I know it's a simple-minded question, but I wondered: do the personal messages stay in the outbox until they've been received? Or do they get transferred to the sent box per some other timed cycle? Hey, I do good at some stuff, ya know?

You are correct. Messages stay in the outbox until they have been opened and read.
Once opened and read, they get moved to the sentbox.

Of course, this creates all sorts of drama from time to time as some people don't check PMs while on the board.

Ah! That explains why some messages remain unanswered. In future I will know and thus not nag. Thankee.

Next, if I delete message from my outbox before they are read, will they be deleted, or sent anyway, in the latter instance the message just removed from my box but not the server?

If you delete a message, before it's been read, the recipient sees your name and that you deleted the message before it was read. So instead of seeing the message title in their inbox, they see something like "this message was deleted" and then your name.

Always seemed odd to me that the system wouldn't just delete everything.

Again, it creates unnecessary drama or what not.

I've had like three of those, and always wondered about them...

what always confused me is how you can sometimes edit sent messages, and not other times. i sometimes type so fast and distracted, and at the last moment when i click the send button i notice some error in what i'm trying to get across. but then when i got to edit the message before the recipient recieves it, it won't let me. those are usually the only times i will delete something from my outbox, but then i'll turn around and resend the corrected one again.

so what's up with the shifty you can edit/you can't edit thing?

I've done it a couple times (not necessarily to you). The only time I've done it is when I see a toy for sale that I want - I PM saying I'll take it, then realize that I shouldn't be buying toys and so delete the PM. It hurts to do...missed out on some good stuff.
Though I didn't not know that the recipient still received some sort of notification.

I've been very confused with this system myself. I've sent PM's and wondered what it takes to get them 'out-of' my Outbox, even deleting a few in frustration. Whereas, actually, this is message delivery with a read receipt system, right? That is the Outbox is really Delivered/Notified-but-Not-Yet-Read, a.k.a. 'Sent'. On the other hand, the Sent box is really the Read-Receipt.

Fair enough, you always learn something.

You didn't NOT know? Your mind tricks won't work around here sir.

Man, I *knew* I wasn't the only one with that habit! I figured whoever was selling stuff would be used to it, figure it out, or wouldn't care.

Funny, I was just wondering about the difference between the outbox/inbox thing myself. Good to see my thoughts confirmed .