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Frequently Asked Questions

Messages

1. What is the message system?

Basically its a way for members to be able to contact one another about con-related matters.

Over the last couple of years of having online registration, a number of people have expressed that it would be neat to be able to easily contact other attendees and ask questions - simple things like seeing if other individual members want to make a team before the con, whether a player can move out of a session that a writer wants to cancel, and so on.

2. So, when I send a message....

An email is sent to the recipient.

3. Why wouldn't I just email them?

They might not want to have their email address available to all and sundry. Members can also place limits on who can contact them - they might be happy to receive messages from all and sundry, or only from the Con Orgs. If they don't want your message, they won't appear in the drop down of users for you.

You also might not want to give out your email to a bunch of other folks - as long as "Display Email Address" in your biographical details is set to No, your message will appear to come from a system address.

4. Ok, I want to send a message...

Go to "new" on the message menu. You will get a form with the details to be filled out - who you want to send the message to, what the subject is, and the body of the message.

If you want to send the message straight away, change the status to "Ok, send this now". Otherwise the message will be kept as pending and you can come back and edit it further (add more people, delete it, etc).

5. How many people can I message at once?

Unless you're a writer or a conorg, you're limited to 5 recipients at a time - enough to contact all the individual players in a game, or a similar number of other AON members.

6. Can I message myself too?

Yep, but you count as one of the five.

7. Can I see what I've sent/received?

Yep, you can list and view messages you have received or sent by going to the received or sent message menu options respectively.

8. How do they reply?

If you have selected "Yes" to the "Display Email" option in your biographical details, the email will be sent with your email as the reply-to address. Otherwise, they will have to contact you via the message options in AON.

9. This seems a little unweildly...

Primarily the system has been set up with writers and conorgs in mind - often we have to notify groups of con attendees about changes, and this makes it considerably easier. Making it available to all the AON members was sort of a bonus.

10. Er, it doesn't seem to have been sent.

First check that the status is ready. If you are sure that your message has a "ready" status, make sure that it has a title and some content. Then wait 5 minutes - the list of messages ready is checked every 5 minutes, and then they are sent out and the message status is updated.

11. I'm being harassed.

Let us know - all the messages are logged, and we will follow it up.