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RootsChat is all about community and communication for your family history research. And there are plenty of ways to communicate: Posting on the boards, Personal Messages (PM), E-mail, ICQ, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and Yahoo Instant Messenger (YIM).
While e-mail is a good way to correspond privately with members, it
has several drawbacks: You must open your e-mail application to write
and send the message; the recipient must open his/her e-mail application;
check his/her mail and your message will mixed in with all the other
mail and it can take sometimes several minutes to an hour for mail to
reach the recipient.
As an alternative to e-mail, RootsChat offers a faster, more private method.
The Personal Messages system provides instantaneous delivery to the
recipient's RootsChat Inbox. The mail is sent and received entirely
through RootsChat, so neither you nor the recipient have to open another
program or leave RootsChat. Private Messages also gives both the sender
and recipient greater privacy: No one's e-mail address is revealed.
Personal Messages show only the username and name of both parties.
If a recipient isn't online, Personal Messages wait in the member's RootsChat inbox until the next time they log in and then reads and/or deletes
them. RootsChat Private Messages are a self-contained, highly private e-mail
system.
In general, there is no limit to the number of PMs you may send or receive,
(although we do hope you will empty your Inbox and Outbox regularly).
New members must make at least three postings before being allowed to use the PM facility.
If you have less than three posts, or you are are sending PMs to new members who have less than three posts you will receive an error message,1) By clicking on the "You have X messages" link:
At the top right of the screen you will see the line:2) By clicking on the members's name:
Members' names, anywhere on the forum boards, are nearly always links to their profiles.3) Direct from a topic:
If you are looking at a posting from someone you want to send a PM to, then go to the left of the posting, and click on the user's name (1) or the profile icon (2). This will take you to the member's profile.4) By clicking on the PM icon:
If you are looking at a posting from someone you want to send a PM to, then go to the left of the posting, and hover your cursor over the computer monitor (3) or over the little green scroll (4). A little box should come up, saying "Personal Message (online)" (if they are currently logged onto RootsChat) or "Personal Message (offline)" if they are currently offline.