The "Messages" is how many times you've posted. It's misleading, I know, I don't agree with the phrasing of it either but to be honest it's fairly minor.
My "Messages" count is 4,303, being how many posts I've made. I deal a lot in PMs but I sure as hell haven't made 4000 private messages lol.
Welcome to the forum mate! Please give the
Terms and Rules a quick read if you haven't already, understanding the rules helps everyone get along a little better and helps make our jobs here just that much easier. And please remember, we absolutely do not permit discussion, hints, links to, etc, of where to find or how to get ROMs, ISOs, WADs, or any other form of warez or keygens, etc. Discussion of the matter is okay though, we all know they exist and we all know we each have our own little collection, just don't say where it came from
Cheers!