02-12-2023, 04:54 AM
If You Reach Out to Me Via Private Message
(But) Never Hear Back... There's A
Very Good Reason For That!
(But) Never Hear Back... There's A
Very Good Reason For That!
First off, my apologies for posting this here but I didn't see anyplace else to do that.
I just received a PM from a forum friend, asking for a particular course (which I didn't have). I won't name names but I'll give a couple of clues in the hopes that he will know who I'm talking about...
I just got this request like yesterday or very early today. The request was for the new Doberman Dan course that Terry Dean is a partner with and is currently promoting.
Anyway, I tried to let him know why I think he'll have difficulty finding it (unless someone who purchased shares it). It's fairly new and is locked behind a membership portal.
But when I went to send my reply, I learned he had reached his PM quota and my message could not be sent.
That's not his fault. Not entirely, anyway.
Besides, I've gotten the old "reached their PM limit" message more times than I care to remember over the years.
Another message I get is the person has disabled their PM function.
So, no matter what, my message cannot be sent.
When a forum member disables their private messaging function, that's usually a choice they make. I say "usually" because in one recent case, I heard from someone who didn't make any changes but my message was blocked --- and that mystery was most likely a glitch in the forum's system.
It's okay --- you can decide to cut off contact from other forum users temporarily or permanently for any number of reasons... or no reason at all. It's YOUR account. But if you need someone's help... how do you expect them to reach you?
When a forum member reaches their private message allotment, that's a forum-controlled issue but there is something you can do about that.
In the past, I have contacted Lala to ask her to add a little extra space to someone's PM that I needed badly to reach because they were expecting an answer from me. And bless her soul, she has been a wonderful help to me in that regard.
But I don't expect (nor do I recommend) you do this because you have a limited number of PMs for a reason and Lala does this as a favor because she knows how much I try to be a help to the community.
And I also don't feel I should have to work harder than I already do by asking her to add to your account when all you've got to do is free up space by cleaning house. Keep your PM inbox clutter-free. Get rid of the old (messages) to make room for the new.
My own inbox stays clean because as soon as I contact someone, or vice versa, I extract whatever I need from the message (download links, license codes, information, etc.) and save it to a text document to file elsewhere on my computer. I then go in and delete ALL of my messages from inside of my account. As a result, I am using 0% of my PM allotment.
Getting rid of old messages frees up space so that new messages can be delivered. That is especially useful if you're on a private message diet (ex: you only get X-number of messages before all NEW messages are returned-to-sender).
But if you want to escape private message restrictions and get other perks on this forum, start pulling your weight in the community.
Contribute value.
Help someone.
DO Something.
That will earn you rep credits and when you need help going forward, the contributors here will go out of their way to help you.
Contributing more will also bump up your status on the forum and you will see all the different badges in your profile and above your avatar. Those badges, given by admins and moderators, are for people who do good for the community.
So here are two friendly reminders...
(1) IF you regularly enable/disable the PM function in your account, be sure it is enabled BEFORE you contact someone to ask for advice or any help. Nothing frustrates me more than doing research and finding something (or wasting valuable time searching and finding nothing) then NOT being able to send a message to whomever contacted me in the first place --- because their PM is turned off!
And...
(2) IF you have a pre-determined number of private messages (called a PM quota), be sure to keep your inbox clean. I'm not saying you need to delete every message but try to part ways with those old messages you no longer need so that new ones from people trying to reach you can get through.
I'll show you just how easy it is to do. Click on the User CP link (across from the Log Out link atop the forum). That takes you to the User CP Home page (see image below):
From there, click on Edit Options (see red arrow #1) and inside of the Edit Options box that comes into view, go to the Messaging and Notification area (circled title) and be sure the box next to Receive Private Messages From Other Users (see third box from the top at red arrow #2) is checked or ticked.
That's all there is to it!
Of course, you can untick that box whenever you don't feel like dealing with people (or their messages) but if you need someone's help, please, make sure that box is checked before you reach out.
It's common courtesy.
BUT WAIT...! I'VE DELETED MY MESSAGES
AND THEY'RE STILL SHOWING
AND THEY'RE STILL SHOWING
IMPORTANT: I forgot to add that, to delete a message, there is a 2-step process. You can see when you have unread messages because the Private Message section will show a number.
Mine is empty at the moment but this is what it looks like:
If I had 4 new (unread) messages, for example, the number 4 would show after Unread and the number 4 would show after the word Total.
As I click on and read each message, the number after Unread would decrease with each message read but the Total would remain the same (4), until I deleted them.
Deleting them is just a matter of ticking the tiny box to the right of each message under the column that reads Delete then clicking the little button labeled Delete at the base of the column.
But even after you've done that (and all of your message go away in the browser window), you will still see the number of Total messages remain the same.
Why is that?
Well, because the forum's system moves your messages to the Trash Can so they still technically exist.
This can be a good thing... IF you made a boo-boo and didn't mean to delete all or any of those messages just yet. If it was in error, this gives you a second chance to find them in the Trash Can, then open and read them, get what you needed from them, respond to the sender, etc.
But if you intended to truly delete all of these messages, there is just one one more step to take. And that is the step that will decrease your Total from 4 (hypothetically speaking, as in my example) to 0 and permanently get rid of all the messages.
Click on the Trash Can link (you can actually see that in my previous image where I explained how to set your Private Messages to on/off. Under the Menu, it falls under the Inbox category. Whereas the other links are represented by file folder icons, the Trash Can link is in the image of a tiny garbage can.
When you do that, you'll see those same messages again.
Then repeat the steps to delete these messages, which are:
Check/tick the box next to each message under the column labeled Delete for any message(s) you want to permanently delete. Lastly, click the button labeled Delete.
Magically, the number after Total goes to 0 and your messages are truly wiped clean.
I truly hope this helps.
for reading!
Layna61524