Remember the flashing icon at the old boards, which let you know if you got site mail? Exciting, wasn't it?! Unfortunately, that isn't part of the newer boards, but you can still get that feeling of anticipatory delight when you get the pop-up announcing a new PM.
What, not getting that pop-up? You have no idea when or if you have any mail here? Or perhaps your mailbox is filled up so it cannot receive mail? Read on, as I try to unravel the mysteries of the Private Mail system at Amitymama...
Customizing your PM box settings:
Just underneath the banner advertisements, there's a picture of labeled dancers, catching the sun's rays. Click on the one labeled "my page" (or alternatively, go directly to the URL
http://www.amitymama.com/vb/usercp.php?s= ) This is your "User Control Panel", where you can read PM's (new and old), look at subscribed threads, edit your profile, etc. Click on the "Edit Options" link
http://www.amitymama.com/vb/member.p...n=editoptions. Under the "Messaging & Notification" header, you'll see 3 options which relate to the Private Messaging system:
- "Enable Private Messaging" allows other users to send PMs to you - this can be turned on or off (though if you turn it off, it may be appropriate to toggle "Hide Email Address" to "no" so that people can send you email through Amitymama - your email address *will* still be hidden, contrary to how you'd expect this option to work - I've tried it!).
- "Send you an email when you receive a Private Message" can be useful when you check your email on a more regular basis than you check into Amitymama.
- "Pop up a box when you receive a private message" should alert you to any new PMs sent to you, either when you first log into Amitymama, or while you are logged on. When the box pops up, you can choose whether to read the new PMs immediately, or go back to them later.
Reading/sending private messages:
To read a PM (new or old) at any time later, you can always go to
http://www.amitymama.com/vb/private.php - or click on "my page" and then on "private messages". There are several ways of sending PMs - one frequently used way is to click on the "send PM" button underneath a user's post. If you have someone on your "buddy list" you can click on the "PM" link next to their name on your "my page". Or from your "private messages" page you can click on the "PM to buddies" and select up to 20 of them at a time to send your message to, and then click on the "compose message" button (the recipients will get no indication of the PM being sent to others besides themselves). Another way is to click on "new message" from the "private messages" page, and type in the recipient's username. One more way is to click on the dancing figure labeled "members", search for the username alphabetically, click on their username, and then click on "send username a Private Message!"
You can type anything into your message that you're able to type in a post - vB code including smilies are allowed, but HTML code is not interpreted due to security reasons. You must type something into the subject field - a blank subject line will generate an error when you try to "send message".
By default, all options are selected (I do not know how to change the default). These include:
"Automatically parse URLs": automatically adds [ url] and [/url] around internet addresses.
"Show Signature": includes your profile signature.
"Save a copy": Also save a copy in the 'Sent Items' folder.
"Request Read Receipt": Allows you to check whether your message has been displayed by the recipient's account.
I mention the options, because that "Save a copy" option becomes important in the next topic...
PM box filling up:
Great, now you can know when you get a PM, read PMs, and send them to other users. But oh no! Now you're getting email messages saying that your PM box is full, and it looks to you as if you only have a few messages in there - what's wrong?!
The PM box currently has a limit (with a proviso) of 70 messages - this number includes all the PMs in *all* PM folders - "inbox", "sent items", and whatever folders you create yourself. The proviso is... if you hit the limit, your outgoing messages will continue to be saved in the "sent items" folder as long as you have the "Save a copy" option selected when you send a PM. Since the "save a copy" option is selected as default, you may have a lot more saved PMs than you think! If your PM box is prone to being full, you might want to make a habit of de-selecting the "save a copy" option when you send PMs.
To empty your PM box, make sure you select "Show messages from the beginning" for both your folder "inbox" *and* "sent items" (as well as any other folders you may have created on your own). You may also clear out your "message tracking" if you like, but from what I've experienced, those do not fill up your PM box as the "inbox" and "sent items" do.
A few more words about PMs:
Remember that PMs, while they imply "private" from their name, are just the same as any email you might send across the network - they cannot be guaranteed to be completely private. Use PMs responsibly. If you find yourself receiving harrassing PMs, please contact a moderator, and/or put that user on your "ignore" list - if someone is on your "ignore" list (the opposite of a "buddy" list), then you will not see their PMs to you until/unless you take them off your "ignore" list.
I hope this has helped cleared up some of the questions you might have had about PMs at Amitymama! Enjoy your stay!
Linear Mode
