We should have an option to link our in game messages to our email address and every time you receive a message in game it sends a copy to your email.

And be able to see sent messages

one of the devs said they want to link it all into the forums or something but its a long term plan

Well email would be best and here is the reason I think so: email is more accessible for people than the game/forums. A lot of work places/schools and such will ban sites such as this. Furthermore if it is email then I'll have easy access to it no matter where I am!

Yea, this is definitely in the long-term plan; it's a bit of effort to link the two, and there's a few things we want to do before we get to this particular project.

a sent message box would be awesome

sometimes i forget if i wrote someone back or not since there is also no 'replied to' status

How about just an email reminder that you have received a new message in game? Don't have to send out the actual content?