Do you respond to all your member's private messages?

A lot of my members like to contact me - with ideas - or simply just to chat, so I was curious, as a community owner - do you make an effort to chat with, and respond to all your member's Pms?

 

I reply to all of them if they need advice or help.. im a very kind person. But if its something useless then I just avoid it.

 

I try to reply to them all, but stupid ones I will just ignore and tell them to read the FAQs, etc. What also annoys me is when I get PMs at 4am in the morning, when it is something that could have easily been posted on the forums staff area being that I read every little thing.

 

I don't see why you wouldn't (unless it's at the end of a discussion or there's really nothing to say, I mean)...the whole point of a forum is for communication, and leaving a PM unanswered would insinuate that you don't care about what they have to say, which will leave them more likely to leave the forum.

 

Whailst I agree with you, I also do not. Would you reply to a staff members PM that came in at 4am that said: What do I do? if that was already answered in a FAQ thread stickied in your staff area?

I don't see the point in answering PMs I have clearly expressed not to receive e.g. support, especially when things may already be answered around the forums, etc.

 

Yes--I'd just give them a link to the FAQ, lol. I guess it's one thing if you've explicitly asked not to receive support emails, but I haven't, so I'll answer those too even if it's only with a link to the rules or something (though it is certainly a bit annoying >.>).

 

I do I love to communicate with my members

 

why is that? Some more input into the subject would be very good to read

 

Shole, I agree with Ashley, if you go through the thread you will see everyone giving their reasons instead of just saying they respond to PMs.

 

That's my reason I like to chat with people. I mean who does not like to open a conversation with his members that means that they are active and they will probably contribute to your forum.
Also I respond to pm's because i think it is one of the admins duty to try to help every member

 

I try to reply to all of them, I believe it keeps them coming back if they know that their admin is active and listens to them.
Though nonsensical PMs I just ignore.

 

Yea, I get many PM's I reply to all of them and many members like that. Its not hard, and it keeps your members happy so thats why I reply to PMs.

 

I'm like Ashley here in a sense. I try to respond to all PMs, but if a person is just not making him/herself clear, or if their PM is not making sense at all, then I'll ignore it. I'm also like Kaiser in a sesne too: If they're looking for advice, and as long as they aren't asking for support, then I'll try to help them to the best of my ability. However, if I don't understand or I don't know everything there is to know about the subject I'm being asked about, I'll redirect that person to someone else on staff who I feel might know about the subject more than I do. For example, if you were to ask me a question about something regarding phpBB, and I only knew half of the story or half of the information, but that was all I'd know, I would probably refer you to Ashley.S. as he has more knowledge and experience in the technical end of phpBB than I do. I don't know all there is to know about phpBB, which is why I refer people to Ash when it comes to technical issues, as that's his department, not really mine.

 

I try to, and try and be respectful at all times.
"The only stupid question, is the one that is left unasked!" - Be nice, even when referring the member to an FAQ. Their activity is a favour to you, even if it doesn't feel like it.

 

I love to PM Kaiser something that is not useful...

on-topic: I love to communicate with others, although I do not know anyone here except the old members from February, If they drop a PM ill PM back no harm.

 

(that's because it's your name too )

Agreed, though--I do reroute people to another admin if need be (particularly on the site where I'm not the root admin and occasionally have to tell people that ).

 

That doesn't even make sense. I'm just saying that's how Ashley.S. and I are alike because we both do things in a similar way. It has nothing to do with having the same first name.

 

He didn't mean it in a bad way, it was just a friendly joke about you two having the same first name.

 

lol, yeah; just a joke

 

Well, okay then. I'm not the type of person that likes to start arguments straight out, so I'll just let this go.