One of the basic functions from standard forums is the ability to add friends or user accounts. While we can usually PM anyone on Discourse, the usefulness of this is to be able to quickly go into one’s “Messages” in the user profile and select from the dropdown menu the “To” user account a list of names that we know.
Currently, we type the name of the user here:
If such a feature already exists in Discourse, let me know since I’m still new.
I don’t believe there is a “list” of friends in Discourse. That’s like taking the main user list and adding parts of it to additional lists - which can vary and overlap. The closest thing I can think of would be a group where an individual is the owner of the group and can add other users (friends) to it. Other users would have to do the same, each owning their own group.
Currently, we can find any user by typing their name. This is if you forget that user’s name, but they happen to be on your friend list, so you can select them quickly from a list of names when sending a private message or even visiting that friend’s user profile to see their recent activity and posts.
I see what you trying to do and want. It does sound like an excellent idea. But Discourse would have to maintain additional “user lists” as well. Curious… I’ve never tried searching for a user by name from the UI. I’ll give that a try right now in a PM to a mod and see what happens. Be right back.
Edit: No, that doesn’t work at all since usernames have to be preceded with the “@” sign. Typing in a first name doesn’t do anything.
If there are a lot of users, then using groups to manage that wouldn’t be such a good idea as you’d have a ton of groups which are always being added to subtracted from.
What you’re really looking for is a sort of address book, a list of contacts for each user.
But if you know them how hard is it to type the first three chars of their username?
That’s given me an idea for a feature on the Follow Plugin though: a Following filter on Private Messages …
Yes, I’m saying for the case when we forget and dont remember their name. Then I would have to search the user directory.
Also, yep the follow plugin indeed meets this requirement as I have a way to know which users I’m following and see their activity.
Thanks.