Asia Observer has a message system for its members. It is a great way to send messages to other members which you do not want everyone to see.

Your need to be looged in to see you message box. You will find it in the left column just below the login field. Here you can see if there are messages waiting for you.

Click on the message icon and you will be brought to your mail box. It consists of inbox, outbox and a form for new messages.

You can send message to anybody who is a member on Asia Observer. You will need their username. If you don't know it, go to their profile page. On the top you find "Messages". Choose "Send private message" and you are brought to the message area.

Please note that this will not disclose your email address to the other user.

Good luck in communicating with your fellow members!

John

John,

I have tried it, but cannot get it to work. It seems like no message is sent. Is something wrong?

David

David,

You are right - something seems to be wrong. We will try to fix it as soon as possible. I will post here when it is OK.

In the meantime - from the profile page of another user you can also send an e-mail. That feature still works.
Important: Your e-mail address will not be shown to the other user. And you will not be given their e-mail address unless they decide to respond to your mail. This routine has been mad to ensure your privacy as Asia Observer member is respected.

John

We have disconnected the private message system until we find out what is wrong. Hopefully that will not be too long.
In the meantime you can still send e-mails to other members as described in my last posting.

Cheers,

John

Dear John,
I am against any members sending private messages to other members.
As you can see, if they can threaten me on the open forum, I am sure they will me, more nastier private messages to me if it is allowed. Maybe even DEAD THREAD.
As an administrator, you can act in-between to see that both parties accept private message.
Thanks for your consideration.

Thanks for your posting!
I would be very interested to hear what other members think about this issue.
One thing is for sure: The private message system will not reveal your e-mail address to other members. You will only be able to read the messages here at Asia Observer and it is entirely up to you whether other members will know your private e-mail address.

But please, let us know what you think about this issue before we reintroduce the private messaging system.

John

Dear Sandvand,

First, let me congratulate you for the redesigning of your site to a more friendly one.

About the messages sent to you, it's a good idea. Since it's your site you should have a final say for what's acceptable and what's not. Since people (that includes me too) have their own interests they will push their own to the fore. However, despite the fact that we should all respect someone else's right to freedom of expression, you have to assert that it's not a 'blank cheque' - it must be attached to 'responsibility'and 'accountability'.

We may think that we are able to escape, at times, from being accountable to whatever we say or do. But in fact, we cannot. To thy ownself be true is the standard each one of us have to have. Thank you for your good work.

Dear John,
In Principle, it is very good to communicate to other members of this forum privately but in practice, I don't think it is advisable to do so.
As you know due to the situation in our country, you never know what is their intention of participation in this forum. Some participated to express their own idea, some are paid and instructed to participated.
What will happen, if (yes BIG IF) they use and send insulting mail/threaten mail/blackmail to others via private mail.
As for me, I trust nobody in this forum as I don't know who they are and what is their REAL intention of participation in this forum, I am against (AGAINST) sending messages VIA private mail after all I consider this forum as OPEN FORUM and should be discussed openly.
Alternately, if a member want to communicate with other member PRIVATELY, they can contact YOU and as ADMINISTRATOR, you contact other member whether he want to have PRIVATE mail from that particular person or not. If both parties agreed then you can act whatever you think it is appropriate for them to communicate privately.
I know this will makes you more busier but it will prevent members sending NASTY PRIVATE messages to others as they pleased and misuse of the privilege.
I hope that you will take my points raised into careful consideration before allowing members to send PRIVATE MESSAGE to others and I don't want to receive any PRIVATE mail.
I rather discuss OPENLY on this forum rather than PRIVATELY.
Thank you very for your time.
With best regards

I think it is great to be able to communicate directly with other members. Sometimes you want to say something to another person that is not of interest to everybody - then a private messaging system is great.
Besides, I am sure John will kick out any user who might be abusing this.

Kevin

Dear Kevin,
Have you read the threatening message posted in response to my message subject CHARMTONG which was SO NASTY, the Moderator has to removed it.
If you receive such threat, I am sure that, you will not say “ it will be great to communicate with other members privately” any more.
Remember that, some people know nothing except threatening and bullying, which they used/are using and will not hesitate to use it in the future.
AND they will send TONS of threatening messages to you using MANY NAMES but THEY ARE ONLY ONE PERSON.
You don’t know these people, but I know them very well and WHAT THEY ARE CAPABLE OF (DESTROYING).
asIseeIt