Members post private messages incorrectly and they are public for all to read

iusedtoberich

iusedtoberich

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Do you guys notice a lot of people think they are sending a private message, but instead it ends up in the public feed for all to see? I'm not sure how they do that. I think its been going on for years, but as of the new website format, its more front and center.
 
Makes me wonder if the few private messages that I've sent are public? Where is the pm option? I clicked on your profile, but all I see is starting a conversation, and I'm assuming those are for all to read.
 
Lawnboy77 said:
Makes me wonder if the few private messages that I've sent are public? Where is the pm option? I clicked on your profile, but all I see is starting a conversation, and I'm assuming those are for all to read.
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I “think” the “starting conversation” button is the private one. I don’t know how the public one is done.
 
Okay, sounds right and it can be addressed to multiple people up top just like an email. What was throwing me for a loop is when I click on your profile to start a conversation I see all these random conversations and it looks like it gives me the option to jump in?
 
iusedtoberich said:
If you click the "what's new" button and scroll just a little bit down, it shows all the latest "profile posts" bundled together. There, you can clearly see messages intended to be private.
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Ah ha! I think I figured it out. Yes you are right, the "Profile Post" option is what I'm seeing in these random messages when I click on your profile and they automatically come up on your profile.
 
Lawnboy77 said:
Okay, sounds right and it can be addressed to multiple people up top just like an email. What was throwing me for a loop is when I click on your profile to start a conversation I see all these random conversations and it looks like it gives me the option to jump in?
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Yeah, the random ones on my profile were from the old system where people made the same mistake. I think almost all of them were also intended to be private messages. Its been a confusing issue for years. Now the difference seems to be when you click on the "new" button to see the latest threads, it groups all the profile posts from all members there. With the old system, the only way to see those profile messages was to actually click on an individual member's profile and then you'd see only that member's profile messages.

I suppose the solution would be a clear differentiation for the user about to send a message of what is private and what is public.

In the grand scheme of life its no big deal:)
 
iusedtoberich said:
Do you guys notice a lot of people think they are sending a private message, but instead it ends up in the public feed for all to see? I'm not sure how they do that. I think its been going on for years, but as of the new website format, its more front and center.
Click to expand...

There are two types of messages, the PM one and the post to the profile one. The post to profile is seen for anyone that can click on our profile.
Those message are not really "private" since they are not done in that section. It's like sending a letter to someone vs just writing it on the side of their house. Anyone that drives by the house can read it, the profile posts are just like that, if someone can click on your profile, they will see it. If you want a message sent to only the recipient, use the PM option which is sending a sealed letter to a specific person.
 
hang-the-9 said:
There are two types of messages, the PM one and the post to the profile one. The post to profile is seen for anyone that can click on our profile.
Those message are not really "private" since they are not done in that section. It's like sending a letter to someone vs just writing it on the side of their house. Anyone that drives by the house can read it, the profile posts are just like that, if someone can click on your profile, they will see it. If you want a message sent to only the recipient, use the PM option which is sending a sealed letter to a specific person.
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I understand now, but it would be nice if it were spelled out just like that. Nowadays the forums don't use the terminology "Private message", or "PM". It's now just "Start Conversation" vs. "Profile Post". No biggie one way, or the other.

I don't know if this terminology change is the reason you see so many private type conversations on iusedtorich's profile, but I do know there is some interesting stuff going on over there. LOL Just kidding man! I'm very good at minding my own business, much better at that than pool.
 
iusedtoberich said:
Do you guys notice a lot of people think they are sending a private message, but instead it ends up in the public feed for all to see? I'm not sure how they do that. I think its been going on for years, but as of the new website format, its more front and center.
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I haven’t looked at my PM box since 2014.

I probably should. But seems like I’m too busy.

best
Fatboy

PS: sorry to anyone who I ignored or tried to send me one.
 
iusedtoberich said:
Do you guys notice a lot of people think they are sending a private message, but instead it ends up in the public feed for all to see? I'm not sure how they do that. I think its been going on for years, but as of the new website format, its more front and center.
Click to expand...
Oh no , they caught me again lol .
 
Too lazy to start a conversation to see but I am pretty sure that even conversations have a choice of public or private. Mine default to private which is fine. I would have posted in the forum if I wanted to tell the world!

Hu
 
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