The People,...... Places,........Things,....... Of Traditional Hot Rodding.... You know, I can't tell you how many times I sat down with the intention of cleaning out my "In-Box" for PM's here on the HAMB, Because I got the little warning about it being 99% Full... Almost 500 messages amassed !,.... A truly generous limit that we should all be able to control. So with good intentions, I sit down with a fresh cup of coffee, And dive into the abyss of old messages determined to get it down to no more than 20% (or less). Almost 500 Messages !.... This should be a piece of cake !... So the oldest messages should be the ones of least consequence,.... I go to the last page first, With a itchy "click here" finger and a empty trash bin. Until you run across a PM from Casey,... or Hambandy,.... or 1950ChevySuburban,....... Seems every year the list with the esteemed title "Member Emeritus" gets longer,..... And I find it more difficult to even consider deleting personal correspondences.... I guess it's comforting to know part of them are still tucked away there in the "in-box".... Then I start to read other messages, And suddenly remember why I kept them,... Slowly it becomes more apparent... This seems to be more of a daunting task than I originally anticipated. Fast forward another month until the little warning pops up again, And with strong resolve and true determination I go to finish this task... And again,.. I decide to trim it down to 90% or so and call it a day..... Some people that knew Frank Mack would consider him a hoarder of car parts,.... Sure he would sell or give you something you needed for a project,... but he collected a lot of stuff,... But with every part (no matter how insignificant) there was a story,... Where it came from, what it was on or in, how he came to own it,... Etc. I would actually feel more connected to the part after hearing the story than if I got a NOS one at a swap meet. With that said,... (If any of this makes any sense) I guess I am kind of a hoarder of the friends and relationships I have made here on the HAMB.... And deleting messages from those that hold the title of "Member Emeritus" is something I just cant bring myself to do..... Or discarding a truly personal exchange between two HAMB family members that very good friends,... Although we have never met in person...... It just keeps bringing me back to my old theme,... The HAMB and Traditional Hot Rods is the glue that holds a world wide family of people passionate about the same interests, together. Maybe I'm just weird..... Do any of you have a hard cleaning out the old PM boxes ?........ Either way,... I hope the whole HAMB Family has a wonderful, prosperous and Hot Rod fun filled 2014 !
I totally understand. I have some messages in mine that are years old. Like that old car part you have collected and will probably never use, we keep it as mementos of the past.
I don't have quite that many and I'll go and read thru them maybe delete a few but there's lots of info /tips that I'd like to keep.So I hoard words as well as stuff.
Very well written, Harms Way, and yes I know exactly how you feel, especially the pms from those wonderful souls who have reached Member Emeritus status.
no matter how much room your messages take up it is nothing compared to the room old cars and parts take up.
I took a bunch of mine and cut and pasted them in an email to myself, then saved that in a "hamb pms" folder there, that way I still have the info, and have room here again... as you I still want to hold onto that little piece of friends passed....
I have tried on more than one occasion to clean out my PM's and like so many others I have a lot that I just have to hang on to.. C9,HAMBANDY,Deuce Roadster,AV8Paul,Ralph Turnburg and OLD KID,,these guys are gone and I miss everyone of them and had a lot of PM's from these guys over the years. HRP
What timing. Just dumped a heap of sent msg yesterday. Question. If you create folders for msgs, dose that get your count, down any? I to have kept the important to me, msgs.
Great thread! Count me in as one HAMB family member that feels the same way. Harms Way, you can dump the PM's we had over '34 bones, found a pair locally. The Chevrolet INDY radiator from 1920 that you had now belongs to a fellow I got two Buffalo hub caps from. I asked him to stack them on the radiator cap for good luck and take a photo. Bob
Save them to a word file, that way you still have/can reference them if needed. I save the important ones to word files, have for years on all the forums Im on.
No, I tried that. For me, a lot of the stuff I am saving are off-forum exchanges with people about tech, and if I dump all the sents, I lose important context about what I was asking. I have to just go through pm by pm, read the sent and the response, and decide on a message by message basis what I can dump and what I need to keep. The idea of cutting and pasting the stuff into an email or a word file, and saving that has a lot of merit, but is pretty time consuming. But ultimately, I think thats what I need to do.
I dont do it for ALL the conversations, but rather things like personal info (phone numbers/contact info) and things like helping guys on a 1 to 1 level on their projects so they dont have to retype everything at a future date. You know how that is, a guy will ask questions, then 6 months later have some follow up and you barely even remember what kind of car, let alone the issues hes having.
There's a tab at the bottom that you can select how you want to download it. I attached a image of it, & the downloaded mssg...
Actually Larry,.... Your's and FAB32's are at the top of the "Keep List"..... Dadgumit !.... I really miss you my friend...
When I just saw that 3wLarry was the first to reply to this post three years ago, it gave me a chill. So many good people have left us, but the good memories remain.
The Jalopy Journal
