What is the policy of this forum when being approached for help directly via a PM rather than through the public thread that the issue was originally being discussed on?
My personal view would be to keep the discussion in the public domain so that other commenters are aware of the conversation and so that it can benefit others. However, I was wondering if there is an "official" view or common consensus on how to deal with such messages?
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Completely agree.
Hi @BitSeeker. There isn't an official rule against it. However, general abuse of the message system is against the rules. For example, it would not be responsible for someone to send unsolicited requests for assistance to many forum members. If you believe someone is abusing the message system, you are welcome to flag the messages.
I respond with a stock message:
We prefer to help people publicly here on the forum because this way the information shared is available to everyone.
There are millions of Arduino users and we don't have time to help each one individually. The hope is that when I help someone in a public forum topic, that information will help many others with the same question in the years to come as they find that forum topic in search results. In this way, the effort of one person is magnified many times through the magic of sharing information freely on the Internet.
If you want help, make a public post on the forum like everyone else does.
I don't think that there is an official view, but I think that most users would do what I usually do and direct the query back to the general forum. I point out that more help is likely to be available that way and that the discussion may well be of help to others with similar problems either now or in the future
Having said that, there have been a couple of occasions when I have responded to personal requests for help and have continued the exchange of messages as PMs.
Ironically, one reason for doing that would be that I felt that the user was getting too much confusing advice in the forum even if the advice was well meant and correct.
Ultimately I think that it is a personal decision
I agree with most but there may be an occasion where you might want to deviate. I have had maybe 2 this year and responded to them. They caught me on a slow day.
I do have in my profile (now hidden after the move to the new forum)
Hello - Please do not PM me for help, others will benefit as well if you post your question publicly on the forums. (I'll mute you if you are sending unsolicited PM).
I appreciate that occasionally there may be a valid reason to provide personal assistance which is a fair point. On the other hand, where a thread has gone quiet because the OP has shown a lack of initiative, perhaps a response like the one Pert has posted might be more appropriate.
I appreciate the feedback.
It is not the case of the OP showing a lack of initiative that I was thinking of, rather it is where multiple solutions are offered that cause confusion