Due to some private message spam received by myself and others over a period of time, usually sent by people who never contributed a single post on the forums, a change has been made to private messaging permissions.
For the time being, member groups have been adjusted so anyone who has made less than 5 posts is now considered a "Newbie". Anyone who has made from 5 to 49 posts is considered a "Junior Member". The other groups have not changed. Newbies will not have the ability to send personal messages, which means you will have to have made at least 5 posts on the forums (posts that, of course, add to the content of the forums and do not get removed as spam) before having permission to send or receive a personal message. As far as I'm aware, this should affect very few people outside of the spammers.
I know a couple of people over the past few years have private messaged me before having made 5 posts on the forums. I'm sorry for the inconvenience to new members who may need to contact me privately. However, the greater inconvenience is to members who have been receiving inappropriate messages. As always, anyone including new members, guests, and long time contributors to the forums can still contact me privately simply by using the "Contact" link near the bottom of the navigation bar on the left side of any page on Hillrunner.com. If you would like to contact me and you can't private message me, please use the contact page and I will get back to you as soon as possible.
As a final reminder, if you ever receive a spam through a private message, please forward it to me and I will deal with it, as well as the individual who sent it. At Hillrunner.com, a violation of the spam policy through private messaging is considered a more severe violation of the no spam policy than a violation of the spam policy through a public forum post due to the nature of private messaging. A first violation of the policy through private messaging will result in a 90 day ban and any further violations will result in a permanent ban.
