Maybe a theme component or plugin could allow you to see two topics side by side.
That would be a more generic solution where the other “topic” be a PM our group PM. But it could also be any other topic. If it were easy to open up that other half from any link within a topic, then…
I think I’m on the same page as this. There have been numerous times that I wanted to mention something to someone(s) as a quick side conversation that, in my mind, only applies to that person(s) but that conversation could be seen as off topic if posted publicly; and I don’t really want to go through the work of creating a pm that has a title and I then have to quote the needed text for context. Being able to simply whisper to that/those user/users within the topic that’s already been established and with the needed context already there would simplify the process.
I don’t think this is even possible in existing web chat systems that I know of. So you are proposing an odd feature that basically nobody has right now.
Ahh! A chance to be an innovator in the dynamics of online conversation! I love it!
exactly, a new feature that nobody has right now 
Whether it’s odd or awesome is a matter of personal opinion. Staff whispers is definitely not the only legitimate use. Frankly, you can’t really know until people start using a new method.
Precisely, what I tried and failed to describe. Thanks.
It will be years, maybe even decades before we get to this. Adjust your expectations accordingly 
I am wondering, do you find this inadequate:
(I have used this a few times for a similar purpose I.e. wanting to make a small private response to a public post)
Yes, exactly, thank you for illustrating. I am not understanding what’s so onerous about the current flow for PM’ing someone while reading a topic. It’s very easy, and the composer does not interrupt your reading, either!
We could “speed that up” by prefilling the PM title as well, but I really dislike it when my PM box is filled with generic titles that nobody could be bothered to edit… imagine a world where the title of the message contained a coherent summary of what you were about to click on … ahh what a wonderful world that could be
I’ve seen that post change 5 times in a matter of 2 minutes and I’m oddly satisfied…
on that note, maybe we could have the page not redirect to the pm once the send button is clicked, so that way we could continue reading in the topic. i dont need to see that my pm has been sent or have the need to immediately be in the pm conversation. this would be much like users having a choice on if they want the page to auto scroll to their post when they post in the topic.
but I don’t want to respond to the author of a post. I want to whisper to someone else, who may not be aware of the topic. Maybe be this should be a part of the share button?
Then invite them to the topic using the invite button.
This would almost work if it had a message field.
It would still miss a reference to a specific post in the topic.
Simply add the member(s) you want to message and remove the post author from the “to” input. Easy-peasy.
This won’t always work. Some user profile cards don’t display the message button.
See @bloomexperiment.
Fair point. It follows that if a member doesn’t have message permission they should not have whisper permission either if it were ever to become a feature.
My point was, that I wasn’t trying to contact the author of the post, but if the author’s profile doesn’t allow PMs, the method you described above won’t work.
Are you certain? AFAIK, it is not a member’s trust level that may prevent getting messages, but a member’s trust level that may prevent sending messages.
If you can point to an example or post a redacted screenshot I am interested in looking into this.
I think this is a user setting preventing PMs from other users.
@Mittineague, that is a user here, easily reproducible, but I think the differentiator is staff would still see the Message button, but regular users would not until that user reaches the applicable TL that permits messages.
