Just a note here about PM's. Eric or Bob! could explain the techie stuff a lot better, but here's a couple of things to remember.....

1) First, what the heck are they?? PM's are private messages, between TWO registered TTOL members. Thus BOTH parties have to be registered members. The beauty of PM's is that you do not have to list any email address in your personal profile in order to receive them from another registered member. You can thus receive a private message from another member without revealing your email address on the board.

2) HOW DO I KNOW IF I HAVE A PM?? You can, at your option, elect to receive an email notification that you have received a PM. Mostly, I can't think of a good reason NOT to check that option, but it's up to you. Then you can just click on the link in the email and it takes you directly to the board to retrieve your PM. However, whenever sign on the bulletin board next, you will have a little flag flashing toward the upper left hand corner of your screen. CLICK on it!! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" /> That will take you to your private message.

3) PM's are NOT like regular email. Part of what I mean by that is that, even once you read them, they are NOT stored on your computer. They are stored on ours. The difference it makes to YOU is that, even if you don't delete them, they are automatically deleted by the system after 30 days. So, if you have something in a PM that you want to save, do it in another document! Because after 30 days, POOF! it's gone!!!

4) I get a lot of questions about how do you know if it was sent or not. (Why people ask ME techie questions, is beyond me!!! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/Laugh.gif" alt="" /> But, here goes!!!) If you DON'T get an error message, the PM was sent. Now, sometimes, if our mail server is having one of it's brain f$rts, the email notification to the receiving party doesn't get sent, and thus you get an error message. That doesn't necessarily mean that the PM itself didn't get sent, just the email notification. If you get an error message when you send a PM, you can try to send it one more time, but don't bother to try multiple times. It probably just means that there was some blip in the mail server..

5) I also get questions all the time about how to save copies of sent PM's. Again. PM's are different from regular email, so there is not automatically a copy saved of the PM you sent, in an "outbox", as it were. However, when you are composing a PM, just below the box where you type in the text, you CAN check the box "I want to keep a copy of my message"... Now this box has to be checked EVERY time you send a PM, in order to save a copy of it. And, once you save a copy of it, where is it??????? Go to your "My Home" page, and in the Message Box, it has a spot there that says "Sent Private Messages". That's where your copy is. But, again, that's saved for only 30 days.

6) How do you send PM's?? First, you have to have the USER NAME of the party. If you have a post of theirs, it's real easy. Just click on their name, and it will bring up a screen that has their profile. This will list their email address, IF they have an email address in their profile, which they are NOT required to display. You can send a regular email at that point, should you choose to. OR click on the button in the lower left of the screen of their profile which says "Send a Private Message". At this point, from the profile screen, you can also Add them to your Address Book.

7) What the heck is an address book??? Your address book is the user names of folks that you think that you might want to send PM's to from time to time, so instead of trying to have to remember how to spell their user name, you can just go to your address book and find them. You find your Address Book on your "My Home" page, by clicking on "Send a PM". Once you're there, it says to type in the user name or Use Address Book. Then you can scroll down through the names of folks that are in your Address Book and send them a PM by clicking on their name.

8) Goodies, while sending PM's... Please remember that, as with a regular message, you can PREVIEW a PM, and you can attach a click-on smiley, or a url, etc..

9). Ok, but it's still not like a regular email. You can't send a copy of a PM to multiple people, unless you just copy and paste the text...

Guess that's about it. I'm terrified to say this, but if you have any questions, I will try to answer... (Before I turn it over to Eric or Bob! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" /> )