I "recently" sent a PM to the winner of a PIF, but the PM has been lingering in my Outbox for 2-1/2 hours. I've noticed that some PMs take 10-15 minutes before they are sent, but this delay seems excessive. Is there anything I can do on my end to expedite the successful transmission of this PM? Is there anything an Admin or Moderator can do? Should I just wait until tomorrow before I complain again?

Thanks,
Brian

Yes, they can read them!

The PM system doesn't work like an email system where it's in your outbox for a few seconds. With phpBB software, It sits in the outbox until the recipient reads it. Once they read it, it wll be transferred to your 'sent items'.

Also, the recipient receives an email stating they have a PM. This email takes between 2-10 minutes to be delivered and has a copy of the PM in it so they can review the contents without physically needing to log into the site.

Thanks Dan. I know about receiving email about new PMs, but didn't know the subtleties regarding the Outbox.

so if I were to change my mind and delete a message from my outbox, would they still get the message in their inbox or in the email notification?

Yep, they'd get the email preview. It's particularly funny to do this when someone wants what you'd pm'd them about.

Yes, the Email notification will still show the message, but the PM will not. If you delete the PM before the recipient reads it, it shows "message deleted by sender" in their inbox. They cannot view the message, just delete it.

The email is sent out instantly, within seconds of you hitting "send". It sits in a queue on the server until the phpBB sendmail does it's thing (usually within a couple of minutes).

Gareth, can I tell the story?