So, yeah, I just don't get it. I don't want to sound impolite or something like that, but what's the point of not allowing regular members to send private messages to each other? And how can I share contact information with a person I want to get to know outside of this forum? I tried sending PMs a few times and it didn't work, then I tried posting my Facebook name on another member's wall, but it got me banned. Is there any way I can share contacts with somebody?
Apply to be a full member, and once your application is accepted, you can pm other full members. emptyclosets.com/home/pages/welcome/code-of-conduct.php
There was, let's say a situation, a number of years ago whereby a younger member of this site was being groomed. Obviously following this the whole security setup of the site had to change.
Although I am not one (yet), it does seem like it might be useful to have a feature for full members to have an ability to see which other members are also the same.
It's a very good rule (even if it has its dark side) but basically it keeps all the perverts and phone whores off the site and it's something I'd love to have on ANY support site. I understand that it is very inconvenient to not be able to socialize out of EC, but rather this small, current evil than a greater, grander evil in the future, right?
The rest of the posts have pretty much covered it. There's no way to share off-site contact information (as is made very clear by the ugly yellow banner at the top, various other posts and information, the terms of service you agreed to when you joined, and so forth.) The full member review process allows us to have at least a basic level of assurance that the people given PM privileges are here at EC for the right reasons. This is one of the major things that makes EC so different from similar online communities: because off-site contact isn't allowed except in very limited circumstances, the focus here is on support and community rather than the hookup culture or creepy interactions found so often in other similar communities. Even the most devious of means of trying to make off-site contact are pretty likely to be noticed, and when we see someone intentionally trying to get around the rules, we don't take too kindly to that. Once you have the minimum time and number of posts (2 weeks / 50 posts), you can apply for full membership. Right now it's taking us a pretty long time (4-6 weeks) but we're doing our best to address that issue and speed up the process.
Duh to me, but I guess I was confusing having seen a post regarding trying to send a private message to a regular member and having it fail.
I really should apply sometime, too lazy as heck to do it right now though. I just haven't really had a need for it. If one of my friends ended up being on here I'd definitly want to, I doubt he is but still. (He's transmasculine and dealing with unaccepting family, haven't told him about it yet)