Back when we added the messaging control feature, we turned on the ‘Say Hi’ checkbox by default. We did this as a stopgap measure, to deal with the influx of scammers that we were fighting. As we’ve gained experience in dealing with them, we have developed more tools and added capabilities to the system to help automate some of what we’ve been doing by hand. This makes the ‘Say Hi’ requirement less needed, so we’re going to turn it off by default.
If you look on the messaging control panel, the ‘Say Hi’ checkbox mentioned above is really: “People can only message me if I have ‘Said Hi’ to them first”. What this means, if it is checked, is that people can’t just send you messages out of the blue. We turned this on because some early scammers were sending a dozen people copy-and-pasted messages soliciting things (emailing off site, help for their poor family member, etc.).
We needed this short term, until we put more tools in place to deal with the scammers. The downside is that it was really cutting down on communication between people. So we’ve decided to switch it off again by default.
This is a one time change, so if you like the ‘Say Hi’ restriction, you can easly add it back by going to Settings or Edit Profile, then clicking the Messaging tab. We’re sorry for any inconvenience. Of course, it wouldn’t be a beta if there weren’t hitches like this.
Part of the reason for loosening messaging restrictions is that we’re experimenting with some more tools to identify and delete scammers. They’re far from perfect right now, so don’t be surprised if an occasional profile slips through and you get a message from them.
We would rather err on the side of caution and let a few scammers through at first versus being too aggressive and deleting legitimate user profiles. As soon as they give enough information to tip us off, they’re usually deleted within a day or so.
So please bear with us as we add more tools to combat the scammers. The big downside of a free site is that it is a magnet for people like this (no credit card means anyone can sign up at no cost). We’ve got a few more things we’ll be adding soon and then we’ll be switching back to primary site features. Thanks for your patience.
Excellant idea. Just shows that you are working to improve the site and assist the folks that do use it.