misswonderly3 Posted January 11, 2017 Share Posted January 11, 2017 Greetings, TCM message board friends. I recently had reason to delete a bunch of my private messages (some of which, I'm embarrassed to say, went back to 2014. Yikes !) My "mailbox" here was at 100% full capacity for ages - months and months. This is because I am a sentimentalist, and reluctant to delete even the briefest most impersonal pm I receive. (Although being the verbose writer that I am, I'm sorry to say that most of the pms I write are not "brief". Or impersonal.) I've been too lazy, and too unwilling to take the time, to copy and paste these old pms onto some kind of Word document on my laptop (also, I have a very basic laptop that doesn't even have a normal Word program...). And anyway, to be honest, although I like the idea of hanging on to all these private messages, how often would I actually go back and read them? Probably never. So, the purpose of this thread is to ask: what do the rest of you do about this? Do you ruthlessly delete all pms after a certain time has elapsed? (Like, maybe a day? or week?) Or are you reluctant to lose these personal communications, and transfer them into some kind of other document file on your computer? I think, when you opt to delete a pm here, a message comes up claiming that it will be transferred to your email. But this does not happen. And anyway, that would just clutter up my email. I know this is not exactly an earth-shattering problem, but I'm just curious to know what systems others here have of managing their private messages. I'm guessing most of you just delete them as you go along? Probably the best thing to do; saving year-old pms is just rank sentimentalism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HelenBaby2 Posted January 11, 2017 Share Posted January 11, 2017 I usually delete them although now that you've written this, I wish that I'd have held onto some of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DownGoesFrazier Posted January 11, 2017 Share Posted January 11, 2017 Greetings, TCM message board friends. I recently had reason to delete a bunch of my private messages (some of which, I'm embarrassed to say, went back to 2014. Yikes !) My "mailbox" here was at 100% full capacity for ages - months and months. This is because I am a sentimentalist, and reluctant to delete even the briefest most impersonal pm I receive. (Although being the verbose writer that I am, I'm sorry to say that most of the pms I write are not "brief". Or impersonal.) I've been too lazy, and too unwilling to take the time, to copy and paste these old pms onto some kind of Word document on my laptop (also, I have a very basic laptop that doesn't even have a normal Word program...). And anyway, to be honest, although I like the idea of hanging on to all these private messages, how often would I actually go back and read them? Probably never. So, the purpose of this thread is to ask: what do the rest of you do about this? Do you ruthlessly delete all pms after a certain time has elapsed? (Like, maybe a day? or week?) Or are you reluctant to lose these personal communications, and transfer them into some kind of other document file on your computer? I think, when you opt to delete a pm here, a message comes up claiming that it will be transferred to your email. But this does not happen. And anyway, that would just clutter up my email. I know this is not exactly an earth-shattering problem, but I'm just curious to know what systems others here have of managing their private messages. I'm guessing most of you just delete them as you go along? Probably the best thing to do; saving year-old pms is just rank sentimentalism. What was your reason to delete them? Did you suspect that the Russians might be hacking them? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scsu1975 Posted January 11, 2017 Share Posted January 11, 2017 I keep everything I've ever written to any person anywhere in the world, and everything anyone ever wrote to me, forever. In this way, when someone finally writes a biography of my life, I won't be misquoted. Then again, if my funds ever dry up, there is always blackmail to turn to. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DownGoesFrazier Posted January 11, 2017 Share Posted January 11, 2017 I keep everything I've ever written to any person anywhere in the world, and everything anyone ever wrote to me, forever. In this way, when someone finally writes a biography of my life, I won't be misquoted. Then again, if my funds ever dry up, there is always blackmail to turn to. I assume that all of your 12.165 posts are securely on file. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibi Posted January 11, 2017 Share Posted January 11, 2017 When you delete messages now, it really deletes them. They just disappear (found that out the hard way). At the old boards, you could still delete the thread, but the messages would still be there to read, it would just make it inactive and you couldnt post there anymore. Now, everything just disappears! I dont have the time or the energy to transfer stuff or try to save them somehow, so I just bite the bullet and delete them if I need some space. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibi Posted January 11, 2017 Share Posted January 11, 2017 My "mailbox" here was at 100% full capacity for ages - months and months. This is because I am a sentimentalist, and reluctant to delete even the briefest most impersonal pm I receive. (Although being the verbose writer that I am, I'm sorry to say that most of the pms I write are not "brief". Or impersonal.) LOL MissW!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesJazGuitar Posted January 11, 2017 Share Posted January 11, 2017 What was your reason to delete them? Did you suspect that the Russians might be hacking them? Now that is funny, but I suspect the actual reason relates to this comment "My "mailbox" here was at 100% full capacity". One doesn't receive new PMs when one's mailbox is full. So to answer why do I delete PMs; I only delete the oldest ones when I'm about to use up all of the remaining capacity. ' 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EugeniaH Posted January 12, 2017 Share Posted January 12, 2017 I was sad when the old board was replaced and I lost all my PMs. I don’t have the%2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SansFin Posted January 12, 2017 Share Posted January 12, 2017 I do not perform active maintenance of the mailbox. I visit only when there is notification that I have received a message or I have special reason to send a Private Message. I will often then look at which messages are stored and will delete them if there is no more for either party to say on the issue at hand. I have now only five messages. It is sad to say that I believe that two are of posters who are no longer active in this forum. I have not deleted these messages because they were particularly heartwarming or because I spent considerable time constructing my replies and I may wish to copy-and-paste rather than type the same information again if sufficiently similar matter should arise again. I believe I burned out on such back-door conversations during the decades which I was active on Usenet. They simply became overwhelming and so I use such things now only as a matter of necessity or when there is a thing which I believe must be said but it would be inappropriate to state it in public forum. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misswonderly3 Posted January 12, 2017 Author Share Posted January 12, 2017 I really appreciate all the feedback from those who've posted here, and am going to send a special personal sentimental pm to each and every one of you. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sepiatone Posted January 12, 2017 Share Posted January 12, 2017 I've yet to have HAD to delete any PM's, but if they go back far enough, and the "matter" is considered settled, then it's no problem for me if and when it arises. MY only issue with them is the inconsiderate lack of response to any I send as acknowledgement of them is only a matter of common courtesy. Sepiatone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibi Posted January 12, 2017 Share Posted January 12, 2017 I was sad when the old board was replaced and I lost all my PMs. I don’t have the%2 Yeah, me too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EugeniaH Posted January 12, 2017 Share Posted January 12, 2017 I was sad when the old board was replaced and I lost all my PMs. I don’t have the%2 Heh - I had edited one word in this post but some computer glitch spat out this, cutting off a lot. No big deal, but it looks stupid. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibi Posted January 12, 2017 Share Posted January 12, 2017 Heh - I had edited one word in this post but some computer glitch spat out this, cutting off a lot. No big deal, but it looks stupid. LOL. I got the gist of it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DownGoesFrazier Posted January 12, 2017 Share Posted January 12, 2017 I was sad when the old board was replaced and I lost all my PMs. I don’t have the%2 I can appreciate the aggravation from not having the %2. It's a real kick in the ***. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibi Posted January 12, 2017 Share Posted January 12, 2017 I can appreciate the aggravation from not having the %2. It's a real kick in the ***. Yeah, I use 2% milk a lot.......... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGayDivorcee Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 Either I'm so wildly unpopular or such a non-entitity here (dread to think which one!) that I don't have that particular problem. In fact, I'm happy to live vicariously and offer my ever hopeful mailbox for storage space for those with overflow! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibi Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 Either I'm so wildly unpopular or such a non-entitity here (dread to think which one!) that I don't have that particular problem. In fact, I'm happy to live vicariously and offer my ever hopeful mailbox for storage space for those with overflow! LOL! I may take you up on that! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DownGoesFrazier Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 Either I'm so wildly unpopular or such a non-entitity here (dread to think which one!) that I don't have that particular problem. In fact, I'm happy to live vicariously and offer my ever hopeful mailbox for storage space for those with overflow! I, for one, use the excess capacity in my mailbox to store such things as cat litter, suppositories, and male enhancement items. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sepiatone Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 That should certainly make it easier for you to sit down, eh? Sepiatone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misswonderly3 Posted January 13, 2017 Author Share Posted January 13, 2017 So, just curious...do most of you delete your personal emails, too? At least email has a much greater storage capacity than the private message function here on the TCM boards. I suppose there's really no point in saving this kind of stuff. Confession: I would have saved all my university essays if they hadn't been accidentally left in the garage of the rental home where I was living. A week after I moved from the place, I remembered them and went back to get them, but the new tenants had tossed them out for the garbage collection, and they were gone, baby. Probably just as well. Now I can remember them as masterpieces of academic erudition, when they were probably embarrassing undergrad rubbish. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sepiatone Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 Well, tHAT was certainly crappy of them! The people who lived here before WE rented the place left a few things behind. Some of them looked like they might have had some sentimental value, so I set them aside and contacted the landlord, who had their forwarding address. He contacted them and THEY let me know, through him, to go ahead and toss them. Sepiatone 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
midwestan Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 So, just curious...do most of you delete your personal emails, too? At least email has a much greater storage capacity than the private message function here on the TCM boards. I suppose there's really no point in saving this kind of stuff. Confession: I would have saved all my university essays if they hadn't been accidentally left in the garage of the rental home where I was living. A week after I moved from the place, I remembered them and went back to get them, but the new tenants had tossed them out for the garbage collection, and they were gone, baby. Probably just as well. Now I can remember them as masterpieces of academic erudition, when they were probably embarrassing undergrad rubbish. Thanks to this post, I went through my e-mails that I have received and sent over the past couple of years! Generally speaking, I delete most of my e-mails once I receive them, or keep them for a short amount of time as is necessary. Currently, I only have 7 in the 'received' section, and 19 in the 'sent' section, mostly due to family pictures and history I sent off to other far-flung relatives! As for the college stuff, yeah, I've still got some of my "masterpieces" from those halcyon days. I don't know why I keep it either...maybe it's because I still want to be connected to a time when I accomplished something that was very important to me (at the time). In many ways, it makes me feel like my life had some purpose to it, even though I never really used my degree to its highest potential. Still, no regrets on my part. I've had a better life than most in this world. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DownGoesFrazier Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 So, just curious...do most of you delete your personal emails, too? At least email has a much greater storage capacity than the private message function here on the TCM boards. I suppose there's really no point in saving this kind of stuff. Confession: I would have saved all my university essays if they hadn't been accidentally left in the garage of the rental home where I was living. A week after I moved from the place, I remembered them and went back to get them, but the new tenants had tossed them out for the garbage collection, and they were gone, baby. Probably just as well. Now I can remember them as masterpieces of academic erudition, when they were probably embarrassing undergrad rubbish. Have you made sure that one of the garbage collectors didn't have any of them published under his name? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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