Stitch's Limited membership (otherwise known as Public membership) is designed to give Limited members the ability to connect with other Stitch members at activities and events, and participate in the community at all Public events and activities, whether those are in-person or virtual. Limited members can also join Public Groups on Stitch.
While Limited members can attend Public events, however, they don't get to use all the online messaging and chat capabilities of Stitch. Those features are reserved for Full members.
Limited members do receive some ability to send private messages -- primarily to help them participate actively in the community -- subject to some restrictions, as follows:
Limited members can't initiate conversations with general members of the community -- with three exceptions
Unlike Full members, Limited members can't initiate conversations with most other members of the community, such as the other attendees at an event they have attended.
They can, however, message the host of any event they are attending, up until 48 hours after the event. They can also message the owner of any Public Group they have joined.Limited members can also message members from the Members page if they have an upcoming in-person activity already scheduled on Stitch. This allows them to connect with and invite other members to their local activities.
Limited members have 48 hours to respond to private messages
Limited members can reply to any message they have received from a Full member, but they only have 48 hours to respond. If they don't respond within 48 hours, the conversation is closed. It will be reopened again each time the Full member sends another message.
These restrictions are designed to protect Full members, by giving them control of the conversations they have with Limited members. Our event organizers, for example, are happy to assist Limited members and give them guidance on attending their events, but want to be able to choose whether they continue to communicate after the event has taken place.