1. in your user cp there is an option in email settings named "Send a confirmation email when I receive a new private message"
2. if your looking at a game review or news article that your in the middle of reading and you click on it, would you rather have it open in the same window and have to click back or just alt+tab between windows? i prefer the second option (i don't need to worry about that with tabbed browsing though - <3 Firefox
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