Time to Delete Old Private Messages

[Phillip Dampier]

Our forum continues to grow in size, and the file that contains private messages is larger than ever.  While there is no problem keeping around important messages you wish to archive in your PM box, please consider deleting any messages that you don't feel you'll need to review again.  If you are hopelessly overwhelmed with PM's (some people have well over 3,000 in their mailbox), it might be time to consider the more brutal approach, and just delete anything dated before January 1, 2008.

We have plenty of disk space, but the larger the files grow, the longer it takes for the forum to display messages, and the longer it takes for our daily site backup, which has grown enormously in size.

Thanks for helping us keep things efficient and fast for everyone!

[Ellemeno]

I now have zero personal messages.  I bet that'll show up as a change in the file size.

If anyone wrote to me, and is still waiting for an answer, please re-send.  I feel pounds lighter!

[Kerry]

Have just deleted all PMs in my In Box and Out Box. 

[CellarDweller]

Hello Phillip.

I can talk from experinece about this  issue.


We had severe issues on the Dave Cullen forum with this matter.  Forum loading time began to slow, and we even had a few crashes as well.

We soon discovered that excessive PMs were the problem.  We found one member who had over 8,000 PMs saved!

 

Once people began to get rid of older messages, the forum's problems stopped.

[optom3]

Down to low double digits, just kept a handful of my faves.

[Brokeback_Dev]

Im having a hard time deleting my pms.  I certainly dont have masses but there's a few and as I read I realize just how much my Bettermost friends mean to me.   I willl go back later and try to delete more.   

[Brokeback_Dev]

Ive been busy deleting both outbox and inbox, but the number of messages shown at the top of the screen has stayed the same.   

[Penthesilea]

I deleted about 200 messages over the last days. And on I go....
Oh, and then there's the outbox

I'll continue deleting until I reach a reasonable number... whatever this will be.

[CellarDweller]

If you really want to keep the content of the PMs, you could just copy them to a word doc, and then save them on your computer.

[Brokeback_Dev]

I am down below 300 pms.  Ive been pretty diligent, but its time to take a break. The outbox doesnt affect the total number of pms, but Im deleting them too.