newby Chiadog can't send PM's

[Chiadog]

Where do I find my account so I can check my settings?
Thanks,
chiadog

[joatmon]

under the banner, and the google ads, there's a line that starts with Board Index
Under that, there is a line that says User Control panel (X new messages) View your posts

If you click on "User Control Panel, you can then hit the private messages tab and go from there.
You can also go directly to your PM inbox by clicking where it says "X new messages" even if X=0
From that PM management place, you can use Compose message to send a PM to anyone

If you are reading a thread and want to PM someone directly from that thread, then find the icon of an envelope with a small blue arrow under their username on the left side, click that, it will open up the compose PM screen with the destination preselected

This thread title says you can't send PMs. For anyone that might beinterested, in the User Control Panel, on the Board Preferences tab, one of the options is to allow other members to send you PMs. So if you don't want to be bothered, then set that to No. If someone tells you "I can't send you PMs" then set it to Yes, unless you really want to set it to No. It's the User Control panel, user's can control their own settings.

Since sending PMs is something a user must choose to do each time, there is no preference setting on enabling/disabling sending PMs. If there is such a restriction, then perhaps it is a function of the newly updated forum software. Some sites require a minimum number of posts before that member is allowed to send PMs. I don't know if genvibe does that (been a while since I had a single digit post count), but there are times when it could be handy, especially with the random spammers we get here from time to time.

If you want to ask a member something that you or the other member would likely not want to be known publicly, then PMs are a great tool. Often things related to the purchase or sale of goods is handled via PMs. However, if you see a member's post somewhere and want to ask that member a follow up question, then maybe it ought to instead be asked as a reply in the thread, so that the answer is there for the next person with the same question

all that being said, not sure if any of it was an answer to the question you were asking

[Chiadog]

Thanks Joatmon!
I swear it wasn't there yesterday.

[joatmon]

the user control panel and the PM icons and all that only show up if you are logged in. When you log in, if you check the box "log me in automatically ..." then the cookie that gets set in your browser will hang around, and you'll be logged in whenever you visit the site using that browser until you manually log out (or toss your cookies). If you log in without checking that box, then when you close your browser, you effectively log out, and would need to log back in to see the PM options.

If you look in the top right, under the big banner, under Advanced Search, it will say either Logout [username] or Login.
Also, if you are logged in, then you get the special feature of thread and forum icons that indicate whether you have posted to them, or read them since they were updated.

When you noticed the options weren't there, did you then have to log in to post about not getting the PM options?

[Chiadog]

Joatmon,
I think I was logged in, but I just overlooked the "user control panel" on the left!
Thanks for the info on forum and thread icons, I didn't see those either.
Thanks again,
chiadog

[RedGT]

So what IS the number of posts required before PMs can be composed?

Might be good info to put in the FAQ (which is currently just the standard phpBB list, am I missing a sticky thread somewhere?)