Increase visual difference between private messages and posts

[jtbayly]

Is it possible to add greater visual distinction between normal posts and private messages?

It’s very easy to assume you are writing a PM and actually be working on a post, or vice-versa. Especially new users don’t get a lot of hints that they are doing something other than writing a normal post. We’ve had users not realize they were responding to a PM and then think moderators had deleted their post when they couldn’t find it again.

I suspect it would only take changing the background color of PMs to give people a clear indication that something was different.

Could this be added to the default themes?

[codinghorror (Jeff Atwood)]

No, we used to have it this way and it quickly becomes overbearing. If you want special styling, modify your CSS.

[jtbayly]

Ok, can anybody point me to an example that would indicate how to do this?

[awesomerobot (Kris)]

We add a class to the body tag, so it’s really simple

.archetype-private_message {
  background: salmon; // add a more reasonable color here
}

[jtbayly]

add a more reasonable color here

Lol. As you wish.

Thanks!