PM (Private Message) box "Rules"????

For what it's worth, I don't use it often, but have felt free to do so.

Yes, I'm really curious about this, too. My inbox is already 40% full .

Some things I've cobbled together, and would like to know how off-base I am:

1. Inbox, Sentbox, and Savebox have little percentage thingies at the top right of the screen -- I don't know what the numbers are, though (as in percent of _____.)

2. I think that the Outbox contains PMs that have been sent but not read yet, but not sure of that one.

3. I couldn't find a method to save to hard drive, though there must be one.

I'll answer for Craven, if that's okay.

1) The limitations are something like 50 messages. But that's per box (e. g. Sentbox, Inbox and Savebox). If you go above your limit, older messages will be deleted to make way for new ones. So it's best to do some pruning every few days or so, so that you control what's being deleted, rather than the algorithm.
2) Sent messages go to the Outbox and stay there until read. Then they are automatically transferred (magic!) to the Sentbox. So that's your return receipt, essentially. If a message is still in the Outbox, no one's read it.
3) As for save to hard drive, all I can tell you is to copy and paste into Word or Notepad or something like that. It's not a perfect solution but you'll be able to save a lot more stuff, if that's what you want to do.
4) You can PM any member, unless they have you on ignore. I have no idea how to set ignore, by the way. But the idea there is to be able to stop receiving messages from someone who, let's just say, is a little too friendly.
5) You have the same limitation rights.
6) I don't know about images or attachments, but the boxes are really tiny, so I wouldn't recommend trying. But, you can always ask someone in PM what their 'real' email address is, and send them whatever you like that way.
7) There is no #7.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the run-down. Makes sense and very helpful.

About PMs (what jespah hasn't covered):

Inbox: 50

Sentbox: 25

Saves: 50

I will soon modify the code to allow for certain groups to have bigger boxes (e.g. moderators and editors who might receive more Pms).

Attachments are not yet configured and are not very likely to be due to the following:

I can add an attachments feature to the froum that would alos work in PMs. The code has been written by someone else already. The problem is that this opens up huge issues in regard to server space for me. We could have 100,000s of posts without using the server space I have purchaced but attachments can be such that 100 posts will eat up half the server space (this is the same problem with allowing users to upload photos to the server).

I might find a way to have uploads work off of backup servers so that if uploads get out of control the basic forum features won't suffer but cross host developing has very severe limitations and difficulties.

Jespah mentioned the ignore feature and is right on how it would work but I haven't added that yet.

Another thing is that messages in your outbox can be edited or deleted in case you change your mind after sending.

Saving the PM's to your hard drive is a very interesting feature that, while difficult to code, would be entirely feasible. But I have a simpler solution. I can make your email notification from the PMs contain the text in the PM and you can always save the email.

A very long term project I am thinking about is an IM style program from this site that would change everything. But with my current skill this is a pipe dream. Gimme a few years to learn more programming.

A big "THANK YOU!" to Jespah and Craven!

From past experince I know the PMs WILL get used a LOT. Every board I've been on that has them THRIVES on them. With that always comes a deluge of questions (such as the ones I listed) from new members as they sign up and start playing. Your responses here will provide a valuable tool for us all to refer to when those questions come up (and they will!).

And umm.. for Craven.. Personally, I wouldn't put attachments at the top of any lists of work that needs to be done! There are plenty of alternative methods for people to pass images back and forth. While it may be a "nice to have" it would be pretty well at the bottom of any priority list I could come up with.

Attachments certainly are at the bottom of my list. As to photos that is near the top but I don't work from the top down. ;-)