Posted by Harry [NR] on 1/20/07 3:59am
Msg #171787

New Feature: Private Messaging


Just released: The Notary Rotary Message Center.

The Message Center will allow members to communicate privately in the following ways:

1. From a forum post. You will now see a Private Reply button when viewing each post. Provided you are signed-on, you may click that button to send a message to the author of the post. Your message will display in the author's Inbox the next time they sign-in.
   
   
2. From a profile. Here, you will see a Leave Message button. It works the same way. This is a nice feature for those of you who have your contact information hidden but would still like a way to receive messages.
   
   
3. After clicking the New Message button or link in the Message Center, you will be able to search for another member to send your message to. You must know their name and state.
   
   
4. And, of course, you may Reply to messages in your Inbox. Note that if another member has messaged you from a forum post you have made, your profile name will be displayed to them if you reply.
   

Reply by Ndwa on 1/20/07 5:03am
Msg #171789

That is cool........ n/m

Reply by PAW on 1/20/07 7:15am
Msg #171794

Re: New Feature: Private Messaging - GREAT!!

Two suggestions, if I may:

(1) Add a notification on the message board (index) that a PM is waiting;
(2) Send an email notification to the recipient when a PM is received.

Thanks for working on this. I'm sure it will be a great help.

Reply by Harry [NR] on 1/20/07 1:44pm
Msg #171842

Re: New Feature: Private Messaging - GREAT!!

Thanks for the suggestions! Notifications were supposed to go in with this release, but we have decided to back off and think a bit more about implementation. Our initial thinking was to send a notification with every PM received, but that could be disastrous, potentially representing a huge number of notifications.

We are currently thinking it will work as follows:

You elect to turn notifications on through a preferences screen. You tell the system whether you want e-mail or text message alerts. Once a PM is received, it checks your preferences and checks to see whether you have already been alerted to existing, unread messages. If not, it sends it. (Alternatively, the alert notifications could run on a timer - rather than real-time, it could check every hour or so and alert if not already alerted.)

Other features we are either planning or considering include:

1) Block all messages.
2) Block or ignore specific members.
3) A contacts list for quick access to frequent contacts.
4) The ability to build groups and send to those groups. (We are actually planning a lot of functionality around groups.)
5) File attachments and secure file transfer/archive.

The last feature will provide a means to transfer/share loan packages in a format that's more secure than e-mail.

Thanks, again,
Harry

Reply by PAW on 1/20/07 1:57pm
Msg #171845

Re: New Feature: Private Messaging - GREAT!!

>>>
5) File attachments and secure file transfer/archive.

The last feature will provide a means to transfer/share loan packages in a format that's more secure than e-mail.
<<<

Something like Secure FTP? Or PGP encrypted files? You got my support.

Reply by Kim CM Services on 1/22/07 9:21am
Msg #172011

Re: New Feature: Private Messaging - GREAT!!

I think the new buttons and features are excellent, but for me the red is really distracting. I have not visited and read as much as I typically do. Couldn't it be a "nice" color like green or something?

Reply by Arnold_IA on 1/22/07 10:40am
Msg #172019

Re: New Feature: Private Messaging - GREAT!!

We could make it something else maybe purple. Green is already being used for replying to the forums so I don't know if we would want it to be that color too. I'll leave it up to harry to decide heh.

Thanks for the comments everyone,

Jason - Harry's little helper.

Reply by Kim CM Services on 1/22/07 1:00pm
Msg #172045

Re: New Feature: Private Messaging - GREAT!!

Purple would be nice. Anything besides RED!

Thanks little helper!

Reply by jojo_MN on 1/20/07 8:47am
Msg #171802

This is such a great service. Thank you, Harry! N/M n/m

Reply by LkArrowhd/CA on 1/20/07 8:56am
Msg #171804

Re: This will be so nice........Thank you.....

I'm testing and I already love it.....

Reply by Stamper_WI on 1/20/07 10:07am
Msg #171819

Harry is like

The scientist that disappears into his lab for months and when he comes out has all kinds of goodies for us to explore

Reply by Harry [NR] on 1/20/07 1:55pm
Msg #171844

Re: Harry is like

Haha. Well, I feel like that sometimes and I really need to apologize to everyone for my absence. We have been working around the clock on a number of things for several months, so I have been quite consumed.

With any luck, we'll be able to release a lot more goodies this year. Jason - a friend of mine, former co-worker, and web developer - is now helping, so I'm not the only one doing the development.

Harry

Reply by Gerry_VT on 1/20/07 3:26pm
Msg #171850

Another suggestion

People often have questions about how to complete acknowledgement certificates or jurats with unusual wording, and they often put up a shortened version of the questionable certificate and ask what to do. It would be easy for the people giving answers to be wrong because the person asking the question didn't do a good job of explaining what the certificate looks like. An ability to put scans into forum posts could be very useful for these situations. Unfortunately it could be abused too.

Reply by kikeroo on 1/20/07 3:55pm
Msg #171855

Re: Another suggestion

Excellent suggestion!

Reply by JanetK_CA on 1/21/07 4:26pm
Msg #171964

Re:However...

Under the "potential for abuse" column would be the possibility that a new person - the ones most likely to have a question like this - might not block personal borrower information. That could have disastrous consequences.