Private Messages

I searched and didnt find anything recent on thsi subject.

I was wondering why there is no Private Message system, if there is a reason, and/or if there are plans on adding one?

There have been times when Id like to contact a partiuclar boardmember, but have no way of contacting them outside just posting in a thread they have posted in, and hope they revisit. Very frustrating at times.

Thanks!

The reason we don't have one is that we haven't built it yet. We plan to build one someday.

This may sound weird, but as a PbP DM I'd ask for there to not be a private message system.

On other boards, for other games, I've often ended up with well-meaning and ethusiastic players PMing me all the time, with legitimate stuff concerning their characters, but without a full understanding that trying to run a game and having to sort through an in-box full of PMs - which all need individual replies (often to very similar questions from different players) - just ends up being work and not fun.

The very fact this site doesn't have a PM system was one of the reasons I ventured back into PbP DMing after being burnt out from previous efforts...

Now, I guess people will just suggest that in those situations I tell the players to stop... but personally I find that difficult when you've made a commitment to run a game, and the topics of the PMs are legitimate game-related topics. Not having the temptation in the first place helps...

That's awesome news.

Without knowing your system, it's hard to judge how difficult a task this would be.

Any idea if this is a long range someday or not?

I'd like to be able to privately e-mail a person, rather than posting for all to see.

It's kind of a medium-range thing. We need to build something like a PM system for other reasons like customer service but it's not quite at the top of the list just yet.

It may or may not work like other websites' private messaging systems though. We'll build what we think will work best for our community.

This may sound weird, but as a PbP DM I'd ask for there to not be a private message system.

I'm sure we'll give users the option to opt out.

PMs would be nice, but Id even settle for email notifications of post/thread replies. <-------- Not so subtle hint. :)

Features that automatically send emails make me nervous. I think the closest thing we might offer for that purpose is our RSS feeds, which you can subscribe to on a per-thread, per-person, per-forum or per product basis.

Features that automatically send emails make me nervous. I think the messageboards RSS feeds are probably the closest we'll come to implementing that for the time being. You can subscribe to forums and individual threads.

I suppose for now that OOC boards for a PBP work, but I must cast my opinion that I would like to see a private messaging system implemented at some point. Thanks for hearing everybody out, as always.

Any idea if this is a long range someday or not?

When I searched for 'private messages' on this forum before starting my own thread about it, the very first link took me to a thread from 2007 where someone was asking if/when they were going to implement a PM system.

Vic's response was nearly identical to the one given by Gary in this thread lol.

TheeGravedigger wrote:

Any idea if this is a long range someday or not?

When I searched for 'private messages' on this forum before starting my own thread about it, the very first link took me to a thread from 2007 where someone was asking if/when they were going to implement a PM system.

Vic's response was nearly identical to the one given by Gary in this thread lol.

Some things never change... even when we'd like them to.

Psst... there is one thing you might be able to do to help this along: help us fill our job openings!

To be honest, the only one of those Im even remotely qualified for is the PF editor one, and I dont think I could write something up to your standards to get that job, lol.

This may sound weird, but as a PbP DM I'd ask for there to not be a private message system.

On other boards, for other games, I've often ended up with well-meaning and ethusiastic players PMing me all the time, with legitimate stuff concerning their characters, but without a full understanding that trying to run a game and having to sort through an in-box full of PMs - which all need individual replies (often to very similar questions from different players) - just ends up being work and not fun.

The very fact this site doesn't have a PM system was one of the reasons I ventured back into PbP DMing after being burnt out from previous efforts...

Now, I guess people will just suggest that in those situations I tell the players to stop... but personally I find that difficult when you've made a commitment to run a game, and the topics of the PMs are legitimate game-related topics. Not having the temptation in the first place helps...

And see, I've gotten frustrated with PBPs here because you there ISN'T a way to privately contact players or GMs. I've seen a few communication issues pop up because of this, sometimes serious ones--there's an issue someone wants to bring up but not in front of the whole group but doesn't know how to contact the GM or other player without being "suspicious" about it. The only way around it is to have everyone share email addresses, and that's more invasive, inconvenient, and time consuming. I hear ya on the time-consuming nature of it, but it's also the nature of GMing to deal with time-consuming matters, IMHO, of course. If it really was overwhelming, it doesn't seem unreasonable to ask players to tone it down or take it to the OOC forum if it's not a personal matter. Better to have the option and not use it than not have the option, in my personal opinion.

But I've been hesitant to join other PBPs (I am in one now though) because of no PMs.