Holding on to PMs

[Ein Vried]

Hi All,

How long should you keep PMs in your mailbox for trades that you've made? Is there a norm of year, months, weeks?

Cheers,
Vried

[HarlequinZero]

My personal rule is don't delete any PMs for a trade until both parties have received their goods and left positive feedback saying they are happy with the trade. Once that hurdle is cleared I clean out the PMs.

[osloco]

I keep them all, just in case. I have made a bunch of folders for references, dealt with messages, waiting for messages, etc. It is much easier for me to stay organised this way

[porkuslime]

I keep them for the duration of the trade, and the exchange of Refs. Once that is done, I keep a copy of my partners address for future dealings, and delete the remainder of the PMs. This way you have complete records in case of a Backout or BTR documentation trail.

There is no "auto-prune" of the old PM's, I imagine that you could have some 4 years old, if you wanted to.

[JohnHwangBT]

I keep PMs until both sides have exchanged References.

I also keep a backup copy of PMs in an off-line file, one file per trade, "just in case".

I think this is probably standard practice among most established traders.

[MagickalMemories]

Actually, John, I disagree. I'd imagine that less people than you think actuall keep second copies of PMs.
Of course, like you, I'm guessing. I could very well be wrong.

Like most here, I delete them all after references are left by both sides.

On the other hand, if you feel the need to leave a NEGATIVE reference for your trade partner, I suggest keeping them for a bit over a month, as they can come back and refute it for up to a month.

Eric

[JohnHwangBT]

If you don't have off-line backup, then what happens if there's a hiccup in your mail?

[MagickalMemories]

I don't use email. I trade via PM... and, if it went down AND the data happened to be lost, I'd be S.O.L.
I trust in the phpbb software & new server enough for that not to happen, though.

Eric

[Adunaphel]

Until this last year, I would keep all the PM's until references were left (usually me waiting for my trade partners to leave me one). I didn't keep ANYTHING else. But, last year, a newer trader was looking for information for one of my trade partners where a trade wasn't working for him. And even though I had just finished the trade I didn't have ANY of the information to help him. I felt bad enough about it that from there on in I kept a little notebook with every trader, customer, and painter that I had come into contact with.

I still keep my PM's until references are left and then dump them. Other than customer PM's (or potential customer PM's). I put those in my saved PM's folder. If the phbbhbhb ( ) ever goes down then I have lost those. But, I still have the more pertinent information in my notebook.

Karl

[JohnHwangBT]

I use PM, too.

But you never know what will happen...

[Ein Vried]

Thanks for the advice everyone. So i'll save the PMs of there addys and dump the rest.

Cheer,
Ein Vried

[kturock]

I keep handle them like MM and Harlie0; keep them till the trade and refs were left.

For pm's that aren't replied or responded to [or is it too?], I try to delete them every week or so..sometimes it's longer.

[MagickalMemories]

I keep handle them like MM and Harlie0; keep them till the trade and refs were left.

For pm's that aren't replied or responded to [or is it too?], I try to delete them every week or so..sometimes it's longer.

Check you out with your capital letters and stuff.


(It's "to," BTW... you had it right.)


Eric

[kturock]

Not bad eh? Only took me 20 minutes to type that, over and over and over....