The discussion revolves around adding a feature to share a topic with another user via a private message. downey suggests this feature would be helpful for users in moderation-like roles to draw attention to something requiring assistance. However, codinghorror points out that the invite button is intended for this purpose, but watchmanmonitor notes that this feature doesn’t work for current community members.
watchmanmonitor links to a thread on meta.discourse.org where codinghorror mentions that making the invite feature work for existing users is under development and would require careful consideration. downey adds that the invite feature isn’t available for those using Single Sign-On (SSO), making this feature request still relevant.
One thing our wiki software does which is quite helpful is allow a user to share a page/resource with another registered user via its internal notification system. This allows people in moderation-like roles (not necessarily an official moderator) to draw attention to something requiring attention to someone who can provide some assistance.
Currently the only way to accomplish this is by @-mentioning someone. This may not be desirable especially if that person in the moderation-type role doesn’t have much to add.
Perhaps adding something to the share feature that would create a Message to a user pointing them to the topic? (And allow that sender to add a few words about why they should look?)