sorry, but there's a few people who never delete their PMs, and it's overwhelming the server.  A member a few minutes ago trying to look through their close to 10,000 PMs just made a request to the database that took a solid four minutes to execute due to the massive amount of data it needed to index through.

I've mentioned in the past that it wasn't good for the site to keep every single PM you send/receive.  Now I can see it's positively awful for the site's performance.

PM could not be sent to 'ninny' as their inbox is full!    ???    :o


WOW ! That's a 'bummer' !  :\'( :\'(


We've got a whole thread about this 'How many PM's do you have' ..... where people have been 'boasting' about how many they have. I have (HAD) a 'respectable' 848 for the record ..... Philip and some others  had / have over 2000 !


We've got a LOT of pruning / time sitting down to decide .... this one or this one or this one  ...... before we can RECEIVE and in many cases send a PM.  ::) Hey ninny ! I'd LIKE to tell you about this new PM rule .... but I can't send you a PM !  ::)  :\'(

Looks like word is starting to spread via the threads though .... fortunately I had the 'presence of mind' to check this system news area, and then that particular thread. Others could be temporarlily baffled ........



< Now which PM ..... this one    :-\\  ... no, this one  uhm  :-\\ ......(yes, it's gonna be a LONG long  day !)  ......

When is this effected by? I want to save mine but I need some time.



Cat

sorry, but there's a few people who never delete their PMs, and it's overwhelming the server.  A member a few minutes ago trying to look through their close to 10,000 PMs just made a request to the database that took a solid four minutes to execute due to the massive amount of data it needed to index through.

I've mentioned in the past that it wasn't good for the site to keep every single PM you send/receive.  Now I can see it's positively awful for the site's performance.


10000?  ???  How many of those are of the "Oh hai" variety?  :D :D

I kept mine under 10 messages...never really had a server issue on that front.  Good call sir.

When is this effected by? I want to save mine but I need some time.



Cat


I have to say .... some time (maybe a week) WOULD have been nice ? In the meantime ...... a lot of us have lost one means of communication ! 


Whilst I will admit many of my PM's are easily jettisoned  ...... others will be a much tougher decision ......


It's gonna take me a while with the best will in the world .......... and I suspect a few others here too !

Oh yes ........ 'When is this effected by' . Right NOW !

Sorry, not to kiss ass or anything, but I DO remember Chucky saying something about this before. Several times.

10,000 PMs? Jesus Christ. You can't sit there and tell me EVERY SINGLE ONE of them are that important that you must save them. I'm not even sure what the reasoning is behind saving them all. Most of mine are the mundane, "Hey, what are you doing?" variety. If they are super important, yeah, I'll save it, but I haven't had to do that since Rice Cube and I were dating. :D

Oh yes ........ 'When is this effected by' . Right NOW !

I'm probably one of the lucky through Ionly have a little over 200 to sort through.Hello Mr.Mister

I've got 321 in my inbox - I guess 1000 or so in my outbox. I delete mine every so often, and my inbox is about 200 more now than I like to have anyway. I guess I'll start going through my PMs tonight and wipe out "all non-essential correspondance"... and put phone numbers in my phone for once.

Is this limit 100 messages in and out, or 100 total (i.e. 50 in the inbox and 50 in the outbox)?

Ant

I'm probably one of the lucky through Ionly have a little over 200 to sort through.Hello Mr.Mister


Hello ninny.


Yeah it's gonna be awhile. Not sure what target I should aim to whittle them down to. Maybe 50 is a good ballpark.

I suppose I CAN copy and paste some into text documents if I feel that badly about it .... although still a lot of time consumed. As for the system sluggishness resulting to PM's .... personally, I had ZERO idea of that problem .... as I'm sure a number of 'humble users' non technical (not that I'm not) people here did either .....

Seems there were mentions about this problem in the past .... but they never registered with me at a conscious level. Certainly, the current situation makes it IMPOSSIBLE to ignore ...........

I'll turn off the limit for a few days, say until the weekend.  Just be aware though that the server is going to have periods where it's slower than dirt when people with large in boxes are hitting their folder.

I believe the 100 I set is for both inbox and outbox combined.

For the higher ranks, I'll set it at 500 for the time being when I set the limits again.

I'll look around and see if I can find a mod that let's people save their messages to a file or something.

in the left hand menu in your personal messages folder, you should see a link labeled "Save all PMs"

on really large mailboxes, this might drag the server to a crawl and take a long time.  If you can, try and prune out the stuff you don't want ahead of time.

in the left hand menu in your personal messages folder, you should see a link labeled "Save all PMs"

on really large mailboxes, this might drag the server to a crawl and take a long time.  If you can, try and prune out the stuff you don't want ahead of time.


I'm working on it ! Think I've gotten rid of 20 so far. 

You know what .... when I first ever signed on .... OK ... I'll confess ...  it was with a totally ficticious email. Since you've changed the whole thing .... I thought .... OK, I will update my profile to an email on which I can CURRENTLY be contacted (couldn't recall password for old email, which I have n't used in over a year).

I was DISMAYED and alarmed to see

Profile
You've changed your email address. In order to validate this address you will receive an email. Click the link in that email to reactivate your account.

Since I've had a lot of probs in the past getting that activation, even looking through junk box ... I thought ... here we go !  I updated in order to be contactable !

Anyhow, got it ... so good.

Idea occurred ... is there a way we could just EASILY  move all PM's from one particular user into ONE massive 'PM' .... so we can maintain the history of messages from them ?

Ok ....just read /digested your above 2 messages. Hey folks, whilst pruning IS required ... don't be OVERLY drastic, I'd guess ... until we know one way or the other if Chucky comes up with that mod that allows saving messages to a file ?

Since I've had a lot of probs in the past getting that activation, even looking through junk box ... I thought ... here we go !  I updated in order to be contactable !


you could always explain it to me in email and I'd just fix if you couldn't get the contact email for a change.  I've taken care of it before for others



Idea occurred ... is there a way we could just EASILY  move all PM's from one particular user into ONE massive 'PM' .... so we can maintain the history of messages from them ?


I think I know what you mean, and I don't think it's possible. I certainly didn't see anything like that from the people that write software for the messageboard.  I think the best thing to do, is use the save function and put it on your hard drive.  that way you're not relying on my keeping the stuff.  Sites get hacked, databases get corrupted, etc.  Always a good idea to backup things you want to keep.

Ok ....just read /digested your above 2 messages. Hey folks, whilst pruning IS required ... don't be OVERLY drastic, I'd guess ... until we know one way or the other if Chucky comes up with that mod that allows saving messages to a file ?


I already came up with it... check your PM menus

I already came up with it... check your PM menus


Sounds good !  8)




Oh ... and thanks for 'voting' for me in THAT thread Chucky !  ;)  ;D :D

The PM 'save all' process as experienced by me .... and recorded to text file ..... now follows !




Ooh ! Hitting that 'save all messages' link  ......... 'Warning! Warning !' .... you'd better not expect to be doing any posting in the next half hour (MINIMUM?) if you're on dialup speed  :-[ or thereabouts, and have hundreds (thousands) of PM's. Probably best you DO weed out the obvious before hitting it  (like I SHOULD have done  !  :-[  :\'( ).

No, saving all those PM's .. just took over my machine ... no posting possible. One pic seems to be taking forever (Transferring data fromi198photobucket.com)  ... hope it's not just 'hanging' / that actual data transfer IS successfully occurring.


Damn !  'Sygate firewall' indicates little / no activity ... better chance the refresh/reload this page  button ... 

Drat .. AGAIN ! Now hanging on  i111.photobucket.com. Let's try reloading AGAIN !


Well, there's a LOT of pics in my PM's ... both from me and to me ..... and it looks like a lot of them are taking forever to transfer from imageshack/ photobucket !


Damn again ... just had the thought ... will it take forever to VIEW them from that one humungously  large file ... if they're all treated as one 'unit'  ... )??


Yay ! Looks like done at 11.57 am my time !  :)


Yes ... that all took about an hour !  :-[  :( 


Now I have to check the actual saved message file or whatever ... to see what has actually happened ......

Most of the PMs I get are notifications from the Arcade telling me someone has beaten one of my scores.  I get lazy to delete them, and they've just piled up, it would take me too long to delete the almost 1000 I have now lol

Well .... I've just taken a peek. I thought they'd all be gone / placed in some archive that I'd have to click on. So ... now the question occurrs. If I click on 'select all' (messages) .... and delete them page by page .... will they still be viewable in some  archive ?    :-\\

I'd always wondered about this, since some message boards have a limit, and I know it can slow down or overload the servers. Will we have until the weekend to get rid of them? I guess I could copy and paste some to Word documents - it's just that some are really sentimental value and I wouldn't want to lose them.

tonight I prune, time consumning but kinda fun to go back and read some of the juicy ones  http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/12/evil5.gif

Well I have just checked through my messages options  ... various boxes that are open to  me ... and have yet to find ANYTHING that spending an hour  .... 'saving' my messages (or so I THOUGHT) ... has ACTUALLY accomplished / done ANYTHING.

I just deleted two more PM's for instance ... (manually) which I thought I'd 'backed up' somehow through this hour long exercise ... but they do indeed seem to now be gone too. So, what 'confidence' can I have in this 'mod' ?

Well I have just checked through my messages options  ... various boxes that are open to  me ... and have yet to find ANYTHING that spending an hour  .... 'saving' my messages (or so I THOUGHT) ... has ACTUALLY accomplished / done ANYTHING.

I just deleted two more PM's for instance ... (manually) which I thought I'd 'backed up' somehow through this hour long exercise ... but they do indeed seem to now be gone too. So, what 'confidence' can I have in this 'mod' ?


they don't get backed up on this site.  The save link should provide you with an HTML file that you save to your hard drive. 

Once you delete a message from your PM folder, it will be GONE GONE GONE


Will we have until the weekend to get rid of them?


yes, but they won't go away.  You just won't be able to receive any more messages once we set the limits.

they don't get backed up on this site.  The save link should provide you with an HTML file that you save to your hard drive. 

Once you delete a message from your PM folder, it will be GONE GONE GONE

yes, but they won't go away.  You just won't be able to receive any more messages once we set the limits.



So 'Sony BMG' ........ where will I find this 'html file' ?



< Twisted Sister

I just zeroed mine out.  I had 145 up there dating back to December 2006!  Hope that helps a little.
;)

So 'Sony BMG' ........ where will I find this 'html file' ?



< Twisted Sister


it should give you a save file prompt

it should give you a save file prompt


I don't recall seeing such a 'beast' at the conclusion of the very long winded save process ...  :\'(




Maybe somebody else can report back if they've actually had success ?    ???

I don't have a huge PM folder, so I can't test it for one.  It might also work better with Firefox?  not sure.

I don't recall seeing such a 'beast' at the conclusion of the very long winded save process ...   :\'(




Maybe somebody else can report back if they've actually had success ?    ???
all you had to do was select it all and paste it into a microsoft word file. then you just saved the word document. if we're talking about the same thing.

but the feature got deleted so we have to go back to doing it the long way, unfortunately.

all you had to do was select it all and paste it into a microsoft word file. then you just saved the word document. if we're talking about the same thing.

but the feature got deleted so we have to go back to doing it the long way, unfortunately.


I think the problem is that it wasn't displaying for people with really large mailboxes.  It was timing out the server.

I think the problem is that it wasn't displaying for people with really large mailboxes.  It was timing out the server.
any "save as" that preserved all that formatting would be a real resource hog, i bet using "save as" in their browser is what did it. i pasted as unformatted text into word and that went real fast. i lost all the emoticons and picture links but whatever.

Did you implement this Chucky or was it another April Fool as someone hinted?

Did you implement this Chucky or was it another April Fool as someone hinted?


not an April Fool's joke.  not implemented yet, but going to do it soon.  it would be nice to hear from people who haven't been able to fully reduce their mailbox size, as to how much longer they might need to do it.

Well ... it was patently obvious to ME ... just by reading your first message in this thread ... that it was no 'April fools'. Now I guess I'm just gonna have to trim it back again.  :( I DID manage to get them to about 484 ..... but have now crept up again. Currently, 526 .... even though I HAVE been making an effort to immediately delete new PM's that I regarded as more inconsequential.

Now that you've been reminded ....  ::) selfish / hording / undisciplined  types like me ... will have to do something about it again ... in the name of the greater good.  :-[

Yes ... I did back them all up before to text .... but I missed the pics .... which a lot of these contain ... the ones I've retained ...  :\'(

Like I said, I have alot of sentimental value ones I don't wanna part with, but I can probably have it trimmed down by before this weekend (I kinda forgot about it again until now). Is there time for that? ;)

Hey, I just deleted about 17,000 messages. That should probably help.. I don't think I ever deleted one, not really ratpacking, just terribly lazy.

Anyway, the whole system went weird and it took about 2 full minutes to execute, but 'tis done.

not an April Fool's joke.  not implemented yet, but going to do it soon.  it would be nice to hear from people who haven't been able to fully reduce their mailbox size, as to how much longer they might need to do it.

I still have about 200 too many, so I may need maybe a week or two to purge some of them. Yes, I'm slow at this.



Like I said, I have alot of sentimental value ones I don't wanna part with,

So do I... I've had lots of pleasant conversations with various members via pm's, and if I'm gonna remove some of them from my inbox, I'd need to use the "Save this pm" link first, and it would be nice if we could do that with multiple pm's at a time (but not ALL of them).

So do I... I've had lots of pleasant conversations with various members via pm's, and if I'm gonna remove some of them from my inbox, I'd need to use the "Save this pm" link first, and it would be nice if we could do that with multiple pm's at a time (but not ALL of them).


I went through and removed a lot of the junk and then just saved them all using the link on the left hand side of the PM screen.  I can then sort through this file at my leisure.

Then I deleted them pages at a time, only keeping a few of the most recent.

I went through and removed a lot of the junk and then just saved them all using the link on the left hand side of the PM screen.  I can then sort through this file at my leisure.

Then I deleted them pages at a time, only keeping a few of the most recent.

That sounds like a good idea, but I don't really want to save all 755 of mine at once. In fact, there's probably a few of mine that I wanna keep for future reference.

Like I said, I have alot of sentimental value ones I don't wanna part with, but I can probably have it trimmed down by before this weekend (I kinda forgot about it again until now). Is there time for that? ;)


I haven't set a deadline yet. 

I guess I'll plan on May 2nd for the change.  I'll be too busy until then to do much anyways (2nd draft of the 2nd book is due then as well, so it's an easy date for me to remember).

Maybe what I should do is turn on the new limit for that weekend as a warning to anyone who didn't see this thread, and then turn it back off for another week to give the stragglers some time to take care of their inboxes.

I haven't set a deadline yet. 

I guess I'll plan on May 2nd for the change.  I'll be too busy until then to do much anyways (2nd draft of the 2nd book is due then as well, so it's an easy date for me to remember).

Maybe what I should do is turn on the new limit for that weekend as a warning to anyone who didn't see this thread, and then turn it back off for another week to give the stragglers some time to take care of their inboxes.




Take your time, take your time.  8)  That IS  May 2nd, 2009, isn't it ?      ???      :P    ;D

  To Whom It May Concern:

  Delete some messages from your INBOX or I cannot reply to you...

I haven't set a deadline yet. 

I guess I'll plan on May 2nd for the change.  I'll be too busy until then to do much anyways (2nd draft of the 2nd book is due then as well, so it's an easy date for me to remember).

Maybe what I should do is turn on the new limit for that weekend as a warning to anyone who didn't see this thread, and then turn it back off for another week to give the stragglers some time to take care of their inboxes.


Well, I got my inbox down to below 500 messages...and it's already May 4th...so when does the deadline get set?

Well, I got my inbox down to below 500 messages...and it's already May 4th...so when does the deadline get set?


tomorrow... I got my deadline on my book extended by the weekend, so the mailbox size got extended deadline too...

tomorrow... I got my deadline on my book extended by the weekend, so the mailbox size got extended deadline too...
oh good.

So what's the official limit then...500 or 100?

oh good.

So what's the official limit then...500 or 100?


500 should be fine

500 should be fine


Is that 500 outbox AND 500 inbox .... or 500  combined ?  Further ... if one should, overtime, sneak back over the 500 limit .... what happens to messages sent by others. Can they be viewed once someone trims messages below 500 .... or does the person sending get an error message that recipient's inbox is full ? What's the story ?

Is that 500 outbox AND 500 inbox .... or 500  combined ?  Further ... if one should, overtime, sneak back over the 500 limit .... what happens to messages sent by others. Can they be viewed once someone trims messages below 500 .... or does the person sending get an error message that recipient's inbox is full ? What's the story ?


I really don't know.  we'll be figuring that out when it's turned on I guess.

no screaming or death threats... I guess no one noticed I turned on the limits Tuesday

no screaming or death threats... I guess no one noticed I turned on the limits Tuesday


No chance. We have to all stick together .... on THAT bus !  ;)  ;D

Interesting. I see we now have a meter/ gauge .... progress bar ... indicating our % of PM fullness. The max allowed is 500. I have checked both inbox and outbox.  The % indicator is the same. Currently, I have 102 messages .... and it says 20.4% full. 102 messages IS 20.4 % of 500. Since I have 17 messages saved in my outbox  ... I conclude that the OUTBOX  does NOT count in anyway towards the total !

8)

Capacity 269 messages, 53.8% full.

Definitely 500 now?

Definitely 500 now?


it's 500 for anyone with 100 posts or more (Pengo or better)

it's 500 for anyone with 100 posts or more (Pengo or better)
I was only truly asking of the other members that may not be aware.

Thank you

Capacity 269 messages, 53.8% full.


Where did you find that stat?

Where did you find that stat?
Look at the bottom of the Messages and Preferences section in your PM Box

Where did you find that stat?


When you click on the messages  link .... to view your messages .... it appears at the bottom of the vertical rectangular box to the left ... as a graph .... below the heading 'Preferences' .

Look at the bottom of the Messages and Preferences section in your PM Box


Not there for me.  I tried deleting my cookies and it still isn't there.  Oh well, no biggie. :)

Not there for me.  I tried deleting my cookies and it still isn't there.  Oh well, no biggie. :)



Weird ! This is  how it SHOULD look.













http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/1457/capacitymf0.png


I assume you have at least ONE message ... in your inbox. Perhaps that might stop it showing ? Else ... a mystery,  for now.


(Perhaps it's down to your browser / settings therein ? ).

Weird ! This is  how it SHOULD look.













http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/1457/capacitymf0.png


I assume you have at least ONE message ... in your inbox. Perhaps that might stop it showing ? Else ... a mystery,  for now.


(Perhaps it's down to your browser / settings therein ? ).
That is how it appears for me.

Nope mine ends at Prune Messages.  Maybe if I tried changing the background?  Worth a shot anyway. :)

Nope, that didn't help either.  I don't know what in my browser would cause that.  I do have messages so it isn't no message.  Oh well, I know the limit so it isn't a big deal.  It is probably just related to me, weird things tend to happen to me and my stuff.  :D

Thanks. :)

Nope mine ends at Prune Messages.  Maybe if I tried changing the background?  Worth a shot anyway. :)

Nope, that didn't help either.  I don't know what in my browser would cause that.  I do have messages so it isn't no message.  Oh well, I know the limit so it isn't a big deal.  It is probably just related to me, weird things tend to happen to me and my stuff.  :D

Thanks. :)


it's based on member groups... I didn't add a limit for website editors and moderators, so maybe that's over-riding the post count limits.

I'll set it to 1000 for the mods/editors and maybe that'll turn it on.

You were right, I just checked and now it is there.  Thanks Chucky. :)

You were right, I just checked and now it is there.  Thanks Chucky. :)


you're essentially thanking me for a smaller inbox, but you're welcome >grin<

no screaming or death threats... I guess no one noticed I turned on the limits Tuesday

no, I didn't notice...but thankfully I got my inbox pruned in time. 8)




Weird ! This is  how it SHOULD look.













http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/1457/capacitymf0.png


I assume you have at least ONE message ... in your inbox. Perhaps that might stop it showing ? Else ... a mystery,  for now.


(Perhaps it's down to your browser / settings therein ? ).

I'd better go check my inbox to see if it looks like that.


Anyhoo, thanks Chuck. O0

Nope, mine says "492 messages, 49.2% full." This implies that my limit is 1000 messages.



Oops, maybe that's because I didn't read this:


it's based on member groups... I didn't add a limit for website editors and moderators, so maybe that's over-riding the post count limits.

I'll set it to 1000 for the mods/editors and maybe that'll turn it on.


Since I am in the "editors" category, my limit is 1000.

So I suppose I could've kept all my messages in my inbox if I'd known this was gonna happen.

Nope, mine says "492 messages, 49.2% full." This implies that my limit is 1000 messages.



Oops, maybe that's because I didn't read this:

Since I am in the "editors" category, my limit is 1000.

So I suppose I could've kept all my messages in my inbox if I'd known this was gonna happen.
All that time spent on deleting!

All that time spent on deleting!

Well, it was probably for the better of me to delete the excess messages, just to be safe.

you're essentially thanking me for a smaller inbox, but you're welcome >grin<


I don't have that many in my inbox anyway.  I tend to delete unless they are important so smaller inbox doesn't phase me at all. :D

Whew.  An hour and a half picking through my inbox to get it (barely) down to size...

Whew.  An hour and a half picking through my inbox to get it (barely) down to size...




Welcome back, Andrea! Haven't seen you in a long while...

Whew.  An hour and a half picking through my inbox to get it (barely) down to size...




it's always great to see you back here! Stay around this time, girl! :)

Welcome back, Andrea! Haven't seen you in a long while...



it's always great to see you back here! Stay around this time, girl! :)


Thanks!!  I'll try to pop in every now & then... I just stopped in to say hi and didn't expect to spend all that time deleting pm's!  It was fun rereading some of the old ones though.  Gave me a lot of much needed laughs  :D