phpBB 3.0 allows its users to communicate privately by using Private Messages. To visit the Private Messages section, you either can click on the [X new messages] link on the left hand side below the forum header, or you can directly access it through the User Control Panel.
Depending on your [settings], there are 3 ways of being notified that a new Private Message has arrived:
1.By receiving an e-mail or Jabber message
2.While browsing the forum a notification window will pop up
3.The [X new messages] link will show the number of currently unread messages
You can set the options to your liking in the Preferences section in the User Control Panel. Note, that for the popup window notification to work, your will have to add the forum you are visiting to your browser’s popup blocker white list.
You can choose to not receive Private Messages by other users in your Preferences.
Note, that moderators and administrators will still be able send you Private Messages, even if you have disabled them.Please remember, To use this feature, (private messages) you have to be a registered user and need the to have the correct permissions.
Just like in your e-mail client at home, all private messages are stored in folders. Working with folders is similar to working with forums in phpBB 3.0. The Inbox is your default incoming message folder. All messages you receive will appear in here.
Sent messages will appear in either the Outbox or the Sent messages folder. As long as the recipient(s) have not yet read the message, it will stay in the Outbox. As soon as someone reads the message it will be archived to the Sent messages folder.
Each folder, including Sent messages and Outbox, can hold a board-defined amount of messages. This is a global setting that only a board administrator can change. An info text displays the current number of allowed messages and the current percentage of space your messages are using at the top of each folder.
Note
Please note that the total amount of messages allowed is a per-folder setting. You can have multiple folders which each allow 50 messages for instance. If you have 3 folders, your actual global limit is 150 messages, but each folder can only contain up to 50 messages by itself. It is not possible to merge folders and have one with more messages than the limit.
Please remember, if you have a question please make a post, send a private message, or even email. We would like to see you post the question as other users will learn from others questions, and they may even help you out as well.
Thanks for your time
