Private Messaging?

[imouer]

Did CC turn off private messaging?  I thought I use to use it.  We met a bunch of people on our last cruise and I was supposed to contact them via CC PM to arrange our next trip and Its disabled for me 😞  Is this working for you all?

 

Thanks!

[gnome12]

8 minutes ago, imouer said:

Did CC turn off private messaging?  I thought I use to use it.  We met a bunch of people on our last cruise and I was supposed to contact them via CC PM to arrange our next trip and Its disabled for me 😞  Is this working for you all?

 

Thanks!

Private messaging has never worked in CC. It is used occasionally by the administrators to contact members, but can't be used for member to member communication.

[imouer]

OK, thats odd....   Its a nice feature to have.  Now I have no way of contacting my new friends, we all thought PMs worked here 😞

 

[Clarea]

14 minutes ago, imouer said:

Did CC turn off private messaging?  I thought I use to use it.  We met a bunch of people on our last cruise and I was supposed to contact them via CC PM to arrange our next trip and Its disabled for me 😞  Is this working for you all?

 

Thanks!

 

I've never seen private messaging enabled on this website.

[MisterBill99]

On 4/1/2019 at 11:19 AM, Host Clarea said:

 

I've never seen private messaging enabled on this website.

 

Too bad there is a live "Message" button on profile pages and when you click on it, you're told

 

"You are only allowed to send 0 messages per day. Please try again later." 

 

It makes it seem like people can send messages until they actually try (and even worse, like it normally works and to keep trying). In fact, someone on my roll call told people to use the Message feature to contact him to join a private tour. I'm guessing the concern is that travel agents will contact users to sell their services but that seems like a rather misguided concern, given how people post on FB cruise groups and travel agents there could contact you (but I've never had it happen). BTW the lack of this feature is probably one of the reasons why many people are using FB instead of CC.

Edited April 29, 2019 by MisterBill99

[Shmoo here]

18 minutes ago, MisterBill99 said:

 

Too bad there is a live "Message" button on profile pages and when you click on it, you're told

 

"You are only allowed to send 0 messages per day. Please try again later." 

 

It makes it seem like people can send messages until they actually try (and even worse, like it normally works and to keep trying). In fact, someone on my roll call told people to use the Message feature to contact him to join a private tour. I'm guessing the concern is that travel agents will contact users to sell their services but that seems like a rather misguided concern, given how people post on FB cruise groups and travel agents there could contact you (but I've never had it happen). BTW the lack of this feature is probably one of the reasons why many people are using FB instead of CC.

Doubtful.  CC has never had PM capability, at least as long as I've been on it.  I think it's along the lines of (from the Guidelines)

"Answer Posts on the Boards, Not Via Email!
Please try to answer message board posts on the boards instead of E-mail when appropriate. There is a lot of great information that we're all missing because it is passing through private E-mail. There are of course times when private E-mail is more appropriate but if you have information that would be helpful to many people, please try to come back to the boards and post it rather than replying to a posting through E-mail."

 

They want us all to post and share information openly, not behind the scenes.  

[MisterBill99]

5 minutes ago, Shmoo here said:

They want us all to post and share information openly, not behind the scenes.  

 

On roll calls you need to exchange messages privately when setting up private tours. Some of us post our email address in a non-harvestable non-spammable form (like myname at gmail dot com).

 

Not allowing it is a bad idea, contrary to what other boards do, and antiquated thinking, given how many cruise boards there are on FB. Making it seem like it's supported when it never works is yet another poor design issue.

Edited April 29, 2019 by MisterBill99

[Shmoo here]

3 minutes ago, MisterBill99 said:

 

On roll calls you need to exchange messages privately when setting up private tours. Some of us post our email address in a non-harvestable non-spammable form (like myname at gmail dot com).

 

Not allowing it is a bad idea, contrary to what other boards do, and antiquated given how many cruise boards there are on FB. Making it seem like it's supported when it never works is yet another poor design issue.

I just completed a cruise that had a multi page Roll Call.  We had organized private tours.  We discussed them and arrangements for other group activities on the Roll Call.    Why keep such things secret?

 

 

[MisterBill99]

2 minutes ago, Shmoo here said:

I just completed a cruise that had a multi page Roll Call.  We had organized private tours.  We discussed them and arrangements for other group activities on the Roll Call.    Why keep such things secret?

 

 

2 or 3 people talking about a group tour do not need to take care of the details publically in the thread. Maybe it would have been less pages if it had been taken care of privately..

[MisterBill99]

38 minutes ago, Shmoo here said:

I just completed a cruise that had a multi page Roll Call.  We had organized private tours.  We discussed them and arrangements for other group activities on the Roll Call.    Why keep such things secret?

 

 

 

Also, from what you quoted: "There are of course times when private E-mail is more appropriate". Scheduling small private tours is definitely one of them.

[Turtles06]

6 hours ago, MisterBill99 said:

 

On roll calls you need to exchange messages privately when setting up private tours. Some of us post our email address in a non-harvestable non-spammable form (like myname at gmail dot com).

 

Not allowing it is a bad idea, contrary to what other boards do, and antiquated thinking, given how many cruise boards there are on FB. Making it seem like it's supported when it never works is yet another poor design issue.

 

I've been on many Roll Calls and either started or joined private tours.  Had no problem doing it via email (posting email in the way you wrote above, too).

 

I agree with you that there shouldn't be a "message" button if there's no message function.  The lack of PM capability here has been discussed before, and it may also have something to do with how many members there are on CC and capacity issues (but I'm not sure).  In any event, the folks here on this thread are just members like you, we can't make PMing happen.   If you feel strongly about all this, you could write to the CC Senior, Manager, Laura, here:

 

community@cruisecritic.com

[Organized Chaos]

On 4/1/2019 at 10:04 AM, imouer said:

Did CC turn off private messaging?  I thought I use to use it.  We met a bunch of people on our last cruise and I was supposed to contact them via CC PM to arrange our next trip and Its disabled for me 😞  Is this working for you all?

 

Thanks!

 

I'm assuming you have their CC usernames since you thought you could PM them. You can do a search for their posts and reply to them in a thread to at least let them know you're trying to contact them. Use another form of communication, like email. You can create a spare email account for this if you don't want to use your primary account. Through email, you can possibly make arrangement to gather on a platform with PM's, like fb. Also, the CC boards can be found on the Tapatalk smartphone app, which is a platform that pretty much acts as a congregation point for internet forums. If you create a free Tapatalk account, it has a PM function.

 

12 hours ago, MisterBill99 said:

BTW the lack of this feature is probably one of the reasons why many people are using FB instead of CC.

 

I think private messaging is only a minor reason why people use fb over CC. For the most part, I think it's simply because of the number of people who use fb (and have used it for years). It's easy & convenient. Many of them probably aren't aware of cruise forums, or aren't familiar with internet forums, and just prefer to use fb.

 

The one thing I don't like at all about using fb for this kind of thing is that anyone can create a group or fb page. There's multiple groups and fb pages for cruising in general, Carnival specific groups, groups for specific ships, etc. Because of that, there's multiple roll call groups for any given cruise. It's way to compartmentalized.

[Globaliser]

17 hours ago, MisterBill99 said:

Some of us post our email address in a non-harvestable non-spammable form (like myname at gmail dot com).

 

Do you really think that the spambots are that dumb?

[MisterBill99]

1 hour ago, Globaliser said:

 

Do you really think that the spambots are that dumb?

 

I haven't gotten any spam at the email address I use specifically for this site, so I'm thinking it's possible until I see proof to the contrary.

[MisterBill99]

7 hours ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

I'm assuming you have their CC usernames since you thought you could PM them. You can do a search for their posts and reply to them in a thread to at least let them know you're trying to contact them. 

 

 

The one thing I don't like at all about using fb for this kind of thing is that anyone can create a group or fb page. There's multiple groups and fb pages for cruising in general, Carnival specific groups, groups for specific ships, etc. Because of that, there's multiple roll call groups for any given cruise. It's way to compartmentalized.

 

I will admit to having done the "insert comment in random post" but it's not the best way to accomplish the task of getting in touch with someone.

 

I'm not a huge fan of using FB cruise groups, and especially not for roll calls. One really nice feature of CC (and non-FB boards in general) is anonymity. I don't want random people to know that I'm going on vacation and will be out of my house for 2 weeks. Also, on FB you tend to have the same topics coming up over and over again because its difficult to find older posts. But it doesn't mean that many others aren't making the move.

 

BTW back to an earlier topic, that's another reason for not doing private tour organizing via public posts on the board. 

Edited April 29, 2019 by MisterBill99

[Charles4515]

3 hours ago, Globaliser said:

 

Do you really think that the spambots are that dumb?

 

Yes. They are that dumb. Or else they don’t harvest from here. I do the same as Bill and no spam. 

[Turtles06]

3 hours ago, Globaliser said:

 

Do you really think that the spambots are that dumb?

 

2 hours ago, MisterBill99 said:

 

I haven't gotten any spam at the email address I use specifically for this site, so I'm thinking it's possible until I see proof to the contrary.

 

4 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

 

Yes. They are that dumb. Or else they don’t harvest from here. I do the same as Bill and no spam. 

 

Same here.   

[Organized Chaos]

2 hours ago, MisterBill99 said:

 

I will admit to having done the "insert comment in random post" but it's not the best way to accomplish the task of getting in touch with someone.

 

I'm not a huge fan of using FB cruise groups, and especially not for roll calls. One really nice feature of CC (and non-FB boards in general) is anonymity. I don't want random people to know that I'm going on vacation and will be out of my house for 2 weeks. Also, on FB you tend to have the same topics coming up over and over again because its difficult to find older posts. But it doesn't mean that many others aren't making the move.

 

I agree it's not the best way to contact someone on here, but if the OP really wanted to reach them and had no other method, that's about as good as it'll get.

 

I never have luck with roll calls here on CC. Last year, I think there were about 5 of us in that particular one. And no one ever posted. There hasn't even been one created for our next cruise yet. Not sure if I want to bother making one right now. Recently, I saw some people say that's why they join fb roll calls, because there's a lot more people in them. So I tried that. I found a popular cruise group, which in turn listed roll calls, so I joined that roll call. There's around 40-50 members right now but, again, people don't post that much. The cruise is still almost a year away, so maybe it'll pick up.

 

I'm the same way, I'd rather not use my real name when participating in a roll call for privacy & security reasons. But there's ways around that. I just use a dummy fb account.

[MisterBill99]

2 minutes ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

I agree it's not the best way to contact someone on here, but if the OP really wanted to reach them and had no other method, that's about as good as it'll get.

 

I never have luck with roll calls here on CC. Last year, I think there were about 5 of us in that particular one. And no one ever posted. There hasn't even been one created for our next cruise yet. Not sure if I want to bother making one right now. Recently, I saw some people say that's why they join fb roll calls, because there's a lot more people in them. So I tried that. I found a popular cruise group, which in turn listed roll calls, so I joined that roll call. There's around 40-50 members right now but, again, people don't post that much. The cruise is still almost a year away, so maybe it'll pick up.

 

I'm the same way, I'd rather not use my real name when participating in a roll call for privacy & security reasons. But there's ways around that. I just use a dummy fb account.

 

There doesn't seem to be a way to go into plain text formatting mode on this new CC so I am not able to respond inline as I'd like to.

 

1) Bottom line here is that if CC had a PM function, that would be the preferred method for contacting people if you did not have their email address.

 

2) I had a lot of problems getting people to participate on HAL roll calls. I even created a thread on the HAL board asking why people did not join them. I got answers like "I don't want to make new friends" or "I don't want to do private tours" (or tours with strangers). For last year's Norway cruise, it finally got busy a few months out when prices dropped and in the end we had a great group and a great turnout at the M&M that I organized. This year I just booked a HAL cruise for June last week and was very pleasantly surprised to find a relatively active roll call with private tours that I was able to join. I haven't read all of the old posts (I miss the old CC where you could view 200 posts on a single page) but it may well have been fairly inactive until people started booking. We were on an Oceania cruise last year and had a surprisingly active roll call on that cruise.

 

I also have FB pseudonym but I feel a little strange using a different name on a roll call and then when I meet people saying "that wasn't my real name"

[Organized Chaos]

4 minutes ago, MisterBill99 said:

I also have FB pseudonym but I feel a little strange using a different name on a roll call and then when I meet people saying "that wasn't my real name"

 

I never thought of that. Oh well, if it came down to it, I don't mind telling someone I was using a dummy account. Or maybe I'd just keep up the charade for the heck of it. I have an alternate email address that I use for miscellaneous things, that way if I get spam, no big deal. I was recently corresponding with the owner of a company about their product that I was thinking of buying. When he responded the first time and called me "John," it caught me off guard because I forgot that I set my name on this account as "John Doe." LOL At that point, I had to go with it because it would've seemed silly to use my real name after the fact.

 

My wife and I were chatting with a woman on our cruise last year who happened to say she was a CC user, but she didn't give us her username, so I didn't ask. Figured if she wanted us to know, she would've said it. So we didn't give ours either.

[MisterBill99]

9 minutes ago, Organized Chaos said:

My wife and I were chatting with a woman on our cruise last year who happened to say she was a CC user, but she didn't give us her username, so I didn't ask. Figured if she wanted us to know, she would've said it. So we didn't give ours either.

 

I have contact cards (same size as business cards) that I give out to people I meet on our cruises (I only did it after receiving similar cards from others). It has my CC name as well as our regular names and phone numbers. I need to do a version 2.0 that has our Facebook, didn't think of it at the time. 

 

I met someone on a recent cruise who I had spoken to a bunch on the CC board. She refused to tell us her real name. 

Edited April 30, 2019 by MisterBill99

[broberts]

12 hours ago, MisterBill99 said:

There doesn't seem to be a way to go into plain text formatting mode on this new CC so I am not able to respond inline as I'd like to.

 

As I did for this post, when you highlight a section of text in a post a popup button will appear beside the cursor. Click "quote selected text" to add the quoted text to a reply. Repeat as many times as needed.

 

12 hours ago, MisterBill99 said:

1) Bottom line here is that if CC had a PM function, that would be the preferred method for contacting people if you did not have their email address.

 

PM is a nice feature when one wants it. However, it can become annoying in a large, busy board like CC as one can receive numerous unsolicited messages. The feature is also ripe for abuse.

[MisterBill99]

2 minutes ago, broberts said:

 

PM is a nice feature when one wants it. However, it can become annoying in a large, busy board like CC as one can receive numerous unsolicited messages. The feature is also ripe for abuse.

 

Is CC busier than a site like Slickdeals? They have PM and I don't get overrun with messages. Trip Advisor also lets you send PM's.

 

3 minutes ago, broberts said:

As I did for this post, when you highlight a section of text in a post a popup button will appear beside the cursor. Click "quote selected text" to add the quoted text to a reply. Repeat as many times as needed.

 

Thanks for the instructions on doing this

[Charles4515]

12 hours ago, MisterBill99 said:

 

I also have FB pseudonym but I feel a little strange using a different name on a roll call and then when I meet people saying "that wasn't my real name"

 

I had  a FB pseudonym until I retired. Then changed to my real name. I am not worried about people knowing I am on vacation as my condo building is a pretty secure entry system. Electronic access and sign in at a desk for visitors. Plus video cameras everywhere. And someone on Facebook won't know my unit number. There is no directory. 

[Charles4515]

12 hours ago, MisterBill99 said:

 

I have contact cards (same size as business cards) that I give out to people I meet on our cruises (I only did it after receiving similar cards from others). It has my CC name as well as our regular names and phone numbers. I need to do a version 2.0 that has our Facebook, didn't think of it at the time. 

 

I met someone on a recent cruise who I had spoken to a bunch on the CC board. She refused to tell us her real name. 

 

I do cards too but not my CC name. 

 

That is interesting that they won't tell their real name. I tell my first name and if I really get to know them I give my card with my full name and email.