There are many reasons why a Discourse instance will have staged users. In our case, we are mirroring a mailing list. Staged users aren’t (or shouldn’t be) real users, and it is rather surprising that the interface allows actual users to send them a private message. This is confusing because a) The sender will have an expectation that their message will reach its destination. b) The recipient either doesn’t receive any message or, if they do, they will be confused by it (who sends me a message from where?) I’d say it is a bug but maybe there are reasons to have this functionality. In any case, is there a way to remove this feature?

I think user cards (and profiles) for staged users are hidden for non-staff, and it’s not possible to choose them when creating a message or DM ‘manually’. [The image is a screenshot of a user profile named "Test_Fourteen" with a circular green "T" in the background, indicating the user is no longer active. (Captioned by AI)] Is this something you want to apply to admin users to avoid issues?

Same question about chat. How can it be disabled for staged users? Not even local users with TL0 get a chat button. [image]

@JammyDodger ah, ok, true! I hadn’t thought about testing with a regular user. All good, then! Thank you very much.

How to remove the possibility to send messages to staged users

Product Support

JammyDodger May 7, 2025, 5:47pm 3

I think user cards (and profiles) for staged users are hidden for non-staff, and it’s not possible to choose them when creating a message or DM ‘manually’.

Is this something you want to apply to admin users to avoid issues?

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How to remove the possibility to send messages to staged users

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