I know I made a thread similar to this months back but it needs to be enforced again because on Tuesday alone I received 26 PM's in a single day. Over the week I received 50+ which I had to spend a lot of my time to go thru on Monday since I'm usually not active on the weekends. Keep in mind that having to read and reply to PM's constantly slows me down from development on the site.

So just a friendly reminder to everyone, please don't PM me questions that you could find the answers to in the FAQ / Help Center and please don't ask questions to things that you could simply just make a thread about and get quicker help. Also note that there are 10 other staff members and 1 of them being an admin, so don't be shy or afraid to PM them as well. But ultimately you should be able to find answers to your questions in the FAQ / Help Center or by making a thread.

It's ridiculous when a person has half as many PM's in their inbox as they do posts, 5277 PM's and 10534 posts

Lol , I pm'd you a few times due to Retro game room problems (not covered in the FAQs) , something about the computer saving for GBA , but lol did so many people really PM'd you ?

We really need to do something about this , maybe it cost like a few Viz to PM someone , like in real life where you have to buy stamps .

RGR problems should be reported in the RGR forum, what's the point of having that forum if people are going to PM me instead of using it?

I PM'd you something about a temporary 2ed account , I knew what the problem was .


Anyway what do you think about the "paying Viz to send a PM" idea ?

maybe just PM'ing david, or other admins/mods, but not everybody

I seem to remember the last thread like this you made.

It is amazing how lazy people can be. The answers that they are looking for are usually somewhere on the site or can be found out by making a thread asking for help. The staff is more than ready to answer questions and it's rare that David knows more than we do. Usually he just comes along and clarifies a few details of what we've already said which would save him time already.

Plus posting on the board is more fun than replying to one person in a PM when more people could see the answers given in threads so fewer pm's would need to be sent in the future.

"Plus posting on the board is more fun than replying to one person in a PM when more people could see the answers given in threads so fewer pm's would need to be sent in the future."

Exactly, I need to get into the habit of telling more people to make a thread but I usually answer like 95% of the questions.

heh, you should open up notepad and type something like this into it:

"That sort of a question should be make into a thread in the ....... forum"

And all you have to do is add in which forum to ask the question and then reply with that. And you just copy and paste that to every person who asks . It would take almost no time and it would get the question directed to the correct forum.

Yeah, or I could make a javascript button that only appears for me which when clicked, populates the message for me with a response based on what button is relevant to be clicked.

or you could go overboard with your solution!

seems pretty reasonable to me

Actually my solution isn't all that much work, probably 45 minutes to implement (which includes making the custom responses).

Originally posted by Davideo7

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Actually my solution isn't all that much work, probably 45 minutes to implement (which includes making the custom responses).

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Fair enough. I was just kidding around.... my solution takes about 1 minute... but you would have to copy and paste it which would be a pain.

Your idea works but mine would save time in the long run, plus I wouldn't have to have anything open.

But my idea sorta is your idea but modified, so you still get credit

what, we get Viz for coming up with good suggestions?

what if we have the holy bible?

lol that came to mind for me as well, but i decided not to point that out xD

No Viz for good ideas, just the satisfaction in knowing that I used your idea.

The Bible thing is fine, I still need to automate that so that it automatically sends you the Viz when you log in on sunday.

Let me refine the process of seeking help. If somebody has a question or complaint that involves the board's programming or the overall system, and any other technical things then that's when PMing David or Jigsaw is accepted.

If help is needed about something within the forums, i.e. layouts, how things work, posting questions about the board, problems with other users etc. then that's what the mods are for. We as mods are an extension of David, and Jigsaw for that matter, like an arm or leg. We handle the little problems on the board so that they don't have to. As David said, it take time away from him further evolving the board. Just because he's the owner and is the most popular member here doesn't everybody should be going to him all the time. If we can't figure it out then we'll ask David or Jigsaw.

The help forum is pretty much a huge extension of the mods. Members go there to post their questions. We mods go there to look at them. But again it's also better to post there so other members can look and either solve or learn from them as well. And just for the sake or building a stronger community within the board it wouldn't hurt for non-staff members to ask each other questions and and help each other out.

Maybe we need a small survey thing before users can PM. For instance, if I go to PM David make it have options that say:

I have a question about RGR
I have a question about a thread
I have a question about my account
I have a question about Viz

etc....

Once they select an option it will only pm the person in charge of that kind of thing. Its obvious users are not going to read this thread and follow so forcing them to select an option might be better way to go. This also means people would not be able to manually type and send people pm's, at least not for staff members. Have them select an option, based on what they select have it go to the staff members in charge of that subject.