Visitor Messages

[soccer526]

I think here should be something called, (drum roll please) Visitor Messages. Your probably wondering now,what are visitor messages. Visitor messages are on somebody's profile, where you put a message on there which everyone can see. It can be a healthy hello, or just to talk. This would be more easier than PM, because sometime you just want to say hello to someone.

If you agree with me, put a Thumbs Up
If you don't agree, put a Thumbs down.

Thanks,
Z The Pirate

[Ofury/ Tom]

I don't think its neccesary... thumbs down..

[Chris Ironhawk]

I really don't like the idea of this becoming a social networking site, and that idea makes me think of something like a Wall, from a popular social site...

Thumbs Down, sorry.... Not necessary.

[Tiberius Fireskull]

I am on another site where they do this, and in all honesty, I see it as unnecessary. This is a forum, not a social networking site. We don't want it to become one. Not to mention that it could be a good way for people to troll others, like if someone denied a friend request, someone could say "This person is a loser because they denied my request!!!" I really just think its not necessary. Again, this is a forum and not a social networking site. I just don't see it being very useful.

Sorry, thumbs down.

[Batleth]

When that feature was added to vB, we decided at that point to not add that to our forums. We feel for various reasons, it would be best to leave off;

• Something like that would have to be moderated, causing extra work for the mods.
• I've seen them on many forum sites and most are just spam messages.
• Profile customizations will be dropped in the next version of vB, so not much reason to contact them about that soon.
• Too easy for users to use these as a place to flame or troll each other, hence why they'd have to be moderated.
• Instead of being able to view users info right away, visitor messages would be the first tab making it another step for many.
• We want to encourage discussions. This would just distract from people making actual posts or PMs.

[soccer526]

But, I kinda see POTCO as not a very poopular game due to the very little fourm posts on this site. Most people quit cause all the fourms get 'boring' or closed down by mods. If there was something like VMs, more people would be on this site, moe posts, more popularity, more people on POTCO, and more money because some people may actually want to donate. And I see where you were going with extra work for Mods, simple solution to this: Report button. I'm on this other Fourm site, and they actually have a report button on everything, like fourms, VMs, PMs, and if you reported and the report was true they would give you something like gold to buy little 'pets' on their name or username change. I also saw that if Vms were in use, there wouldnt be much fourm posts. *coughs* No offense, but I maybe see 200 posts each day... Not even close to the other fourm i'm on. I'm sorry if this offends you in some matter, but i'm speaking my mind here.
Here i'm going to say what you said Batleth then explain why these really dont matter
When that feature was added to vB, we decided at that point to not add that to our forums. We feel for various reasons, it would be best to leave off;
*Something like that would have to be moderated, causing extra work for the mods.
*I've seen them on many forum sites and most are just spam messages.
*Profile customizations will be dropped in the next version of vB, so not much reason to contact them about that soon.
*Too easy for users to use these as a place to flame or troll each other, hence why they'd have to be moderated.
*Instead of being able to view users info right away, visitor messages would be the first tab making it another step for many.
*We want to encourage discussions. This would just distract from people making actual posts or PMs.

1st reason explanation- I said it above, but if I must say it again, I will. Add a report button to them, if it is spam, or something offensive to the user, or against the rules, a trustworthy user would report it. And if they do, give them like a reward.
2nd- Said it above, if it is spam, other users can report it.
3rd- I'm sorry, I dont know what your saying.
4th-Report button yet again...
5th-Excuse me, may you explain that again. I think I know what your saying but I need more details.
6th-I see mostly 200 posts MAX a day, if anything VMs could tell other users to get on a fourm. They could tell eeach other simply get on such and such topic, and the other may say ok, and check it out. If it was something like JOJN! JOIN! JOIN such and such, then report. Besides, half the time I cant even tell if I got a PM, I dont look in my user thing in the right hand corner. I know what your saying about, We want more people to post and PM, this may even help it. Just think for a moment please.

Sorry if any of this offends you, but i wanted to speak my mind.
Thanks

[Batleth]

No offense taken. I think we can agree to disagree though. We do have report buttons on posts, PMs, etc but they are very rarely used but by a select few users. So the mods are doing the main brunt of the work by reviewing everything to check for site violations. I have a very small staff on POF right now and I want to allocate our resources where they are best needed. Perhaps, once we've managed to obtain a larger moderating staff again...we could review our stance on some things. But it takes a lot of time to invest in training new mods. Something, I prefer to take my time in doing.

[soccer526]

Alright, thanks. But I think I know why half the time, people dont report. They really dont get anything out of it, if there was rewards like if you guys added a system of gold. Like gold can buy emotes, moods, etc. (Anything your mind can think of.) Then more people would report because they would be thinking, "Oh cool, if I report this guy for spamming on a PM, Topic, or VM (if it is added that is) then I would get gold to but this really cool animated simile. AWESOME!!" Then more people would report, and Mods would have less work to do.
I know what your talking about a small staff of mods, but if you added the system, then maybe you could start getting that extra staff.

Oh, and to make sure I dont lose my festive mood

Lol, sorry if it doesnt belong in here, but I just wanted to wish you a Happy 4th of July!
Thanks

[Batleth]

Originally Posted by soccer526

Alright, thanks. But I think I know why half the time, people dont report. They really dont get anything out of it, if there was rewards like if you guys added a system of gold. Like gold can buy emotes, moods, etc. (Anything your mind can think of.) Then more people would report because they would be thinking, "Oh cool, if I report this guy for spamming on a PM, Topic, or VM (if it is added that is) then I would get gold to but this really cool animated simile. AWESOME!!" Then more people would report, and Mods would have less work to do.
I know what your talking about a small staff of mods, but if you added the system, then maybe you could start getting that extra staff.

Oh, and to make sure I dont lose my festive mood

Lol, sorry if it doesnt belong in here, but I just wanted to wish you a Happy 4th of July!
Thanks

I think it's a pretty sad day when the members of this site feel they need a pat on the back for taking a little time out of their day to help their own community when we have other sites with a much younger membership base that do not feel the need for the same.

I feel this has exhausted the conversation on this topic. VMs have been asked, I gave our reasoning behind not adding that feature to the site. You've given a list of counter points and I still don't see the validity in adding this feature at this time.

[CaptainKiowa]

That sounds like a good idea, but like some others have said, it might be abused. I am a member on other forums, and often have many good conversations with people through visitor messages; but this does not mean that everybody does. Since the mods have to do a lot of work just to make sure spam isn't rampant, it is likely not going to happen since it would mean a lot more work for them.

[soccer526]

Report button, with a reward system for those report someone who spam or something against the rules.