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Please, respect the DST representative members here.


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Do not private message (PM) the DST representatives that are members here (including Boyd) asking for things or asking specific line up questions. If you want a figure made, go to http://www.artasylum.com/ and "Ask DST". If you have a missing part to or issue with a figure, contact Customer Support. PMs can be monitored by Minimate Multiverse staff and violators could lose privileges at this forum. We ask this as a courtesy to the representatives and to the other members. Post your ideas or comments in the forums so other members can take advantage of any information gleaned. Thanks!

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Sounds totally appropriate to me, Shane. But if I could ask a sort of related question--what do you mean that PMs can be monitored? Can you and mods read the substance of any PMs between boardies, or just see that they were sent? Not that most folks would have anything to hide, but I think it would be fair that folks know if something they send could be viewed by a third party.

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All boards have settings that can read and access the PMs between bordies. Some even set up search filters flagging PMs with certain words. I learned that the hard way.

From my understanding Sideshow Freaks doesn't work that way. The admin says that he can't read PMs. I know regular mods can't. Could be I've just been assuming something that I shouldn't have for all these years about the conventions of public forums.
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i'm surprised more that people would actually pm DST reps regarding wish lists than I am about monitoring.

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Surely, I can see an argument for wanting to allow it, though it's also easy to understand why some members might feel differently. In any case, it doesn't affect me or my potential PMing behavior in any way. The mods here are all good people of course. But, "private message" seems like a bit of a misnomer.

Edited by karamazov80
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I think (ever notice how many sentences I start that way?) that's why most boards who do keep tabs on them use the flagging system. Search in words like "Overthrow", "When will we get" "Shokins" and so forth.

I will say thought that being in a conversation with a friend and bringing up an idea, DST employee or not, is another thing entirely than striking up a conversation just to ask for free crap or peddle a wishlist. I should think that most people were wouldn't do that, especially to our friends (and Zach is one of us). Shane is just cutting off any problems before they arise.

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I'd just like to say that nobody here has abused the PM system with me, that I can recall, or if they have it's been a while. People wishlist enough in the threads, and I think they know that I have no power to fulfill any of them. I try to stick my nose into any relevant DST threads on a regular basis (not customs, or movie threads, or anything like that), so a PM is usually not even necessary. Seriously, I spend WAY too much time here. And I do consider many of you friends, or at least non-annoying acquaintances.

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First, it IS possible to monitor PMs and even search them for keywords. For instance, I once searched for "Shanester" and found that Minijeff was telling someone about how I am an "ass". That said, it is REALLY freaking hard to do. There is no GUI or application to simply read through them. You must extract them as SQL and try to read through them. Knowing who the sender and receiver is, is a matter of reading headers, again very pain in the butt. I have done it twice and both times I was looking for a scam artists address. I feel that we have always been upfront about this and the old-timers here can probably attest that we have mentioned this fact before. Imagine about 1000 lines of code without any spaces and you can get an idea of what an SQL export of a PM message looks like. Frankly, I don't have the time or concern with what members are writing to each other.

Second, with regard to why this is being asked, certain scenarios have come to my attention that might make it less than pleasant for some of the Company Reps to come here to the Minimate Multiverse. Along those lines, I have really only echoed what has been asked of us by the Reps themselves. "Post the question at Ask DST" or contact Customer Support for issues with a figure you need resolved. Definitely, do not think that you are not allowed to post problems or dislikes with a figure, in the forums. Far from it. Post away, just don't PM one of the DST guys about it because they can't help you. Contact customer support for missing parts or a damaged figure, etc.

Also, this is a forum where we get to read answers to questions we might have before we have even asked them. For example, don't PM Boyd and ask what paints he uses. Post about it so other customizers might also see the answer. If you hate or love something about a figure, post about it so we can all discuss it. The Reps are sure to read it and probably join in the conversation.

This place is great and usually needs little or no moderation. Thank you all for that. This request is probably just common sense to the majority of you, but we are putting it out there so it does not become a problem.

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Glad that you feel that way, Zach smile.png
This is a place for all of us to feel at home, a place of comfort, our internet home

I'm just glad that we all can meet each other here and offline sometimes smile.png

Edit:

I also am very happy that from all the people we have here, from all around the world, everybody is willing to help each other out, with Minimates, prayers or just sightseeing tips

You guys are all great! :D

Edited by Aapje
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Surely, I can see an argument for wanting to allow it, though it's also easy to understand why some members might feel differently. In any case, it doesn't affect me or my potential PMing behavior in any way. The mods here are all good people of course. But, "private message" seems like a bit of a misnomer.

When you are as lazy as me, privacy is a good bet. But as I said, there is NO dashboard for reading posts. It is really hard and not fun to do. I have done it twice trying to help track down former members who have ripped people off.

BTW K80, just because Dave says he can't, doesn't mean he really can't...

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Thanks for the clarification Shane. But like TM says, if anyone here were sending secret messages about their love of Shokinis, then I think it would only be fair for you to do what you had to to identify them, permanently ban them, and then share this information so that we could all humiliate them mercilessly until the internet ends.

--edit: and with a name like "Darklord," you would think he would be more truthful/upfront about those things wink.png He's probably referring to the same issue you talk about, and wouldn't bother dealing with it unless it was an extreme situation.

Edited by karamazov80
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Thanks for the clarification Shane. But like TM says, if anyone here were sending secret messages about their love of Shokinis, then I think it would only be fair for you to do what you had to to identify them, permanently ban them, and then share this information so that we could all humiliate them mercilessly until the internet ends.

Agreed!

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Believe me there is no message board software in existence where Admins CANNOT read PMs. It might be harder to do but its perfectly possible. Your PM goes into a database, we can access that database.

We don't do it without a damned good reason, and even dating back to the AA boards and the "board with no name" I think its only happened perhaps 3 times in total.

FWIW Sideshock freaks runs VBulletin, as do two other sites I own, I can read the PMs there.

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I've been admin here for yrs, never looked at a single pm that wasnt either sent directly to me or forwarded/reported by member. If did feel there was cause I would go to Shane and we'd discuss if it was serious enough to warrant the invasion of privacy before even considering it.

The short version is that yes we can, but we are not snooping willy nilly and you'll have to trust us and our integrity/judgement.

T.

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