the banner ad. oh well. minor complaint really.

titanium_geek