Private Messenger enabled

[Laura F.]

I've enabled the private messenger for the NI Forums.  You can access it by the envelope icon in the upper right corner of the forums. 

You have control over whether or not to use the private messenger and whether or not to get emails for messages through the options in My Settings > Preferences > Private Messenger.

You can send private messages from a user's profile page or starting in the private messenger inbox.

You can also block users or add them to your friends list from their profile pages.

I hope you find the feature useful.  If not, feel free to turn it off as others will be notified that you cannot receive messages if you do this.

Thanks!

Laura
Web Support & Operations
National Instruments

[Cory_K]

Cool, thanks Laura!

[JackDunaway]

+1 for Laura and gang! Great new feature.

[JackDunaway]

1. Once I send a PM, where do I go to view a list of these messages? I'm looking for a widget or link on my profile page, but I cannot find one.
2. What does it mean to "Add so-and-so as a friend"?
3. Likewise, what does "Ignore" mean?

[Laura F.]

Jack -

The easiest way to get into the private messenger is the little envelope icon in the upper right.  You have to be logged in to see it and it will show how many unread messages you have if you have any.  Once you're looking at the private messenger, your friends are easy to send messages to from that experience without going to their profile pages.  I think by "ignoring" someone you are blocking messages from them.

Thanks for the questions, I need to get this information added to the help pages.

Regards,

Laura

[JackDunaway]

1. There's a user preference called "Receive email notifications for new private messages". Could this default to 'On' rather than 'Off' for all users? If I'm not mistaken, this would jive with default notification being turned 'On' for new messages on threads. It took me a while to realize I had an incoming PM, and I would not be surprised if many people don't notice this nuance.
2. Can you determine if a PM has been read by the other user based on whether or not the subject is Bold in the "Sent Messages" section?

[Laura F.]

Sorry, that preference was supposed to default to 'on' but I couldn't find the switch at first.  I did get it turned on yesterday afternoon.

Thanks,

Laura

[JackDunaway]

It's not "inappropriate" per se, but I just received a PM, Copy-and-pasted-and-censored below:

"Hi, This is _____,I am quite new to labview (I have been using it for about a week) I have receive a project for making a program for ____ I have searched this forum and found little tidbits to help me on my way but i am now at a bit of a loss as how to solve my new problem. What I need to program is: ____ My problem is _____. I want to be able to _______. The functions i need is: _______ And i need _____, i need a...which i once hit it should ______. As I've said I'm very new to labview and am learning it as I'm trying to program. I have attached the best version of my program for others to look at it. And please help me and give me a advice or make some adjustment etc.. It would a be a highly appreciated."

How do I react to PM's like this? There is no "Report to Moderator" function for Private Messages. I would like a method to kindly convey to the user that he has come to the right place (forums.ni.com), but would have more success using a more appropriate means (the public forums) to resolve support issues.

Thanks!

[smercurio_fc]

Yeah, I got two of those messages. I turned off my private messages.

[tst]

Two "missing" features (which exist on LAVA, BTW):

1. The messages should be threaded, so that if you're having a conversation, you don't have it all over the place.
2. The ability to PM several people and basically have a private thread.

There is a relatively simple workaround for both, assuming it's someone you actually want to have a conversation with - you can just trade email addresses and continue the discussion offline, which is actually probably better than Lithium putting too much effort into this. It would be useful if they fix the stuff that's broken and that we care about before they develop new stuff (e.g. being able to easily see new activity on threads we're involved in from one spot, which is only the most basic request almost any regular makes).