I recently posted that I had 2 flutes and 2 whistles for sale and got a bunch of inquiries. After posting that I had sold two of them a couple forum members expressed their disappointment that I had not given them a chance to make an offer–particularly on the O’Riordans. But I had answered everyone and included pictures too. I am not complaining for me, but I really am curious as to whether I did something wrong in posting replies or whether there is a problem with the post reply links. I feel a little bad about the situation and apologize to anyone who felt that I had simply ignored them.
This happened when I was trying to buy a whistle a few years ago. The first e-mail saying I would buy it was received and the seller claims he replied and agreed to sell the whistle to me but no further communication made it through until a few days later when the whistle went up for sale again with a very disparaging comment about a deadbeat buyer (me) that didn’t follow through. The whistle sold immediately to someone who must have had better luck with the PM’s than I did.
The only time I’ve seen problems like that is when someone hasn’t updated their email address. Out of date email addresses are a major weakness of web forums. If the system has an old address, you won’t receive notices about PMs or about responses to your messages.
Just to be clear, e-mail and PMs are two entirely different things. The Chiffboard has no control over e-mail communications, apart from displaying a user-supplied address. PMs are internal to the board, but I’ve never experienced lost PMs, only unretrieved ones.
Yes, emails and PMs are different systems within the forum, but both rely on the user-supplied email address, as does the notification about new messages on those threads you’ve subscribed to.
If you change your address, you won’t receive the notices about PMs, the emails other members send through the forum software, or notices about new messages.
There is another problem with PMs, even if your email address is up to date. If I send you a PM, but then change my mind and delete the message before you have a chance to read it, you will have received the notification email, but won’t be able to find or read the PM. That can lead to a lot of confusion.
This is a little off topic, but related, so I’ll mention it here. Members have the option to not have their email addresses displayed publicly. Libraryman’s email is visible to anyone on the web. Springrobin’s, MTGuru’s and mine are not. If you roll your mouse over the email icon for Libraryman, you can read their email address. You don’t have to be logged in to do this, which means that spambots can also read these public addresses. You can turn that feature on or off in your profile. I’d recommend turning it off.
There is also a setting in the phpBB administrative control panel which hides email addresses so they aren’t publicly displayed. Instead, it turns on a forum feature which will send emails to other members via the board software. In that case, you’d just see a link to send an email to member number 2234, or something similar. The way this forum is set up now, the email icon is simply a link which initiates sending an email through your computer’s email program.
Yep, that’s all true. Just keeping in mind that e-mail notification of PMs is strictly optional and up to the recipient, so not something to be assumed.
That’s a very good point, MTGuru. Any member may set their profile so that they won’t receive an email notice when they receive a PM. That could be what happened in cases like Libraryman’s and Springrobin’s.
(MTGuru, you may want to know that I was editing my previous post while you were responding, so its changed.)
Thanks, Art, good information.
i dont receive pm notifications. i always check if i have pm’s.
I receive PM notifications and I also look above the posting box whenever I post to see if there is a new message notice there..