Okay, guys... I decided to make a quick info-blurb... This has probably been done before in passing, but I wanted a thread devoted directly to it, since it seems that this is a very often asked question lately.
You'll often see in member's ads on the classifieds "If you have any questions, PM me", or something to that extent. And it almost always is followed by this qualifier: "DON'T use the classifieds messaging system."
Well, this leaves a few new users in a bind. They don't know how to send PMs, being new. So, I made a tutorial.
First of all, DON'T use the "contact seller" option in the Classifieds. That will rarely be responded to, and even if the seller does respond to that message, it was sent to them from your email, so the seller can only respond to your email... They WILL NOT be able to find your screenname with that form of contact, so it's usually a dead end.
Secondly: You don't need to start on a special page to send PMs, you can be on any page, as long as you navigate to the correct page from there. That's what I will describe in method 1.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.
There are several methods:
1. Sale thread screen, or forum screen, it's all the same.. Go to the top of your page, on the right... You should see a "Welcome [Your name here]" menu. On that little block of text, there will be a hyperlink labeled "Private Messages" (sometimes it's also Notifications... They're the same thing)
You click on the "Private Messages" Link, and it will take you to your inbox... Now you'll see a sidebar menu on the left with "settings and options" "Miscellaneous", "your profile", "networking", things like that.
(Alternatively, you can also click on your screen name on that top right menu... It will take you to a different page, but with the same left-hand sidebar.)
One of the sub-sections of that left-hand sidebar is "Private Messages". Click Send New Message from that subsection, and it will take you to the message page. From there, you type in the member's name that you want to PM (if you only know part of it, just type in the start of the screenname, and it will give you a drop down menu of Members that match the portion you've typed. Just click on their name or finish typing it in.)
Then you just type your message and hit send.
2. If you see the person's name on any thread (not in the classifieds, that's a separate page/system) just click on their name, above their avatar, and you will get a drop down menu. From the drop down menu, Select "Message this User" (or something to that extent... I forget) And then finish as you would in the above method.e d
(for this method, this post works fine... Look at my name, and click it. You'll see the drop down menu)
3. If you end up navigating to the user's personal page... For instance, by clicking their name on a forum overview page (if you click on their name in a post, it will give you the above mentioned drop down menu... However, if you click on their name in most other locations, it will take you to their personal page) You can send a PM from their "Personal" page (this page shows their statistics, friends, photo albums, etc) There will be an option under their Avatar (that picture next to their name) that says "Send Message". clicking this brings up another drop down menu... Again, select Private Message and voila.
Here's an example... This is my "personal" page: Straight Razor Place Forums - View Profile: ShavedZombie
(If you want to test this one out, go back to the Beginners forum, and then, when you see the title for this thread, don't click it... Look beneath the title, and you will see my name [as the "Posted By" name]. Just click my name, and it will take you to my personal page... The same one linked above.)
That should be just about everything. Any questions?
Hoping I helped,
Jeremy
