# Discourse-automation did not send PM: no valid targets exist

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-automation-did-not-send-pm-no-valid-targets-exist/395740
**Category:** Bug
**Tags:** automation
**Created:** [February 11, 2026, 4:16am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-automation-did-not-send-pm-no-valid-targets-exist/395740 "2026-02-11T04:16:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 2

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### Author: ![sam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/sam/32/102149_2.png) [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2026, 6:04am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-automation-did-not-send-pm-no-valid-targets-exist/395740/2 "2026-02-11T06:04:53Z")

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It is a surprisingly tricky rabbit hole that goes pretty deep.

When you finish digging you discover that a fundamental construct we had `PostCreator` never supported user ids

[https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/37708](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/37708)

I think it is a great change cause everything is a lot less surprising. Users tend to do a bit of username renaming when they start off.

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-automation-did-not-send-pm-no-valid-targets-exist/395740)._