PM Support

[bullbreedluverz]

think its about time a notification is placed on the pm box that states something like

Has this member invited you to pm for support? if not then please post on the forum for support in the relevant board/topic

i know im not the only person that gets pm's asking for support, i dont mind pm's relating to my work but when i get pm's relating to installing mods or fixing themes when the person hasnt even posted to the mod or theme author gets annoying

i feel people who pm for support are selfish and pm for support only benefits them and not others which is what a support forum is about, helping everyone, a fix for someones issue can help many others but asking for that fix in private just helps the person pm'in

[Ken.]

Adding my second to this idea.

[Arantor]

Have to say, +1 to this.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

Gotta agree with this.

[Kill Em All]

I use to get PMs but after I put the message in my sig, I stopped getting them.

[Arantor]

I've tried various tactics, and still they keep coming...

[narqelion]

<snipped>i feel people who pm for support are selfish and pm for support only benefits them and not others which is what a support forum is about, helping everyone, a fix for someones issue can help many others but asking for that fix in private just helps the person pm'in

I disagree.   I was a support member for Invisionboard several years ago and more recently a community supporter of phpBB, and my philosophy is to help people, period.  I do not qualify that help by mandating it can only happen in such and such format.  I've helped people via PM, email, IM and IRC.  There are many perfectly legitimate reasons why some people may choose to request help privately, labeling them as *selfish* is incredibly narrow minded IMO.   Does troubleshooting a problem with a user tend to benefit other users, sure many times it can, but not necessarily in every case.   If you do not wish to receive unsolicited PM's then I would suggest you put that in your sig and take the high road, just ignore any that you receive.  If you make it public knowledge (via your signature) that you do not provide private help that is really all you can do, asking for the software to be modified to add extraneous text that applies only to a % of people creating a PM is a ridiculous idea.  You are saying that it is ok to display that message to all PM senders regardless of their intent in creating a new PM, which is silly.       Plastering a disclaimer in any available white space is not going to make it more effective. 

[Arantor]

Speaking AS a former support member here, I used to (and still do) get PMs requesting support when the main forum would be preferable, since then the answer is shared for anyone who may encounter it again in the future.

The issue isn't so much PM support, it's *unsolicited* PM support. People that send PMs don't tend to read signatures; as I've experienced over the last 6 months with a variety of techniques to experiment.

[Antechinus]

I gave up on messages in my sig. Now I just delete them without comment.

[narqelion]

The issue isn't so much PM support, it's *unsolicited* PM support. People that send PMs don't tend to read signatures; as I've experienced over the last 6 months with a variety of techniques to experiment.

And yet you think placing the same text in the new PM box is going to be more effective somehow?  <--rhetorical. 

[Antechinus]

I'm inclined to agree with Narqelion. The sort of people who spam pm's for support are going to keep doing it, usually without any punctuation or capitalisation and with lots of exclamation marks. Just delete them if you don't want to answer them.

[Arantor]

If it's right in front of them before PMing, it has a chance. But as ever I'm probably wrong about this.

[Antechinus]

I have a standard operating procedure for unsolicited pm's. If I receive one and it appears to be exceptionally idiotic I'll delete it and immediately block the sender. If it is not exceptionally idiotic I just delete it. If they send me a second and a third one then they get blocked.

[Sverre]

I have to agree with narqelion on all accounts, and if unsolicited PMs is a huge annoyance for you, why not use the "Receive personal messages from: Buddies and Administrators only" setting?

[_Ziggy_]

People that send PMs don't tend to read signatures

Maybe they used SMF's standard feature to "don't show other members signatures". 

[Kill Em All]

I dont think a fix for this can really happen. All you can do is just delete or ignore.

[JBlaze]

Actually, placing "*" in the ignore list works wonders

Anyways, the reason behind no support via PM's is:
1. It's annoying as sin
2. PM's are private, thus another user trying to solve the same problem cannot search for the solution

[Arantor]

Actually, placing "*" in the ignore list works wonders

Not in RC2 it doesn't.

I should know; it didn't work for me when I tried it here earlier.

[Antechinus]

Sin is not annoying. Personally I thoroughly enjoy it (although I must admit it does depend on the particular sin in question and the circumstances).

[LC]

Hi, just wanted to add my two cents.

I am obviously not a mod author, theme creator or a support specialist and even I get PM's about how to do this or that. I tell them politely to use the support thread in which they need help in.

I'm not even exactly qualified to help others with SMF, but simple issues I try to point them in the right direction or thread. lol.

The main concern I would see with helping people through PM's is that people like me (Regular Joes) get asked questions and I can see someone possibly making the matter worse, if they don't know the answer for the person asking for help. This could inevitably cause big issues with the member needing help and might alienate them.

I personally think it would be better if they just posted in the support thread and then could actually get the help they need from the SMF pros.  Just a thought I had.  Perhaps something could be done about that.