You joined before I did...I used to have many messages in my inbox too.

I decided that I would delete most of mine, since they made sense to no-one but me. They remain largely in my memory...

They are woven into, and have become part of the fabric of my entire life.

Did you know there was a time, in the early days, when you could hit a button and "unjoin" DU?

Just a click of a button and you were no longer a member. That didn't last long.

It's not as if the trolls were going to hit that button anyway.

In the first days of DU, the trolls were actual freepers who came over from FR to cause problems.

Sometimes the board looked as if it leaned right there was so many freepers.

It was a daily battle of shouting them down. It was ugly but fun.

All that anger from Selection 2000 was unleashed.

But as the board was supposed to be a safe place for us, the trolls had to go.

so many messages, that you just have to delete en masse. But pretty neat that you still have them. Boy, Khephra and so many others we've lost. Really gives you pause....

A huge chunk of life.

I couldn't bear to delete them when his health deteriorated.

So much of this internet world is transient, forgotten as soon as the next meme/scandal/uproar comes along.

But not the people. For me...for you..for many of us. It's the wonderful and not-so-wonderful people along the way that made the difference.

So my inboxes are pretty empty.

The exception is when I order something from Amazon or eBay, I keep the order verification email until the item arrives. Then I delete it.

My regular email is like that. I do hate clutter in my email box.

But better.

I ever sent you a message, but am thrilled that you might have a great archive there in your mailbox. Thanks for being such a great resource.

me in a wood chipper and watch me turned to sawdust. I deleted it to keep the mailbox tidy.

Has for a long while now.

It's part of DU lore, so to speak.

Sorry!

but yes, I keep the ones from people who are no longer here. I just realized a few people were FFR'd. I knew I hadn't seen them in a while but I did not know that was the reason.

I don't know what happened to the messages from 2004 to 2011.

Only goes to my inbox though.

I thought it was the same for everyone with older messages.

Maybe not though.

I just looked and there it is. Now I can re-read the ones from MiddleFingerMom.

Thanks!

You've got a treasure trove yourself.

Well, that and all the people that think like me. But, MFM was special. His good nature was contagious and he was happy to share it. Even though I didn't know him or correspond with him, I shed a couple tears when he left us.

been reading/following DU and really enjoy, specially all in 1 place news. Nice to hear a personal perspective too, with news too...would be nice to have a nice history of DU too, maybe snapshot of top 10 chains...

People bring the news home because it has touched so many of us in different ways.

problems.

I lost my first 10 years here, erased after several computer crashes (lightning strikes).

I've been lucky, I guess. I might delete them one day but...I dunno.

Just saying

Thank you!!

You mean,
someone else here knows my sister-in-law?

It wouldn't be DU if it didn't happen. Much like this discussion. Wouldn't be DU otherwise.

Those were the days.

Some of the very best people of DU, some of the very best times.

never got very many, and only deleted a few....

A nice slice of history.

I imagine that other people have gotten far more messages over their time on DU than I have. Even if they deleted them all.

For all my time on DU, I have far less posts than a lot of people who have been here for a shorter period of time.

He's been gone so long now

good thinking

Feeling did.

I too delete alerts and non-personal stuff. I have at least 5 years, if not more.

But won't.

I had no idea one could access their Inbox archives until I saw your OP.

Soooo ... I thought I'd take a "quick look" at my 12 years of PMs, which turned into two-plus hours of looking - and I haven't even made a dent in viewing what's there.

Thanks for sharing this info!

I wouldn't delete those for anything in the world.

Looking through my archive, I see a 2003 message from GregW about the DU Gallery (which was hosted on another site and is no longer online).

A message from someone saying that they started to tear up when they saw that a quote from them was in my sig line.

A conversation with John Kleeb, who was a fixture around here in the mid-00s. I hope he is well.

Yes, found some from long gone DUers. Redstone. AlienGirl. Wow, that was a long time ago.

Some laughs, some tears.

One problem is that I can't figure out how to delete more than one at a time. Or am I just not seeing the right way to do that?

Never really thought about it.

It takes awhile when there are a lot of old ones.