I have been PMing only a short time and have already racked up 15, 25% of my allowance. Might you consider raising this number? Sending instructions for a needy member can eat them up. Also,i've begun to experience members who attempt to start petty squabbles,thinking themselves to be experts,that they can interject opinions into any topic.

Your members currently browsing numbers have fallen dramatically and this might be due to them getting disgusted at being scolded. Some members have told me privatly that they quit the Café for a period or for good and this has happened to me. I laid off for a year. For instance,the gambling spot is a petri dish of guys who consider themselves authorities. Posts from some proudly boast of cheating. They are thieves who don't play well enough to win on the square but they savage others that they deem inferior. Members tell me that they don't complain,to avoid making the situation worse and lowering themselves to the level of the instigators.

This resentment manifests itself by them deserting the Café,which is bad for them, me and you. It's also bad for magic...being able to address a public comment privately eliminates having to deal with members who needn't be involved. Lift the roof on PMs and see if your browsing numbers increases.

A secret can be kept between three people if two of them are dead. We deal in secrets and the internet is flooded w/them.

Try making the Café a real one-on-one thing,huh?

Thanks for your input, Padre. However the Café is a discussion board and if everyone simply used the PM system to express their views and conduct discussions, it would defeat the purpose of the Café and also be a disservice to members who are actually interested in the discussion. You call members who post in the gambling spot "Thieves". That may be true however as members of the Café, as long as they aren't breaking any of the rules, they are entitled to express their opinions.

Even if we changed the limit, what would be a good number? If we changed it to 90 and you reached that point, would you request it be raised again or are you suggesting an unlimited number? A post limit of 60 is very reasonable. Remember when you send a PM, that puts 1 message in your sent box. When you receive a reply, that message moves from the sent box to the inbox. Unless you have many conversations running, it should take quite a bit of time to build to the 60 limit. If the discussion is really that lengthy, it really should be in the forum so that all members can learn and participate.

Even if we changed the limit, what would be a good number? If we changed it to 90 and you reached that point, would you request it be raised again.

I am still unclear about how this works myself. I also think 60 is a bit skimpy. I suppose I can archive things by cut and paste into a document somewhere, but I only use PM for purchasing used things from people and getting private help with something, usually a routine someone offers to share. I want to be able to reference them in PM, but maybe you are saying it doesn't work like email. So what counts against my usage? Are things in the saved box counted?

I notice that when I send a message, sometimes they stay in my inbox like email, but other times they disappear and I see them in my outbox and only see them again if I get a reply. I don't understand how that works.

FlightRisk, a complete explanation of the pm system can be found in the FAQ section here https://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/pm_faq.php

However to capsulize it, you have 4 folders to manage your pm's. When you send PM, it is stored in the "sent" folder. When you get a reply, your message is moved from "sent" to "In". If you reply, it is moved again back to the sent folder. You can save the PM by clicking the save option. If you want to trash a pm, click on trash at the bottom of the string. This does not remove the PM however. If you want to permanently remove it, you must go to the trash folder and delete it. That removes it from your PM folders however if the person you sent the message to replies, it will resurrect in your in box.

Hope that makes sense. Your pm just moves from sent to in to save to trash. In any event, you can only have a total of 60 pms regardless of where they reside. The purpose of the save folder is that after 60 days, the pm will automatically be removed. Moving it to the Save folder bypasses this function however the 60 pms limit still applies.

When you send a message, it does not go in your in box. it automatically moves to the sent box. I'm confused with your statement that "when I send a message, it stays in my in box". A new message will never be in your in box.

Thanks Dave, it makes sense now. And it is 60 topics, correct? If there are 10 back and forths under one subject heading, that counts as one? Or ten?

That is correct. It is 60 topics and each counts as one.

Yes, the count is individual topics, not the number of message within a topic.