S Folinsky

Every so often I have to post a gentle reminder [when I receive a longish PM inquiry]. I do not give individual advice in these forums. A PM to me seeking advice will remain unanswered.

No offense taken or meant to be given, but I do ask that these messages not come my way.

Good luck to you all.

old.sparkles

It is possible to limit pm's to moderators and your buddy list if it is getting annoying Folinsky - check 'edit options' under my profile

S Folinsky

It is not "annoying" to me at all. I use the PM function for other purposes -- just not to give individual advice.

My signature is intended as a hint that I am not giving individual advice and I find that most members of this on-line community get that. However, that is not always the case. The wording of my posting was simply to have people avoid drafting long PM's which will not get answered.

Not totally on point, but this article was published in the April 2014 issue of California Lawyer magazine.

Peace.

old.sparkles

No worries - option is always there if needed

christmasoompa

I think a huge number of us get PM's asking for immigration advice every day. Am I the only one that just ignores them then.

Occasionally I'll reply asking somebody to post their question in the open forums, but that's pretty rare. If people haven't read the stickies in most country forums about not asking for advice via PM's, then tough imo!

Dorothy

It's not just mods who get the PMs asking for advice. I ignore them, too.

Pollyana

I either ignore them or point the poster to the appropriate forum. I won't deal with immigration queries by pm, they are much better in the open, where otheres can read them and correct them if an info is wrong. Also very few problems are unique - there are always people who can learn from the answers given to other posters.

christmasoompa

Oh, I know it's not just the mods - pretty much any forum regular seems to get loads of them, particularly from newbies. *sigh*

materialcontroller

I've answered quite a few PM's about immigration matters. No biggie.

civilservant

I've answered a few where they have asked specifically about my experiences, but in always careful to remind them that that may not be their experisnce.

There are a couple I've ignored, but I always feel bad tbh.

old.sparkles

I usually answer but often along the lines of 'post in relevant forum and myself and others are happy to help there'

ian-mstm

I'm sure many of the long-time members get PMs asking for immigration advice. I've received plenty over the years. I don't ignore them though, because I think that's rude... but I do respond asking them to post in the open forum for the reasons Pollyana suggested.

Of late, most of the PMs I've received have been of the "You're a horrible person, I can't believe you said that!" type!

Ian

Pollyana

Some of those may have been destined for me, most of mine are along thse lines these days!

scrubbedexpat099

I don't.

Speedwell

Same with me. I don't ignore any, but I always say that I'm not the expert around here and my experience is only one experience.