Charles Angelich wrote the following to Jimmy Day, and I quote (in part):

 CA> There are no private messages within FIDO echos. I've often
 CA> wondered why OLRs even make the attempt to mark messages as
 CA> 'private'. 

Hi Charles,

   I think you had a blind spot on this one.   This OLR feature is
needed for local messages areas.  On the BBS I use there is only
one local area for the users.  The "private toggle" allows the user
to send either a private or public message.

   Of course even in this area most of the messages I send are
public but sometimes it is nice to have the feature available when
I want to send private information or information that I am sure no
other user would be interested in.  I think the SysOp uses the same
area for logoff "comments" which are always private.  If the
comment is a question that the SysOp can't answer he can just
toggle the message public.

   And some of the older OLRs were around when local areas were a
lot more prevalent.

    Later, 
      Charles
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