Private message number

wagonist · Post by **wagonist** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 10:51 am

Can the total number of Private messages be upgraded beyond 50?

50 is a tiny amount when you consider it could take 4 or 5 back & forth (that's 10 total) to sort out a transaction when buying something off here.

And sometimes there's info that someone else has sent you which you want to keep for some reason or another.

Thanks
Steve

Suba · Post by **Suba** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 7:32 pm

Not wanting to sound rude , have you heard about cut and past , thats what I do with my msg's that I want the info kept, I then put it all in a folder in my document folder on my comp, I find this a very good way to access any info I wish to check on without logging onto the board or even the net for that matter, just a suggestion

.

Mike.

wagonist · Post by **wagonist** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 10:48 pm

What about when I'm access this forum at lunchtime on my work computer?
Or round a mates place working on his car? And interstate?

The software is able to do more PMs than 50.
I've got a 500 limit on another forum.

No offence, but why should I have to do it your way?

Suba · Post by **Suba** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 11:00 pm

You dont.

Mike.

vincentvega · Post by **vincentvega** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 8:16 pm

stinky:

can you please increase the PM limit mate? Surely we arent that tight on disk space.. 100-200 would be reasonable.

just a humble request

stinky · Post by **stinky** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 9:54 pm

wagonist wrote:No offence, but why should I have to do it your way?

when you want to play in our backyard you can play by our rules. I'll make sure I play by your rules when I play in yours.

There's a lot of work going on in the background that people aren't aware of, the people doing that work all have full time jobs, they have families and they have lives, This means that sometimes even simple requests can take time.

50 PMs might not seem like a lot, but if a forum has 500 users, and each of those users has 50 PMs, then that's 25,000 PMs. If the Avg PM takes 10kb to store, that's 250Mb of space taken up by PMs. That's actually a significant amount of webpace. It also means there's probably 100,000+ fields storing the info inside the database which is a lot of data to go through to display data even with good indexing.

If Brett is okay with me increasing the limit I will.

So before you bitch because we're not dropping everything to be at your beck and call, please appreciate that we need to make sure we consider the implications of the changes that we make.

SuBaRiNo · Post by **SuBaRiNo** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 10:35 pm

How many PM's could we have on the old Forum??... i never had a problem with that... now i find i really have to monitor the amount in there.

I understand thats it not high priority and it does use up space but i also wouldn't mind seeing it increased if at all possible... If not... im happy either way.

Dave

stinky · Post by **stinky** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:51 am

According to the Admin section of the old forum the limit was 20, with 50 allowed in the savebox.

If Brett wants to increase then no worries, we'll increase it. However I'm wary of doing so without his consent as if it does take much extra space he could be up for more hosting fees.

wagonist · Post by **wagonist** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 12:21 am

stinky wrote:when you want to play in our backyard you can play by our rules. I'll make sure I play by your rules when I play in yours.

There's a lot of work going on in the background that people aren't aware of, the people doing that work all have full time jobs, they have families and they have lives, This means that sometimes even simple requests can take time.

50 PMs might not seem like a lot, but if a forum has 500 users, and each of those users has 50 PMs, then that's 25,000 PMs. If the Avg PM takes 10kb to store, that's 250Mb of space taken up by PMs. That's actually a significant amount of webpace. It also means there's probably 100,000+ fields storing the info inside the database which is a lot of data to go through to display data even with good indexing.

If Brett is okay with me increasing the limit I will.

So before you bitch because we're not dropping everything to be at your beck and call, please appreciate that we need to make sure we consider the implications of the changes that we make.

Please don't take my replies out of context. Comment about not doing it your way was a reply to Suba's post, not anything else, so your reply was a bit harsh, IMHO.
And who's bitching about you guys being at our beck & call? No one in this thread.

The rest of the post is reasonable and makes absolute sense, and I agree with everything said.
Personally, 100/user would be heaps in my opinion, but I've got no idea of how & where from you are running this.

That being said, has this gotten any further?

Outback bloke · Post by **Outback bloke** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 5:38 am

I have thought about it a bit. None of what I am writing here is directed at any one, I am just saying what I think about this matter and what will happen.

Some times I think it is worth it and would be a good thing but then I remind myself that this is a public forum for public discussion. Not a forum for privately disproving the 4th theory of relativity or what ever it is people are doing. The PM feature is a courtesy feature for members for finalising deals or passing on phone numbers that you don't want broadcast over the internet.

I do know a few users that only use this board for making money for them selves and the PM feature is their way of doing it. They put in NOTHING towards the rest of the community in the way of advice or contributions. This annoys the piss out of me and was nearly going to make me turn the PM feature off altogether back on the old board. One of the people I am thinking of was very vocal about the board going down and whinging that he had deals to close. This I found out by email when he had the nerve ask me how much longer it was going to be because it was costing him money. (very close to banning that user at the time)

Another user that doesn't come here any more was posting for sale ads in the Private sale section while running a business. I let it ride for a while as I do with all new comers, approached the person about it and then started deleting posts when new ads were posted. I recieved a dirty email abusing me for doing so. I also found out in that email that a lot of deals were done using PMS with no posts to the board at all. Things like this doesn't sit well with me and is the main governing factor behind limiting the PMs. That is why the old board only had 20 incoming.

I get PMs pretty much every day about one thing or another and I have maxxed out once. All it takes is a bit of effort to clean out the folders, save the details you want on your computer and delete messages. Effort being the word that a lot of users don't like.

My opinion is 20 is enough and if you need more than that then that is why the phone and email were invented. I don't see any members posting up any reasons that are good enough yet for me to even contemplate increasing the limit. If some one does let me know a reason good enough, then yes we will lift it. Until then 50 it is.

Chris_Rogers · Post by **Chris_Rogers** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 2:46 pm

seen what you said happen on several boards in oz. 20 works (or what it is set at now ) and is fine by me.

PeeJay · Post by **PeeJay** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 6:17 pm

What's wrong with email? I don't get it!

wagonist · Post by **wagonist** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 6:27 pm

Thanks for taking the time to write that post, Brett.
It is appreciated to see the situation from your point of view.
And after reading it, I'd have to agree with you 100%.
People having been having a whinge about how tough I've bene moderating the classifieds on Toymods, & these are the exact reasons.

The main reason I wanted mroe is because most of the time, I'm not working on my car at my car (the topography doesn't allow it) & having the info available anywhere is handy, but I'll copy the info onto emails & I'll still be able to access it anywhere.

So the 50 is fine with me now too