My gmail inbox is allowed to reach 7685MB as of today. I currently have thirty thousand, nine hundred and thirteen emails in my inbox, excluding the many others marked as spam. And that takes up only 3310MB. And there are shedloads of attachments and all sorts of things like that, duplicated in many cases, in my email.
Meanwhile my straight dope private message box has forty messages and consequently is only ten away from hitting the limit. Additionally I am awaiting replies to three private messages and may get replies to another two, so that would bring me to 90% of my quota.
While I have been a member here quite a while, it is only recently that I have started posting substantially.
These limits are utterly, utterly, ridiculous. I am a member of various forums and most of them either have no limit or have a limit in the order of ten thousand or more as the admin is too lazy or whatever to sort the thing out properly.
I can see no sane reason for limiting private messages like this. The cost of increased storage is basically nothing. I will give you $10 to remove the limitation for everyone if you like - and I think you will make a profit from it.
This is one of the (very weak) levers used by TPTB to get people to pay for the service. If you can possibly fight the moths in your wallet for the £8 a year needed to subscribe, you’d get 100 each way (I think).
If they gave unlimited then I could possibly consider it. But since every other forum in the world, basically, gives unlimited that is actually quite an offensive offer.
“Offensive”? May I suggest a nice walk in the countryside?
I suspect you’re unaware of just how crap the technical side of the SDMB is. It’s run off an old 486 with a 300 baud acoustic couple and cassette tape storage. Any decision has to be run through the Committee for Obfuscation and receive seventeen signatures in triplicate including that of the late Earl Warren.
In seriousness, many professionals have over the years offered their services - and actual cash and materials - to improve the software, networking, database, hardware, and admin, and all have been turned down, often ungraciously. We’re on a legacy version of vBulletin with a search choke (due to malicious behaviour in the past) rather than a more creative solution, and there are no plans to upgrade as I believe TubaDiva rudely admonished someone in the recent past.
But this is the SDMB. It’s like that. It’s primarily for public discourse and for that it’s one of the best boards out there. I’ve tried a few and none of them approach the quality of this one.
Your complaint is like moaning that you can only balance a few envelopes on top of your radio set. If it’s storage you’re after, why not stick with Gmail?
No kidding. I have maybe 10 pm’s total in the time and post count that I have. If someone was corresponding enough via PM with me, I’d switch to email anyway. And then there’s, you know, that handy delete button.
Hell, if ya actually, really, need to save 'em there’s that handy “Download all Private Messages as: XML | CSV | Text” thingy that might as well be a button.
I wouldn’t even bother with it and just let it be full if I didn’t need it for mafia games so every once in a while, I just sweep through and delete everything. Sometimes I think, I should save this, and then I remember, I don’t save actual real life things that I need, there’s no way I’m saving internet stuff.
The SDMB is intended to be a message board, not an email service. If you want a greater amount of storage, then you can subscribe, but it won’t be a massive upgrade.
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There are a lot of harsh people here. Sure it is a message board and its prime function is open communication. However, it does allow PM’s so I see nothing wrong in requesting an increased storage if it is easily done.
I would say that’s fair, yes. Imagine if McDonalds gave you 1 sachet of ketchup for free, but charged $50 for the next one - while Burger King and everyone else continued to give out free ketchup to all.
First, I wouldn’t be “offended”- your scenario would be just a dumb rule at McDonald’s, nothing offensive. It might make me not go back and shake my head at how stupid they were, but offended? No. I might even bring my own ketchup (like switching conversations to email, for example) if I liked McD’s so much I couldn’t stay away.
Second- these “ketchup packets” here at the SDMB are automatically refillable- just delete old PMs.
Third- most people don’t see PM storage capacity as integral to the SDMB experience, so to be offended about something that appears secondary to most people’s wants or needs seems silly. It’s fine to ask, of course, but to be personally offended seems over the top.
