Private Messages to CH

Glad it was a technical glitch. For a moment I thought I was three sheets to the wind.

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What are you possibly asking them that shouldn’t be public knowledge

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This is the original comment posted by Dan which explains our responsibility in using Private Messages.

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I don’t want to speak out of turn as I already sent a message to the tech team about this…but there are some newer creatives who have excessive private messages to the CH.I have concerns about this.I don’t want to say too much as I don’t want to speak out of turn,or sound accusatory…but think it may need to be monitored more.

I think there is a legitimate need in some instances to be able to PM the CH,so I don’t want to lose that for when it’s necessary…but I also worry there is some abuse that give some unfair advantage.

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@seezall I can speak on account of myself – at least with the 1 I have sent, sometimes private messages aren’t relating to the contest at all. For instance, I will admit that I messaged the CH because I was interested in their idea/brand and would like to know HOW to find out more about them POST contest as they were doing something that I really was interested in and would like to check into them after the contest. They wrote back saying they would definitely keep me updated, and for the record, the one and only name I submitted, they liked but unfortunately got rejected just because they were worried about having to explain it – so it wasn’t ‘sucking up’ and did not give me an unfair advantage. It’s in cases like these or other instances that it should be allowed.

Secondly, I hate to be the blunt person here, and I will state that while I will say this, I automatically disagree with its usage but I am saying this to REMIND – If there is no ‘policy on what is allowed’ you technically can’t have it held against you, because by policy standard – you’re not doing anything wrong. It is what it is. Recommendation: If there is a want for penalty, which it is obvious there is, make and/or change the policy – that way things that do not fit within said policy can be policed and subjectively held against those that do not follow it (assuming proof can be obtained – not sure whether SH can see the messages in detail or not). Beyond this, however it is a feature that should be allowed to stay and I will discuss why and Dan or whomever knows better information behind these things can better support it or debate it because some of these things I am NOT sure of

  1. PMs are needed for creatives to message other creatives, not just CHs (??? Not sure if anyone knows and/or has thought about this, but maybe the PM system is all one system and PMs are needed for to be able to send messages to anyone. Maybe that is why counts are so high? If we removed this, would we still be able to message each other?)

  2. Maybe counts work both ways (??? If a CH sends you a message and you reply, is your count affected at all, or is it only when you initialize? If it counts sent without regard to who initializes, how do we know that CHs aren’t just chatty with some people for different reasons?)

  3. What if there is a significantly important issue that you are trying to message the CH about, perhaps personal to do with your entries as Dan has said, or maybe you are informing/helping them to fix something in the brief or set it up because they erred and you don’t want to bring attention to it in front of everyone – because like it or not, not everyone likes to be made to look/seem a fool or not knowing what they are doing in front of a lot of people. Or even something to do with how you are having or may need to submit your entry and maybe you need to reference your entry in particular to get a straight answer but don’t want other creatives to know your entry but they would have to if you could not PM and ask something that cannot be answered without the specifics of your entry (it’s not a leg up, just a justification question and to protect your entry you cannot post that for ‘public knowledge’)

On another note, @fxpreneur, you said you have seen ‘new creatives’ have a lot more PMs – this can’t be accurate as when I was ‘new’ not too long ago, I could not send PMs and as far as I know, you cannot do such until you have won a contest or reached a certain amount of points. If either of these have been met, then by technicality those creatives have ‘earned’ that right to do so. But again, we don’t know if the CH contacted them first, or because they haven’t been here that long, that they are just ones that have to ask personal things regarding their individual entries to hone their craft but not necessarily give themselves a leg up. We don’t know, unfortunately, because we aren’t seeing the messages. Not that I don’t agree with you about the possibility that said creatives are taking advantage of it as there is always a possibility, but there is also an equal possibility that we are wrong. But again, there is no policy, and we don’t see what’s being said – so who knows.

I think limitation is a bandaid that could just cause an infection. Unless it is a reasonable number, and depending on how the system is set up – it may or may NOT go well. What happens IF you hit that mark and really need to talk to the CH about an entry or reply to their question, or whatnot? Sure, you can do it in the comments but comments aren’t always seen and/or read. I think we just need a better instituted policy and maybe one of those policies will be that your account and messages will be monitored if it is seen that you are taking advantage of the system (if possible), I wish I had better solution, but not sure what it would be. We’re all creatives here, heehee, I’m sure we could come up with something that works for SH, the CHs, and us.

Furthermore, I think this needs to be a mutual policy, the CHs need to adhere to policy, too, of not asking creatives to submit certain names, or giving information that can only help one vs all unless it is regarding one individual entries and is only specific to those entries. They should have to use best judgment and be fair as well “Oh I liked your names the best of all, if you can just submit this, this way, then I will declare you winner” or whatever the things are that have happened in the past and others have spoken about.

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@rareworthy … i said that because i was thinking oh maybe i should do too xD hehehe.
and i mentioned some new creatives not all, and its not wrong since theres an opportunity to do so.and my option is i dont think its good to put off private messages.

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I honestly think SH should read and APPROVE all
PMs prior to the CH seeing them if PMs are a must, but I personally don’t see a need for them. If you have a question in regards to an entry or one you’re considering as an entry, then you can ask through entry comments when you enter that idea. I personally believe if the question reveals your IP then you should submit your entry along with those questions, and then tweak it based on the CHs reply and rating. Otherwise, it’s plausible you’re seeking approval of your idea in a round about way before you submit it. If it’s personal, such as interest in product etc, I personally think it should be done after a winner has been chosen. We hear a lot of talk about the CH being overwhelmed so I don’t think we should contact them unless it’s about the actual contest while it’s active.

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I hear ya, but does anyone else think it’s a bit unusual that a few Newbies have sent over 50 PMs to Clients, and they’ve only been here for 3 or 4 months? :confused:

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I’ve seen that on some in only 2-1/2 months.

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I must say if you are using the pm to contact a contest holder to tell them how much you like their product, that would be trying to curry favor in my view.

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Just flabbergasted as much as we have expressed our dislike of the ability and abuse of pms That it hasn’t been changed, or tweaked in some fashion, If we can’t play on a level field…

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How about ‘charging’ creative’s points for more than 1 pm that they initiate? That would cut down a lot if they got below the threshold of creative privileges. Does this make sense?

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@Chasity2ku well I can agree to extents and would do such, if I hadn’t found out here recently that a lot of our comments are going unread. It’s a dirt shoot if all that you put into the comments to explain you method and reasoning and basically (at least we know, they may not) how much work you actually put into that and like doing a complex math problem – you show your work – rather than just being a person that goes willy-nilly with abandon that throws ideas against the wall to see which one sticks. I’m sorry, the work and effort that I put in … that WE put in (at least those of us that take this seriously) is important to at least be understood (it is WHY SH has comments at all versus ‘those other sites’. But, they’re going unread. But, I’ve talked about this, so to keep the conversation progressing, I’ll shut up about it. Either way, the PMs work for now because at least they may actually read them when something about your entry may need to be verified, fact checked, a question regarding it, etc.So until one or the other is resolved …

@AlwriteyThen it IS unusual and I want to know how they are doing it without the requirements being met. If the requirements have been met, then I don’t know. Maybe its part of their process, maybe it is what it seems, maybe it’s a glitch, anything is possible.

@BillWarburton If you are speaking about what I mentioned, I only told them that I was interested in knowing more POST contest because … ~sigh~ Okay, I will be frank, it was about a certain company for products for a certain challenge/disability. Some of you may know what I am talking about, some may not. Either way, it is something that I happen to have difficulties with and wanted to know more information so I could check them out AFTER the contest. I was not garnering or currying favor and as I said, the result was far from favor as it was. It was just my curiosity and personal interest in knowing if I may receive more information after the contest concluded, that is all.

@seezall I’d go for tweaking and a lot of us would, heck Chasity offers a great idea of all messages being reviewed if we must keep it, but I think the ability to do such in the absence of other methods ‘working’ right now, is all we have and should keep until either this issue is fixed or it’s ensured that important feedback be exchanged when it is essential that includes comments being read and feedback/reply being received so that our questions about entries or certain directions with those particular entries may be able to be communicated and responded to more frequently than such is the case right now.

Thanks everyone for your feedback.

We have shared previously why removing private messaging will be ineffective. We find more violations of our policy in “Entry Comments” than private messaging. If we remove private messaging, it will just mean these messages will be sent via Entry comment. Therefore, to completely address this issue, we would need to remove all aspects of private messaging including entry comments. This is not something we are prepared to do because we believe these communication tools are extremely important.

This is the reason we have chosen to audit messages to ensure they are compliant with our messaging policy. Every day we spend significant resources in auditing large number of private messages to CH in order to ensure that no creative is taking advantage of the policy. It would be easier for us to simply disable the feature but we really do not believe it will address the underlying concerns mentioned here. We have taken action against several creatives by removing their messaging privilege when we have found them to violate our policy. We will continue to do that.

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Yikes! I can’t even imagine sending that many PMs. I’ve been here a little over 2 months now and only have one PM to a CH, and that was in reply to them. I don’t think I’ve ever initiated a PM. To me, if I have a question for the CH, I’ll go through the contest to ask it and make sure that it is not private so that everyone has access to the information. If I need to clarify my entry, I do so through the comment section of the entry itself. Otherwise, I can’t imagine why I would need to send a PM.

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I’m new here and was just devastated when a CH wrote me a personal message saying, “I’d hoped for a more creative entry.” Cheech. But then I put it in perspective that maybe my entries were too trite and I guess it was a learning experience. I never responded to the CH.
Still hoping for that first win :grin:

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Welcome Ms. Flower - Just let that remark roll off your back - Trust me, that one is tame compared to some we have received. :open_mouth: Hang in there, and that first win will be very S-W-E-E-T :sunglasses:

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Well Alrighty Then, thanks for the encouragement!! :smile:

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I don’t always agree with zeesal spelldRight? But this time I do, If u know how to talk to a professional, pm them. If they connect with u are instruct u futher. That’s ur advantage. I say it’s business maneuver. If you’re a bother they won’t answer. But I feel CH like the communication with us. Like Complements. We are working for them and should be able to pm .When I here 4yrs ago. We pm frequently, I would good luck and hope to see u again…And I don’t know if this still happens. When CH returns they would pm me or others and just ask if I would come aboard and help. I some how found those old texts. The only thing I regretted was I talked badly to some for ex. Never ratin, or not guarantee. .We work very hard.but should always talk pleasant to them.

Are we allowed to send PMs that ask CHs to “Look at our submissions?” I’m asking because it’s obvious by the comments from the CH in a recent project (Contest #8732) that someone has done just that - I thought it was against the rules? - Just wondering - :confused:

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