Hi,

I'm a new user and when I try to send a message, I get the error message "You are not allowed to send personal messages".  Can you not send personal messages until you've posted a certain number of times?  Is there a permission that I or the administrators need to turn on somewhere?  Any help would be appreciated.

Also, when I try to click on a person's name, I get the error message "blah".  Again, anyone know the genesis of this message?

Finally, whenever I try to access chat, it hangs when trying to connect.  Is this a problem because I am trying to access chat via Safari, or something else?

Thanks for the help.

You just have to have enough posts under your belt to have certain privilages like putting up an avatar and private messaging people. It's 15 posts for a lot of things, avatar for sure.

Personally I think that's really silly; if I have questions or comments that come from ignorance and want to ask them privately, I either have to wait and post more, or just post the silly questions.  Seems like an inefficient approach to me.  But it's not my site.

But what I would recommend is that the moderators put that information in the welcoming message.  I searched through the help, the welcoming stuff, the various forums, etc., and couldn't find it.

Unfortunately it's necessary in a place like this, otherwise trolls could set up accounts and harass the members. Lots of fragile people here.

Quote from: I_zack on March 22, 2015, 09:21:47 PM
Personally I think that's really silly; if I have questions or comments that come from ignorance and want to ask them privately, I either have to wait and post more, or just post the silly questions.  Seems like an inefficient approach to me.  But it's not my site.

But what I would recommend is that the moderators put that information in the welcoming message.  I searched through the help, the welcoming stuff, the various forums, etc., and couldn't find it.

This page is almost always linked to new users when they first post: https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,114.0.html.
It describes what new users can and can't do and I believe it is set up to discourage people from registering and immediately spamming ads or maybe even hate messages to people via PM. Given the nature of the site I can see some bigoted people doing something like that unfortunately...

Posted and stickied since 2005, it's in the links new members get: https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,114.0.html

Hugs, Devlyn

Quote from: I_zack on March 22, 2015, 09:21:47 PM
Personally I think that's really silly; if I have questions or comments that come from ignorance and want to ask them privately, I either have to wait and post more, or just post the silly questions.  Seems like an inefficient approach to me.  But it's not my site.

But what I would recommend is that the moderators put that information in the welcoming message.  I searched through the help, the welcoming stuff, the various forums, etc., and couldn't find it.

To answer your own question please revisit this thread topic,  mainly the post from GM VM post.

https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,182238.msg1615701.html#msg1615701

Sorry it seems a incontinence to you.  It is done this way to not inconvenience this whole forum. 

Also nothing is a silly question to the forums for new members or old.  That's how we all learn.   

Quote from: mrs izzy on March 22, 2015, 09:46:29 PM
To answer your own question please revisit this thread topic,  mainly the post from GM VM post.

https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,182238.msg1615701.html#msg1615701

Sorry it seems a incontinence to you.  It is done this way to not inconvenience this whole forum. 

Also nothing is a silly question to the forums for new members or old.  That's how we all learn.

I'm more worried about trying people's patience with a typical newbie question that I could ask privately without embarrassing myself and hurting other's feelings/POing people/triggering someone/etc.  If you see what I mean.  (I saw one cis man get kind of handed his hat in his introduction, and it made me a tad nervous.)

I apologize for the word "silly"; it was thoughtless of me.

Quote from: I_zack on March 22, 2015, 10:44:26 PM
I'm more worried about trying people's patience with a typical newbie question that I could ask privately without embarrassing myself and hurting other's feelings/POing people/triggering someone/etc.  If you see what I mean.  (I saw one cis man get kind of handed his hat in his introduction, and it made me a tad nervous.)

I apologize for the word "silly"; it was thoughtless of me.

Imagine it this way: would you rather that cis man have posted, get handed his hat, and shown to the door OR would you rather he be able to send people messages at random saying similarly offensive things, which would have to be investigated by an administrator before any action could be taken? This system really is the lesser of two evils.

I think you'll find that a respectful question, however silly it may be, will be met with genuine responses no matter how trivial it may seem or how many times it's been answered. This is a support site.

Quote from: ftmax on March 23, 2015, 06:01:25 AM
Imagine it this way: would you rather that cis man have posted, get handed his hat, and shown to the door OR would you rather he be able to send people messages at random saying similarly offensive things, which would have to be investigated by an administrator before any action could be taken? This system really is the lesser of two evils.

I think you'll find that a respectful question, however silly it may be, will be met with genuine responses no matter how trivial it may seem or how many times it's been answered. This is a support site.

Well, that was the thing; his question seemed pretty reasonable to me.  He didn't give me the impression he was trying to be offensive or trolling.  That's what kinda scared me.  I read it and thought, "Geez; I'm not too different from that guy--I'm going to get obliterated".  Over-reaction?  Probably.  But this whole thing scares the bejeezus out of me, and it doesn't take much to make me feel more scared.  If you see what I mean.

It sounds like you two may be thinking of different cases. Also, it's not like a post that breaks the rules is left up. You can look at a thread and think "There's nothing wrong there" but you really don't know what, if anything, was edited.

Hugs, Devlyn