Just a thought I had... How about a link in the Control Panel for "Send Message" which brings up a personal message window with a blank "To:" field. I usually know the username of the person I want to send a message to and it would often be more convenient to simply type it in than to go looking for a comment or image by the person in order to get to their profile for the personal message link. I know some people save all of their old personal messages and can easily just reply to one, but I don't save mine, and I'm guessing others might not either.

Also, since the name in the "To:" field can be changed freely (already functional), and in this function would obviously have to be entered manually, it would be nice if there was some feedback when the name is not of a valid registered user (as when there is a type-o), and it would let you correct the name without losing the comment you typed. Anyone have any other thoughts on this?

Alternatively, there could be a "Find Member" function, where you type in the name and it takes you to that members profile page. The you could send a PM, view their gallery or whatever. Perhaps if there was no precise match, it could display a page of member name that are similar?I have no idea how difficult any of these ideas would be to implement, though.

Agree, Sam. That would be a useful function and save a lot of hunt-and-peck to find someone.

This is a great idea. I did the search thing the other day and noticed that when you search for someone and open an Image to get to their profile page it counts as a view without a download. We also have a number of users who comment and are very present but don't have galleries. I have saved a few profiles in a folder under 'Favorites' but this would save time trying to find someone.

I agree. I have too many PM's saved for the sole purpose of finding people quicker when I need to. If I do a search it's quite possible I'll click on an image that has been deleted once or twice before I actually get one that leads me where I need to go.

Another idea... It would be nice if we received some sort of notification, maybe under "Jobs" when one of our images is deleted or when one is moved into a permanent gallery. It can be a bit of a challenge to figure out which image got deleted, and my own website contains links to the image discussion pages of my pictures. When an image is deleted I have to remove those links so it would be nice to be alerted as soon as that happens :). Maybe the alert could even have like a two or three day timer attached to it so people would have time to go save some of the nice comments others have made before the image discussion page disappears.

I'm definitely behind this idea. It would be very nice to have a user search function and for the user page to be more functioning as a whole. For instance, if a person leaves a message to me on my user page, it would be nice if it included a "reply" button similar to what is included in the PM.

I'm glad you all have been thinking about ways to improve the PM system. I am currently planning on greatly improving the way we send, receive, and organize our PMs (to make it more like an email application).

Torque's suggestion is also something that I'd like to do, however it really belongs in it's own topic. Perhapse on the dev site. =)

CanoeG: I like the idea on having a PM link right on the user's icon, however There is only so much that I can fit on there right now. I'm thinking of a way of streamlining the links a bit (the ones that appear right below a user's icon). Maybe a context menu that appears when you right click the name would be better. That would allow use to add a whole lot of useful links in there without messing up the page.

All great ideas, good thinking guys.

Totally agree about the PM idea. It would be really cool.

I like the context menu idea. It would / could provide many options without taking much screen space.
It could also include weather the member is online or not.

Oooo an E-Mail(ish) style would be very efficient!! Cool idea :D

Just a little thing ill throw in here just cuz everyone is listening.... I've always wished i could get an email when i recieve a personal message or a subscription or one of those other things that show up as notes.