[DECLINED] Unlicensed Information for Licensed Members

[Rose]

Originally posted by Davey
Funny as it goes, I just got a PM from someone a couple of minutes ago asking for help on running a query.
The PM is deleted now, but how was I to know if he was licensed or not?
Wasn't possible.
If you get someone named colby PM you, then it's not just me he PM'd.
But I'd advise to ignore it unless that is actually a valid member.
But again, how are we supposed to know?

Dave.

I got the same one and pointed him to the "PHP" forum to post for help as I didn't know if he was valid or not.

[Erwin]

Don't provide support in PMs unless you know the person is licensed.

[amykhar]

I honestly don't care if people are licensed or not. It's not my job to police Jelsoft's profits. However, usually the pirates are lazy idiots as well and are just down right annoying. In addition, all the off topic posts in forums where they shouldn't have access are a pain. Can somebody explain to me why unlicensed people can post in the PHP forum or the lounge? Just how are they contributing to the hacking community? I'll grudingly agree that the pre-sales forum might be good public relations; however, they really have no business in any other forum but that one.

Amy

[Erwin]

Like I said, once Xenon and I come on as admins formally, we will make some changes. In the meantime, the current admins are busy with other things.

[Dean C]

How are we meant to know if people are licensed in PM's. As us normal members can't move posts to the right forum (rightly so too hehe ) then we don't know if people are licensed or not. Why not allow people to view who's licensed in the just the lounge then?

- miSt

[Xenon]

it's a sort of privacy mist.
we won't discuss the issue, it will stay that just mods will be able to view the unlicensed info.

for PM's:
Hmm, there are two possibilities i can think of now:
one way is to disable PM's for unlicensed one (i prefer that, but we will discuss)
second way is to show in pm's if a user is licensed or not..

@Davey: the user is licensed, never the less that's not the right way to do.
we will make stricter rules for that

[amykhar]

I prefer disabling PMs for unlicensed members. I would also probably hack the board so that they are unable to display email addresses and have the moderators delete any email addresses they post. The PM system and email are simply ways to try to get people to give them things they are not authorized to have.

Amy

[Xenon]

we will think about that amy

[Dean C]

no pm's for unlicensed users sounds good. I'll vote for that . Also the showing of email addresses even when set to yes in a profile. It shouldn't have the link in the postbit

- miSt

[Tony G]

Yeah, disabling PM's for unlicensed ones will work fine.