Private messages issue

[greggl]

I tried to send a private message the other night and when I hit send it just disappeared. Does not show up in my sent folder where it normally goes. I tried again tonight and this time it went into the outbox and just sits there. Cannot get it to send. Any ideas?

Thanks

[CGYMike]

...it might be something as simple as having the wrong recipients address. Ive sent a few messages to Walt and then realized that I had the wrong address...they didn't bounce back to me...just disappeared. Then I realized that I was sending them to cyberspace.

[WalterB]

Greggl, when you send a message, it goes to your outbox. It stays there until the recipient opens it. Then it will move to your "Sent" box. That is how you tell when your sent messages have been read.

[greggl]

Well now I feel stupid. lol

Thanks for the info Walt. I do appreciate your help on the forums

[WalterB]

You're welcome, Greggl. We all started at the bottom, lol. Look how long I've been a member. If I write Vicky and ask her how to do something, her reply these days is "You ain't learned that shit YET????"

[stickyvicky]

Well that part is not very intuitive. If you think about email, once you have sent it, it goes into your sent folder. It only stays in your outbox if you don't have internet or something.

The forum is different, it stays in outbox until the person receives it. Ie until they login to the forum and it goes into their inbox. I'm not sure if you can tell if they read it? Don't feel bad Greg, I was as surprised as you when I realized how it works.

[WalterB]

No, it stays in the outbox until the recipient actually opens it. I kept an eye on that when trying to figure it out. My guess is that, if someone doesn't notice the PM icon above when they log in, they don't check the messages and it stays in the outbox. You can check that by just looking at someone's profile and noting when their last log-in was.

[stickyvicky]

No kidding wow! You have studied it! Good for you and good to know! Thanks for the info! Still kind of a silly system though if you ask me!

[stickyvicky]

Okay I sent 2 test messages this morning, one just to walt, and it's still in my outbox. I'm assuming because Walt is not online.

I sent another to Walt and bcc'd myself. Because I am online, it showed up immediately in my inbox and also in my sent box. I have not read, not opened the pm.

So I don't think you can tell if it's been read by the fact that it's moved from outbox to sent, you can only tell that it's now in their inbox.

[WalterB]

OK, Gregg (and everyone,) after some serious testing protocols by some very hardworking and intelligent folks who undertook some grueling hours (minutes?) of intense, high-level testing, (going for the sympathy vote, here,) we have come to some conclusions.

It is opening your Private Messages folder that moves the message from your Outbox to your Sent box. So, it will stay in your Outbox until the addressee opens his PM folder, then it will move to your Sent folder. It doesn't mean that the addressee has read the message, just that he/she has been into the PM folder. But, it seems logical that, by going to the folder, they would see the new message if they missed the alert under their profile at the upper right of the forum front page.

So, thank you, Gregg, for sparking this investigation. We finally know how it works,

Oh, and the investigators? That was Vicky and I. The hardworking, intelligent one is, of course, Vicky.

Thanks for your time, Vicky.