Allow members to send private messages to any members, not just friends

[Marc]

I am creating a private network that will only have a limited number of members.  At the moment, members have to become friends with someone before sending them a message.  In the case of my network, this is an unnecessary and frustrating limitation, and what will likely happen is all members will end up befriending each other so that they can send messages whenever they want, which will make the friend system just an annoyance for everyone.

Would it be possible to give NC's the choice between allowing members to send messages to: (a) nobody; (b) friends; or (c) all members?  Obviously option A would effectively turn messaging off, option B is the normal situation, and option C is what I am after and what would suit small, intimate networks.

This would seem to be in line with the new Ning philosphy of giving NC's control over how we want to manage our communities.

Is this easy to do?

Does Ning have a philosophical reason for not wanting to offer this option?

Do other NC's think this would be a good option, even if you don't necessarily need it yourself at this time?

And while I guess I should have asked this first, is there already an option to do this that I missed? :-)

EDIT: Changed discussion title to more accurately describe the feature request. Most early replies to this discussion were based on a more misleading title, and assumed I was requesting that all members be allowed to send MASS messages to all members - which I am not - although I still believe in the idea of giving NC's as much control as possible, and not withholding features that they do not trust us to use. We know our networks and members better than anyone! :-)

[Vanwetswinkel Marc]

You have my vote for this feature too Marc. I have a private network where everybody knows everybody so it makes no sence that everybody has to friend everybody else to be able to send a private message. Providing it as an option doesn't hurt any NC that doesn't want this on his/her site.

[Andrea]

I am currently having the same issue.  This would be a helpful feature for intentionally small networks to decrease barriers for open communication.

[Ryan the CEO of CEO's]

What's the status of this... I would like to shut down the feature of members being able to send messages to all of their friends- PM Spam is what I call it! I understand that some NC'ers want it.. and that is fine- but it should be an option for the network!  thanks inadvance!

[Kris]

since it seems to difficult for them to become friends on the network one solution would just be make them all admins and they could all pm each other all day long.

[Claire]

I dont understand what the issue is here myself.. why is it so difficult for people just to befriend other members they wish to talk to, specially on a small private network. Its hardly rocket science.

Bad idea to automatically  make everybody a friend, takes away the choice of members to pick and choose who they want to speak to privately.. Even family members and small groups of friend fall out sometime so always give them the ability to block and friend as they so wish...

psychologically if a member feels they have control like this, they feel more comfortable in interacting on the site.

;-)

[Prince S]

Do other NC's think this would be a good option, even if you don't necessarily need it yourself at this time

Yes I do and have even had complaints from members. They found the concept of having to be on someone's friend list just to send a message extremely annoying.

[Ateneo Alumni]

I don't think Ning will allow this anytime soon.  I started a similar discussion and got a reply from Eric.  Check out the thread below:

http://creators.ning.com/forum/topics/members-messaging-members-1

[Prince S]

idea - why dont they let the members choose whether they want to recieve messages from just friends or anyone. It could easily be added to the profile settings and could be defaulted to only recieve messages from friends. This would make a lot of people happy while allowing those who did not mind the messages to change this setting.

[fatal.error]

Bump this, also need it

[Tyler Durbin]

I would LOVE this option.  We are a closed site that charges a membership so spammers are not an option. 

It would be great to have an option for our members to email each other w/o being friends.  Maybe have a setting were only friends can email you could be added.  By a way to send a quick note would be awesome!

[Jeff]

I'm in a similar situation to Marc, with a private network and no real spam concerns, and would appreciate having this as an option: the ability to allow members to send a private message to each other without the barrier of having to become 'friends'. The fact of having been approved for our network is enough of a validation already that they should be allowed to at least contact each other directly -- this is part of the purpose of our network, to make it easier for members to get in touch with each other...whether or not they decide to 'friend' each other on the network. Using online social networks is not necessarily second nature to all of our members, who come from 21 different countries and cover a wide range of ages and familiarity with social software. They may want to contact someone but not really understand that 'friending' means in this context... I would like to reduce unecessary barriers like this.

[TAW]

here here! This should be a simple toggle or switch Ning could place in our control panel, let the creators control this option.