YaBB is about community and communication. And there are plenty of ways to communicate: Posting on the boards, Private Messaging, E-mail, and ICQ. Of course, all methods of communication are only available to members.
On The Boards
Of course the most obvious way to communicate is by posting publicly on the Boards. That way your posts can be read and responded to by many members, not just one. But, if you need one-on-one communication, there are several facilities for that as well.
Private Messaging
While e-mail is a good way to correspond privately with members, it has several drawbacks: You must open your e-mail application to write and send the message; the recipient must open his/her e-mail application; check his/her mail—and your message will mixed in with all the other mail—and it can take sometimes several minutes to an hour for mail to reach the recipient.
As an alernative to e-mail, YaBB offers a faster, more private method. Private Messaging on the boards provides instantaneous delivery to the recipient's Private Mailbox. The mail is sent and received entirely through YaBB, so neither you nor the recipient have to open another program or leave YaBB. Private Messaging also gives both the sender and recipient greater privacy: No one's real e-mail address is revealed. Private Messages show only the handle and name of both parties.
If a recipient isn't online, Private Messages wait in the member's PM box until the next time s/he logs in and manually reads and/or deletes them. YaBB Private Message is a self-contained, highly private e-mail system. Go ahead, give it a try!
E-Mail
Most members provide their e-mail addresses for private correspondance. On all public posts is a button to create an e-mail directly to the author. Member e-mail addresses are also listed in their profiles, which are also accessible from any public posts as well as from the member list on YaBB board list.
ICQ
You may notice in some areas a funky little flower icon near a member's handle. That's an ICQ ("I-seek-you") icon. If, in the member's profile, s/he has specified an ICQ ID the flower appears in certain areas of YaBB. Clicking on the icon will take you to the member's ICQ profile page on ICQ.com. There you may signup for ICQ and communicate with the member via the free ICQ instant messenger chat client.
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