I got a "visitor message" notification today (from another user), took a quick look at it, then continued to the forum intending to come back to the message later. But then I couldn't figure out why it wasn't appearing in my PM inbox. I eventually figured out that it was a "visitor message", not a "personal message". Can you clarify what the difference is?

I suspect that a VM is a public post on my profile's wall. It does create a little confusion, and you can't "reply" directly to it (e.g. quoting etc.) like you can with a PM so I'm not sure that VMs have any value other than to confuse.

I got a "visitor message" notification today (from another user), took a quick look at it, then continued to the forum intending to come back to the message later. But then I couldn't figure out why it wasn't appearing in my PM inbox. I eventually figured out that it was a "visitor message", not a "personal message". Can you clarify what the difference is?

I suspect that a VM is a public post on my profile's wall. It does create a little confusion, and you can't "reply" directly to it (e.g. quoting etc.) like you can with a PM so I'm not sure that VMs have any value other than to confuse.

That was probably me. I don't think either is public, not sure for certain. I think that VMs are more transient more like an instant message or chat.

I did that because I discovered after replying to a PM and then trying to send one to a different user that there is a one hour penalty timeout between sending PMs. This seems way excessive (Lyle, can you sdjust it?) so I thought that A VM might have a less hardcore penalty or none at all.

We put the 60 minute timeout in becasue spam bots were sometimes trying to PM the whole member list..at an hour delay they gave up.

What would you like the delay to be?

Not sure the diff between VM and PM, will look into it.

We put the 60 minute timeout in becasue spam bots were sometimes trying to PM the whole member list..at an hour delay they gave up.

What would you like the delay to be?

I hadn't thought of the spam bot issue. Possible mitigations, depending on difficulty to code into the site:

1. Reduce or eliminate the delay for those who have been members for a while or gone beyond junior member status.

2. Limit the number of recipients on a private message to two or three, shorten the delay to five minutes. If someone is communicating with more than three people, it probably belongs on the forums.

3. Institute a CAPCHA to send.

4. No delay to send to "friends".

Lyle, might it be possible for you to define the difference between visitor messages and personal messages? Are either visible other than to the sender and recipient?

Also, any chance of relief from the one-hour penalty box between PMs per suggestions above?

We put the 60 minute timeout in becasue spam bots were sometimes trying to PM the whole member list..at an hour delay they gave up.

What would you like the delay to be?

Not sure the diff between VM and PM, will look into it.

60 minutes is incredibly annoying. Most forums I visit are 60 seconds!!!

OK, we lowered the time between private messages to 2 minutes. Hope this helps.

ok, we lowered the time between private messages to 2 minutes. Hope this helps.

Thank you! Hopefully the bots stay away too...