Trouble with replies

Dear Terry,
I've tried to post a reply to a quote, and a reply to thread, both times it comes up "message to short, please add 10 more characters. both replies have extended way beyond 10 words or characters. is there a way to disable that comment?
rudytheplbr
rmcgillvray@kpunet.net

Send Terry a private message. Find his name and click on it and look for where it says ... send a private message to Terry... and let him know.

I don't know why it should say that.
This thread seemed to work.

A customer just dropped by the other day to bring a Toto back to Ketchikan.