Please PM me

[helvella]

We have an astonishingly high posting/responding rate here. That is very welcome, but sometimes the sheer volume can be overwhelming.

We could reduce some of these responses a little if people didn't put up responses saying "Please PM me...". This is especially the case where many people post the same "Please PM me..." responses! We could as easily send a Private Message to the person directly.

If they are happy to send a PM, then I am pretty sure they will not mind whether the request comes from a response or as a PM. We also make it easier for people to send the PM back because they only have to answer the PM they received. Finally, some of these responses will be missed by the person being asked, especially if they are not threaded properly.

[LouiseRoberts]

In other words... instead of posting on this thread asking Helvella to PM me, I can just click on his name (next to his pic). This would take me to his profile page and from there I could send him a message by clicking on 'message'.

Similarly there is no need for people to inform someone that they have sent them a message - this is something else which we see a lot.

Helvella - I have sent you a message.

If you send someone a message they will get a little white number in a red circle next to their name on the top green bar.

Thanks for your time!

Louise

xx

[nightingale-56 in reply to LouiseRoberts]

Or maybe they won't get a message Louise! Some of mine have not been sent. Very annoying when you are waiting for an answer. Have complained to HU. Also how can you PM everyone when asking a general question if you don't know who will be able to give you an answer. Sorry if I am being a bit thick here.

[helvella Administrator in reply to nightingale-56]

I certainly didn't mean to suggest that "Is Doctor ABC good, bad or indifferent? Please PM me." is unacceptable - that is fine. There is no alternative.

But think of this thread:

Member1 - "I saw a great doctor"

.Member 2 - "Please PM me who that doctor is"

..Member 3 - "And me"

...Member 4 - "And me"

....Member 5 - "Me too"

.Member 6 - "And me"

..Member 7 - "And me"

Member 8 - "And me"

Those PM requests add nothing for any other members.

And if Member 8 posts such that their "And me" so that Member 1 doesn't get an alert, then Member 8 will very likely never get a response.

[nightingale-56 in reply to helvella]

In this case, I fully agree with you Helvella.

[Marz]

Maybe lots of people here do not realise all the posts go through Admin - hence your point about high levels of traffic. That is not clear in your post....

[helvella Administrator in reply to Marz]

Not sure what you are saying, Marz. Posts don't go through Admin - there is no approval or moderation process. (Only what we Admins see or are told about after having been posted.)

I'd guess we have had more than 150 items posted in the past 24 hours. (That includes posts and each response.) Sometimes it feels as if 25% of those are "Send me a PM", "And me", "Me too" responses. But I freely admit that is unlikely to be literally true - only how it can feel.

The Admins do try to keep their eyes open across all activity so lots of unnecessary responses are an extra burden in that sense.

[Marz in reply to helvella]

That's what I meant - - what you have just explained - about the extra burden...it's possible many are not aware of the workload of Admins. I totally understand.