Yes I know I’ve asked (several times) before, but we still don’t have them, and I haven’t ever seen a good reason why not (apart from development time, but hoping you might have some of that spare at some point). Prompted by http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/psa-new-site-google-and-email-addresses

…and whilst your about it, how about my other ongoing request – links on profile page to actual posts the person has made rather than just threads they’ve posted on.

+1

…and whilst your about it, how about my other ongoing request – links on profile page to actual posts the person has made rather than just threads they’ve posted on.

It already provides links to the last post they made on a thread. Are you saying you want a separate link for every post they’ve made on a thread?

Are you saying you want a separate link for every post they’ve made on a thread?

It would be nice, and hardly that obtrusive, but in any case it doesn’t even currently do as you suggest – simply links to the last post anybody made on a thread they made a post on somewhere.

I’d much rather the development time go into a decent search facility on the site.

What samurai said. In any case are we not beggars rather than choosers?

You didn’t notice the thread I linked to right at the top, and hence why time spent improving the search is potentially wasted – there’s even a handy link to a better search on the search page (not sure why they don’t drop that and just link directly off the search button).

Me too – no need for stuff like a pm function much rather the time was spent developing the basic functionality

Hmm.. so it does.. that’s odd. Agreed then. Not sure we need links to every single post but it would be nice if it was broken into two links which reflected the text.

e.g. So when it says:

Latest reply 19 hours ago. Latest reply 4 hours ago

If would be good if when you click the “[your] latest reply” sentence it took you to your last post on that thread. And the other linked to the last post.

After all most of the time we are using that screen we are trying to find out what has been said on a thread since our last post on it.

But what exactly is wrong (or missing) with the basic functionality? IMHO it’s actually worked pretty well in general since day 1 and everything they’ve improved has just been frills, no less than these requests are.

After all most of the time we are using that screen we are trying to find out what has been said on a thread since our last post on it.

The alternative being checking to see what other people have posted (hence the request for links to all posts – they could even have clever stuff which disabled that for your own profile page for the best of both worlds).

I want to be able to upload my pic without having to use that flaming gravatar rubbish which doesn’t work!

Development? Aren’t all these things just bolt on bits and therefore fairly easy to do?

PM? why bother, sounds like a lot of work for no gain to me, if the member wants to be contacted they put their emaill address in their profile and you use that, simple

If you don’t want to put your e-mail address in your profile, where it could potentially be harvested (quite sure I could easily write a script to harvest e-mail addresses of any active forumites)?

Development? Aren’t all these things just bolt on bits and therefore fairly easy to do?

Exactly (though it’s probably not quite that simple).

if the member wants to be contacted they put their emaill address in their profile and you use that, simple

but email is increasingly unreliable as it drowns in the flood of spam. I’ve nearly missed emails via my profile link for this reason…

this site could provide authentication for both parties to exclude spurious messages

Get better anti-spam simon! I see one or two spam messages a week.

(and don’t put your actual blimmin email address in your profile without disguising it a little, as suggested on the Edit Profile page, otherwise it may get harvested and you’ll get even more spam. Same goes for you aleigh)

If you don’t want to put your e-mail address in your profile, where it could potentially be harvested (quite sure I could easily write a script to harvest e-mail addresses of any active forumites)?

Which is why most people use ‘throw away’ email addys
When it starts to to get spammed beyond a certain point – you get a new one, easy

but email is increasingly unreliable as it drowns in the flood of spam. I’ve nearly missed emails via my profile link for this reason…

this site could provide authentication for both parties to exclude spurious messages

gmail has a very affective spam filter

and don’t put your actual blimmin email address in your profile without disguising it a little,

the so called ‘disguises’ could be easily penetrated with a simple script

gmail’s spam filter rocks, big time.

Second Aleigh’s point = gravy-tar doesn’t work for me either! I wouldn’t post a pic of myself though, i’d need to find something easier on the eye! 🙂

Just use an email address whereby you don’t mind spam filtering through – easy 8)

simon: sure, and locks can be picked but I still close my front door. Spammers like easy targets.

aleigh: I’ve been using the same email address for more than eight years. I’d rather just avoid the spam completely. 🙂

But why do I need to go through all the faff of changing e-mail addresses all the time (so missing some genuine ones) / having an e-mail I don’t mind spam in / having a better spam filter (gmail sometimes filters genuine messages and I miss them), when every other forum I use has PM which works quite well and most people seem to use.

Ironically, the very reason gravitar probably isn’t working for people is that it relies on e-mail address to link the image properly, and they’ve faffed around with that to avoid spam!

the so called ‘disguises’ could be easily penetrated with a simple script

Indeed graham@d.n Changing AT to @ and removing spaces is child’s play.

You misunderstand the point of a disguise like that. It’s not supposed to be a tricky code. It simply stops them being able to easily screenscrape for email addresses using a bot.

e.g. They may be using a simple regular expression like .+@.+\.(net|com|org) that would miss my ‘disguised’ address. Coming up with a regular expression that successfully finds that disguised address without getting millions of false positives is a fair bit harder and not worth the effort.

I have a “real” email address in my profile, and indeed it’s linked on every page I post (try clicking my name on this post). I have no more spam now than I’ve had before the new forum.

aleigh: I’ve been using the same email address for more than eight years. I’d rather just avoid the spam completely

wouldn’t we all! spam is hard to control so why not just use another email address?

Gravatar works for me.
Can take a bit of time to update at times but works on blogs and forums.

PMs well I won’t be answering them so whatever.

I don’t find it hard to control at all. Like I said I only see maybe one or two spam emails a week, and they are in my Probable Junk folder.

Trying to spot the ham in multiple different spam-ridden email accounts would be a far greater hassle.

BUT if folks want PMs then fair enough. No argument here.

maybe ST could charge people for a proper pm facility? i’m sure they’d go off the idea pretty quickly then

but email is increasingly unreliable as it drowns in the flood of spam. I’ve nearly missed emails via my profile link for this reason…

use a decent email provider. by using something like yahoo, hotmail or gmail, you get the very latest AV scans of downloads, access to your mail account from any connected pc anywhere in seconds, and excellent spam filters as standard. i’ve had the same yahoo account for over 10 years.
mind you i don’t use it to gain access to sites like ‘debbiesmassivenorks.com’…

I use http://fastmail.fm.

Good spam filtering. Less well-known, so rarely hit by drive-by random spams. Had IMAP access years before Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail. And has no adverts.

maybe ST could charge people for a proper pm facility?

What, like all the other free internet forums do?

Search has just been improved beyond all recognition. It can take a while depending on what you’re searching for as it has 250,000+ posts to search through.

Gravatar? I love it. It does work. I use it. We don’t have to host images and there’s self regulating censorship built in.

PM? There’s more to this than just enabling this feature. One of the best things about the STW forum is how well it is regulated. How do we regulate PM? Is it an invasion of privacy for moderators to read it? These things are being discussed and eventually will be implemented, but all one step at a time… watch this space (but don’t hold your breath).

Thanks for the good news, Tom. Not expecting everything at once, just a little reminder of things some of us at least would still like.

How do we regulate PM? Is it an invasion of privacy for moderators to read it?

Why do you need to regulate it? Are you worried about people using it for abuse – in which case surely people reporting abusive PMs would be sufficient, at which point you can then read and investigate. Yes it would be an invasion of privacy, not to mention a waste of your time.

Tom: a few people on here have complained about Gravatar not working. Perhaps you could investigate why it isn’t working for them and if it is user error then possibly post a sticky explaining how to do it right.

you can read about Gravatar and any problems you may have here > http://en.gravatar.com/site/faq/

Now also linked to from the profile edit page.