User Control Panel (private messages)

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Indiana

User Control Panel (private messages)

Postby Indiana » Thu Jul 10, 2008 2:18 am

Private messages have the following subsections:

  1. Private messages
  2. Composing messages
  3. Managing PM drafts
  4. Rules, folders & settings

Private Messages

Private Messages allow users to communicate with other users privately.

Private messages can be accessed by clicking on messages at the top of the board index or through the User Control Panel.

Depending on your settings, there are 3 ways of being notified that a new Private Message has arrived:

1. By receiving an e-mail
2. While browsing the forum a notification window will pop up
3. The [X new messages] link will show the number of currently unread messages

You can set the options to your liking in the Preferences section.

Note: for the popup window notification to work, you will have to add the forum you are visiting to your browser’s popup blocker white list.

You can choose to not receive Private Messages by other users in your Preferences. Note, that moderators and administrators will still be able send you Private Messages, even if you have disabled them.

Message Folders

Just like in your e-mail client, all private messages are stored in folders.

The Inbox is your default incoming message folder. All messages you receive will appear in here.

Sent messages will appear in either the Outbox or the Sent messages folder. As long as the recipient(s) have not yet read the message, it will stay in the Outbox. As soon as someone reads the message it will be archived to the Sent messages folder.

Each folder, including Sent messages and Outbox, can hold 50 messages. An info text displays the current number of allowed messages and the current percentage of space your messages are using at the top of each folder.

Note: The total amount of messages allowed is a 50 per-folder setting. You can have multiple folders which each allow 50 messages for instance. If you have 3 folders, your actual global limit is 150 messages, but each folder can only contain up to 50 messages by itself. It is not possible to merge folders and have one with more messages than the limit.

Custom Folders

You can create your own custom private message folders. To add a new folder, enter the folder's name into the Add folder input box. If creation was successful, your new folder will appear at the bottom of the folder list. You can then use it like a normal message folder and move messages into it or set a filter (see the section on Private Message Filters for more information about filters) to automatically do it for you.

Moving Messages

To move messages, visit the folder from which you want to move the messages away. Select the messages you want to move, and use the Moved marked pull-down menu to select the destination folder.

Note: If after the move, the destination folder would have more messages in it than the message limit allows, you will receive an error message and the move will be discarded.

Message Markers

Messages inside folders can have colour markings. Please refer to the Message colours legend to see what each colour means. The exact type of colouring depends on the used theme. Coloured messages can have four different meanings:

Marked message - You can set a message as marked with the Mark as important option from the pull-down menu.

Replied to message - If you reply to a message, the message will be marked as this. This way, you can keep hold of which messages still need your attention and which messages you have already replied to.

Message from a friend - If the sender of a message is in your friends list (see the section on Friends & Foes for more information), this colour will highlight the message.

Message from a foe - If the sender of a message is one of your foes, this colour will highlight this.

Note: A message can only have one label, and it will always be the last action you take. If you mark a message as important and reply to it afterwards, for instance, the replied to label will overwrite the important label.

Composing a new message

The composing screen is similar to the posting screen with a few additions.

PM Icon - There are several icons to choose from for your message.

To - To enter a user name either enter the name in the Username box or click on Find a member to look up the correct spelling. To add the name to the To field click on Add (To).

Bcc (Blind carbon copy) - To enter a user name either enter the name in the Username box or click on Find a member to look up the correct spelling. To add the name to the Bcc field click on Add (Bcc).

Groups - To send a message to all Admins or all mods click on the one you want and then Add (To).

Friends & Foes - To send a message to a Friend click on the add button.

Subject - Enter a subject and you are all set to type your private message.

Manage PM drafts

Here you can view, edit and delete your saved drafts.

Rules, folders & settings

This section will be added later.

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