My Classic board is approaching it’s first birthday. In the beginning, I felt that allowing PMs would be counter productive to an active board. My thinking was that members would take conversations “off line”, thus reducing the number of postings to the board.

Now with over 700 members (and growing) and averaging 40 or better active topics in any given 24 hour window, I am not sure I should be as worried about it.

Further, there are a lot of new topics along the lines of “Paging <member name>!” that turns into a “private” conversation between two members out in the open. Such postings are what PMs are for.

What I am asking is if anyone noticed a sudden, sustained decline in open discussions after activating PMs.

Has anyone else not activated PMs for the reason I list above?

What is your general feeling about PMs in the context of the possible impact on normal board activity?

Thanks for any thoughts/input.

There will always be people that won't ever post in public if they have the option. If PMs are off then they'll use email or IM to contact people directly. I don't think you can stop it.

At least by enabling PMs you funnel the traffic through your board and increase your ad impressions (if you have ads on your community.)

Thanks for the input. I am going to turn them on. I feel it will make the members happy. That, and the new features of the 6.7 release when it comes out (and no, I'm not trying to pry a date out of anyone. ) will make them that much more happy.

Thanks again.

Mike

I much prefer the private topic option OT has. Then youc an invite others.

I'll play devil's advocate since the other opinions are positive.

The pM is turned off at CG. It was tested from about two months.

1. It did slighty reduce activity in the forum.

2. It also increased activity in a negative manner: i.e. users were using the pm feature to mount coordinated attacks against other users.

CG is a sometimes a very volatile political forum, so the level of abuse we experienced with the PM feature is perhaps not the norm for other forums.

This is good stuff. Thanks for the input.

Zeroflux,

As I’m sure you know, members can turn PM off in their profile. On the personal attacks, I’m not saying that it will never happen, but I have been fortunate enough to have a VERY friendly board to date.

We are a Boating message board filled with fellow boating nut cases who just want to share their obsession.

I have a very strong prohibition against any form of political debate except as it may apply to boating issues. Everyone knows that politics are divisive. I bet you have one lively board! Perhaps the next time someone tries to talk politics, I’ll point them your way.

I’ve not turned PMs on yet, but am leaning toward an experiment of activating them for a two month period, letting the membership know that it is a “test”. I will then evaluate the situation.

Hey Mike,

What's the url for your forum? I can't find it in your profile.

I'm a big fishing and boating fan, although I don't currently have a boat... My hope is that sometime in the next five years, I can afford a used C-Hawk... I love their functional "commercial" fishing trawler look.

zeroflux,

BoatingABC.com

Love to have you check it out. You will find a very friendly and knowledgeable group of fellow boating nut cases.

I just truned PMs on yesterday and posted an announcement on the board. I knew that it would spark lots of questions, but it looks like things will work out.

Old thread but wanted to chime in..

Paging used to be a BIG problem on my board. Every other topic was "Paging XYZ, read your PM". I added a section to my community guidelines (our bible), which asked users to please restrict use of paging, but I didn't ban it completely. I also just politely asked members to stop using valuable server space for pages.

Our board is also quite friendly. We have a number of young female members, who can occasionally get out of hand - but by dealing with trolls and cat-fights IMMEDIATELY, it's kept in control and for the most part everything runs smoothly.

I just make sure everyone is reminded frequently of our community guidelines, and no one has a problem with it. I think they like knowing there is a board where they can ask a dumb question and count on not getting flamed or harassed, as it's just not tolerated.

The board is now 6+ years old and going on 5,000 members, so I'd say it works pretty well.

Also, if they do start to get snippy with each other in public topics, I just ask them to take it to a PM.

community.icompact.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi

Moving to eve March 1st!

Aimee