There are only two ways to send a PM:

• From a member’s public profile: click on the “Private Message” link below their avatar and member name.
• As a reply to a PM: if you receive a PM from another member and wish to send them a reply, just click on the “reply” link at the end of the message to begin composing your own PM back to them.

Follow these basic steps:

1. Enter the text or website URL that you would like to make a link and then select it by highlighting it with your mouse (example highlighted in bold: “you should really check out this website”)
2. After highlighting the desired text, click on the “link” button above the text editor (between the links “i” and “image”)
3. A new field will pop up below the link. Simply add your desired website URL (example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f20c07thws). *Make sure that your images are formatted as: JPG, GIF, or PNG.
4. After adding the URL, click on the “add link” button.

At this point in time you cannot post a video directly into your PM. You can link to the site OR post the video directly into one of your albums.

To post a photo or image into your PM, follow these basic steps:

• Click on the link “image” above the text editor field while you’re composing your PM.
• A new field will pop up below the link. Simply add your desired photo URL (example: http://profile.ak.facebook.com/profile5/396/9/n605158134_5703.jpg)
• After adding the URL, click on the “add image” button.

If your image is NOT showing up in your PM, the following are possible reasons why not:

• The site does not allow “hot-linking”, which just means they will not upload their images to another site.
• Your image is not in JPG, GIF, or a PNG format.
• The site you are hot-linking from requires you to be logged in to view images.

You have the option to block someone from sending you private messages or leaving comments on your profile or albums. You can put them on your blocked list without their knowledge. To block a member from your PM inbox, simply click on the “Block” link that shows up under their avatar within any PM that they send you. When you block someone:

• You will no longer receive any private messages or comments. Their posts to you will vanish into thin air.
• They will not know that you are blocking them.

*Note: you cannot block someone who is already in your Parentank, to perform the block, you must first remove them from your Parentank.

go to your private messages page and click on the "blocked" tab in the upper right hand corner. There you will see a list of all the members you have blocked. Check the box next to the members you want to stop blocking, and then click on the "unblock" button.

There are two simple methods to allow you to bold or italicize your text.

• On your keyboard, press ctrl-b and enter the text you would like to have bolded, press ctrl-I to italicize text.
• Highlight the text you would like with your mouse, and then click the “B” to bold the selected text or “i” to italicize the selected text.

To select a particular emoticon, simply click on the “smiley” link above the text-editing field of the PM you are currently composing to see the full range of emoticons and click on whichever one you’d like to select to put into your PM.

If you would like to have more space to type while composing your PM, simply click on the “expand text space” link at the bottom of the text-editing field above the “send” button. If you want to re-shrink after expanding, click on the “shrink” link next to it.

Your inbox can store up to 50 messages after which point, the oldest will be automatically deleted to make space for new incoming messages. If there are messages you’d like to save, simply select them from your inbox list and click on the “Save” link at the top or bottom of your list.

The last 50 messages you sent are automatically saved in your sent box (access it by clicking on your member menu link “My Private Messages” and then on the “sent” tab. Once you’ve sent more than 50 messages, the oldest will be automatically deleted.

You can choose to save up to 50 messages you have received or sent simply by selecting them from your inbox or sent list and then clicking on the “Save” link at the top of the list.