I’m not asking for gmail space. That would be hundreds of thousands of private messages. I was using it to illustrate that space is basically free now.
I’ve actually tried to find a list of membership benefits, or in fact anything about membership at all, but can’t.
I am pretty sure my desired response to this would be against the rules. So to stay within the rules, I will note that you are a whiny bitch.
I think I once filled my PM buffer when I actively played mafia. So I downloaded them in a text file, then cleared it out. Problem solved.
I would have handled it by either ignoring it, or, if I was really in a pissy mood, by reporting it. Just saying.
I could be wrong, but I think it’s 50 for Guests, 100 for Members, and 200 for Charter Members.
I’m a member and I have 200.
Space is free at google because their business model is based on using that as a hook to build a gigantic user base. They’ve invested billions in the infrastructure to make that manageable.
But just because storage space is inexpensive, it doesn’t mean one should simply abandon all sense when it comes to pruning their files. You said in your OP that you have 30,000 emails in your gmail account. Why? You’re a digital hoarder. What’s the point of keeping them? What’s the point of storing hundreds or thousands of private messages from the SDMB?
If you keep everything, nothing has value.
Actually it’s more like “wait, I can only have 10 squares of single-ply toilet paper and if I want more, I’m a ‘whiny bitch’ who doesn’t understand the tradition and allure of this unique hotel, and if I don’t like it I can go get my needs met elsewhere?”
Because you never know when they will come in useful. If it is not causing you an inconvenience to keep it then it seems a bit silly to me to get rid.
Having said that, it is interesting you call me a digital hoarder. I am something of a hoarder in real life - not so extreme that I keep literal rubbish, but I hate to throw anything away and this does irritate other crumpets. As a child I fantasised about having organised warehouses where I could just keep everything I ever came across.
This runs in family, my mother was the same, as was my grandmother and my great uncles and so on. The last of said uncles is going to die fairly soon and he will be leaving behind a manor house with twenty or so buildings, all filled to the brim with stuff.
It’s okay to disagree with someone but it’s not okay to throw personal insults around – even obliquely.
This is an inapropriate response in ATMB.
If you have a problem with someone, take it to the Pit.
Again, name calling – in your case, specific name calling – is a violation of the message board rules.
Highly inappropriate for ATMB.
If you have a problem with someone take it to the Pit.
If I see any more of this kind of thing I will issue formal warnings.
Sorry, I assumed since he hadn’t been told off it was permitted. No excuse, just explanation.
But since you’re here - how about info on what becoming a member is, what the benefits are, and so on? I can’t find them in stickies in ATMB
If you look at the User CP where it says Paid Subscriptions, you will see where you go to stop becoming a guest and becoming a Member.
Members get more storage space for private messaging (as has been noted upthread).
Members do not see advertising on the message board.
Members can post profile pictures.
Members can list items in the Marketplace.
Members can also purchase Custom Titles and style themselves as they wish – within standards, of course.
Most of all by becoming a member you directly support the Straight Dope community and are a contributor to keeping this site alive – the site gets no funding except through advertising and subscriptions.
Subscribing membership is $14.95 a year.
On edit, oh crap, Tubadiva beat me to it. Ah well. Serves me right for being slow.
As many have said, spankthecrumpet, you can download (or even delete!) the PMs as a file you can store on your own system. Then you get a fresh 50 pms so you can continue your active private conversation. (Or why not just go to email, as others have suggested, since you have nearly unlimited storage there?)
The benefits of membership, to answer your earlier question, include:
[ul][li]No ads. None.[/li][li]Increased PM space from 50 to 200 (used to be 100 but this was increased in 2009)[/li][li]Ability to display your post count in your posts (fairly useless but still an extra)[/li][li]Ability to show off your location (or some other statement) in your posts (possibly more useful to people reading your posts than to the subscriber him/herself)[/li][li]Did I mention no ads? Because that cannot be stressed enough[/li][li]Ability to upload a personal profile image, visible in your profile[/li][li]Ability to post your own “for sale” or “wanted to buy” in the Marketplace forum[/li][li]Ability to feel like you’re supporting a community you enjoy, assuming you do enjoy it. Of course I think they earn more from people who don’t pony up the $14.95 (or $7.95 for charter members), at least passively. See below for explanation.[/li][li]No ads. Seriously. It’s worth it just not to get the frikkin’ ads, especially the noisy ones or most especially of all, the virus-laden ones.[/ul][/li]
The benefits of membership really should be “stuck” in its own thread easily seen in the ATMB area, possibly linked on the forum homepage (a very simple template edit). Heck, add “Member Benefits” to the navbar and link it directly to the FAQ or thread.
However, I think the primary reason they’re not very visible is that the SDMB overlords and owners (Creating Loafing) actually prefer guests, because they earn more money from advertisers when there are more people seeing them. Or maybe it’s just laziness. 
There are a lot of things I haven’t done on my own forum because I just haven’t gotten around to 'em – aka just don’t feel like doing 'em.
I just want to say that, even if most people here don’t use private messages, they are essential in great quantities for anyone playing forum games (e.g. Mafia, Haggle, forum D&D, etc.) and I know from experience the PM limit was a pain in the ass when I was modding mafia games. So there is a reasonable reason to have hundreds of PMs to deal with.
The only difference between Members and Charter Members is how much it costs to renew their subscription.
That, and the fact that it says “Charter Member” under our name.
And the warm glow we feel inside.
No they don’t. In fact it takes some digging to change the vbulletin software default.
Admin CP panel
-Usergroup
–Usergroup Manager
—Edit Usergroup
----Private Message Permissions
-----Maximum Stored Messages
From a messageboard admin point of view, I don’t think that hardly constitutes digging. It seems perfectly linear to me.
should I say, perhaps, every other forum I have asked? 
anyway, what’s all this about viruses and noisy adverts? I only see google ads and I’m not even running an ad blocker!
This is the first real argument I’ve seen in this thread. Would 200 be sufficient? 300? 500?
Against this is the possibility that flipping a VBulletin switch could have undesired consequences on board stability.