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There is someone (Rajin, who appears relatively young if his avatar is accurate) who recently posted in the "Wanted to Buy" forum asking for advice in writing a post for that forum that would not be deleted.  Obviously, he used the wrong forum for that particular post, and, having checked his display info, he also includes no way to contact him to let him know what's wrong.

Since we all would like to see younger members get acclimated to our hobby forum, I would like to make the following suggestions for improvement:

1. When someone is signing up and elects not to include a visible e-mail address, have the sign-up process pop up a large warning that says something like "WARNING - Your failure to include visible contact info will make it virtually impossible to use the Wanted to Buy or Sell / Trade forum sections the way they are structured for use.  While we will not force you to provide that info publicly here, you are strongly encouraged to READ the Terms of Service for a more detailed explanation of the ramifications of your choice."

2. Include the detailed instructions for the use of Wanted to Buy and Sell or Trade forum instructions in the Terms of Service.  Yes, I know they are in a sticky at the top of each forum section, but it sure seems like far too many people don't read those stickies.  (Look at how often the warning about deleting improper Wanted to Buy or Sell posts is being repeated!!)

3. Along the lines of #1, have the forum software check, when someone starts a post in the Wanted to Buy or Sell or Trade forums, whether or not the poster has a visible e-mail address.  If NOT, pop up another warning that says, "Due to imposed forum restrictions, no one will be able to contact you about this post BECAUSE you have no visible contact info in your forum personal information.  We will deny your post here until you fix that situation."

Item #1 may not resolve every situational problem by itself, but I sure think the combination of the 3 items above might relieve a lot of administration headaches.  Thank you for consideration.

Chuck

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This is exactly why virtually all social media systems provide a "private message" feature. It allows members to receive correspondence without having to disclose their RL identity.

I know people don't like to hear this, but in this day and age it is beyond foolish to publicly-expose a real email address.

If this site has a private message feature, it is sure hard to find. User Settings has a checkbox to block them, but I have been unable to figure out how to send one. Perhaps the feature is disabled. If so, I think it is a mistake. Just clicking on a member's name or avatar should get you to a PM option.

Just my opinion...

Chuck, your suggestions have merit. However, some of the things you suggest (popup windows, for example) I can't do because I don't have that much control over how the forum software operates. Even so, there may be something we can do that would help improve this situation.

We have just started experimenting with a newly released Crowdstack feature called "Databases." This feature would allow us to format all For Sale and Wanted to Buy posts exactly the same. A poster would basically fill out a form with the item name, description, price, email, etc. The database would then format the post so it displays in an attractive way. All items/posts would display the same, and they would also REQUIRE a seller or buyer to put an email address into the post. I am just getting into this, so I have a learning curve to climb here in order to learn how to implement this feature and make it work.

I'll keep you posted!

@Avanti posted:

I know people don't like to hear this, but in this day and age it is beyond foolish to publicly-expose a real email address.

I have an email for family interaction, one for communications involving sales via places like Epay and here, and a third I use for when I am compelled to write a letter to the editor, the email now used instead of the days when you had to put you name on your letter, and if published, people would look you up in the phone book and call you to tell you how wrong you are.  I use the private message part of OGR when I have a specific thing I need to ask, and everyone I have needed additional info from has always been a great representative of this hobby.  Sometimes open questions or replies in a forum can generate what I call 'forum police' intervention, these are not the very diplomatic official OGR Forum managers, but random folks that chime in with directions.  It is difficult to 'make a deal' when someone posts something for sale and they are not a member and therefore have no private message option, or if they do not include contact info in their biography, and I do not like to dicker with a seller via exchanges in the forum.

@Avanti posted:

I know people don't like to hear this, but in this day and age it is beyond foolish to publicly-expose a real email address.

Agreed! However, the Display Email is not publicly visible within a post as plain text. It is only visible to members, and then only if they hover over or click on the member's profile link.

If this site has a private message feature, it is sure hard to find. User Settings has a checkbox to block them, but I have been unable to figure out how to send one. Perhaps the feature is disabled. If so, I think it is a mistake. Just clicking on a member's name or avatar should get you to a PM option.

Private Messaging here is available only to Digital Subscribers.

@mwb posted:

Requiring pubic display of email addresses might prove problematic.  Might have to take the entire Buy/Sell sections private to be only visible to signed in users/members.

As I said above, the Display Email is not publicly visible within a post as plain text. It is only visible to members, and then only if they hover over or click on the member's profile link.

Last edited by Rich Melvin

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OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Ste 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

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