i only take the reply capability out

if you want to create a NEW PT and give yourself a note, then it is fine

this prevents the unwanted replies to a black hole

Surely there must be a simple fix for this. Imagine this, I spend $$$'s promoting my forum, when I meet people I invite them to join, they join
.
They respond to the PM that comes from me, as it appears they are doing , no error messages and to them, I just blow them off my not responding..

Just sayin'

A temporary addition, not really a fix would be to edit the welcome pm to add a link to a pm including you.

As it stand the default message says

Welcome to our forums! Please take a moment to review and update your profile and preferences to take full advantage of our features. You can do this by clicking on "Edit Profile" and "Edit Preferences" in the My Stuff dropdown.

Please do not reply to this message as this is just an automated welcome message to thank you for joining our community.

I agree 100 percent. No make it 1000 percent.
But it has been that way since dirt.

The quick fix would be to edit the language file and add something like a mailto link.
Or to turn off welcome messages and manually email/pm something to a new member. But that means monitoring the registrations.
Or try the mod posted at the topic link I provided in a prior reply. But that was for a version several releases back.