Hi. I just want to offer a suggestion. Can there be a way to distinguish between private messages and broadcast messages when we log on? When the private message box lights up, nine times out of ten it is not a private message at all, but a broadcast message on behalf of some advertiser. It would be nice to know which ones are actually private messages, and which ones are not. And technically I would not imagine it would present any difficulties. Tony

I doubt this would ever happen. The advertisers are what pay the bills for the site. And the advertisers wouldn't want their target audience to know that those so-called "Private Messages" are really just an ad.

Just click on the "Private Message" box and when you see that it is not a real private message just click on the Magic Café logo which takes you back to the previous page and the flashing private message box will be gone.

If you don't want to read the broadcast message, just go to the bottom of the private message screen and click on delete this PM. That will remove it all together. Randwill's suggestion works but the message will still be in your in box.

Correct me if I'm wrong, Dave, but I don't believe that the broadcast messages count toward the maximum number of PMs allowed in your inbox.

I have no problem with the messages at all and once in a while I find something very interesting that I would otherwise have been unaware of. Seems like a very small price to pay to keep the Café a free resource.

I don't believe they do but that wasn't the subject. The concern is having them at all and there were several suggestions, including my own on how to get around them.

Dave, the concern was not 'having them at all'. I have no objection to them. The concern is labeling them as private messages when they are advertisements. I don't think I have ever got a private message from Steve Brooks, but I have had him try to sell me plenty of things. Call it what it is, that is what I am saying.

OK, gotcha. It's basically terminology. You're looking for is a flashing icon for PM's and another one for Broadcast messages. That's up to Steve if he wants to create something new

I think randwill is right.

The purpose is to deliver eyes to the ads. If people know it is an ad fewer will look.

If we want a free site, our occasional attention is the real cost.

It is not that big a deal.

-Mary Mowder

Thank you Mary. You're exactly right.