PM Support

[bullbreedluverz]

ive been ignoring them for over a year now but it does kind of get tedious as like i said you still have to read them before you can ignore there requests - if i recieve 20 pm's i have to read all 20 of them as they may be asking for a custom theme to be made so really i cant ignore them i can only choose not to reply to them and having the message on the pm box means that people cant have the excuse of not knowing its not widely acceptable to pm for support or "sorry i didnt see your signature"

[Antechinus]

You can hide the warning via your look and layout profile.

Already done, thank you.  Thank you for the free entertainment though, still cracking up over this implementation as is it effectively rendered useless out of the gate with the ability to disable it.  LOL. 

Awesome. Gotta love it.

[青山 素子]

Read through this topic. I must say, the back and forth argument is quite entertaining.

All I can say is that it is worth a try. If it doesn't cut down on unsolicited support PMs, then it can be removed. If it does help, then it's a good thing.

[JBlaze]

* JBlaze smells a troll!

Oh wait... I just took off my socks

[H]

* JBlaze smells a troll!

Oh wait... I just took off my socks

Wouldn't that actually mean there are atleast two trolls?!

[JBlaze]

Meh. Just a troll with 2 heads lol

[Eliana Tamerin]

Just found this topic and I found it rather amusing.

I freaking hope the software development process isn't handled the same irresponsible way, without taking more than a handful of viewpoints into consideration.   

I'm sure your viewpoint was taken into consideration. However, it is but one of many opinions, and among those expressed in this topic, is the only one loudly against this measure. Surely you can understand that 1 < Many.

All you succeed in doing by adding that to the PM window is clutter/fuglify it up and  and annoy those of us who don't want to look at a GUI with content that doesn't apply to the activity at hand. 

One of this site's primary functions is a support site for SMF software. It may be a small inconvenience to some who use this site as a typical community. But 90% of the people here are here for support, and this message pertains directly to them. And considering that many who give support dislike receiving unsolicited PMs, then it's reasonable to assume that this would be useful.

What it boils down to is how it helps the SMF community. If it bothers you so much, you can make a topic about how easy it is to shut if off and link to it in your sig. But if this helps cut down on the PM spam that is unsolicited support requests, then it's a good thing. And if that helps one person who actually searches, or one Support Specialist to not get a headache today, then it's a good thing.

Sorry if your real world experience hates this and feels strongly against it. But practicality often rules where logic would fail. If we're going to be logical here, then you wouldn't be wasting energy on arguing against this, it wouldn't be logical to do so, since there is an obvious benefit that outweighs one person's vehement arguments.

[narqelion]

Just found this topic and I found it rather amusing.

Happy to oblige.

I'm sure your viewpoint was taken into consideration. However, it is but one of many opinions, and among those expressed in this topic, is the only one loudly against this measure. Surely you can understand that 1 < Many.

While I might be "old" to most of the people here, I do believe I can still count....

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

I'm inclined to agree with Narqelion.

I have to agree with narqelion on all accounts,

Well, just wanted to say I agree with the post, however, I barely get any PM's for support so I suppose that's why I don't care.

I actually don't get too many of these PMs, perhaps I'm scary?!

5+1(me)=6  or do you use some sort of *special* math here?    That would be at least 5 other people who felt it was not even a widespread problem. 

If we're going to be logical here, then you wouldn't be wasting energy on arguing against this, it wouldn't be logical to do so, since there is an obvious benefit that outweighs one person's vehement arguments.

I always speak up to express my opinion especially to point out inaccuracies, flaws in logic and what I think are bad and/or stupid decisions, and I support other people's right to do so as well regardless whether I agree with their opinion or not.  I certainly would not tell them to shut up because it is not *logical* to *waste energy on arguing* when you are in the minority, but I can see so far that attitude is also in the minority here.  I keep forgetting the cardinal rule, one which I must try harder to remember here.  Thanks for reminding me not to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed person.   

[Arantor]

Suggestion: Let's see how it works out?

Maybe you don't agree with the measure from your experience. That's fine, perfectly natural, in fact. But please allow us the opportunity to make our own mistake, and if it doesn't work, we'll try something else. And if it does work, great, job done.

[babjusi]

In the begin I used to get a so many support pm''s that it became really irritating. But since I placed that part about to contact me in private only for paid support, the unsolicitated pm''s dropped drastically. I suggest you guys give it a try too Cos it seems like most people want only to get and when it comes to give, well let''s say that word doesn''t exists in their vocabulary

[bullbreedluverz]

lol its in nice bright red on mine and its progressed from politely asking people not to contact me to a little rude and to the point..... i still get support pm's

but hopefully the new notice in pm's may help prevent some of them and the fact this thread is discussing how annoying it is for people recieving uninvited support pm's is then maybe that may help prevent it too as it is bringing it to light that people (as this thread as had nearly 1,000 views at this point) dont want to recieve random support pm's

[SoLoGHoST]

Just now seeing this post again and can see this is a very touchy subject. 

Just wanted to say a few things...

Supporting within topic/posts are overall better since it reaches the most amount of people possible, therefore you can reference this post in the future for the same problem (or close to it), where PM'ing for support is more of a drain since it caters to only 1 person and 1 specific problem, and/or need.  So, the downside of PM'ing for Support is that you only reach 1 person, you can't reference it later on (unless you are the type that never deletes their sent PM and have it within your sent items folder), you only get help from 1 person (that is the person PM'ing you, if he's made a mistake in his/her code, no one will be able to know but you 2, so someone will not be able to point this out as easily as if it were in a topic/post), it would require more work instead of just sending a person to a post within a topic that has already been discussed on this, and also you can't search for it when searching forums.  So people who are having similar problems will find themselves unlucky when trying to find an issue that has been supported by someone via PM Only.  The only good side of PM'ing for Support is that you get 1-On-1 Support which is always the best type of support since it caters to your problems, but, even as some of the staff are very knowledgeable on certain issues, no one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes.  Just my 2 cents, looking at the PRO's and CON's of this, seems that the CON's out-weigh the PRO's IMO.

But, hey, like I said, I don't care, if someone needs help I'll try.  But I can understand the meaning behind Not wanting to support via PM also.

Cheers

[narqelion]

Just a follow up redirect to those using the "support is always best provided in a public venue" argument: (Again I am new to SMF after spending six years with another product so I did just stumble across this while exploring the site else I would certainly have used it much earlier in the discussion) 

How then do you reconcile this hypocrisy?  <-  Actually rhetorical I just want to see if anybody's head spins around or explodes. 

With your Charter Membership you are given access to a closed section of our Community forums, as well as a spiffy badge under your name showing that you're a Charter Member. Here you're able to discuss the latest betas, mods which haven't been publicly released yet, as well as provide feedback about SMF. You also will gain access to our priority support Helpdesk, staffed by our Support Team. This means you will get private, one-on-one help without having to post in the public support forums.

Seems I am not the only one who believes that non-public support is perfectly reasonable to request as well as provide. 

[Arantor]

Because invariably they are also directly sharing their passwords and credentials, just as they would be with a solicited email. That's really the issue here, not PMs in general.

Note also that they are receiving support on non public versions of the code too.

It's not so much that it's non-public. It's more that it's higher priority; they've donated to the project and as part of that, they have access to an area that the team looks at first compared to the rest. That part isn't so much that it's private; it's not private for the sake of being private, it's private because it's convenient for them (as they often provide security details in the HD tickets) and if we were to make that available to everyone, it would also more likely confuse matters.

Imagine discussing RC2 bugs publicly prior to RC2 being widely available. Any solutions likely wouldn't make a lot of sense or use to the public forum.

[H]

Seems I am not the only one who believes that non-public support is perfectly reasonable to request as well as provide. 

Had you properly read the paragraph you are quoting you would see that the Charter members use the helpdesk, not the PM system

[Arantor]

And the whole team can pitch in there. It's not totally private - since it's not user/team member, it's user/team.

[bullbreedluverz]

this is ridiculous, there are people who dont want to give help via pm, i started a thread asking if a notice could be added to state that support should be requested on the forum, this notice was added, the notice can be turned off so it doesnt become annoying by appearing everytime on pm box when you start a new pm.......

there are different functions and notifications in the smf software that can be enabled/disabled so adding 1 more small feature that adds a couple of lines of text that can be disabled via profile isnt a massive inconvienince or disruption to SMFsite as a whole, its just another feature that SMF uses - ok maybe it could be seen as annoying to those that have used SMf for a while to see a new feature added where it wasnt before but you arent forced to endure this feature as it can be disabled

lets just give the feature a chance, see if it helps to stop unwanted pm's and keep support to the boards where it helps others and also helps catch incorrect or inaccurate advice - if it fails it fails but without trying new things then successes cant be found or achieved and as has been stated by staff here if it is a failure it can be removed

[tumbleweed]

Well the noticed worked for me when I gave stikkie a PM.
It was big and red could not miss it.

I was about to runaway and cry LOL!!!!!

Frank

[SoLoGHoST]

I think it needs to be fixed up some, as it doesn't align the To: and Subject: of the PM fields properly.

[Arantor]

I can't see the message at all (even with the option off) but that's intentional.