Everyone seems to agree that is sucks to never know whether or not the person you are sending a PM to will ever get it, because there is no way to know whether or not the recipient is VIP.

Here's what I propose:

VIPs will always be able to send a PM to any member, VIP or not, and know that the person got the PM.  The non-VIP will have limited PM privledges to reply to any VIP who sends a PM to them, but not to send a new message to anyone.

This still provides a large measure of encouragement for non-VIPs to sign up while offerig VIPs the privlidge of knowing that they can PM anyone they want, and know that it will be read and that the person can respond to them.

How about it management?