To the people who PM'd me

Green Witch--

Have you seen:

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=47497 ?

Exasperating as it may be, the Hamster's Motto seems to be "Ripeness is All".

I assure you Noddy, "Ripeness" is my middle name.

and to Francis: Thank you, I will type away in my quest for the golden 500. Maybe I should go play one of the "never ending link games" for awhile.

I hink it has been made clear whenever this topic comes up that there is no magic number.

Is is just the will of the forum Gods? I hate that.

By the way, will I know when the honor is bestowed upon me or must I just keep trying to PM and see if it works?

Will it help to chant:

"I am worthy"
"I am worthy"

?

In my waters I feel that that is unlikely to help!

Worthiness has nothing to do with it. I think that the powers-that-be have set certain parameters as to when a member can PM. This is done because in the past, some members have joined just so that they could spam by PM.

The rationale is, that if you have taken the time and trouble to be a member for "X" amount of time, with "X" amount of posts, you are considered a "real" member, and not just a spammer, who is using A2K for his/her own nefarious purposes.

It is not a good idea to mention any number of posts that a person must have in order to PM. That would only encourage serious spammers to attain that number.

By the way, if I remember correctly, this step was taken instead of just doing away with PMs entirely.

I would be curious to know, from amongst those who are able to use the PM feature, how often it is used.

I, myself, since I've been able to, have only used it about a half dozen times or so. So, for me, it would be "hardly ever".

The reason that is, is because I also feel that maybe you're "bothering somebody" if you send them a PM. It would be nice to have a list of people who welcome this kind of contact.

For all who knew Abuzz, remember, we had the privilege of inviting members to our new topic (threads, they were called). Most of the PM's I have rec'd here have been 'invites'- or maybe a blushing apology if they felt they had ignored me.
Sometimes folks just want to say HI, or they might be genuinely interested in meeting another.
It is unfortunate that spamming (whatever that is) goes on.

Almost never.

I have the odd flurry with someone from time to time - but usually I say what I want to say here - or I have people's emails and/or I can chat to them on MSN or Yahoo or whatever.

I honestly cannot see the big deal, though I gather that some folk gossip about each other, or call each other to hot threads to give each other or their position, support. I only surmise this because occasionally, on heated threads, someone has accused me of doing this, (calling in the troops) much to my amusement and disbelief.

I would far rather email or chat if I really want to talk to someone - because the interruption of PMs annoys the heck out of me.

I can recall it being helpful when I wanted to discuss something with someone here when I am at work - because, of course, I aan neither email nor chat when I am there.

Lol - human nature being what it is, though, I can imagine that, if I didn't have the damn things, I would suddenly want them! And I can imagine them being a nice way to begin to establish a friendship with someone before you get to email or chat stage.

Edit: I can imagine that the PM facility will also, in line with human nature, become less attractive to people as soon as they gain it, too! It seems to be a strange attractor for some folk - not meaning you, Green Witch - who act as though they have been personally insulted and picked on when they realise they do not yet have PM facilities.

Honestly, I can't remember the last time that I used the PM.............either going or coming. Over the years I have used the PM from time to time, but not very often.

To me the pms are a lovely benefit that I hope the site continues to have as time goes by.

wouldn't miss 'em one iota...

I like them. They're convenient.

Useful, but far from essential.

I agree with Dlowan that being interrupted in the stately tenor of my ways to view a PM can be annoying.

When I read the title of this thread, I honestly thought green witch's next post was going to be "...stop it."