Opt-in PMs

Hi
it is planned to offer a trusted sender or opt-in variant for PMs?
Guess I should be flattered that I get sent random questions by random people, but if I'm really honest, I'm not.
That's what the boards are for, for folk to ask questions and to get answers from many different people and to share that info with all. Not just from me.
So apart from blocking individual senders, would it be possible to select preferred senders so that I could sift out the ones that are relevant?
Am trying to write this politely, even though it isn't particularly polite of me to do so. It is good to be helpful but there are other helpful people out there too.
Thanks
Katrina

I recommend being more acidic and sarcastic in your general postings on the forum - guaranteed to keep the bums and stiffs away from sending you a PM.

Alternatively replace your picture with something scarier, or perhaps just a banner saying "Pond Life - bog off - don't PM me unless you have an IQ above room temperature etc etc".

Poor you! Why don't you just ignore the PM's?

Katrina, this is what happens when you are the resident 'Klugscheisser' - however, I know what you mean - someone PM'ed me, out of the blue, and asked me for all the steps one has to take to get a residence permit and work permit. I couldn't respond to it because I just didn't have the time to track down what I had done 6 months earlier and I had already posted the information anyway. I just ignored it. Or be honest and tell them you just don't have th time to be doing research for other people (if that's what they're asking).

Am generally polite and usually answer but it is getting to a level where just want to say, look I know I should take it as a compliment but really, ask the board instead, I don't have a monopoly on stuff.
Johnny that is funny but some of my best friends are pond life ha ha
But yeah maybe I should post an actual picture of myself instead of Jennifer Garner (I do get asked if that is me - I wish, ok apart from the being married to Ben Affleck bit). That would be scary.

Lets have a "Katrinas Hall of Shame" Thread.

Copy and paste the questions... but leave out the name... Lets see if we can guess who it is that posted it...

G

Stop fooling now, you know that is the real you.

This is true. I do kick in people all day and have lots of guns and no my hair never sticks to my lipgloss.

I don't mind when people PM me about specific stuff than I can help about that isn't of use to all. But for anything else, use the board.

I would write back to them "I'm flattered that you wrote to me to ask help with your question, but I think it would benefit more people if you posted it on the board where everyone can see and contribute the answers". Then suggest the appropriate forum header to start the topic in.

The thing that bugs me is if people don't bother to even say thanks. It doesnt happen so often but every once in a while I get a pm with a specific question, I reply and nothing - no got it much less thanks in reply.

@Katrina - well dont go trading in michael vaughn for bennifer afleck ok?

I get PMs that i just ignore ..since even TT has posts with alot of junk i dont mind reading 3 lines like this.. comes often but then again its my user pic that attracts attention ...it needs change ... bonydebbie


no clue who this is..

But I don't work with Ben. *scratches head*
Yes that's another reason for the opt-in thing, it often happens that you answer and afterwards the person disappears without so much as a thanks or a cheers or anything.
I know answering things is altruistic per se but I'd like to choose my causes.
And yes the lonely hearts thing is flattering until you release that it is like a mass mailing and lots of other ladies have got the same mail...

Absolutely jml - From time to time people search on 'notary', realise that I'm a notary, and then send me questions asking for legal advice (for free of course). Naturally I don't mind for regular users or friends, but frequently the people are very infrequent users or are new users who've registered just to PM me - I've not had one for a month or so, but they do still seem to appear now and again - since I've left Munich I can't be of much help anyway, but even when I do offer some advice or a recommendation I've yet to receive a 'thank-you'. I guess the easy way to solve my problem would be to ask Bob to delete my posts where I say I'm a notary...
(Last request came from a user who has 4 posts to her name and who hasn't read the board since 8th June - she PM'd me on 2nd June and never said thank you).

Like this one here, eh?

Naw, don't be too hard on the newbies. Just gently point them towards the search function and tell them to post it on one of the forums.

Good point. Anybody reading this thread should know that I AM a Notary, but not a German one, nor indeed am I in Germany anymore.

best you post your hourly rates Jimbo - might keep the cheapskate punters away?

@showem, no its not the newbies I mind - its the one sided members that only show up when they want something, i.e. a recommendation, or they're in a bind over something or another. I find these few peeps never bother contributing (even idiotically with a joke or whatever) to the board for anything besides asking for stuff either pm or post and can't be bothered to repy. Not a simple thanks or god forbid something that says they checked out the restaurant/doctor/resource and it did or didn't work out for them and why.

Newbies I can (sort of) understand that its a bit overwhelming at first for a little while but not forever. The way I see it, please and thank you costs nothing, so its beyond me how that can be overlooked, especially with strangers you've approached for help. Then again not everyone had a ma with a smack up side your head tendency like mine so maybe its a conditioning thing

@ Jimbo...oh sorry mate. you can ignore that pm about my little problem with the rice field and the pot of gold then.

I'm a snip at £200p.h. mate - used to be nearly double that at my old place, so you're getting a bargain quite frankly.

I have to agree with you all that it is quite impolite to directly PM someone you don't know. But as a newby, I must say that sometimes you become desperate for a reply. I have posted a few things, to which I have received a few replies, and then you wonder, "Gee, is there really no-one that can assist you?"

And it is also quite intimidating to join a thread sometimes when it seems this group has really built up a 'relationship'.

I may not always contribute, but I am always reading the board, as the forum does help alot to ease oneself into Germany.

I think that those who PM directly are just bloody lazy to go through all the posts, and find the answers anyway.

@Katrina ... See it as a compliment!

PS: No, its not me who has been sending PM's

Hmm. Good points Klein.

Showem's Top Three Reasons Board Posts Go Unanswered:

1. Question asked is about so specific a situation that noone else on the board has experience with it.

2. Question asked is about so general a situation that there are a tonne of threads on it already and people figure that newbies will eventually notice the Search: field in the top left corner.

3. Question is so inane that it really doesn't deserve an answer. Something like "Why are all you of such fuck-wits?" being an example, "Will I get in trouble with my neighbours for vacuuming on a Sunday?" not.

I guarantee that if you change your photo to the chap mentioned below on the forum earlier this month it will have the desired effect:

disturbing image removed by admin but it's still available here:
world's ugliest dog

OK Johnny I'll do that for a month and we'll see what happens.

I have an idea: We start an "Encyclopaedia Kathrina" thread in Miscelaneous (at the top). Anyone can post their question there and anyone else could answer. That way Kathrina and Showem get fewer private pm's. Yeah!

@Katrina

Now I cannot decide which picture was a closer likeness to you?