Visitor Messages & You, A Guide To Use

[Zephyr Flare]

The How To Guide and Other Things You Never Knew

Also known as, how to stop utterly infuriating Mods (Mostly me) with constant reports when you're trying to reply to people.


So we had some new features in the forum upgrade didn't we? As well as the Social Groups, which are proving a hit, we have the Visitor Messages, nice for a quick post to friends or Mods on their profile without too much faff.

What do they look like then? Behold my own...



So as you can see thats directly from my profile page, a little spam filled from trying to help somebody who was reluctant to listen but that’s beside the point.


So how do I actually post a Visitor Message? Very simple as you may have discovered. Simply type into the white box at the top like so:



If it is a bit too small for you to read, put in the box: Type whatever you wish to say in this area. Bold and the like work just as they normally would but please do not abuse it.

So now I hit post and hey presto




So rather gloriously, I managed to post on my own, not very exciting mind but we don’t need to be pestering anybody needlessly when most are asleep.

But wait, a magical post!



As you can see from the drop down, there’s a notification that says a message has been posted onto mine and is in the same area you can see if you have spotted PMs and whatnot. There is no email notification but it IS a method to know you’ve had one appear.


Now most visitor messages will only state Edit and Report just underneath and on the right. Pretty self explanatory really and clearly there is no post back which people consistently mistake Report for for some reason.

If you do want to report however, follow the instructions here as the process is very similar. Remember it's for messages you don't want on your page such as spam, advertising, personal attacks etc, nothing else.

However if you look closely towards the crudely scrawled red ring:



View Conversation has appeared, now this is a bit weird really:



It shows my first post on her Visitor Messages but the rest are those posted on mine so looks as though I said nothing. Of course it was likely I posted directly rather than into the conversation to cause that. Lets face it; it’s far less faffy just posting directly and them getting a notification on their profile.

Either way, you can post directly into that conversation on the post reply box up top.

You can also limit the social messages you get to approved friends and moderators as pointed out by PWInsiderTorch.

Simply go to User CP > Edit Options and scroll down to Visitor Messaging and click the box where it says Limit usage of Visitor Messages to Contacts and Moderators.

So please, don't keep pressing report thus sending endless notifications to us mods when you're trying to give a friend code. Either click View Conversation or post directly onto their page, the notifications will know about it.

Remember, that little extra attention means more and more steps preventing me from going down the road of insainty

Hope thius helps. If you have any further questions, just ask and I'll try and fill you in.


Sandra

[qwerqwer]

ok, not too bad a guide. kudos i guess. i guess it clarifies things for new or returning members who see this feature although it really does kinda state the obvious (not an insult).

EDIT: yay first!

[Zephyr Flare]

If people actually paid remote attention I wouldn't have to keep making these How To guides.

Sandra

[qwerqwer]

i see your point

[facetious]

If people actually paid remote attention I wouldn't have to keep making these How To guides.

Sandra

And how do you think a How To Guide is going to help people who "don't pay attention"?

Utterly pointless.

[Coincidence]

Is there pratically any point in this guide? It should be obvious, especially when they see a new notification saying "OMG you got a Vistor Message".

[Zora]

Perhaps unless something clearly violates rules and requires immediate attention (ala someone posts porn, or clear constant SPAMMING), perhaps it would be a good idea to leave reporting up to the person whose profile is being posted in. Just an idea (if that isn't a rule already, and was probably discussed anyways)

This is actually quite a useful feature, and I didn't know it was pointed out. God, I hate merely commenting on something, it feels like I am SPAMMING (which I hate doing ). Anyways, thanks for pointing it out.

[MondoTR]

Zora, the point isn't people reporting stupid things (though it does happen). The point is people are hitting the report link because they think that's how they reply. If you already knew that then ignore me but from your first paragraph it seemed as you misunderstood why reports were mentioned. ^_^;

Anyways, I can understand why some people have gotten confused and used the report button to reply. 'Report' and 'Reply' do look rather similar, especially if you're not paying attention. I almsot reported instead of replied myself though I luckily have caught myself before sending them.

The View Conversation thing is nice. On MySpace there is no option and therefore you can only see one half of a convo at a time, sometimes it gets buried in other convos as well. At least there is a way to see the entire thing at once, as long as someone doesn't reply back on their own profile instead of on the one of the person they're conversing with, lol.

Anyways, I hope this helps with the accidental reports. I know it's been bugging most of ya. XD

[Zora]

@MondoTR

Oh sorry. I thought the problem was that other people were unable to see how a conversation was going, seeing only half, and thus concluded that there was a bunch of SPAM PMs and sent constant reports about SPAM. I see now... disregard my above post.

[Clash]

I'm sick of being related to non-existant things!

Visitor Messages & You
Reports & You
Signatures & You

Why can't I just be left alone?!

[Zephyr Flare]

It should be obvious, just like the guide I was forced to make for reporting but people don't actually realise it and need these step by step things. People even pester me to make the blasted things and it's proven it has helped.

If it makes one less person report themselves I'll be happy.

Sandra

[Endoplasmic Reticulum]

Say if you make an invite only group, and invite certain people. However, you want to invite more people later, how doy ou do that?

[Zephyr Flare]

Given this is on Visitor Messages, strange place to ask.

Just made a temp, yes you just click the button as you did the first time.

Sandra

[MondoTR]

You can invite whenever you want. Just click the 'Pending and Invited Members' at the bottom and go from there.

[mr_toilet3]

some people make me feel smart

[PWInsiderTorch]

This is very obvious (and I'm sure almost everyone knows about it) though since I have checked a number of profiles, some people may not be aware of it. You can limit your visitor page so that only your contacts and SPPf staff can post on it.

Simply go to User CP > Edit Options and scroll down to Visitor Messaging and click the box where it says Limit usage of Visitor Messages to Contacts and Moderators.

[Zephyr Flare]

Added it to the guide, certainly never heard of it myself so thanks for that Now if only I could...

Sandra

[ursaloom]

this is a nice guide. but that "ip" thing next to report is that a mod tool?

[Zephyr Flare]

Most likely it only shows up for mods, I of course can't check myself what a regular member sees. It's rarely used mind sept checking for ban evaders but a completely different tool is used for that.

Sandra

[RaZoR LeAf]

this is a nice guide. but that "ip" thing next to report is that a mod tool?

Most likely it only shows up for mods, I of course can't check myself what a regular member sees. It's rarely used mind sept checking for ban evaders but a completely different tool is used for that.

Sandra

It is indeed only for mods.

[Yoshifan22]

I noticed that yesturday!
I was wondering when they added that too o_O
Nice idea ^^

[(s.i.e)]

say i noticed a while back that that people who are on the ignore list can still post offensive material on it that others can still read, is there anything that can be done to prevent them from putting up a visitormessage?

some sort of list like the ignore list that disables the ability to post visitormessages for people who are in that list.

[stipetwi]

The information in your forum is very useful

[Ellie]

say i noticed a while back that that people who are on the ignore list can still post offensive material on it that others can still read, is there anything that can be done to prevent them from putting up a visitormessage?

some sort of list like the ignore list that disables the ability to post visitormessages for people who are in that list.

I know this is from almost a year ago buuuuut

if you set it to just "Registered Users" as the privacy, from what I've heard that means people on your Ignore List can't do that either, only people who are not guests and not on your ignore list can do the particular action. I wouldn't know since I only have one person on my ignore list and I'm not talking to him anytime soon and I can't have anyone test it on me.

[kanner]

Idol worship never got anyone, religious or not, anywhere good in their lives