Thats still too generous. Your paying for the non-payers to store pm's. Thats why this site is better than any other-the helping out the fellow hoosier.
I think 50 is normal for most boards. Everyone on this board has the chance to participate, search, display an avatar and display a signature. Site Supporters have more perks. 500 PM space. More Sig options, custom user title. etc. I do this as a way to say thanks for those who support the site because if it were not for the Site Supporters this forum would not be possible.
I do not understand how web hosting works, so please bear with a stupid question. Does the storage of PMs cost extra money? Obviously there is some reason you are decreasing the number for non-supporters. Further, I am a supporter, and with the increased PM space I just stopped deleting old PMs. I really don't need them, so if it benefits the management financially, I will do some cleaning out.
Is there a financial benefit for INGO if we don't store so much old junk?
Yes- Disk storage is part of the web site hosting equation. I'm sure ~4700 members with a bunch of messages each eats up to a lot of space that can be freed up for other purposes, like public posts.