So you're browsing the forums and someone says, "If you're interested in this game, drop me a PM!" and you may be wondering, "Well, how the heck do I do that? And WHAT is that?"

PM is forum slang for Private Message, a user to user message-thread seen only by the sender and recipients.

The quick way to send a single-recipient PM is click on a username in the forums. This will take you to the person's profile page. Now click on 'Send Private message'. This will bring up an interface much like the one for writing a forum post. Click 'Send' to send the message.

Perhaps you wish to send the same message to multiple people at once. To do this, find the 'Welcome, YOURNAME' link at the upper-right corner of your screen, click on it and select 'Private Messages', and then click on 'New Private Message'.

You will be asked to type in the name of the recipient and it will try to find a match as you type. Once you find a match, click on the name in the dropdown list it shows you. Then do this again for each recipient you wish to include in the private message.

If while writing a message you change your mind, click cancel. If you want to pause writing click on the X in the upper right corner of the message box; you can resume writing that message at any time by accessing your private messages via the 'Welcome, YOURNAME' link and clicking on 'New Private Message'

If someone responds to a message you send, you'll receive an alert.

If your message inbox is getting cluttered, you can 'Archive' messages you're not interested in keeping around. This is effectively a Delete button; you won't be able to retrieve the message again unless another person in the message thread responds to that thread.