Member Messaging Changes at GTI Home Exchange

A recent email from GTI Home Exchange member Shane, indicated that he may have been confused by the recent changes to our member messaging system when he sent us the following message:

"I am a current member and I am concerned that "recently contacted" is not showing all. Afraid I will contact a member more than once! What are the perameters? Does it show up to a 100? Only last 30 days? Please advise. Thanks.

Love your site. Have had 3 exchanges from it."

Whilst full details of the changes have been posted within the Site Administrator's Message in the Members' Area on the web-site: in case some members have missed the details about these changes, we are repeating them again here.

Site based messages between members

For your security, and to protect your privacy, all contact with other members is now done from your member area. Your sent and received messages are stored there in folders (Inbox and Sent messages). Your on-going correspondence with each member is stored separately for easy reference. Please note: as all contact information you entered on your form (email, phone, fax, mailing address) is hidden, you choose when you are ready to provide contact details to another member.

New message alerts by email

Whenever there is a new message for you (a reply to a message you sent or a message from another member), you will receive a brief email, with the subject line, New Home Exchange message for you from HExxxxx, to alert you to log on to your member area to read and reply to the message.

A few new message alerts may end up in junk folders by mistake and so it is important to skim through all mail in your junk folder before deleting it if possible. It's tedious but, until there are better filters that can sort all legitimate messages from the masses of unsolicited mail, there may be a few 'good' messages that need to be rescued from your junk folder and moved to your in-box. If you can't check through your junk folder, be sure to log on to your member area regularly to check and read any recent messages you may have overlooked.

Home exchange offer messages

When first contacting a member with your exchange offer, use the form at the bottom of the member's listing. If you have compiled a standard exchange offer message and saved it on your computer, you can copy and paste it into the form and then personalise the message before sending. The subject line is already completed and includes your User ID so the member can easily find your listing. When you have finished your message, click Submit. As soon as your message has been sent, you will see the member's User ID under the Recently contacted list in your member area. You can save a record of up to 20 messages sent at a time and delete any you don't want to keep by clicking the 'x' beside it.

After receiving my response to his email, Shane followed it up with:

"Thanks for your response. I thought I was going crazy! Look forward to the new changes. Because of the low storage on recently contacted I was starting to really zoom in based on advanced search because I was afraid to become a pesky American to your members. The ideal improvement might be to note that a listing has already been contacted when searching. At this stage I'm not sure if Shane's suggestion is possible, but we will certainly look into it. The new messaging system does allow the recording of message threads, so perhaps this will assist Shane in keeping track of the results of his communications.

Discussion Point

Do you feel that the number of "Recently contacted" messages stored, ie 20 messages, is adequate? Please let us know your views!