PMs getting shorter and shorter and..??

Sue-UU

Hi.

I've been regularly sending out PMs to new members of the quitting smoking thread (DFW diaries) for 2 years, but since the alterations to the site the amount of characters per PM gets less every time I send one.

I sent another shortened one out in the week, but had to - once again - shorten it by 64 characters. It was a struggle to do, especially as this is at least the 5th time I've needed to take so much out. However, I managed to somehow and off it went. Then again tonight a new member came on so I went to send the shortened version off, but no, a message came up saying another 57 characters had to be taken out???

I can't take that amount out again or it just won't be worth doing at all. PLEASE, could you kindly help with this as these PMs are vital to first time users for advice and tips and they keep them by to refer to for the difficult months ahead.

PLEASE help me to help them.

Very many thanks indeed.

Sue

dmg24

Could you not just post the information on the board?

Sue-UU

Though I know what you mean dmg, it's far better for the new members to receive a copy of their own, it also gives them that first spurt onwards. Putting it on the thread every time a new member came on would be far too repetitious to all the others to have it over and over again.

However, my main concern is - why do the limits keep on getting shorter? I just don't understand it.

Thanks any way,

Sue

ceridwen

So - that's six times MSE has shortened the length of the PM's then?

How much were they in the first place (ie how many characters) and how much are they now?

I'd got the vague feeling that I'm having to shorten mine more than I used to - but this proves it.

I expect this is a change MSE has brought in and hoped we wouldnt notice - and is probably to do with a certain amount of "space" being available and them having decided to keep it at that level (even though there are now more members) - ie a "smaller slice of the cake each".

Premier_2

See if removing your signature from any lengthy PM helps. I think that uses a lot of characters (more than you might expect by just counting those characters in the signature I think)

MoneySavingUser

Put it in the thread and link them to the specific post in the pm?

Sue-UU

Hi everyone and thanks so much for your thoughts, I really do appreciate your help, though I'm hoping someone from admin can help a bit more perhaps..

ceridwen, I haven't any of the old ones as with so many folk having given up over the last couple of years, I don't keep that many in the sent box, so the only ones are more recent.

At present the one I sent a few nights ago was 833 words = 4416 characters, yet 5000 is the limit! However, I tried sending the same shortened version to another quitter last night (Sat) and the following message came up:

"The text that you have entered is too long (5057 characters). Please shorten it to 5000 characters long."

I wonder who does the counting and how many fingers they need???! :huh:

Of course the deleting of some smilies made a difference as because the faces weren't there, the words saying what they meant are there instead and added to the dilemma - ie. the confused smilie now has something like *confused* in it's place, but I've accounted for that. Right now that's what I am though!!!

They're obviously either cutting back drastically, as you say, OR they have big problems with the PMs.

Premier, I see your point, but that doesn't appear to have anything to do with it, it's very odd indeed and things certainly aren't right.

MoneySavingUser, a good thought, but in all honesty I think the PMs work so well as it's something personal that folk in a vulnerable situation really do find helps them, and often a PM is altered just a little to suit.

Thanks very much indeed folks, lets hope someone will soon come on and let us know what's going on.

Sue