British Expat Forum

[Copied from the Announcements board.]

Update: since I posted the original message about why PM privileges were removed for newbies, we found various other abuses. For example, people hanging out for a while till they got the privileges and then using PMs to promote their various wares: insurance, real estate, etc.

We tightened up on our policy. There was a significant number of regulars who said that we'd be better off without PMs at all, so that might be on the cards too.

As it stands, however, people who show by their postings that they've read and understood how things work around here are more likely to have them than those who already cause us a lot of unnecessary work.

Kay

I have been posting and replying for some time on this site and yet it appears I am still not allowed PM privileges...

To the best of my knowledge I have complied with conditions etc. for posting so???

There is a personal need for myself and another member to make contact - which has come about as a direct result of the usefulness of this site, but now we are both stuck!!!

Thanks for your advice in this regard...
Fil

Just over two months and nine postings hardly qualifies as "regular". (And of those nine, one is asking about PMs.)

Why not post a disguised hotmail address? Eg your-name AT hotmail DOT com. (See Dave's posting on here about disguising email addresses.)

We're not prepared to give PM privileges to people we barely know. They've been abused too many times in the past by people touting for business. Our regulars don't want to be pestered by people trying to flog them stuff. It's just like spam - everyone suffers because of the actions of a few abusers.

Kay (or other administrator)

I have one private message but cannot read it. I don't really care whether I can send these PMs or not but I'm interested in what's in the message

I can post to the forums (obviously!)
kiwiruss

Kiwiruss, I've made a change to the database so that you can pick up your PM (which must be pretty old, I think - otherwise you wouldn't have been able to receive it).

Please post here to let me know you've done it. I'll be changing the database back in 48 hours in any case.

...and if it's from someone trying to flog you something, please tell us so we're aware of the abuser.

It was a question that could have been posted to the NZ forum 2.5 years ago but for some reason the sender sent a PM to me

Many thanks for getting back to us, Kiwiruss. Now you know why we stopped the PM function for people who have just joined up.

A number of people have asked what constitutes a regular visitor. Sorry, but that's information we're not prepared to disclose.

A major part of the reason the PM facility is disabled for newbies is to prevent spammers from pestering other users with PMs trying to flog stuff. If we explain the criteria by which we decide who's a regular visitor, that simply encourages spammers to do the minimum necessary to gain PM privileges.