Allow non-members to pm the administrator

Support
1

I searched and couldn’t really find anything relevant.

Would it be possible to allow a non-member to send the forum administrator (of my own forum) a private message? Or perhaps be able to provide a link or a form or some way of contacting the administrator without having to log in or become a member?

1 Like
2

I don’t think this exists, and the idea has been shut down before – but if you must have a way to do it, you could provide a link to external contact form, like a free one at Tally.

This link could appear in your /about section or as a Custom Header Link.

3

thank you

I have an email link in the about page, I guess that will have to due

4

Ok, but you might find that invites spambots. A form with reCAPTCHA isn’t foolproof, but least the destination address can’t get harvested and shared.

5

I think Nathan had some luck with forcing email-in for the admin group, if that’s any help?

(Though even better if the UI allowed it :slight_smile:)

Though I think you could also create a custom group especially for this particular use case and use the UI for that.

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6

the email address has been posted on the about page for about a year, so far I haven’t had a problem. It is a very low volume site. If it becomes a problem I’ll remove the link and delete the address. I have the opposite problem.

the topic ToddZ posted mostly wrote off the idea as inviting abuse. I wouldn’t want this as a general feature for all users, just a way of people being able to contact me without having to join my forum. Posting my email obviously does invite spambots and abuse.

If a simply button on the About page allowed a non-member or non-logged in member to post a private message to one account it would (IMHO) help me drive engagement. I have, as I suspect most forums have, a lot of lurkers who seem unwilling to join. If it got out of control, have a simple way to turn it off.

And since I’m here, I’ll give my exact use case:

I do live events. I sometimes offer prizes (t-shirts) to viewers/participants. I would like a way for people to be able to contact me to get their prize shipped. I don’t want them to have to join the forum to claim their prize. It is enough that they know about us, maybe later they will end up joining.

Thanks

Andy

7

I’m pretty sure this still works. Allow-pm-to-staff

8

Thank you sir!

I could have swore I had seen this option, must have been perusing thru the plugins awhile back. Thank you

quick question if I could. How would this be implemented? will the message button just show up on the users page?

9

Does that also work for anon/non-logged in users too?

10

No. You have to be a user to create a topic.

I have created a plugin that will allow an anonymous user to fill out at form and send a pm.

I use it at https://www.formhoster.com/ and Contact Us - Literate Computing. It’s not public right now, at least.

11

I don’t think so. An account looks like it’s needed for the PM to send.

1 Like