private inquiry forum?

[metulburr]

I am wondering if we should have a private inquiry forum. This would be a forum that all mods and admins can view, but only the thread starter can view his own threads, no one elses.

I was updating the help docs and made a change to tell people to post in Board section for things like requests to delete post/thread/accounts...however the board is public and some of this might be private. PM would fix this, but they would PM each mod and admin. A private forum (maybe a sub section of board or something) would allow users to ask things in private to mods and admins.

[sparkz_alot]

I think we do a very good job of policing the "public" side of the forum, so the only reason that comes to mind that would require such a forum, would be something that happens on the "private" side, which would be PM's. Perhaps members being spammed or bullied by other members. Such cases I feel would be better handled by a PM to an Administrator, who can then investigate and make a determination as to a decision.

Unless you have something specific in mind, I think it (the sub-forum) would just end up being another place for members to post code and questions.

[metulburr]

Usually someone PM's one of us, and then that person makes a post in admin/mods section. This would kind of cut out the middle man. But in addition to that, it would be a place that would be private in terms of users on the forum. Some reasons off the top of my head would be...

• They could discuss with us why they got a warning. They could do this in a PM, but this could involve all admins/mods into the discussion. And they surely wouldnt feel comfortable doing it on the public board.
  
• Their questions regarding permissions. Some people might have more restrictive permissions than others based on their behavior. 
  
• Account issues. If they created a new account because they forgot their password for example, etc. 
  
• requests to delete posts/threads/accounts. Even though we probably wont do it. It gives them a location to request it at least. 
  
• a place to move private questions from the board to
  

Now sure they can do all that now through PM. But some admins/mods ignore PM's. They have to PM everyone individually and hope for a response. And if they dont get one, they just post on the forum anyways. On the forum they know we would see it and it is being handled. Any mod or admin that wishes to join in on the conversation could and ad their point of view to things like why that person got a warning, etc. 

Regarding PM'ing mods and admins... We are usually quite active so this is not a problem. But i have had problems in other forums and PM's an admin to never get a response due to me PM'ing the wrong admin or nonactive admin/or just a too busy admin. Where i should of PM'ed a different admin or mod. On such forums it was nice to make a private inquiry post and get responses from a lot of mods/admins.

I dont think people would post code questions in private inquiry section. But i am probably wrong. People post code questions in the board section. If it is far and few between, it would be no problem. I was thinking since it was board related things, to put it in as a sub-forum under board section. In that way its categorized properly, but not out front for homework users to abuse in attempting to contact experienced coders per se.

[ichabod801]

I think there are uses for it, although I don't think it will be used very often. I think it's good for mods/admins to at least read their PMs. I had problems on another board where an admin was the problem. I'm not sure I would have felt comfortable posting to a board all the admins could see. In the end I PMed a super-admin. And really, we have a members section where you can see which admins and mods are active.

[metulburr]

well i am sure if an admin was a dick to a user, they would post via PM to another admin VS posting to this "private inquiry" forum. And i would say that is OK based on the situation.

I also dont think it would be used that often. I was hoping to replace all the mass PMing from users to this forum instead. So at most would be the combination of all our PM's; minus a few most likely.

And really, we have a members section where you can see which admins and mods are active.

I bet bunburya has all the same PM's we have and he hasnt logged in almost a year. I think they spam every team member and see who responds back.

[ichabod801]

I am not sure what you are talking about, because I have not seen all these hordes of mass PM's.

[metulburr]

i get a lot of them in response from a warning.

There are also some on IRC

[Kebap]

I find the idea intriguing, wonder how hard it would be to set-up.

Also all the reported posts we get, we could route to there, so can be easily discussed, without anybody having to copy/link them first.

[metulburr]

I find the idea intriguing, wonder how hard it would be to set-up.

Its actually quite simple. It would be the similar to the admin/mods section, however regular users would have the edit option "Can only view own threads" checked. And thats about the only difference. I researched it before i proposed it because i thought it was a plugin, but actually is capable with default mybb.