Forum's PM System

[deccan]

Is it just me or is the forum's PM system screwy? Occasionally I get the flashing icon indicating a received message, but when I go into the Received Messages area I see no new Messages. When I click "My Home", I can see, say, 11 Messages, 1 unread, but when I click Received Messages, I see no new Messages.

[deccan]

Okay, it works now. Apparently, you need to wait for a while before the new message actually arrives even though you can get the new message notification.

[Arryn]

The new (and screwy) system will not always sort the latest PM at the top (or bottom) of the collection of threaded mails. What I've noticed is that it sorts the Messages latest at the top down to oldest at the bottom, but for multiple Messages on the same day, it sub-sorts those in chronolical order top-down from oldest to newest (that is, in reverse of the primary sort). IOW, the primary sort (based on day/date) is newest-first, and the secondary sort (based on time of day) is oldest-first. Very confusing, and hard to read.

[Alneyan]

I second that Arryn. I didn't quite get what was going on with the new PMs (it looked like it was sorted by username to me, but I didn't bother too much about figuring it out), but that certainly makes it harder to read a PM when there has been several replies.

[deccan]

Arryn said:
The new (and screwy) system will not always sort the latest PM at the top (or bottom) of the collection of threaded mails.



That too, but that wasn't my problem. I definitely received a new message notification but there was definitely no message. I looked through every one. At first I thought my browser might be showing me a Cached page or something, so I hit refresh a few times. After a bit of waiting, I went back to the Received Messages screen, and there was the new message.

[Gandalf Parker]

Ive noticed that I have to actualy refresh the page after reading the PM's so that the blinking indicator goes away. Otherwise, when I return to the forums the indicator is still flashing. Then I return to Messages, no new ones, I refresh the page with no new PM's and the flasher goes away.

Also, Ive wondered. Does anyone else miss the "text included" notifications we used to get? I understand the thinking. Its moving into the "dont transmit plain text" mode of thinking. But I wish it was an option. I get a large variety of PMs. Some are just FYI notifications from the system even though they come from a user. My alert system for important PMs kindof breaks down if I cant see at least a topping (first few lines) of the message. Not to mention that I was using my email box to store them so I could delete them at the forum. Now I have to cut&paste mail them to myself or come up with another note system (cut&paste notepad or something)

[Alneyan]

I do not receive many PMs, but I miss this option indeed. I am also lazy, and would rather have the PMs delivered directly into my mailbox.

[archaeolept]

as well, the "I want to receive a read receipt" now seems to be broken.

[Arryn]

archaeolept said:
as well, the "I want to receive a read receipt" now seems to be broken.

Indeed it does appear to be borked.

[Arryn]

Another pet peeve I have is that the system does not have a "Quote" option as do the normal forums. (This was also true before the upgrade.) It's tedious to have to manually cut and paste for each PM.

[deccan]

So in the PM system, I look at the list of received Messages, click on the name of the sender in order to send the person a message, and I get the page for my own profile instead?

Heh. This forum's software has serious problems...

Edit: Oh I get it, if the received message was in response to one of my own Messages, then when I click that person's name, I get my own profile. If the other person sends me a message that is not in reply to one of mine, I get that person's profile page. Still damn funny behavior.

[Ironhawk]

Also, dont use the Forward/Back buttons when reading or replying to PMs. I've noticed that it sometimes loses state when you do this and may think you have unread/replied Messages when you really dont anymore. Always use the PM navigation buttons (reply, return to inbox, etc)

As for this forum software in general: yeah it does have some quirks. But honestly I'm happy we can read all the Posts in chronological order now.