Again mbbrutman, my apologies go out to you our illustrious moderator. But Shadow Lord answered my concerns to your reply pretty well; better than I would have, or could have done, myself. I routinely reply to someone via PM, but because they don't have email notifications turned on, and/or they don't log onto the forums for several days or more, my replies are ignored. I can't fault the OP or the person whose comment caused me to go private just because they haven't seen my reply. They have to at least been shown that a reply exists before it is truly ignored.
Replying to the thread by stating "Taking this private" or "PM sent", does the same thing for the OP as an email. It lets them know they have a private message waiting in reply to their post, or comment within a thread. I have also sent out a message like this to indicate that I will be taking some sort of action in regards to an item. In this case, the expansion unit, and possibly a 5160 PC. If someone else wants to jump in and make an other offer for the same items, so be it. At least they know that someone else is already interested.
One thing I have found with the people in this group is that once someone speaks up for something, we can typically be assured he/she will have the first option and opportunity to buy without getting into a bidding war. Another thing that should probably be addressed here too then, is that most of those I inform in this manner actually look for something like this to alert them of a private conversation. Of those, most have responded positively, and also expressed their gratitude for letting them know of the PM so they don't begin answering some question or other concern if they have an offer for the item they're talking about. I have had very few people , and I won't send them a message like the one posted in this thread. Newbies are always thankful for the notification.
mbbrutman, I in no way want to cause any problems. And yet, it seems that I'm the only one who usually rattles your chains. I do apologize for that. At the same time, if you want all of the messages like these to stop, maybe it's time to send something out to the entire member group reminding, or advising them to stop making this type of messages or replying in this manner. With that in mind, do you have another suggestion as to how we would properly handle going private, or to somehow notify the OP that we have done so?
Sorry to turn this response into a novel. But I hope it clarifies some peoples thoughts, and why others do or don't do things in a prescribed manner. Again mbbrutman; you do a great job of moderating these forums. I only hope you continue providing this service to all users of the forums for years to come.
Cheers!
Great. But do the rest of us need an explicit notification?
This is just as bad as PM sent ...
(grrr)
