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[dido72]

Yeah I think it's really rude when somebody asks a perfectly reasonable question only to get 10 replies saying read this thread it's all been said before or what's the matter with you are you stupid that will never work!!!

Members of this forum have only ever been kind to me but I read a lot of things that put me off posting for a long time!!

[Cassandra]

One reason for the high difference between members and regulars posters is the number of people who use the forum for information while deciding to move and then drift away when they eventually make the move or stay put. Either way they have a limited use for the forum.

The arguments happen on most forums. My sister told me recently that she's a member of Good Housekeeping's forum and after I had stopped laughing I asked if they argued or where all goody two-shoes. Seems some of they're arguments get so vicious and personal that there's been talk of suing

[Chrissie]

Few people actually post on here for fear of either being shot down in flames, or bullied by the people they are asking for help from.
Sometimes it may be better to log on and browse rather than log on and rows.
regards lone

I think that theory is confirmed by the fact that when I just logged on there were only 11 registered users but 47 guests

THEY'RE ALL BEING SCARED AWAY HAVE A HEART - PLEASE!

[spanish hopes]

Most fora have a much larger membership pool than poster pool. Cassandra is right in that people join to glean then perhaps never visit regularly and often with no intention of posting. Others are content to be browsers.
Of course there will be those who are 'put off' by the aggro but I believe that they do not represent the majority of silent members. In fact a lot of non posters are happy to 'rubber-neck' the arguments as can be seen by the number of views a contentious thread receives.
Some will be put off by constantly seeing the statement, "You don't live here so you have no say", which is quite stupid as their input will always be as valid as that from the 'I live here full time so I know everything' brigade.
The troll with his multi gender ID's doesn't really effect the silent majority's willingness to post, he/it is an aggravation which may annoy me and some others but the silent majority of the rubberneckers quite enjoy the chaos he attempts to create. He is also useful for the simple minded to use as their source of 'many p.m.'s' of information and support.
This forum will continue to thrive, the sensible who do not like the antics of the stroppy few will continue to ignore them. The daft of which I include myself will continue to joust with them but over all useful information will continue to be passed from 1 to another, the owners of the site will continue to earn a living based on the charges they can make through the stats of the site and the halfwits will continue to ask why so many members do not post without ever thinking that they could possibly be a big part of the problem.

[costapacket]

I get private messages from people telling me why as well, some people actually agree with me, but wouldnt bother posting, in fear of attack. and some are regular posters.

ROFL

[.Griff.]

Few people actually post on here for fear of either being shot down in flames, or bullied by the people they are asking for help from.
Sometimes it may be better to log on and browse rather than log on and rows.
regards lone

I think that theory is confirmed by the fact that when I just logged on there were only 11 registered users but 47 guests

THEY'RE ALL BEING SCARED AWAY HAVE A HEART - PLEASE!

But do you realise what constitutes "guests"??

"Spiders" make up the majority of guests on any forum. FYI - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_crawler

The forum I run on a daily basis, as Chairman and administrator, currently has 29,990 users with a total of 3,641,764 posts spread across some 274,205 threads. Naturally it goes without saying that there's not 29,000+ active users but people simply don't understand the workings of a forum.

Anyone with any knowledge at all of forums will realise that there's distinct variances across the users. Those that register for a single purpose, and therefor appear as a user forever, and post a couple of times simply for a specific piece of information and never return, those that register and take part now and again and those that frequent the forum forum daily.

It's typical, old and tiring, for people with little understanding to jump to conclusions and look at the amount of "users" (I use the terminology loosely) and make rash judgments on why people aren't posting. There's a lot more to a forum than "active" users.

[Beachcomber]

Yeah I think it's really rude when somebody asks a perfectly reasonable question only to get 10 replies saying read this thread it's all been said before or what's the matter with you are you stupid that will never work!!!.....!

I think it's reasonable to give a link to a thread on a subject that has been extensively covered previously but I also think it is polite to suggest that, having read through the thread, the poster is invited to ask any further questions that may not have been addressed.

[frog]

as a new poster to this forum,i was continually attacked for my lack of punctuation,after a short spell in hospital i am now fully recovered and ready to fight for the type(great rhyme) as you go people,lets punctuate badly ,but remember do not do it on purpose

lone wrote:
Few people actually post on here for fear of either being shot down in flames, or bullied by the people they are asking for help from.
Sometimes it may be better to log on and browse rather than log on and rows.
regards lone

if anyone is being scared away from a forum then i guess they must be really sad,stand up for yourself, its only typing so i think thats bollox,

keep posting,dont let the buggers get you down!!!
frog

[dido72]

Yeah I think it's really rude when somebody asks a perfectly reasonable question only to get 10 replies saying read this thread it's all been said before or what's the matter with you are you stupid that will never work!!!.....!

I think it's reasonable to give a link to a thread on a subject that has been extensively covered previously but I also think it is polite to suggest that, having read through the thread, the poster is invited to ask any further questions that may not have been addressed.

Absolutely there is nothing wrong with saying that has been covered on this thread here is the link. It's when somebody just posts the link it comes accross as rude, especially if it is a newbie who has made the post and may not know how a forum works.

[Raquel]

well i had a pm from someone asking me about june? and they have never posted..quite strange.

I think people join, then forget about it and dont bother posting. I've done that lots of times. Or some may be like me don't post for ages then have a mad burst of posts...I do the same on a different forum (not spain topic) won't post for a year and then will post about everything.

[karandjon]

What annoys me is when someone PMs for info from you, you go to the trouble of writing it all out.....then see it sitting in your "out box" for the next 6 months....and still waiting for it to be picked up!

I love to be able to help out when people PM me, but for someone to ask....then not bother to collect the reply (only hours later)..in my mind, is just downright rude!

May i just add, this has only happened once to me........

...Axarquian...this message is aimed at you...if you are still looking!!

[RichardCoeurdeLion]

How do you know if someone you have pm'd has read your message or not?

[.Griff.]

karandjon - If it's in your "Outbox" it's not been sent (mysql error maybe) and there's no "pickup" to speak off. It's either been sent, which would move the PM to the "Sentbox", or it's still pending and therefor it still resides in the Outbox.

Rick Gale - Unfortunately, and no offense intended to the site owners, phpBB is a very mediocre forum. vB or IPB are much better, but the inherent license fee's (well worth it imho) mean a lot of sites take the next best option. In short there's no way, as it stands, to request a "Read request".

[safeashouses]

My understanding is that the PM is in your Outbox until it is read and then once opened up and read by the recipient of it, it then shows in your Sentbox.

[.Griff.]

My understanding is that the PM is in your Outbox until it is read and then once opened up and read by the recipient of it, it then shows in your Sentbox.

Unless phpBB is different to every other mainstream forum out there then I doubt it. The "Outbox" is named for a very obvious reason, as is the Sentbox. To use laymans terms some forums send PM's instantly, some send them in a batch. Once a PM is "sent" is resides in a temporary holding area, aka the "Outbox". Once the server have purged the waiting PM's they're then transferred to the "Sentbox", hence the name.

My professional career revolves around vB and IPB (throwing in MySQL, ASP, ODBC, .NET, cPanel, Plesk, PHP etc) and I'll be the first to throw my hands up as I'm no expert in phpBB (I tend to avoid it at all costs) but I'd comfortably place a wager that any PM's residing in anyones "Outbox" are there as a result of a server side/database error and not as a result of people not "picking up" their PM's.

[Beachcomber]

I hesitate to beg to differ with a professional but I, too, always understood that a message remained in the sender's Outbox until the intended recipient collected it at which time it was transferred to the Sentbox.

Of course I, in company with many others, may be labouring under a misapprehension.

[.Griff.]

As I said before I'm no expert in phpBB but rest assured I know my stuff about the mainstream forums.

I could demonstrate my point in another way. If any of you use any of the major pop3 email clients such as Hotmail, Gmail (Or Googlemail as it's now know), or yahoo etc you'll know from experience that your emails don't sit in the "Outbox" for an eternity. They "might" sit there for a few seconds, or minutes, until the server "retrieves" them before they then appear in the "Sent" folder.

Further to that if anyone happens to be a member of a forum that runs vB or IPB, or another mainstream forum for that matter, you'll notice that the PM system utilised but those forums have no "Outbox" at all. It's either "Inbox" or "Sent (messages/Items)" and the "Outbox" simply doesn't exist. Not wanting to repeat myself but phpBB is basic and antiquated to say the least.

[Colinm]

.Griff, I'll take a bit of the action on your wager!
It is not possible to send a pm to someone, it only sits in the writer's outbox until it is collected by the intended recipient. the message then moves to the writer's sent box.
fact.

[.Griff.]

Like I said I'm no expert in phpBB for the obvious reasons I outlined. Seem's a strange method/system compared to other forums but there we go.

[karandjon]

karandjon - If it's in your "Outbox" it's not been sent (mysql error maybe) and there's no "pickup" to speak off. It's either been sent, which would move the PM to the "Sentbox", or it's still pending and therefor it still resides in the Outbox.

Please see everyoner elses answer Griff.
It is in the Outbox, until it has been picked up. It then gets sent to the Sent Box.Muy facil