to think that the private messaging system

[southeastastra]

has made mn a poorer place for it?

it was so much nicer when everything was out in the open

I've just had a look on youtube, fucking hell robert plant was bloody lovely

The blankets wouldn't have happened without pm's. Fuck off am I posting my address on here because pming it to a couple of hundred strangers is eminently more sensible

I pm'd someone tonight who posted for support and lives near me. We're meeting tomorrow so she can have a moan, but the details are boring to the other 499,998 users of the forum so we used pm. With the added advantage of not derailing the thread.

I don't really want my name/email address broadcast to half a million random folk, recorded for posterity in internet hell ta!

link it zigzag, i went to see him in about 1994 and he was bloody lovely still then

the pm does have it's place of course

I'm on the 'PM thread' and I haven't sent or received a single PM. It's just a bit of Friday night daftness, as far as I'm aware.

I have sent a few PMs in the past year, to offer extra advice without outing myself, or to offer a bit of support privately. I presume MNHQ can read them if it wants to. They are only private in the sense that they are not public.

I agree with you overall, Southeastastra, but there is facebook and twitter no matter what, and I think some of the whispering is sort of to be expected, human nature being what it is.

Yes I suppose that is right south.

I always assumed that about the 'privacy' of PMs too, LineRunner.

It's a weird thread and I'm not sure 90% of them know why they're there or what they're saying...purely because it's all going on through PMs. Some of them are on there joining in with random comments...but they're not actually part of "the thing"

(nods wisely}

I have to say I think PM's get a bad rap. They get blamed for alot of shit which is not only total crap but completely unfair. HQ can and do read some PM's. If they have suspicions, they can read them easily so all these allegations of bitchy/stirring PM's are, IMO, a pile of arse.

I've never sent or received a shitty PM. I talk to my MN mates using PM as the boards are seemingly full of snarky posters just poised in wait to find fault. And, you know, some things are private and you don't want them on the boards.

They are not the devil incarnate and shouldn't be dragged out as the whipping boy as seems to be the fashion these days.

I never ever get gossipy pm's, a small part of me wants them, but on balance I'm glad.
People can talk behind peoples' backs in RL too, not a lot we can do about that.

Nobody's saying they're evil Pinot just that when a thread is all about "please PM me the secret" ..it's bound to offend or make people feel left out.

I use it for a chat now and then...most do I think.

The thread in chat is a silly wind-up. Everyone is a bit tipsy and having a larf.

And believe me, recently PM's are the obvious target. Sadly :( Vast majority of folks use it to send support, to share advice and for privacy.

I agree with Purple & Pinot.

PM's are great, it's a lovely way to be able to talk to people, offer an off board hug, bit of advice, chat etc without having to give out your email/msn/phone number.

MN would be POORER without it.

Bitchy backstabbing people will always find a way to do it - leave the PM system out of it.

I've never seen any "Down with PM threads" before Pinot This is the frst one.

I do think that tipsy or not, it's a bit daft coming on asking for PMs re anything that could make others paranoid.

Ooh Chipping you said what i think so much better than I did! Agree agree

Can someone please tell me what is going on
I posted on that thread and haven't got a clue
I have just watched the final Ashes to Ashes and haven't got a clue
urgh

I think it is a case of - guns don't kill people, people do.

the PMs are a useful tool. If people abuse them in order to gossip or be bitchy then it is the users fault, not the PM system.

OK BoM, but they've been all over the shop. Maybe not in the title as such.

For the record, last time there was a silly gossip thread I spent frigging ages PM'ing those begging for PM's to let them know it was a wind-up. I sent about 25 that thread alone, honestly.

but you get a lot more people killing people when guns are freely available

pinot, you know you can PM more than one MNer at a time?

Stealthpolarbear - i too was saddened by the ending of Ashes to Ashes. It was a very poor and rather rushed ending imo.

I was very unhappy.

well it won't be me stealth as I inhabit a fluffy wuffy MN - all this stuff goes over my head, but I'm happier for it :)

bibbity's thread doesn't bother me and she gets a hell of alot of respect by actually asking if she should send a pm

its all the other back stabbing pms that go on

I think in principle it was good
but it just raised more questions

You can SPB but only if you know how to spell their names. I didn't though - I was just going down the thread in order putting people out of their angst (and probably spoiling the joke but heyho) If you don't switch pages it keeps the PM message each time so you just have to retitle it. If that makes sense?

I didn't understand AtoA either. They were all in purgatory? So all dead?