I'm not sure if I've asked this before or not. But just in case, I'll do it here.
When someone has a problem, I usually get a private message. But I get enormous amounts of PMs daily. So I have set up 3 forums. The idea is that if you don't know how to do something or need help or want to request a feature, you first do a quick scan or search of the Site feature Forum, to see if that issue has been addressed before. If that doesn't help, then post your problem there. Either I or a moderator will respond. In general, the response will be in the forum, because that way all the other people who might be having the problem can also see the how to do it.
If you discover what you think is a bug, something not working at all or not working as you think it should, then do the same thing in the Problems forum. The Digital Photography Forum is the same type of thing, except that all issues, how to, bugs, and advice for the galleries go there.
Generally, there are several reasons that people would prefer to send me a private message.
1. This one I brought on myself, by being very responsive to PM. Because of the volume of PMs, this just will not be true anymore.
2. Some people feel that bringing a problem up in public is somehow rude to me. IT IS NOT. I want people to know what the problems are and what the fix or work around is. I have a thick skin, and even if I didn't that's my problem.
not yours. An open exchange of info is always best. In fact, if I had the time, I would publish a list of every problem that I know about and what and when I intend to do something about it..
3. The next issue is trust. We have all been on forums where a question is asked and the response from an admin, moderator, or just another member has been degrading and/or hostile. That will not happen here, or if it is does, it will be the last time that the responder will do that. Generally my policy will be to do the following, I or a moderator will make the offending reply in question invisible. A pm will be sent giving the sender a choice of editing or deleting the post. If it happens too often the repeat offender will be banned from the site.
4. This too involves trust, a person either feels that a question is either stupid or is afraid someone else will think they are stupid. There is no good answer to this one problem I can only say that the only stupid thing would be to not ask the question.
You can't believe how many "stupid" questions I have asked on the various support sites for this vBulletin.
09-20-2005, 11:42 AM
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