request: restricting style exchange (and OT) to active members and veterans

Hi Greg,
I'd like to request a feature for the Style Exchange portion of the forum. I just posted something for sale and got an inquiry from someone who is a new member of the site (just joined immediately prior to replying to my post). Now, I don't really mind selling something to a new member but I realized that it's actually quite awkward the way Style Exchange is set up. Basically, there is no way for the member and I to communicate privately since you can't use PM until you are an active member. And I am not about to conduct a financial transaction on the public forum page. Now I DON'T want new members to immediately be allowed to use PMs since I could see that getting very spammy very quickly, but would it be possible to just restrict the style exchange to active members and veterans only?

And on a related note, I would actually like to request that the Off Topic board be limited in the same way (or at least to members only). I know people post some pretty personal stuff there and it doesn't quite sit right to me that anyone strolling in from the internet at large can view those posts.

I know Angie wants to keep the forum accessible, and I do agree that the general style/WIW/shopping posts should stay visible to everyone, but given the particular natures of style exchange (which requires the ability to PM) and Off topic (many personal topics) I really do think it would be best to make those somewhat more private (or perhaps to allow the original poster to choose whether or not to make the post members only).

Thanks for considering this.

11 years ago

Greg

Administrator

Hi Diane,

Thanks for the suggestion. We'll think this over.

(website)

Veteran

I agree with Diane. These are slightly 'touchier' areas than just sharing outfits, one being more personal and the other dealing with one's finances, and trust (I've been burned through the style exchange by the way) and another level of insulation is not a bad idea.

What we will do is make the secondary categories (off topic, style exchange and technical support) invisible to people who aren't logged in. But ALL logged in members will see them and will be able to reply to them. The change won't take effect immediately, but expect it in the next few days.

We can't restrict "off topic" to a particular member level because then there would be no home for off topic things that are posted by new members.

With style exchange, in the case where a new member wants to interact, just suggest to them that you do PM once they reach active member level. The bar for this is quite low. 3 days and 3 posts if I recall correctly.

Diana

Thank you, Greg! I totally understand not wanting to restrict the boards to particular member levels, but it makes me feel much better that random non-members can't wander in from the internet and view these posts.

Perfect! Agree that this should keep random trollers away. A new member at least is interested in joining up before seeing these things. Thanks for listening to our suggestions and taking them into consideration.

This change is now live. Thanks for the suggestion.

I noticed this today. Awesome!

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