GameFAQs Help: Private Messages

Private Messages, or PMs, on GameFAQs are just that - private messages sent directly from one user to another. You can use PMs to communicate with other GameFAQs users privately without using a third-party service (such as email or IM).

You must have an active GameFAQs Message Board account in good standing (Level 10 or higher) in order to send Private Messages. You can still receive Private Messages with a read-only GameFAQs Message Board account (Level 1), but cannot send them.

To read your Private Messages, simply click on the "n New Messages" link in the user information box in the top right corner of the page. You will be taken to your Inbox, where any new messages will be displayed.

To send a PM to another user, you can either visit your Inbox (by clicking the New Messages link at the top of every page), then click the "Send New Message" link, or view another user's profile on the message boards and click the "PM this User" button to fill in their name automatically.

Each message you send needs a recipient (the Message Board name of the user you want to send a message to), a subject line, and a message. You will receive a warning message if you've forgotten any of these, or if your recipient is blocking PMs from you.

Not at this time.

Yes. Since the system is brand new, there are strict limits in place while capacity is gauged. Level 10 and 11 users can only send 5 messages per any 24 hour period - 15: 10, 20: 20, 25: 25, 30: 50, 31: 100, 32: 150, and users level 32 and higher can send 200 messages per day.

Additionally, you can only send three unread messages to a single user at any time. This is done to prevent inbox flooding. You should absolutely not use multiple accounts to send messages to a single recipient to get around this limit - doing so is considered Harassment, and your accounts may be banned for it.

Yes. Since the system is brand new, there are strict limits in place while capacity is gauged. The Inbox limits are 50, 100, 150, 250, and 500 messages for level 10/11, 20, 25, 30, and higher level users respectively.

Once your Inbox is full, you will no longer be able to send new Private Messages, but you can still receive them. If your Inbox hits double the number of allowed messages, you will no longer be able to receive any non-system messages.

Yes, but not to the same extent. Users have the ability to delete and block messages from other users, which should take care of the vast majority of violations of the TOU. Moderators can only see messages that users have specifically marked as abusive, and only severe violations (harassment, phishing, threats) will generally be acted against by a moderator.

Once read, messages in your Inbox are automatically deleted after 30 days. Once sent, messages in your Outbox are deleted after 15 days. Messages you have Archived will not be deleted.

You can delete your messages by either marking the checkbox on the Message List page and clicking the Delete button, or by clicking the Delete button for each individual message. You can delete messages in your Inbox or Archive at any time, but you cannot delete messages from your Outbox for the first 24 hours after sending.

If you click the Report Abuse button on the message page, you will see a list of options that allow you to handle abusive messages. You can simply delete the message, block the user, or even report the message to a moderator if you feel the abuse is severe.

Once a user has sent you a private message and you no longer want to receive messages from them, simply click the Report Abuse button on the message page and choose the length of the block you wish to apply. You can unblock users on the Settings page.

Additionally, if you wish to block messages from all users at a certain level or lower (to stop messages from new accounts, for example), or even to block all messages from users who are not your friends, you can make that change on your Settings page as well.

Under normal circumstances, only the sender and receiver of a Private Message can view its contents. Moderators can only view messages that are reported as abusive, but otherwise they have no access to your messages, or any non-reported messages you have received or sent.

Beyond that, employees or contractors of CBS Interactive may have access to all Private Messages for researching abuse, legal, and site development issues. Please review our Privacy Policy for more information.