Blocking Problem

I'd rather run into a man in the woods than a mama bear with cubs.

You CAN smell a bear in the woods. but you wouldn't be able to smell the bear over the smell from your underbritches.

"I guess if I wanted to debate strangers on silly issues such as the pros and cons of running into a bear vs. a man in the woods, it would be a good place."

That was a hot topic for about 15 minutes here, too.

Reddit- in " what is it" everything is a buttplug.
Followed by " anything is a buttplug if you are brave enough".
And about half of the time " what does it taste like"?
In electrical every question gets answered by a few dozen electricians who then tell each other they are wrong and quote code and are then told that is the wrong code.
Then the residential vs commercial electricians war starts.
Reddit is great comedy.
As for man VS bear. I will take my chances with the bear. Odds are it will smell better , have better manners and be more civilized.

"What should I use Reddit for? I guess if I wanted to debate strangers on silly issues such as the pros and cons of running into a bear vs. a man in the woods, it would be a good place."

I chuckled.

<p><a href="https://www.swinglifestyle.com/profile/lookup.cfm?usercode=57154282">ImAWanderingSoul</a>,</p>

<p>The site was started to be a replacement for having to run personal ads in a newspaper or lifestyle magazine. That is the core purpose of this site - a personals site for the lifestyle. A site that allows like-minded strangers to meet each other online, get to know each other and then meet in the "real" world.</p>

<p>Block and No Interest are two different settings. It sounds like you are looking at them as doing the same thing. If that were the case there would be no reason for having two different settings. "No Interest" is more like a soft block. It visually sets the interest bar to zero for that type of profile and stops your profile from showing up to that type of profile in the main search. It does not block your profile from being viewed in other areas of the site and does not block people from messaging you.</p>

<p>As for Reddit, I just don't have a login account on that service. If I am searching for something and a Reddit post shows up, I might review it. I generally find it to be low quality information. What should I use Reddit for? I guess if I wanted to debate strangers on silly issues such as the pros and cons of running into a bear vs. a man in the woods, it would be a good place.</p>

Regardless of what SLS thinks it wants to be, people will use/adapt it for whatever they want it to be for them. If SLS tried to be too rigid in honing it's purpose, it could cost them memberships.

As for blocking, at least 3 of the 4 sites that I'm on have blocking capabilities. IMHO, blocking should be part of a sites design. It helps quickly resolve any bickering between members that can result in aggravation for both the members and the site's support staff. People like to think we're all rational adults here, but spending any time in the forums will dispell that myth ;-)

==="I wished the site had never added that feature and I can't think of any other forums that have blocks like that."

This is, I think, the key to the entire problem with SLS. I don't think you all have decided what this site is supposed to be. What do you consider the primary focus of this site to be? Is it a dating app? Is it a forum? Is it a calendar? Is it social media?

I don't pay for any other sites but I find others to be far more compelling to spend time on and they seem to have honed in on what they want to be.

As for blocking; The block feature should be part of the core site and simply flow into the forums. Every member should be allowed to SEE a basic profile of any other user on the site. This should include a public BIO and any photos marked as public. Being able to see past the public portion of the profile, or do any other interaction with (messaging, friending, hot date, events, etc.) should be unavailable to single males if a profile has marked them as not interested, and to anyone you have blocked.

Wayne, I know you've said you don't use reddit but I think you really should. It clearly is a popular format and has many great features that I think could be used here on SLS.

I feel like SLS needs to hire a product manager who can help define what your product is and then work towards moving the site towards your vision.

"I would think most members who actually read the forums would feel impelled to post on occasion, but even tripling your .33% number to cover those who read but resist posting only takes it to 1%."

It's likely more. I used to see metrics for a different site's posting stats and at best 10% of the people reading also posted. And that would require at least one highly controversial post.

Plus "members" is kind of fluid term. I just checked and within 50 miles of here, 177 members logged in within the last month, but the number drops to 102 with "paid" checked and to 80 for those who logged in within the last month. They're all members though and I think the ratio of paid to free is probably higher than the average.

On occasion I will see people posting in the forums looking for play, either asking directly or indirectly. I usually steer them towards Hot Dates as the better vehicle for that. Not that someone local couldn't notice and act on a forum post, it now seems WAY less likely to happen than I had originally thought. I would have guessed forum participation to be closer to 5% of members or maybe even a little higher, but obviously that's not the case.

Thanks Wayne.

I would think most members who actually read the forums would feel impelled to post on occasion, but even tripling your .33% number to cover those who read but resist posting only takes it to 1%.

<p>I only counted people that had posted in the forums at least once in the last 30 days. I didn't even think of the members that just read the forums and never post. I don't have a way of counting those.</p>

Wayne - Wow! I knew it was low but didn't realize it was less than 1% of members that use the forums. Does this include only posters or does it also include read-only members?

<p>Sure. Using active members (used the site in the last 30 days) and only paid members since free members can't post in the forums, the percentage is 0.33%.</p>

Wayne - Just curious, but is there a way to tell what % of members even use the forums?

<p>"<span style="font-family:tahoma,verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:14px">Could they just add a block button on the forum so he could block all posts from said members?</span></p>

<p><span style="font-family:tahoma,verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:14px">That would probably be the simplist way to solve the problem. Or just get rid of forum blocking all together. :) I wished the site had never added that feature and I can't think of any other forums that have blocks like that. </span></p>

<p><span style="font-family:tahoma,verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:14px">"</span><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:open sans,sans-serif; font-size:14px">"They" could do a lot of things. The question is, "Will they?". I'm going to go with, No ;-)"</span></p>

<p><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:open sans,sans-serif; font-size:14px">There are lots of things that I would love to see get done, but resources are limited and we have to take into account how many members would benefit. I'm guessing forum blocks affect less than 1/10 of a percent of our members.</span></p>

ItalianGinger4u2 - "Could they just add a block button on the forum so he could block all posts from said members?"

"They" could do a lot of things. The question is, "Will they?". I'm going to go with, No ;-)

It is a somewhat bad design that you need to get to someone's profile in order to block them. It's not the first time this has come up. In the meantime, the blocker can temporaily unblock someone to read their posts and then reapply the block, which also kind of sucks.

The other workaround may be to ask support to transfer to a new profile name, which I suspect will now allow you to block said person/s, however a lot of couples block all SMs, so that may not be an option either.

Could they just add a block button on the forum so he could block all posts from said members?

<p>I'm sorry, there is no way for you to block the other member if you cannot view their profile. We don't block profiles for members.</p>

You could try opening up a support ticket, but they may be reluctant to do that as it could open a floodgate of similar requests, not to mention potentially future requests by you as well.

Here's a problem: I'd like to block a couple whose forum posts I'd rather not deal with, but since they won't allow single males to view their profile it seems to be impossible. Is there any way to do this?