# Allow-pm-to-staff
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-pm-to-staff/260946
**Category:** Plugin
**Created:** [April 7, 2023, 2:52pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-pm-to-staff/260946 "2023-04-07T14:52:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2023, 2:52pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-pm-to-staff/260946/1 "2023-04-07T14:52:28Z")
| | | |
| --- | --- | --- |
| ℹ | **Summary** | Allow all users to PM Staff |
| 🛠 | **Repository Link** | [https://github.com/pfaffman/discourse-allow-pm-to-staff](https://github.com/pfaffman/discourse-allow-pm-to-staff) |
| 📖 | **Install Guide** | [How to install plugins in Discourse](https://meta.discourse.org/t/install-plugins-in-discourse/19157) |
### Features
Allow users to send a PM to staff even if they would not otherwise be able to send a PM.
### Configuration
- `allow_pm_to_staff_enabled`–Enables the plugin (default true)
- `allow_pm_allowed_pm_groups`–Set groups who can receive PMs from all users (default “staff”). Separate multiple groups with a `|` and no spaces.
### CHANGELOG
- Add ability to choose receiving groups other than staff.
- 2023-04-07 resolved a problem that caused group pages not to load
### TODO
- nothing right now
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2023, 8:39pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-pm-to-staff/260946/2 "2023-04-07T20:39:10Z")
> [@Problems changing the minimum trust level (PMs and Flags)](https://meta.discourse.org/t/problems-changing-the-minimum-trust-level-pms-and-flags/172627/14):
>
> Hi again Jay, I see some new commits today for the plugin. Would it be worth giving it another try?
Sure. Give it a try. The default settings allow pm to staff for all users, given that pms are allowed.
---
### Author:  [@rahim123](https://meta.discourse.org/u/rahim123)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2023, 10:33pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-pm-to-staff/260946/3 "2023-04-07T22:33:25Z")
> [@pfaffman](#):
>
> There is a report that it is broken: [Error loading the individual group when using allow pm to staff plugin](https://meta.discourse.org/t/error-loading-the-individual-group-when-using-allow-pm-to-staff-plugin/259800). I poked at it a bit more 2023-04-07 and it’s still broken. If anyone has a budget to support this, I’ll spend more time on it sooner.
If I just need to allow PM from all users to the staff then the above issue wouldn’t affect me right?
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2023, 6:58pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-pm-to-staff/260946/4 "2023-04-08T18:58:11Z")
I think I fixed that problem
---
### Author:  [@Kushalghosh9899](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Kushalghosh9899)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2023, 9:34am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-pm-to-staff/260946/5 "2023-04-10T09:34:41Z")
Yes, the problem is fixed now after the recent commit changes
---
### Author:  [@rahim123](https://meta.discourse.org/u/rahim123)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2023, 2:32pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-pm-to-staff/260946/6 "2023-04-10T14:32:27Z")
Seems to be working fine. Thanks Jay for the fixes!
---
### Author:  [@Aizada\_M](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Aizada_M)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2023, 4:44am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-pm-to-staff/260946/7 "2023-10-20T04:44:56Z")
> [@pfaffman](#):
>
> `allow_pm_allowed_pm_groups`–Set groups who can receive PMs from all users (default “staff”)
Hello! First of all, I wanted to thank you for such a wonderful plugin 🙌
Yesterday I installed this plugin on my forum, but I still couldn’t set up more than one group. When adding group names to the line, I tried using `: ; ,` with and without a space, I even tried not to insert characters between the names (leaving only spaces), nothing helped - the line only supports one group. Tell me what am I doing wrong?🙏
For example I want to achieve the following:
---
### Author:  [@RGJ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/RGJ)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2023, 10:58am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-pm-to-staff/260946/8 "2023-10-20T10:58:41Z")
You need to separate with `|` if remember correctly.
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2023, 2:32pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-pm-to-staff/260946/9 "2023-10-20T14:32:22Z")
Thanks, Richard. `|` is the separator. Do not include spaces.
Sorry it’s hard to tell.
It would be nice if I’d included text for `allowed_pm_allowed_pm_groups`. I’ll do that next time I update anything in the plugin.
I did update the OP with a hint. Maybe that will help.
---
### Author:  [@RGJ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/RGJ)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2023, 2:55pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-pm-to-staff/260946/10 "2023-10-20T14:55:28Z")
Just add `type: group_list` to the setting?
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2023, 3:11pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-pm-to-staff/260946/11 "2023-10-20T15:11:27Z")
LOL. Yeah. That just might do it. Thanks very much.
It was long ago that I wrote this. It was at the edge of my ability and I wasn’t very good at finding out what types were available what magic `type: group_list` would do.
This definitely needs some cleaning up, but it’s serviing the needs of the person I wrote it for, so I keep not touching it.
I’ll add this to my list, but I’ve got a bunch of other non-paying work that’s in line ahead of this one.
---
### Author:  [@Aizada\_M](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Aizada_M)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2023, 5:14pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-pm-to-staff/260946/12 "2023-10-20T17:14:15Z")
Hello! Oh yes, it worked 🎊 Deeply grateful for the quick tip 🙏
---
### Author:  [@rahim123](https://meta.discourse.org/u/rahim123)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2024, 1:03am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-pm-to-staff/260946/13 "2024-01-11T01:03:54Z")
It’s not a big deal, but I’m still seeing this message during upgrades:
```plaintext
Running post deploy migrations
$ bundle exec rake multisite:migrate
Plugin name is 'discourse-allow-pm-to-staff', but plugin directory is named 'allow-pms-to-staff'
```
I even tried manually renaming the plugin directory in the container, but it eventually gets reverted.
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2024, 1:34am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-pm-to-staff/260946/14 "2024-01-11T01:34:42Z")
I’ll try to get that fixed next week
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2024, 4:09pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-pm-to-staff/260946/15 "2024-01-15T16:09:52Z")
Are you using `https://github.com/pfaffman/discourse-allow-pm-to-staff` as the repo?
---
### Author:  [@rahim123](https://meta.discourse.org/u/rahim123)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2024, 4:13pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-pm-to-staff/260946/16 "2024-01-15T16:13:08Z")
Yep.
10 chars…
---
### Author:  [@Andrew\_Rowe](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Andrew_Rowe)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2025, 1:11am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-pm-to-staff/260946/17 "2025-12-22T01:11:35Z")
I’ve installed the plugin. I have checked allow pm to staff.
I created a group and set the allowed to message to everyone
I made a user a member of this group
I’ve tested by logging out then attempting to send the user a message from the user and group pages but cannot figure out how.
Have I misunderstood how this plugin works or maybe missed something?
---
### Author:  [@nathank](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nathank)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2025, 1:22am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-pm-to-staff/260946/18 "2025-12-22T01:22:11Z")
Yeah, it is still for logged in users.
The plugin enables logged in users who wouldn’t normally be allowed to PM people to PM people in the @staff group. Unfortunatey it doesn’t do anything for anon (i.e. those who aren’t logged in).
This is why I used this little hack:
> [@Allow email in for moderators, staff, and admins](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-email-in-for-moderators-staff-and-admins/212147/3):
>
> Well, since nobody told me that was completely stupid, I’ve gone and tested this rails command on a little used instance. And it seems to work (so far)! bangbang Use at your own risk and backup first To add an email-in address Group.where(name: "=groups.name=").update(incoming\_email: "=groups.name=@=domain=") To remove an email-in address Group.where(name: "=groups.name=").update(incoming\_email: nil)
I’ve used that for years without issue (except the odd bit of spam).
---
### Author:  [@Andrew\_Rowe](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Andrew_Rowe)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2025, 1:28am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-pm-to-staff/260946/19 "2025-12-22T01:28:17Z")
ok, sorry I guess I misunderstood
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2025, 11:47am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-pm-to-staff/260946/20 "2025-12-22T11:47:00Z")
Sorry! Me too. I commented on your other topic.
[Next page](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-pm-to-staff/260946.md?page=2)