EMail hiding

Email hiding is what this forum does at the moment, what it means is that instead of revealing your email address to others, anyone wanting to speak to you MUST come via this site.

What that means is that when they want to contact you:

• via email: Use the contact link on your profile page and fill in a form.
  
• replying to a PM: They can't reply to the email notification, they must login and reply to the PM here.
  
  

And so on... no matter what you do, anyone wanting to talk to you has to come to the site to do it.

Now this doesn't affect guests so much, they always have to use these forms... but it kinda affects other members.

I get about 10 emails a day from people who reply to PM's via email, even though the first line of that notification email is "DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL".

So... the question is... would you guys want me to disable all of that form stuff, and let PM alerts and emails be sent out from your email address rather than mine... so you can all just communicate in whatever way you want?

There is a risk of spam, but it's small. The risk only comes up if a spammer registers, contacts you, and you respond. I think that's the only way to get your email address... so it's not like we'd be just giving it out, we just wouldn't be hiding it when communication did happen.

Anyhow, if you understand the above, do you want me to disable email hiding?

I don't want my email revealed via this site in any form. thanks.

I like the way it works now and wouldn't want it changed.

I'd rather the system stayed as is.

aint broke

I, too, think that the current system is good.

Couldn't you use something like noreply@londonfgss.com as the sender address?

Set the reply-to on the email you send to be a fake address or an account that just gets deleted.

Or better send it from the account that gets deleted.

Or even better send it from that account but also have an auto response system to inform the user that they are an idiot and require new glasses.

Keep them addresses safe. You don't open yourself up to getting accused of losing a persons email when they probably signed up to some dodgy site with it (speaking from experience.)

I could send the replies to NULL, but of the 10 or so emails a day I get, 1 or 2 are always half important... things like "yeah my number is X and I'll contact you later to say where to meet and give you the money for Y"... basically it's you lot not reading the DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL bit, and then relying on the response you guys are sending to get through (which it doesn't, but at least I let you know at the moment).

My point: I'm not going to let you know when you screw up, so either you can have your emails vanish into the ether... or you can have it reconfigured so that your replies actually get through, but you expose your email address.

you could put a clearer warning in the email that's sent out as a notification of the new PM?

Clearer than

DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL!

---

?

I say just have an auto-reply that calls the person an idiot for responding to the email, and tells them to get back on the forum and send it as a PM.

Or a link to this thread?

I agree with the majority of opinions expressed so far, if it ain't broke don't fix it.

I don't know, I don't get notifications of PMs dude, how do I know.

Why not send an auto replay rather than perving over users private messages? That way everyone is happy.

VB- I seem to recall you offering username@londonfgss.com (maybe for polo?), and that directed email to a persons account.

Could that not be used in some form to get around this?

Apologies if not, my expertise in this area is possibly a negative amount...

Personally I'd like to be able to reply to a PM via email, rather than logging in, bringing up the PM page etc.

Set up a rule in your mail client so that anyone that replies to a system mail will get an auto reply.

or for something separate and online, Gmail has an advanced auto responder built into it, why not set up a noreplylfgss@gmail.com like ehren says. people will get the auto response and you can check it once a month for anything that might be for you.

If the PM alert sent to peoples email didnt actually include the personal message, they would of course be prompted to actually come to the site and log in?

Although that would mean any of us at work etc wouldnt be able to check pms in our email without checking the site either... hmmm..

I quite like it how it is. Just delete them, people will learn.

i want all my e-mail going to prav's PM. so if you want a 531 is awesome t-shirt, PM prav!

I'm for not exposing email addresses. But then I'm fairly sure I set up a specific address for signing up here, so if spam started arriving at that address i'd be directing my anger at you :)

(yes I read the bit where you said the address would only get to the spammer if I replied to the PM via email, which I wouldn't)

And to derail. Anyone know who FixedGearRepublic.com is? I got a friend request ages ago and i've been treating it as spam and ignoring it.

No expose the email. If someone is stupid enough to reply to the notification email fuck them.

haha! thats the spirit tommy!

;)

nope. that's a the point of forums, random annonymity... if you want people to know your details you can email them your address...

What most of that lot said.

No expose the email. If someone is stupid enough to reply to the notification email fuck them.

Yeah, what he said.

what they said.

with this:

if people ignore the "Don't reply to this message" bit, then rout their reply to an automated response that says "Didn't you fucking read the bit that said not to fucking reply to this, you fuckstick?"

"Hugs and Kisses,
Friendly Moderator"