outbox vs sent?

[Doktor Jones]

I've sent someone a PM; however, it has taken up residence in the outbox, rather than the sent folder. Even when I edit and resubmit the message, it remains in the outbox.

Does the message remain here until it's read (and thus permit editing), or do I need to do something to actually get the message off to its intended recipient?

[Ichthus]

Yeah, it doesn't pop into the sent box until the other party has received it. This is a nice little way you can tell if they've read it.

[BLANDCorporatio]

Bump, because I have the same problem of my Outbox bogarting the PMs.

This is confusing (emphasis mine):

Yeah, it doesn't pop into the sent box until the other party has received it. This is a nice little way you can tell if they've read it.

Are you saying that until the message is not clicked on in the receiver's inbox, then it stays in the outbox? Because I could interpret "receive" as the message being written to whatever chunk of database represents the receiver's Inbox, regardless of whether they are even online, let alone read it. I don't know how the scripting works, it's not impossible that clicking on the send button does not send it immediately.

[atteSmythe]

Are you saying that until the message is not clicked on in the receiver's inbox, then it stays in the outbox? Because I could interpret "receive" as the message being written to whatever chunk of database represents the receiver's Inbox, regardless of whether they are even online, let alone read it. I don't know how the scripting works, it's not impossible that clicking on the send button does not send it immediately.

Correct. Unlike email, the message stays within the same system. There's no delay between pressing send and the message being sent - once the recipient opens the mail, it moves from your outbox to your sent items folder.

Given that it works differently than email, it's unfortunate that phpBB uses the same terminology, but it is what it is.