How know if PMs recd or read??

[Jerry Olexa]

Is there a way in our system to know if a PM has been opened or read? Often I sent a personal note to thank someone but do not know if its been read!? Am I missing something? Thank you...

[Steve Ash]

Jerry,
I'm glad you brought this up, I am a member on another forum set up exactly as this one is ( so is John Pollman, a member here) you can tell if a message has been received..in fact you need to click on an icon to read it so that the sender knows you have received it.
Already since I'm a new member here I have had several instances of someone getting back to me "a little late" not knowing they had a PM and I just thought they didn't want to respond. Had I known it wasn't yet openend I would have known.
Also Stefan posed a question about sub forums which this site has...it is a hunting and fishing forum, but is broke down into many sub forums e.g. ice fishing...and then lakes, rivers, Lake St. Claire and another on general ice fishing. Same with hunting...turkey, deer, bear, trapping etc.
Steve

[Jim Becker]

Although vBulletin supports read-recepts (the adoption forum I visit uses them), it appears they are not implemented at SMC. It does generate a lot of extra post traffic since PMs are stored in the DB in the same way as regular forum posts, to the best of my knowledge.

[Jerry Olexa]

Thanks guys. I'm gathering we do not have a way to do that here @ SMC. Its unfortunate as you often wonder if your PM went off to a black hole and the recipient is upset you have not responded. Any solutions around this ??

[Ken Salisbury]

I am a little confused in what you are asking (which happens more and more often as I get older ). The PM system does have a "message tracking" feature which you can select a read receipt for ever message sent. You can then check to see which messages have been confirmed as "read" or "not yet read". Maybe I am missing the point here

[Aaron Koehl]

Message tracking is available.. it's just currently turned off. (Though, it is currently on for moderators).

We used to have it on, but too many people complained that it was annoying to have a window popup every time you sent a PM. In addition, each tracked message adds an additional message in your Inbox, causing inboxes to fill up twice as fast, and thus preventing people from sending messages to each other.

If enough people want it back, I can turn it on for a while.

[Jerry Olexa]

I would very much like to have it back! (see my reasoning below) Thank you...

[Ken Salisbury]

Message tracking is available.. it's just currently turned off. (Though, it is currently on for moderators).

We used to have it on, but too many people complained that it was annoying to have a window popup every time you sent a PM. In addition, each tracked message adds an additional message in your Inbox, causing inboxes to fill up twice as fast, and thus preventing people from sending messages to each other.

If enough people want it back, I can turn it on for a while.

OOPS - I guess I started something I knew I had it, didn't realized others didn't. I think it is a great feature - lets turn it back on for awhile and see the reaction.

[John Pollman]

The other forum that I'm a member of uses the same software that we use here. I have my options set up on this forum to send me an email AND a popup window whenever I receive a PM. I hadn't noticed that there wasn't a message tracking feature but I do find it very helpful on that other forum. If you've sent someone a PM and they haven't responded for a day or so, you can just check to see if they've even read the message. Very useful IMO.

[Chris Padilla]

I find the feature annoying but I can also see the usefulness of it. Hmmm, what to do, what to do.... I guess we need a way to make it, uh, less annoying?

[Aaron Koehl]

It's enabled.. we'll keep it on for a while unless it causes problems.

[Joseph N. Myers]

Yes, I've sent PM's and the receiver "might" find it days later.

PM in themselves are somewhat limited in size, attaching pictures, etc., so if the PM subject will consist of multiple messages, I switch over to email (after letting the receiver know about the switch usually by sending an PM and a post saying that I sent a PM).

Everyone (probably) knows emails, not that many know the PM system. (Maybe now with the notification turned on, it will be better)

Regards, Joe

[Jerry Olexa]

Thanks Aaron