Tintin Forums

Could I make a suggestion for a possible forum improvement? Namely, the facility to send messages (off board) to other members. At the moment I cannot see any way to have conversations with members (about a topic on the board) without posting a message on that board.

If you want to have a private conversation off board, there'd be nothing to stop you exchanging email addresses (or Facebook details) and having it off-site. Isn't that the normal way to have private online conversations?

Sorry if I'm missing the point of your suggestion, but to be honest, I can't quite see any advantages in having such private conversations whilst still being on this website, whereas I can see quite a few potential disadvantages. At best, it would skew the train of conversation on the forums if members kept dipping in and out of the public discussion to pursue aspects of the discussion privately - the equivalent of trying to have a public debate where two of the participants kept whispering to each other. At worst, it could end up with members using the public forums to lead fellow forum members to fan-fiction or inflammatory material, etc, which they were attempting to post on their off-board conversations. If the off-board conversation were moderated, it'd add a huge amount of extra work, and would mean the conversations weren't really private anyway. And if the off-board messages weren't moderated, our site owner and administrator would still be legally responsible for their content, which I imagine would be a huge legal headache and risk for her!


But as I said, sorry if I'm missing your point of your suggestion!

Yes, but in order to exchange contact at the moment you have to post on board. I cannot see a way to pass information such as that without it being picked up by anyone and leaving someone open to spam attacks (hence the request)

But whatever the means of communication, it’s open to spamming: if you are worried that someone would log on and take your details then spam them, they could just as easily sign up and spam your PM function.

Your e-mail is open to view on your profile Harry, so surely the point is moot?

I’m with Balthazar on this one: it sounds like a lot of effort for very little gain, and has too many pitfalls.

Thanks for the clarification of your reason for the request, Harry. If it helps to avoid your concern about spammers, I've noticed that people exchanging email addresses on forums sometimes write out the at and the dots of their email address in full (eg: joebloggs[at]yahoo[dot]com), which presumably at least stops the email address being picked up by automated email-harvesting programmes (if that's what spammers use!)

This method wouldn't prevent a real human spammer being able to read your email address of course; and, as Jock points out, a potential spammer would also be able to get your email address by becoming a Tintinologist member and looking on your member profile. But either of these ways would be a lot of work for a spammer just to obtain one email address!

A couple of years ago, a member of this forum posted for advice on some personal problems that he was having. I was familiar with the issues he raised but decided that the advice I wanted to give him was best kept private rather than public.

I therefore used the forum's contact page in order to send a message to one of the moderators and ask him to pass it on to the member, which he did.

The member never contacted me, but acting via a moderator would probably be a good way to make an initial exchange of email addresses - if both parties are willing.

With respect, that’s just making more work for the Mods, it should be thought of as a method of last resort – were it a viable possibility for everyday use, I’m sure the Mods would suggest it…

If you want to contact other members, place a message on the forums; if you want to be be contactable, make your e-mail address visible in your profile.

(Before volunteering someone else’s services to do something, it’s best – and polite – to ask them first; my e-mail address is on my profile and the contacts page, as are the other Mod, Admin and team addresses…).

I was just putting forward a possible solution for discussion, something to think about, something based on previous experience. I wasn't suggesting that it should actually be adopted, I was just trying to make a constructive contributing to the debate.