An easy peasy question …
Do I need to be a member of the board for a certain amount of time before the PM messaging facility is enabled by the administrators, or is it something I have to request/be granted?/earn? If so - what do I have to do to fulfil the qualifying criteria please? 
Cheers
No one has PM’ing capability.
Thanks for that DeadlyAccurate
I was reading the rules section - which of course instructs on the use of pm, editing etc, so I assume no one can edit / access the members list etc either? - I only see a ‘reply’ button on posts - is that the same for everyone then?
Thanks again
Yup.
Members can search. And have post counts and locations. But the rest, no. If you’ve paid your money, you’ve got what’s going.
Thanks for that ! Guess Ive ‘got it all’ then!
You could probably do a search in the ATMB for the reasons why you can’t edit posts. Retracting your words, etc.
Most of it comes down to they can’t afford the extra strain.
Except for members of the SDMB clique[sup]TM[/sup]. But thats a differant story.
I have an “edit” button, but I’m an administrator. If you’ve subscribed, you have access to everything other subscribers do, no matter how long they’ve been a member. The only exception is that certain members will have Charter Member as their status, which means that they subscribed when the board first went pay, and they’ve kept their subscription active since then. They have no other board privileges, just a title that’s a bit fancier.
Some people have SDSAB as their status. This stands for Straight Dope Science Advisory Board. These people either have submitted and had published a certain number of Staff Reports, or are ex-moderating staff, or both.
Like me. And although Lynn didn’t say so, no, we don’t have any special abilities or privileges, either. The only exception is that we get our subscription comped.
And they want to keep us honest.