Just a quick question to anyone who can be bothered to help me…
I’ve been here for a few months and im learning stuff about the site, but i still dont know what the buddy list, the ignore list or PMs are. What’s the difference between emailing someone and sending a PM? Can anyone help me?
Re: quick question
This should help:
http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/misc.php?s=&action=faq&page=2#pm
Cheers,
Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ
o yeah, why didnt i think to look there?!! 
By asking what a PM is the chances are by tomorrow evening you will have received hundreds… 
The buddy list doesn’t get used much. If you look in your “user control panel” there’s a bit on the side; this shows whether your buddies are online or not.
The ignore list is for people who’s posts you don’t want to read. Stick someone in your ignore list and their posts are replaced by a placeholder saying “This person is on your ignore list.” You can still view their post if you really want to with a link.
This thread has some screenshots of what an ignored post looks like.
PMs are a way of communicating through the forum. When you send a PM the recipient is sent an email saying they have a Private Message, and it can be read by looking at their user control panel. You get an inbox, a sent items box and whatnot… very similar to email.
Phil
so pms are fairly useless, if u get a pm u get an email, sounds like a waste of time to me, y not just send an email??
Thanks for your help ppl
no PM’s are great as long as you click yes to “pop up a box” in your edit options.
that way if as soon as you login in to the fora the PM finds you instead of going to your in-box all the time to check.
and if someone that your PM’ing is on at the same time,they get it faster than e-mail.
if somone PM’s me and im on,there is aboot a 1 minute wait till it pops on my screen.
Private Messaging is a standard function of VBulletin (this forums software). With a PM you can send a message to somebody, without revealing your Email address.
Whilst everyone here is friendly, and probably wouldn’t spam someone to death, should it happen, you could add this person to your ignore list.
Some forums also have pop-ups/downs and get cash for the amount of hits they have. A PM keeps you coming back to the site.
Phil
i’ve quite enjoyed using the pm function to continue discussions that originated from a reply to a thread but that i’d prefer to carry on ‘in person’ with the person who responded rather than float further and further off-topic
it’s also handy for apologising to someone u may have offended in a reply to a threat
i find it a nice function on a forum site
Am I mistaken that the majority of the names on the forum are also the prefix to a Unicyclist.com Email address? On other forums I have used there is an option to change your display name. I have not been able to locate a name change feature on this forum, although I don’t mind using the name I chose. With the large number of members I was surprised that my real name (Rowan) was not already registered by someone else.
Don’t know that one, but I think it has something to do with the fact that what you post here is also posted into a newsgroup.
My original post, was in answer to foolish, who questioned the advantage of PM over Email. They are both the same really,
only with an Email I would need to know the receivers (private) E-address and at the same time also reveal mine. Because Spam has become such a problem (I still wonder if it was my wife who arranged for me to receive so many Viagra and Penis enlargement mails 
) many people do not want everyone to know their private E-address. Me included.
That depends how the database is set up. VBulletin uses your User name (ie Rowan) as its primary key, which allows you
to change your Email address in your Control Panel. Only the SysAdmin could change your User (as long as the new one
is not already registered).
Other forums use your Email address as the primary key, which then allows you to change your user name, it would
be up to the SysAdmin/Programmer to decide if more than one person can have the same user name (people finder sites use
this method).
Good you could get your name. Mine was already gone. Since then I have been trying to convince Phil to change his name by
deed poll to Mary, because that user name is still free. 
Phil
Mwuahahahaaarr… 
The Original Phil
that a pretty weird way to spell ‘mary’
Mary
Will the wind ever remember
The names it has blown in the past
With its crutch, its old age, and its wisdom
It whispers, “No this will be the last”
And the wind cries …
Somethings to be aware of.
Not everyone checks their unicyclist.com mail or sets up their email account to forward their mail to an email address that they monitor.
Not everyone checks their PMs. Some people have their account set up to email them when they get a PM. And some people have their account set up to pop up a window alerting them to a new PM when they are logged in. If people don’t have the alerts enabled they may never notice that they have a PM waiting for them.
So you can try emailing people using their alias@unicyclist.com and you can try sending them a PM, but there is no guarantee that they’ll get the message or notice that a message is waiting for them.
and then, two weeks later, start a ‘PING SO_AND_SO’ thread in the just conversation forum and the entire process (and discussion) will have come full circle
I suppose I could call my self “Phil No. 2”
But somehow that reminds me of the question small children get asked “Do you want a No. 2”
Phil No. 2