Higher (or no) private message limit?

andersju · 08-02-2012

It'd be fantastic to have the current limit of 100 private messages removed or at least raised. It feels quite frankly a bit ridiculous these days, like somebody thought no more than 100 was a good idea in the days of yore and nobody ever reconsidered.

Many boards have no limit at all, and the ones that do tend to have more sensible limits - e.g., 5000 at APUG, 1000 at PentaxForums.

PMs take very little space, disk space is cheaper than ever, and it makes little sense to allow 61 400 KB of images but only 100 messages. My near-full inbox+outbox are together 164 KB when exported to .txt, or 1/374 of the gallery space. I'm sure that adding a zero to the limit would make a lot of people happy, and it would certainly make the classifieds easier to use: no more "your inbox is full" and constantly having to remove stuff (and having to save important messages somewhere else and remember where). And when the classifieds experience is nicer, people are more likely to place ads here, bringing more $ for the upkeep of this fine place. Win-win!

Jani_from_Finland · 08-02-2012

Well, i understand the point because its a free forum and to run this costs a bit anyway. I usually erase old messages and thats why this aint an issue for me, but i know many people today are not acting this way. Anyway i say the current state is ok and acceptable.

raid · 08-02-2012

I often find myself missing a message that I needed to make use of, but that was deleted due to the 100 limit (sent and received). How about increasing the limit to 100 sent and 100 received?

This would help.

back alley · 08-02-2012

i wonder if folks would be willing to pay a small fee for a bigger mailbox?

andersju · 08-02-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by back alley

i wonder if folks would be willing to pay a small fee for a bigger mailbox?

I would!

back alley · 08-02-2012

my limit is 1000 and it ain't much fun...

Jani_from_Finland · 08-02-2012

Maybe there could be a pay button or donate button on the first page (or have i just missed it?) so there could be an increase for those willing to pay and need the space?

back alley · 08-02-2012

i'm not computer savvy enough to know how/if it could work...i know the cost for the site has gone up quite a bit and stephen hasn't given us a raise in ages...

raid · 08-02-2012

How about a $30/year fee at RFF?

andersju · 08-02-2012

If we're talking just a message limit increase I think a one-time fee of, say, $5-10 for 3000-5000 messages would be appropriate and popular.

I have 91 messages right now, 164 KB uncompressed plain text when exported. Let's say it's 2 MB (0.002 GB) for 1000 messages - just a very rough ballpark figure. I don't know how much RFF's host (which appears to be Rackspace) charges for extra disk space, but consider the prices at other popular cloud/VPS hosts: $1/month per each extra GB at Linode, $0.10 per GB-month for Amazon EC2's EBS... disk is cheap.

A one-time fee of $5-10 (or $5-10 for each increase) would likely cover quite a few messages, and administration, if it can't be automated. Just a suggestion

(But again, I don't know the particulars of RFF's hosting deal.)

smiling gecko · 08-02-2012

i would pay for more message capacity...
breathe, relax and enjoy.
smiling gecko, aka kenneth

Chriscrawfordphoto · 08-02-2012

APUG lets users become "Subscribers" by donating money each year (I think its $25 but you can give more if you want), and by doing so they get some things regular free users don't get, like the ability to place classified ads for free. Maybe RFF could do something like that, and include a bigger PM box in the subscriber's account.

semordnilap · 08-02-2012

I like Chris's idea...

zauhar · 08-02-2012

Pay for more private messages AND more gallery space.
Randy

Jani_from_Finland · 08-02-2012

To get more gallery space is ok, you have to pay for ads nowadays dont you(?) so maybe a possible Extra Gallery space plus free (amount based, maybe 20 ads/year) ads would be one option? But to turn the whole forum to a paid version would kill it, maybe they could survive for 1-2 years just to figure out the crowd is gone.

raid · 08-02-2012

The fees would not be mandatory for all. Similsr to photo.net and other sites, you get additional priviliges for a fee.

DougFord · 08-02-2012

I wonder what's the percentage of RFF members that max-out their PM memory space?
Personally, I don't use mine at all. Is it possible to reallocate PM memory space? Perhaps reducing the max number of PM's for those of us that don't use the feature while increasing the max for those that do.

dct · 08-03-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by andersju

If we're talking just a message limit increase I think a one-time fee of, say, $5-10 for 3000-5000 messages would be appropriate and popular.

I have 91 messages right now, 164 KB uncompressed plain text when exported. Let's say it's 2 MB (0.002 GB) for 1000 messages - just a very rough ballpark figure. [...]

Are we really talking about fees for a few more messages? I don't conceive the discussion here, because 10 images of around 200kB seems to be like 1000 standard messages... I'm ready to pay fees for a higher image volume than today (bigger images, more images in the gallery), if this is a an option. But for a few kB of text?

andersju · 08-03-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by dct

Are we really talking about fees for a few more messages? I don't conceive the discussion here, because 10 images of around 200kB seems to be like 1000 standard messages... I'm ready to pay fees for a higher image volume than today (bigger images, more images in the gallery), if this is a an option. But for a few kB of text?

I just want to get away from the bizarre 100 message limit. I'd be glad to trade my 62 MB of unused gallery space for more messages, but if paying for it is the only way, then so be it.

thegman · 08-03-2012

I would suggest that if we want to have longer conversations, just take it to email. The messaging system on RFF and other forums is pretty stone age compared to GMail and the like.

Matus · 08-03-2012

I did exchange PMs while selling stuff here or just as a next level to replies in a thread. 100 limit is really low - I would be willing to pay a little more - but I would expect a $5 - $10 to give me limit of 1000. I mean - the plain text messages are really tiny. Should the fee be higher than the gallery should get different limits too.

I am one of those that 'subscribe' to APUG as I consider it the largest 'database' for analog photography knowledge. I actually post much more here and would be ready to shell a few bucks too.

Of course there could be several options of payed membership.

I do realize that including payed subscriptions and new features to RFF would require a lot of work - so I do not really expect solution overnight, but I think that this option should be give a though.

ChrisN · 08-03-2012

I don't want more message space.

I think mandatory access fees would kill this site.

coelacanth · 08-03-2012

Many sites have "premium" or "gold" or whatever paid member level with benefits, and as long as the core experience with free account is not limited more than right now, I don't think making the paid "subscriber" level would kill the site.

I love RFF and would be happy to contribute say $25-$50 a year for something like

• Larger or unlimited mail box depending on annual contribution level.
• Lower or free classifieds fee depending on annual contribution level.
• Über member level (basically a generous donation) can get RFF softy or something like that.

Typically on forum, you'll get subscriber badge so that might give buyer/seller some peace of mind that you are a "serious" member, and help your sale/purchase in Classifieds.

I keep PM notification with my gmail so I can look back, but sent messages are gone forever if I delete from PM box so I'd love some more mail box capacity.

ChrisN · 08-03-2012

Two people have mentioned that they would like free ads. I suspect that would require some restructuring of the way the site is supported and run. I've noted that when I buy an advertisement, the payment goes to Jorge, the original owner and operator of the site, rather than to Mr Gandy, the current owner and operator. I might speculate that this reflects an arrangement under which Jorge maintains the technical side in return for the revenue from the classifieds. If the classifieds became free (with a large increase in volume likely) then the owner would need to find another way to fund site maintenance. How many will really want to pay for a bigger PM storage and free adverts? Personally I prefer email, and to pay for the occasional advert.

BTW I do not think it wrong for the site owner to seek a decent return from the site. At the moment that appears to come from the advertising, generating sales. This is working - why mess with it? I recall the owner did try the subscriber model several years ago with a discriminatory membership level, but it caused considerable dissent and was soon dropped.

David Murphy · 08-03-2012

For those newer members, RFF used to have a paid premium membership. The current owner eliminated it when he purchased RFF. I thought that was a great move.