Hello all,
I'm new here so first of all thanks for the smooth sign up process and thumbs up to maintaining such a community here.
That said... I hate to be a party pooper already as a new member but I'm hoping my posting this will help future new members who may be just as confused as me or have the same issues I'm having.
I don't consider myself an amateur where forum boards are concerned since I've participated in quite a few over the years, even staffing in some of them. Yet after more than 1 day of scrolling and clicking about, I still have trouble finding my way around in here and figuring out just how everything works exactly.
The first thing I make a habit of doing when I sign up anywhere is to hop over to the FAQ and rules section to get acquainted with the policies plus read though some basic guides on how to properly navigate the site/forum, so as not to end up an eyesore to both staff and members making noob mistakes and all. But nowhere on this site can such a section dedicated to the FAQ and rules be found. I scanned the top and bottom of the homepage for possible links and buttons, scrolled through the huge forum board for a "stickied" topic, but in vain. I checked the "Expatica Support" section but there are only 2 topics in there (now 3 including mine), none which answers my questions.
If I clicked the heading "HOME" I get taken to my profile page instead of the homepage. If I clicked Expatica.com and then clicked "FORUMS AND CONNECT", I am shown a few sections with a clickable "read more" under it and clicking those still led to nought. Using the search box at the top with various keywords like "rules", "user guide", "settings" , "PM", "Messaging", "Messages" & others turned up strange remotely related or unrelated results.
Perhaps I over-estimated my forum board knowledge or I'm blind and can't see what's obviously right in front of me and in this case, can some kind soul point me to the link where I can read up on the basics of navigating this forum? I will gladly put my foot in my mouth and retreat quietly :P
Granted, forum boards are generally more or less the same but depending on the type of forum software used and additional customized scripts added by the programmers there can be significant differences between them. I can start and reply to topics easily enough, but I have trouble understanding how both my profile settings and the private messaging system function. For example, there's no clear-cut way for me to find out how my profile is displayed to the public/members or how to send private messages here without secretly signing up for a new forum ID with a different email + different IP address just to have another account to test every option out - I don't feel like going through the trouble right now plus I still have no idea if having a duplicate account is against Expatica policy because I can't locate the rules!
For now, the next best thing I can do to make a "calculated guess" to how certain functions work is to randomly click on other members profiles just to see how they are displayed differently but then some of what I found out from viewing other members' made me even more confused.
Below are some of the functions I'm confused about that I would appreciate some answers to.
PRIVATE MESSAGING
I'm new here, haven't made any "friends" so there's no one in particular I need to send PMs to. However, I did start a topic that required reactions and in case someone preferred to leave me a private message rather than react to an open post I'd like to make sure my available communication "channels" are working properly. That was what led me to check out the PM system but here's where I'm confused.
In several posts found using the search box, it was mentioned that you can PM a member by clicking on the name and then selecting the PM option, very similar to other forum boards. However, I can find no such "PM" button anywhere near the profile of any random members I clicked on. I couldn't find such an option either on the forum posts itself remotely resembling "send a PM" beside a member's nickname. I've taken a screenshot of a random profile to illustrate my point. To protect the member's privacy I've blurred out details in his profile info that can identify him/her. Here's the screenshot:
http://i44.tinypic.com/161au77.jpg
As you can see, below what should be his profile picture, there are only 3 options for me - Add to my friends, Block member, Report. No PM option anywhere.
The next thing I tried to do was to click on the heading "MESSAGES" displayed at the top right hand side of the page. That led me to a message box where I am able to compose a message. But then, that confused me too because beside the "Compose Message" are the words in bracket "(Friends only)", as shown in this next screenshot:
http://i42.tinypic.com/dpfxhd.jpg
What does that mean?
Does it mean I can only send PMs to members only in my "friends" list and no one else? If that's the case, does it mean other members also can't send me any PMs unless they request to be added first to my "friends" list? And why can't I find a "PM" option on other members profiles just like other members apparently can? Is my account screwed up by a bug or is it simply because I am a new member with limited forum privileges? If so, then where can new members find a list detailing what type of permissions we have and what it takes for these permissions to be lifted so we won't waste our precious time trying to figure things out in vain like I did for the past 24 hours?
SETTINGS & PRIVACY
My confusion with the PM system led me to check out my settings just to see if certain functions need tweaking in order to function. I figured if I had to add someone to my "friends" list first before being able to PM, I'd better change my privacy settings so I can control what my "friends" vs everyone else can see. I ended up getting more confused.
Before you guys start wondering why I'm making a huge fuss about the privacy settings I'll admit that I'm someone who's extremely paranoid about my privacy, both on and offline. I'm rather open in my posts when it comes to my personal experiences but anything to do with personal facts about myself - such as those displayed in the profile info section, is off limits except to people I've met in person or have gotten to know better online. For example, on Expatica specifically, I have no issues with people knowing my gender or city I'm currently living in, but anything else is in my opinion nobody's business unless we "know" each other. I can explain all the reasons for this hang-up of mine but I'd rather stick to the topic here.
Anyway, here are the questions bugging me while messing with the privacy settings.
1. It appears that for my own profile although I'm able to select whether to show my profile or hide it completely, I'm unable to select which fields I want displayed and which fields I want hidden. I'm unable to remove the display of any of the 3 compulsory fields of "* City of Residence, * Country of Residence, *Home Country for example, as shown in this screenshot here:
http://i42.tinypic.com/33xahw8.jpg
So I thought... alright, no biggie. If I can't choose to hide the compulsory fields, let's just hide my whole profile from everyone. But then later I went on to randomly click on other members profiles, and lo and behold I saw that some of them are able to hide the display of the compulsory fields altogether while choosing to display some optional fields.... like this member:
http://i44.tinypic.com/161au77.jpg
As you can see, this member somehow managed to hide all 3 compulsory fields while choosing only to display his gender and birthday.
So my question is: Why can't I do that? Is there a way to enable the viewing of my profile to everyone but be able to control exactly which fields to show them, just like the above member can? That way I don't have to block everyone from my profile completely and they can still follow updates to my posts. As far as I'm aware, if I block profile viewing from everyone completely, they will also no longer be able to view any updates to my forum posting? Is that correct? I am also confused here since even after I disabled profile viewing for everyone, I am still able to make selections under the "Recent Activity Privacy" settings. Yet they don't appear to work once profile viewing is disabled. So here I'm also confused about what the real situation is.
I know my post is annoyingly long and tedious but I do hope for some clarification from more experienced members here if possible.
Also, with my post I'd like to illustrate that if a simple FAQ and rules page exists, which I assume it doesn't for now till proven otherwise, it would make life a lot easier not only for us new members but also for the staff, as it will save you guys a lot of precious time providing answers to the same questions time and time again though emails and what not, if there are general answers already provided on the site that are easily accessible to those who need it.
I can also imagine new members who are less technically savvy may perhaps be intimidated when they can't figure out how to navigate the forum on their own and simply fade away and move elsewhere. I believe attracting traffic is high on the priority of Expatica's list so making this forum more user friendly will go a long way into helping you achieve that, IMO.
Thanks in advance.
discojelly said:
Hello all,
I'm new here so first of all thanks for the smooth sign up process and thumbs up to maintaining such a community here.
That said... I hate to be a party pooper already as a new member but I'm hoping my posting this will help future new members who may be just as confused as me or have the same issues I'm having.
I don't consider myself an amateur where forum boards are concerned since I've participated in quite a few over the years, even staffing in some of them. Yet after more than 1 day of scrolling and clicking about, I still have trouble finding my way around in here and figuring out just how everything works exactly.
The first thing I make a habit of doing when I sign up anywhere is to hop over to the FAQ and rules section to get acquainted with the policies plus read though some basic guides on how to properly navigate the site/forum, so as not to end up an eyesore to both staff and members making noob mistakes and all. But nowhere on this site can such a section dedicated to the FAQ and rules be found. I scanned the top and bottom of the homepage for possible links and buttons, scrolled through the huge forum board for a "stickied" topic, but in vain. I checked the "Expatica Support" section but there are only 2 topics in there (now 3 including mine), none which answers my questions.
If I clicked the heading "HOME" I get taken to my profile page instead of the homepage. If I clicked Expatica.com and then clicked "FORUMS AND CONNECT", I am shown a few sections with a clickable "read more" under it and clicking those still led to nought. Using the search box at the top with various keywords like "rules", "user guide", "settings" , "PM", "Messaging", "Messages" & others turned up strange remotely related or unrelated results.
Perhaps I over-estimated my forum board knowledge or I'm blind and can't see what's obviously right in front of me and in this case, can some kind soul point me to the link where I can read up on the basics of navigating this forum? I will gladly put my foot in my mouth and retreat quietly :P
Granted, forum boards are generally more or less the same but depending on the type of forum software used and additional customized scripts added by the programmers there can be significant differences between them. I can start and reply to topics easily enough, but I have trouble understanding how both my profile settings and the private messaging system function. For example, there's no clear-cut way for me to find out how my profile is displayed to the public/members or how to send private messages here without secretly signing up for a new forum ID with a different email + different IP address just to have another account to test every option out - I don't feel like going through the trouble right now plus I still have no idea if having a duplicate account is against Expatica policy because I can't locate the rules!
For now, the next best thing I can do to make a "calculated guess" to how certain functions work is to randomly click on other members profiles just to see how they are displayed differently but then some of what I found out from viewing other members' made me even more confused.
Below are some of the functions I'm confused about that I would appreciate some answers to.
PRIVATE MESSAGING
I'm new here, haven't made any "friends" so there's no one in particular I need to send PMs to. However, I did start a topic that required reactions and in case someone preferred to leave me a private message rather than react to an open post I'd like to make sure my available communication "channels" are working properly. That was what led me to check out the PM system but here's where I'm confused.
In several posts found using the search box, it was mentioned that you can PM a member by clicking on the name and then selecting the PM option, very similar to other forum boards. However, I can find no such "PM" button anywhere near the profile of any random members I clicked on. I couldn't find such an option either on the forum posts itself remotely resembling "send a PM" beside a member's nickname. I've taken a screenshot of a random profile to illustrate my point. To protect the member's privacy I've blurred out details in his profile info that can identify him/her. Here's the screenshot:
http://i44.tinypic.com/161au77.jpg
As you can see, below what should be his profile picture, there are only 3 options for me - Add to my friends, Block member, Report. No PM option anywhere.
The next thing I tried to do was to click on the heading "MESSAGES" displayed at the top right hand side of the page. That led me to a message box where I am able to compose a message. But then, that confused me too because beside the "Compose Message" are the words in bracket "(Friends only)", as shown in this next screenshot:
http://i42.tinypic.com/dpfxhd.jpg
What does that mean?
Does it mean I can only send PMs to members only in my "friends" list and no one else? If that's the case, does it mean other members also can't send me any PMs unless they request to be added first to my "friends" list? And why can't I find a "PM" option on other members profiles just like other members apparently can? Is my account screwed up by a bug or is it simply because I am a new member with limited forum privileges? If so, then where can new members find a list detailing what type of permissions we have and what it takes for these permissions to be lifted so we won't waste our precious time trying to figure things out in vain like I did for the past 24 hours?
SETTINGS & PRIVACY
My confusion with the PM system led me to check out my settings just to see if certain functions need tweaking in order to function. I figured if I had to add someone to my "friends" list first before being able to PM, I'd better change my privacy settings so I can control what my "friends" vs everyone else can see. I ended up getting more confused.
Before you guys start wondering why I'm making a huge fuss about the privacy settings I'll admit that I'm someone who's extremely paranoid about my privacy, both on and offline. I'm rather open in my posts when it comes to my personal experiences but anything to do with personal facts about myself - such as those displayed in the profile info section, is off limits except to people I've met in person or have gotten to know better online. For example, on Expatica specifically, I have no issues with people knowing my gender or city I'm currently living in, but anything else is in my opinion nobody's business unless we "know" each other. I can explain all the reasons for this hang-up of mine but I'd rather stick to the topic here.
Anyway, here are the questions bugging me while messing with the privacy settings.
1. It appears that for my own profile although I'm able to select whether to show my profile or hide it completely, I'm unable to select which fields I want displayed and which fields I want hidden. I'm unable to remove the display of any of the 3 compulsory fields of "* City of Residence, * Country of Residence, *Home Country for example, as shown in this screenshot here:
http://i42.tinypic.com/33xahw8.jpg
So I thought... alright, no biggie. If I can't choose to hide the compulsory fields, let's just hide my whole profile from everyone. But then later I went on to randomly click on other members profiles, and lo and behold I saw that some of them are able to hide the display of the compulsory fields altogether while choosing to display some optional fields.... like this member:
http://i44.tinypic.com/161au77.jpg
As you can see, this member somehow managed to hide all 3 compulsory fields while choosing only to display his gender and birthday.
So my question is: Why can't I do that? Is there a way to enable the viewing of my profile to everyone but be able to control exactly which fields to show them, just like the above member can? That way I don't have to block everyone from my profile completely and they can still follow updates to my posts. As far as I'm aware, if I block profile viewing from everyone completely, they will also no longer be able to view any updates to my forum posting? Is that correct? I am also confused here since even after I disabled profile viewing for everyone, I am still able to make selections under the "Recent Activity Privacy" settings. Yet they don't appear to work once profile viewing is disabled. So here I'm also confused about what the real situation is.
I know my post is annoyingly long and tedious but I do hope for some clarification from more experienced members here if possible.
Also, with my post I'd like to illustrate that if a simple FAQ and rules page exists, which I assume it doesn't for now till proven otherwise, it would make life a lot easier not only for us new members but also for the staff, as it will save you guys a lot of precious time providing answers to the same questions time and time again though emails and what not, if there are general answers already provided on the site that are easily accessible to those who need it.
I can also imagine new members who are less technically savvy may perhaps be intimidated when they can't figure out how to navigate the forum on their own and simply fade away and move elsewhere. I believe attracting traffic is high on the priority of Expatica's list so making this forum more user friendly will go a long way into helping you achieve that, IMO.
Thanks in advance.
I think it used to be user friendly before this new format took over, but anyway, as a start, you could try looking at the 'Terms of service' link at the bottom of the pages.
As regards PM's, apparently, you can only PM people that are on your friends list. Yes, I know it's stupid, I mean you may well want to PM people to ask a private question/answer or whatever without being friends, like you used to be able to do...
I agree with much of what you say, but it seems to run on deaf ears... since this new style forum has been in use, it has lost the interest of the regulars and as a consequence, we haven't bothered posting much.
Some people may not be filling all the details on their profile, which would be the reason why you can't see that detail, despite it being compulsory.
I wouldn't get too het up about things here, if this is the way things are being run, then the owners must be happy with it, for some strange reason...
discojelly said:
And that's a shame, canuckywoman, if indeed Expatica is focusing their energy only on facebook members since I am neither a member nor have plans to become one.
It's not that; they're just trying to be an expat alternative to Facebook. Thing is, we already have Facebook for those who want it, and I have Expatica members as Facebook friends...and I belong to expat groups on Facebook. Why try to replicate it?
Thing is the old forum was more political (and sometimes there's a burst of the old energy) and critical of a lot of the institutions and companies that advertise here. I suspect by burying the forum behind this friendly "Facebooky" interface, the advertisers are none the wiser and more willing to invest their money on all these young, hip consumers that populate the home page than on a forum demographic that is more diverse, often older, more cynical and not necessarily stereotypical expats.
And little things, like a lack of enthusiastic moderators staying on top of the spam, a puritanical censor program that thinks D i c k e n s is an offensive word, and technical glitches that are advertised as "improvements" that have turned off a lot of people. In Expatica's defence, they have more or less eliminated the really offensive trolls.
Some will say it's cliquey too, but it ALWAYS has been. I know I was nervous first starting out because people will say what they think based on their personal experiences or lack thereof. If one is used to a close circle of people who are exactly like them, of course they will rarely run across opposition and feel uncomfortable when others tell them they are wrong. But "expats" is really a misnomer -- we're just English-speaking people living outside our home country. But we're also broke students and "highly skilled" workers, and people here for Dutch partners, and 21 years old and 50 years old and from countries all over the world and adjusting at different speeds, if at all. How can we find consensus when our backgrounds are all so different?
I say to them, be brave, dive in, read and respond, learn from others, but also teach us based on your experiences. This forum is what we all make it.
canuckywoman said:But "expats" is really a misnomer -- we're just English-speaking people living outside our home country. But we're also broke students and "highly skilled" workers, and people here for Dutch partners, and 21 years old and 50 years old and from countries all over the world and adjusting at different speeds, if at all. How can we find consensus when our backgrounds are all so different?
I say to them, be brave, dive in, read and respond, learn from others, but also teach us based on your experiences. This forum is what we all make it.
Well said, canuckywoman.
About "Political" forums, on most forums where political and/or controversial topics are allowed to be discussed, it's nothing new having discussions sometimes over-heat and get out of control. These are topics surrounding issues people are passionate about and we all have our own beliefs so there's bound to be disagreements and folks taking personal offence. I'm probably not optimistic enough but I think this is part of human nature and will never change. For every view out there there will be an opposing one and I have known few people who are "enlightened enough" not to "get personal" when their something they feel very strongly about is challenged. As long as there are moderators around to "moderate" and keep things in line when things get out of hand I don't think anyone - the Expatica management OR the advertisers OR the members - should be too concerned about these "bursts" of energy.
Nor should they, in my opinion be worried about the cynical nature of some posts. With regards to the advertisers, from my having been involved in or be acquainted to forum owners who run forums with a profit objective, most of the active posters are not usually the ones checking out the ads and spending their cash on it, but the forum NEEDs the traffic generated by the active posters to attract people that WILL eventually check out the ads and part with their money.
Of course there are exceptions, but forum posting addicts (like I sometimes can be :P) are usually not interested in the advertisements but participate in the forums for other purposes, say a place for self expression, sense of community and belonging etc. The folks that will end up spending money through Expatica, on the other hand, are usually more interested in gathering information, finding answers, and general reading when they visit the site and are less inclined to post regularly. However, they need to be attracted to the site in the first place and that's when the dedicated forum posters come in as they are the ones keeping the place vibrant, diverse and interesting with ongoing discussions. So in this sense, regular posters may not be the direct target audience of the advertisers, but are just as equally important for the community, and should not be neglected.
The advertisers really shouldn't be too concerned about the content or nature of forum posts in here either (not that quality content is unimportant). Just to state an extreme example: Check out all these tabloid news sites. They are often scattered with annoying advertisements all over their webpages. Do the ads have any relation at all to the bizarre and sensational stories published on those sites? I believe none at all. However, advertising companies still continue to invest advertising dollars on these websites because they do bring in the traffic. People who read these tabloids and then go on to spend money after viewing the advertisements are not put off by the ads or negatively associate the ads with the "undesirable" content of the Tabloids. I am in no way suggesting turning this place into a gossipy dump but in a similar sense, the Expatica team should not worry about prospective advertisers being put off simply because this forum can be a bit more "political" or "cynical" at times. As long as the forum is lively and vibrant, there will always be space for informational and useful posts too, even coming from the "cynical posters" themselves. But few would want to hang around a sterile, inactive or un-intuitive forum for long, I believe.
