Sky, what PM index? Friends in one's address book? It sounds like something technical; a place holder perhaps? If you're member 42 and member 41 leaves, you might crash down and act like 41 and confuse the system somehow That or some sense of who 41 was so if they come back part of them can be retrieved and identified for security or duplicate-checking purposes?

Zorah, how do you know someone is banned? I think they are still members (or they'd be deleted), merely suspended, but if they can't log onto the site for awhile, that is separate from the PM box, which you can still send PM's too and which they'll receive when they can log back on. I don't think I'd want people knowing if I've been banned or suspended because of my behavior, that's kind of personal between me and Admin and not something I'd want to share with everyone necessarily?