[indiamike]

Just to let members know that if you receive unsolicited private messages or emails from members of this site to please report them to us via the contact page or forward the private message to me.

We have a growing problem with Travel Agents and guys who use the site to try and pick up women. Especially those women who are looking for a travel partner.

There is a 'zero tolerance' on this and anyone using the private messaging system to spam or advertise will be removed from the site without warning.

An example would be something like this-

hi i am a travel agent in delhi pls let me know if u need my service coz i will give u better prices than others i can arrange hotels and cars basically tour operators i will prove that my prices r lower than others

or

Hey I am single guy in Delhi and looking to meet others like yourself. When are you coming to Delhi, please reply.

Odds are good that you are not the only one getting this message and if it is not reported to us we are not aware of it.

So please if you receive private messages and/or emails of this nature please let us know to curb this growing problem.

Thanks
Mike

[ddevadatta]

Kudos to India Mike for keeping on top of this and cleaning the site as needed. I will let you know if this ocurs. We don't want India Mike to become a Viagara site.

[Paagla Dashu]

absolutely not!

Jao sob nojo nijo kaaje

[aahlberg]

Oh my goodness-
thanks for the advice-
I just received such a mail this morning about travel agents!

Originally Posted by indiamike

Just to let members know that if you receive unsolicited private messages or emails from members of this site to please report them to us via the contact page or forward the private message to me.

We have a growing problem with Travel Agents and guys who use the site to try and pick up women. Especially those women who are looking for a travel partner.

There is a 'zero tolerance' on this and anyone using the private messaging system to spam or advertise will be removed from the site without warning.

An example would be something like this-
or


Odds are good that you are not the only one getting this message and if it is not reported to us we are not aware of it.

So please if you receive private messages and/or emails of this nature please let us know to curb this growing problem.

Thanks
Mike

[crvlvr]

Should we make this thread a "sticky" and post all unsolicited mails on it so as to serve as a deterrent to would be offenders ? Just a thought..

[Nick-H]

crvlvr, I suspect that there may be more of it than we would ever want to plough through!

[04274108]

Good work IM.

[machadinha]

Originally Posted by indiamike

and guys who use the site to try and pick up women. Especially those women who are looking for a travel partner.

Why doesn't that surprise me. Be careful with giving out phone nrs. and email addresses and stuff too in public, they'll be up on the web forever. If forum members want to contact you they can PM you right + you can even receive an email notification if they do.

[Nick-H]

I really do apreciate the work done to keep this site the way it is with the atmosphere that it has and I wouldn't want anything to change. It's kind-of true to say that we are all Mike's guests here, and guests have to abide by the house rules.

But what does Mr. Single-Dehli-Man do if he wants to contact Ms Traveller?

Respond in open forum and then let her PM if she wishes?

I'd like to be clear on this just in case I, as Mr Currently-Attached-Anyway Chennai-Man were to find myself transgressing.

[indiamike]

Originally Posted by Nick-H

But what does Mr. Single-Dehli-Man do if he wants to contact Ms Traveller?

Usually the person sending the emails has 'zero' posts on the site. Though we will be changing around the policy with newer accounts to limit the use of private messages and sending emails.

[Nick-H]

OK, thanks. That makes the policy and the reason for it much clearer.

[sudheer poppa]

Originally Posted by indiamike

Usually the person sending the emails has 'zero' posts on the site. Though we will be changing around the policy with newer accounts to limit the use of private messages and sending emails.

Sounds a good idea to remove the jerks, but what about genuine travellers. I have received a handful of pm from real travellers who wanted to get information. But they for some reason are vary of starting a new thread and even posting questions in the open threads. I think they want to get a hang of the happenings here before posting.

Can we allow then members with zero posts to send pm's to members with more than 500 posts ? Its the usual problem with making a law, you target the criminals and some innocents also get shot. Really a tough line to walk.

Bye the way this move against unsolicited pms VERY welcome.

[natasha chanda acharya]

After a rather unplesant incident in one of the Bangalore IM meets, i am a bit apprehensive about allowing men who have 2 or 3 or 5 posts to their credit. But when they want to join in, i can't possibly refuse. For all you know they are perfectly decent people, and then you could turn out to be a sleez even after 50 posts. How should I (and sudheer) handle this?

And i must add, i totally agree with Nick, most of us patronise this site because its so clean and genuine. All credit to moderators for doing such a good job.

[somnath]

Originally Posted by indiamike

Usually the person sending the emails has 'zero' posts on the site. Though we will be changing around the policy with newer accounts to limit the use of private messages and sending emails.

Hi all,
It is my pleasure that I have received several PMs from the members, those are zero posters asking info regarding Darjeeling and Sikkim, Trekking in Eastern Himalaya, info related to Calcutta etc. And the time has proved they are not the fake travelers.

PM is a powerful feature of the site and for an instant info it is very handy too. So I’ll request for a second thought.


Regards,
Somnath

[Bigzero]

i think if everyone promptly reports unsolicited emails or PMs, that itself would go a long way.

one good thing to do will be to immediately check the profile of the poster and see the number of posts he had made, and if one has the time, see the kind of posts he has made. that will give a reasonable account of the person. zero posters are unknown entities, so one cant do much research about them anyway. I guess most of the old-timers in this forum with a good number of posts under their belt understand the house rules of this site and therefore can spot the bad ones. The problem could be more with new members who have joined recently - they could be suffering in silence, not knowing that these types of PMs are not on.