Currently, there is a single cap that applies to both private instant messages and group notices received while offline. This can create a significant problem for users who belong to many groups, especially when those groups send a large number of notices.

Because both types of messages count toward the same limit, group notices can quickly fill the offline message queue. When we log back in, we may receive a large number of group notices until the delivery limit is reached, with no way of knowing whether important private instant messages were prevented from being delivered. In some cases, we don't find out that someone sent us an offline message until hours later, when that person asks why we never responded.

I'd like to propose separate offline delivery limits for private instant messages and group notices.

For example, as a Premium Plus member, my current limit is 240 messages total. Because I receive a lot of group notices, I frequently hit that limit while offline. I've had people become upset with me for not responding to messages that I never actually received because the cap had already been reached.

Under this proposal, instead of having a single limit of 240 messages for everything, Premium Plus members could receive up to 240 offline instant messages and up to 240 offline group notices separately. Users on other membership tiers could retain their existing limits, but those limits would also be separated between instant messages and group notices.

Separating these limits would greatly reduce the chances of important personal messages being lost simply because a user's offline queue was filled with group notices.