[Verla Kay Posts: 4,638 Status: Offline Invite Verla Kay to speak in your area WWW]

Because parts of this message board are open to EVERYONE on the internet we have very strict rules to keep spammers from getting ahold of private information of any of our Blueboard members. In order to protect everyone, there is an automatic system in place that requires the first posts of all newly joined board members to be Moderated. In addition, new people to the board don't have access to profiles nor are they able to send PM's. This is for YOUR protection! Remember, ANYONE on the internet can join this board! The management team of the Blueboard is very diligent in making sure that your information is protected from potential spammers or predators.

If someone has sent you a PM (private message) and you want to respond to it, just use the Contact a Moderator link in the menu at the top of the message board. Tell the Moderator who contacted you and they will help you get a message to that person. People who have been on the board for a long time sometimes forget that new people can't send a message back to them.

I hope this explains the situation and that you understand. The members of the Blueboard are extremely important to the people who run this board and we are very protective of all of you. After an especially nasty experience with spammers sending XXX-rated photos to the private emails of many people on our board we put these restrictions in place and since then, we've had no more problems with spammers attacking our membership.

Sincerely,

Verla Kay
Chief Administrator of the Blueboard

[JulieM Posts: 986 Status: Offline WWW]

Thanks for all the hard work, Verla, mods and SCBWI. It's so nice to have a spam-free environment!

[Joe Swinger Posts: 3 Status: Offline What would you do today if you were Amazing? WWW]

Okay - I get it that new people cannot see the profiles of the others - but for how long is this restriction in effect?

[Verla Kay Posts: 4,638 Status: Offline Invite Verla Kay to speak in your area WWW]

Good question, Joe. The answer varies by your post counts and how long you have been on the board. Some people jump right in and post a lot right away - joining lots of conversations and sharing information with their peers - while others mostly lurk and don't post much at all. Some posts don't "count" towards your post totals, because they are on boards that are regularly purged (like the Off Topic and Congratulations posts) and we don't want people's post counts bouncing up and down like fast-flying yo-yos.

Even if you are mostly a lurker, though, after you have been on the board for a few months, you should be able to get profile vlewing privileges on the board. Remember, that if SCBWI members want to send a private message to someone or find out more about them at any time, they can always go over to SCBWI's main page and do a member search there for the person they want to contact. You are only limited here because of our strict spam control measures to keep your email and private information out of the hands of hackers and spammers that are very active in trying to breach the defenses of active message boards like ours. They would like nothing better than to get in and "harvest" all of your emails and flood you with spam messages.

[Joe Swinger Posts: 3 Status: Offline What would you do today if you were Amazing? WWW]

I'm sorry, Verla - but it sounds like a misguided attempt to protect the many because of a few. I just paid nearly $100 to join to attend a convention that's less that two months away and you're saying I cannot contact anyone about it for advice or to see who is attending so I can meet up with them? Seriously?  That's like taking product off of a sales floor at Christmas time because a few items may be stolen - let's lose thousands in sales because we may lose a few hundred - it's poor marketing. Please don't list it as a SCBWI benefit if I am considered a "second class" member. Also, so what if someone is a lurker - we'll post when we have something extraordinary to say. Suffice it to say that this is my last post here - thankfully you're not my publisher!

[Verla Kay Posts: 4,638 Status: Offline Invite Verla Kay to speak in your area WWW]

Joe, you can post on the SCBWI Only conference boards to connect with people. You can private message other SCBWI members through SCBWI's main site. You can contact the conference leaders to find out who is attending the conference. There are boards in the SCBWI Only area (green boards) that allow you to connect with other conference attendees. SCBWI regional conference information can be found on SCBWI's main site.

This is just a tiny part of SCBWI's site - a message board where writers and illustrators share craft and other information with each other.

THIS part of the message board where you are posting these messages is open to everyone on the internet. If you started getting XXX-rated pornographic emails and floods of gross spam in your In Box, like many of us on this board did before we put these restrictions in place, I don't think you would feel so irritated about these restrictions. And they don't protect just a few people on this board, they protect EVERYONE on this board - including you.

If this was, indeed, your last post here, you will be missing out on a lot of great opportunities to meet wonderful people and learn much. That's too bad, but it is, of course, your choice. I'm very sorry you feel this way. We would have enjoyed getting to know you better.

[AngieJonesDraws Posts: 11 Status: Offline I love kids' books! WWW]

I've been on this board for a year now and can't view any profiles. I think I was able to send PM's to a few but since I never got a response now I have to assume they never made it.This is awfully confusing.

[Verla Kay Posts: 4,638 Status: Offline Invite Verla Kay to speak in your area WWW]

Seeing profiles is connected to both how much time you have actually spent on the board (you have spent a total of about 8 hours in the past year) AND to how many quality posts you have made on the board. (A quality post is one made on a board that is not regularly purged. We don't want your post count going up and down like a yo-yo! Off Topic, good news boards and the like are self-purging boards. If you post and your post count goes up, you have made a quality post.)

These restrictions are in place to protect you from internet predators that might slip past our safeguards. They are a safety net to keep your private information from being "harvested" by unscrupulous spammers. And they do work! Since these restrictions have been put in place not one of our Blueboarder profiles has been hacked and none of our people have gotten XXX-rated emails through this board -- things that DID occasionally occur before these restrictions were activated.