About us forum

Ok, long promised, now (kinda) delivered.

To use the private messaging you need to do the following:

Login and go to the Member Profile section ans change the following:
Set "Messaging" to "enabled"
Set "Profile" to "Public"

Once you have done this, on the main Member Profile screen you'll see a new link in the left column reading "Click here for Private Messages"

Click on that and that will take you to the Private message thingy. At first view it should be largely blank.

### CONTACTING ANOTHER MEMBER ###
It is important to remember that the default setting for private messaging is "Off". The system will not let you send a message to someone who has not enabled it and likewise if you have not enabled it you will neither be able to send or receive them.

You contact people via the forum -- as you'll see in the left column beside this post (under the pic) there is a link reading "Private message". You click on that and you'll be taken to a screen that will let you send me a message -- note you need to have enabled private messaging yourself and obviously be logged in for this to work.

### MANAGING THE MAYHEM
On the main Private messaging screen you'll see there are three sections:
1) Messages you have sent
2) Messages you have received
3) Shortcut

The first is pretty self explanatory.

The second, click on a link and you'll see not only the message show up, but also a form box so you can shoot off a reply straight away. You can't reply to your own messages!

The shortcut section will list the usernames of people you have already contacted. This is to save you digging through the messageboard trying to find a link to someone you want to contact. Initially there is nobody listed -- feel free to send me a message to test it out -- I reply to all PMS :)

### RULES OF THE HOUSE
1) This is basically a cutdown version of the forum. All HTML (so bolds, italics etc) is stripped out. Any website addresses will appear as intended, but they will not be clickable (recipient will need to copy and paste it into the url bar). Don't use the UBB code - it has been disabled for this section.

2) Members are under no obligation whatsoever to activate any of this, so please don't pester people asking them to activate their messaging. Ask once.

3) Be nice. The messages go through the same filter for bad language etc.

4) The messages are "private" in that they cannot be read by casual visitors to the site, but they are not encrypted and can be read by me. Believe you me I have better things to do with my time than reading member's private messages. Just sayin.

5) Don't spam.

### SUGGESTIONS
As you'll see this is a very basic PM system -- if you have suggestions on how it could be improved, or if you have any display problems etc, please post below so I'm aware of it.

One thing I'm thinking of adding is an email notification whenever you receive a PM - let me know if people are keen for this.

Questions, as always, welcome.