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Being new to this forum, is there a certain protocol that must be adhered to in order send or receive private messages from members regarding answers received ( to previously posted questions?

Reply 1

DataVenia

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

Original post

by Sean-Padraig

Being new to this forum, is there a certain protocol that must be adhered to in order send or receive private messages from members regarding answers received ( to previously posted questions?

Welcome to TSR! :smile:

To avoid too much spam in the form of private messages (PMs) there are restrictions in place as to when the right to PM is bestowed upon you.
1. You must have been a member for at least three days.
2. You must have posted at least two forum messages.

The above are only checked by the system at midnight, so once you've met the above criteria, you then effectively need to wait until the next day to be able to PM.

There is also some "etiquette" involved. If you post a message in a public forum then (a) anyone can respond, and (b) anyone can see the advice given. Both of these are good things.

If you've received a response from someone in a public forum, and you send them a PM then both (a) and (b) vanish. If that person happens to be busy, or on holiday, you may get no response. However, if you respond via the forum, then others can chip-in if they have relevant knowledge. Similarly, other users may have similar questions and can get the benefit of seeing the advice that you receive.

So, generally speaking, it's best to keep follow-up question in the public forums. There will be times when a PM way be more appropriate (if you don't want to mention the uni you're at publicly, for example), but those scenarios don't occur too often.