An Update For Messages! What's New?

[dangerDoge]

Hi G@Gers!

Breaking News Doge is here to tell you about the message update

This is a short myTake to try and address some of the confusion amongst the community regarding the recent update. As you may or may not have noticed, the private message inbox has changed design to be split into an "inbox" and an "other" category.

Inbox vs Other: What's the difference?

Inbox is a tab for all the people you are following. In other words, if you're following me, and I send you a message, my message will pop up in your inbox tab. Unless you have "Someone sends you a private message" turned off in your settings, you'll get a notification alerting you of the message as usual.

Other is a tab for everyone you aren't following. This means that if you're not following me, and I send you a message, my message goes to the other tab instead. The other tab is a click away once you open your private message page. On your PM page, click on the "Other" text located above the names of your message receiver list.

What does it do?

It gives you more control over who you get notifications from. In your settings, you'll see under "Privacy Settings" the checkbox "Notify me for inbox messages sent by users I do NOT follow." Checking it off means people in your "Other" tab will not notify you when they send you a message. Note: this is turned off at first for all the desktop users!

Yes, I will get all your message notifications!

App users: What does this mean?

App users do not currently see the new setting. Your messages are still in one list, same as before.

Feedback Welcome!

Like the update? Love it? Hate it? Maybe you have a suggestion you'd like to make? Whatever the case, any feedback is welcome! Feel free to shoot the @GirlsAskGuys user a message anytime with things you'd like changed or simply write your feedback down below! Thanks everyone!

[CallMeDave]

Thanks for the explanation. I'm one of the users that was confused yesterday when half of my conversations seemed to be missing.

I understand the value of this change because it allows people to avoid notifications or even having to see the messages from people they're not following.

As you've seen in the discussion on my question from yesterday about this topic, I have a couple of requests though.

1) I often have private message conversations with people as followup to a question (because it gets too long to be of interest to the whole community or because someone wants to share information that they'd prefer not be public). In many cases, I don't really want to follow those people because the conversation is just a one-time thing related to the question, but I do consider the incoming messages just as important as if I were following them. Having to look two different places for my incoming messages is not desirable for me. So, my first request is:

Have an "All" option somewhere that allows all messages in one list as they have been in the past. I would prefer that to the new setup, so I'd like an option to set that as my default.

2) I'd like some kind of notification when changes like this that affect how we use existing functions are made. I and a few other users I've heard from were confused yesterday because we thought we had lost many of our private conversations. When something changes that means we have to do something differently to use features we're accustomed to, I think a broadcast notification with a link to a MyTake like this would be very helpful.

[juicyjessie]

There used to be a tick box a tick box that said "Accept pm's only from people you follow" or similar. Does it mean I always get messages whether I want them or not? If so, fucking stupid. It was fine as it was. It WORKED!

[juicyjessie]

And where are the 6 girl opinions? Gone?

[CallMeDave]

@juicyjessie I think that box is still there. This apparently is for if you allow messages from anyone then it will separate them. I had kind of forgotten about that box. With that option, I'm not sure there's a lot of value in this new separation. If you don't want messages from random people, just set the box that says you only accept messages from people you're following.

I still see 6 girl opinions on this MyTake (including yours). Are you not seeing them?

[Unit1]

I sometimes have the same problem of not seeing the ladies opinions. One way to solve that is by refreshing the page and looking at the girls section again. This is a bug on their server website functionalities.

[dangerDoge]

@juicyjessie the option is there. In the picture in the myTake, it’s third one in the list “Allow messages only from people I follow.”

Also juicyjessie / @Unit1, hmm, what opinions are you referring to? Were they not showing up for you? (I haven’t hidden anything.) This was a bug at one point I know for responding to notifications, but if it’s happening elsewhere, I can send it down to the tech crew.

@ CallMeDave Thanks for the detailed feedback. The myTake is featured now, so at the very least, it should very prominent on the site on the front page.

[Unit1]

@dangerDoge
It happens sometimes in any mytake article or question. The pink opinions start to show up after refreshing.
It's not very easy to reproduce but the steps to reproduce this bug is simple as simple as it is. It happens especially when revisiting questions/articles to which you have already visited or responded to such as your own questions or mytake articles but also on other questions and articles.

[juicyjessie]

I have this issue right now! Picked up this thread from my notifications. Header says "What girls said (9)" but no girls' opinions visible. Only guys.(

[CallMeDave]

When I just came in to check the new replies that I got notified about, I have the same issue - all the girls opinions are missing. The pink bar that says there are 10 of them is there but the opinions aren't. A list of "popular questions" follows that. Maybe the code that inserts that (which I find kind of annoying anyway) has a bug in it that loses the opinions?

[juicyjessie]

Those "adverts" for popular question really are the pits. I class them as spam! I do not want them forced on me, and I guess many other users don't, either. I rarely answer them, if at all, as I have probably seen them before! Come on GAG! For goodness sake wake up and smell the coffee!

[juicyjessie]

It is the same for "featured questions" in the question feed. To inexperienced users, they look like duplicates. Personally, I think it is another pointless feature. If I didn't give an opinion first time round , I certainly am not going to give one second time, especially when it has pissed me off even more!

[GoodGuyBreakingBad]

Thanks for sharing your MyTake , well appreciated it's shame
that the owner couldn't take some time and tell us people about
the new update. Also there is a new format when you log onto
GAG and the color is all White and Blue. Best wishes on this matter :)

[dangerDoge]

There were some smaller less-noticeable changes, but I figured the biggest one that affected users was the PM box, so I focused on it 👍

[GoodGuyBreakingBad]

Thank You :)

[GoodGuyBreakingBad]

Thank You For Most Helpful Guy :)

[Anonymous]

Another update that is really pointless! WHY? Why is it of any use? PM's were fine as they used to be.

When will GAG stop these irrelevant updates? The site is even more difficult to use!

[Opinion Owner]

At least I have fixed my dead PC, so I will not be here as much. This place infuriates me now. 😡😡😡😡😡🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

[Joker_]

I agree

[Unit1]

Here, here!

[dangerDoge]

Would you say the issue for you is how it was set up (i.e. messages being split, functionality, aesthetics, etc.)? Aka, the split idea is ok, but the execution needs improvement.

Or would you prefer that it was one list with no splits regardless?

[Unit1]

I personally prefer having no splits in the inbox for private messages.

[Opinion Owner]

Another issue is I am seeing so many entries in the "Reported Posts" feed ( for mods only ) repeated twice.

[Izumiblu]

To think that gag did this when they could’ve made a category for nut kick questions that everyone would enjoy.

[CallMeDave]

LOL. Maybe they should make an update to automatically reject those and any questions that have both "length" and "girth" in them so they never get posted?

[Waffles731]

I figure that you could make money kicking men in the balls.
Which to be honest is weird as hell

[Izumiblu]

@Waffles731 there seems to be a weird fascination about this which. I agree is completely bizarre.

[ericclayton]

It has to be one guy. It's a very specific fetish.

[dangerDoge]

Oof lol

[CarpetDenim]

@ericclayton Sometimes it baffles me how oblivious and unaware you can be to how fucked up so many people’s kinks/fetishes are lol. CBT is actually way more common than you’d think, and it’s most likely several different guys asking questions about it just wanting validation that women don’t think they’re as weird as they know they are. Think about it like the fart fetish questions.

[ericclayton]

@CarpetDenim CBT?

[CarpetDenim]

@ericclayton Google it, dude, I’m not going to spell that one out for you. You’ll see why, lol. Basically it’s the acronym referring to the fetish that the guys posting “nut kick questions” have.

[CarpetDenim]

Hahhahaha, she’s posting spam on a thread with four moderators and an admin. Bots are so stupid.

[ericclayton]

@CarpetDenim Ok, I've heard of that, just wasn't familiar with the acronym. Yes, there are multiple people with the same fetish that post here, but there *are* lone posters with a very particular fetish (Toilet Boy, for example).

[CarpetDenim]

@ericclayton Toilet boy is definitely an oddity, but unfortunately the CBT guys aren’t one of our lone posters, and they aren’t on their own in their thinking.

[CarpetDenim]

Glad I don’t have to deal with this since I only use the app. But even if I used the website, it wouldn’t make a difference because I only allow messages from people I follow, and nobody messages me anyway.

[AmandaYVR]

I think that setting 'Notify me for inbox messages sent by users I do NOT follow' should be checked 'On' by default, not 'Off'. Then it would all make sense/be logical design. But without those notifications, I don't know any users who has liked that - not receiving a notification.

[hahahmm]

For a mailbox to be useful it needs to be easier to see that I have mail without the alert being mingled with post related stuff. Right now I have to click multiple things & waste time. Maybe I only care about non-mail for most of the day & don’t want to see a bunch of info about mail all the time

[nerms123]

I miss meebo. And I don’t understand why people we aren’t following can message us. Also I wish gag would do more to get rid of pedophiles and obscene posts.

[dangerDoge]

Ok-- if you're referring to meebo, you're admittedly probably already aware since it sounds like you've been here some time, but nevertheless, there is the option to make messages "follows only" by turning on the "Allow messages only from people I follow" box in settings.

Was there something specific you wish GAG would do, or do you mean generally speaking?

[nerms123]

Ok thanks! Yeah I think there needs to be some sort of filtering system because we constantly have to report inappropriate posts

[dangerDoge]

Do you mean like a keyword filter?

[nerms123]

A filtering process so that stuff doesn’t get posted

[dangerDoge]

I agree with premise and would say the general concept is good, but I’m having trouble conceptualizing of how it would be implemented in practice.

[nerms123]

Well the site needs to spend money to hire people to remove them instead of waiting until they are posted and making the users report them until they get deleted but I understand the site doesn’t want to do that.

[juicyjessie]

There are moderators, like me, but so many questions I hide are reinstated by GAG Admin. For example, there was a question from a guy under 18 about nutting on a girls face. I think this inappropriate for an under 18 as it would never feature in a school sex class, but Admin reinstated it.

Makes me want to give up!

[nerms123]

@juicyjessie yeah there’s definitely a problem but the last few days I’ve seen fewer of those

[juicyjessie]

Maybe Admin deleted it again. I don't know, and I am beginning not to care.

[Ellie-V]

I think the main concern is... WHY?
If people don’t want strangers or non-followers messaging them, then why make some subspace for it to happen anyway?
Just seems unnecessary.

[Clo917]

I rarely reply to PMs from those I'm not following so I like the separation, feels a bit less cluttered. However, I second adding an 'All' option so you can see all your messages on one single page.

[CallMeDave]

Yes, I can see the value for some people, particularly younger females that apparently get a lot of unwanted messages from random guys, though if you don't want messages at all from people you're not following, there was already a setting to block that so all this adds is to allow you to say "I want to accept messages from anyone, but want to separate them into two groups based on whether or not I'm following them.

I almost never get random people hitting on me via private message and in most case am willing to have a conversation with anyone that sends me a private message, so for me there's no value to splitting the conversations into two groups and I'd rather have them combined.

[Clo917]

@CallMeDave Yes I saw that setting before, I didn't like turning it off as I did occasionally have somebody message me who needed genuine advice/somebody to vent to. For the most part though, I'd have to stroll through a dozen+ unwanted messages to find my PMs with my G@G friends so that's why I like having it separated and less cluttered. I definitely see why it isn't ideal for everybody though and hope they'll add in an 'All' category in the next update.

[coachTanthony]

I don't follow anyone except GAG so If I stop following @gag will my inbox become just ONE?

[coachTanthony]

I never got an answer on this.

[dangerDoge]

Ahh, my bad. (If I understand your question...) you’ll still have the ‘other’ inbox, but it will be empty.

[coachTanthony]

Yeah I see that! I do wish I could just have one inbox! I keep forgetting to click on other!

[Anonymous]

i dont like the new updates anyway, i can't find the latest live feed on the right side when im on the computer like before, I don't know why they changed it, its very annoying.

[Opinion Owner]

thank you for fixing it:) now the live feed is back on the right side:)

[dangerDoge]

👍..

[ShadowofRegret]

I guess that explains the girls who follow me just to message me and ask me to answer questions like "he looked at me, does he want to marry me?" before immediately unfollowing me again...

[Wolframium]

Cool. That was very needed.
How about real arbitrary limitation, like only 1000 chars in message? Don't you think that should be changed? And just to play it safe, changed to something like 4000 or more.

[CallMeDave]

I definitely agree that 1000 characters is too low for private messages. I and the people I exchange messages with often exceed that and have to send multiple messages. I'd be satisfied with 2500 I think.

[menina]

Thanks for sharing this. I was so confused with this new message system and I was wondering why I didn't get notifications.
To be honest I don't like this update, it seems confusing.

[shimmeryns]

I actually like the new update, its easier for me to see messages from people I follow.

But I wish there's a "view all" messages option.

[Unit1]

[Nachowedgie]

I mean all is well good but I lost all my conversations bar 1, so is there any way of getting them back or are they just gone for good?

[dangerDoge]

Could you clarify what you mean? Like they were all suddenly deleted?

[Nachowedgie]

Yeah, I had about 15 conversations and now 14 of them have just vanished

[dangerDoge]

Was this at the time of the update or before?

[Nachowedgie]

At the time of the update

[dangerDoge]

Ok, I sent you message to try and figure it out.

[Kayla45]

I don't like social interaction through PMs, so this is fine.

[Nik1hil]

Does it really matters I Never Get Messages from anyone.. 🤣😂🤣😂

[Nik1hil]

@EllaLovehard I am not that desperate

[Nik1hil]

@TeresaMilf eh !..
Can someone shoot me in the balls

[Nayrr]

Lmao, why do you update things no one asks for. I don't understand.

[Piteka5]

I think it's a good idea, I would love to be able to post my takes from mobile, I have no idea if that is hard to acomplish, but it would be cool

[foriWish]

I think GaG is purposefully driving people away. Yup! That's what it is

[SydneySentinel]

I don't see any tabs on the app.

[dangerDoge]

The app has everything in one list. This update is for mobile web or desktop.

[SydneySentinel]

Gotcha, thanks!