I’ve found it challenging that the messages UI is hidden from the interface from new users by default. It’s odd, though, because if you know that URL, you can still access it. This has been challenging to me as both a new user (of different discourse sites) and as a mod/admin:
- New users can still send messages to groups like
@moderators(by default) and others that have been greenlit. Which is a very good thing. But the only way to do this is to navigate to the group page and send a message from there; it’s not very intuitive. And then it’s hard to find those messages, especially if you’ve not yet received a notification from a response. It feels like it just goes straight into a dustbin. - And, of course, mods (and others! and the system itself!) can send messages to new users. But then I’ve had new users report back to me that they’ve had trouble navigating to mod messages sent to them. They’re available, but you have to find them through the hidden URL or a notification. The new users can of course respond, but they need to find the message to do so.
I do think it’s a good feature that new users cannot send arbitrary DMs to random folks on the board. But I do wish it were more obvious that they could message @moderators.
In any case, it seems unhelpful to just hide this UI from the user when it’s fully functional even with limited permissions.