The Enid Blyton Society

Dear site administrators,

I tried to send a private message via the forums yesterday evening (in reply to one I'd received from another member). The first time I clicked "submit", it came up with an error message. I tried again and was told "Your message has been sent successfully." The PM I'd just sent then went into my outbox. Hours later, however, it's still there in the outbox and not in the sent messages folder, so it appears it hasn't been sent at all.

Any ideas why this would be? Could it be that the recipient's inbox is full, or that a sent message doesn't move from "outbox" to "sent" until the recipient has opened it - or is there some technical problem with the PM function? I'm quite puzzled. Hope someone can help.

Best regards,
Courtenay

The message appears in your outbox until the intended recipient picks it up. It's a handy feature as it tells you your message has been received... eventually, when it is noticed and read!

As Daisy says it is actually much more useful than an email as you can at least see when it has been safely received and read. You can choose whether to get an email to tell you that there is a PM in your box, but a lot of people don't switch this on and won't know about the PM until they next log in. I have had PMs that I have sent sitting in my Outbox for two weeks sometimes!

Yes, I have always thought the little number which alerts you if you have a PM is often easy to miss and I too am sometimes quite slow in replying to Private Messages. I think there is an option in your user control panel for a message to be sent to your email address to remind you if anyone else misses this too, but checks their email inbox, regularly.

I have mine set to send me an email, if I get a PM, so that I know, saves looking across the top line then, too.

I do get email notifications of PMs - just wasn't clear about the outbox feature. Thanks, everyone!

I neither accept PMs nor emails through the website. I sadly came to this decision after receiving unpleasant PMs in the past.

Sure - I've received PMs from other forums that I would rather not have, as well. Not that that has happened to me here, but out of interest, if we ever do receive PMs that are spam, harassment, or other forms of abuse, is there a way of privately reporting this to the moderators?

Yes, certainly. If anyone receives a PM which is abusive or odd or makes them feel uncomfortable, it's best not to reply to it but to report the matter to Tony or me (via PM or email). And of course (I'm thinking particularly of our younger members), you shouldn't give out personal details in a PM to anyone you don't know.

Thanks, Anita. I'm an assistant moderator for another online forum community (not Blyton-related), and we always take prompt action there against any abuse - spam, inappropriate content or links, harassment, posting of private contact details in public, etc. - so I know what an active job it can be.

Incidentally, one rule we were compelled to introduce in this other community a few years ago was no repetitive posts, self-promotion or advertising (including of one's own published work for sale)... in light of at least one long-running controversy I'm aware of, has that kind of rule ever been considered here?

We haven't got a specific rule about that, but it could be useful!

Oh no! Don't give me any more rules to break!

But you do it with such ease and finesse, don't you, Nigel?

Courtenay wrote: Incidentally, one rule we were compelled to introduce in this other community a few years ago was no repetitive posts, self-promotion or advertising (including of one's own published work for sale) here?

I guess if that rule was introduced it would stop the constant reminders of 'a certain book'!

I think that's what Courtenay was alluding to.