I think it’s possible the other way round, but is it possible this way?
إعجاب واحد (1)
User-to-user interaction can be limited to chat by disallowing PMs by removing groups from the personal_message_enabled_groups site setting. Then only staff will be allowed to initiate new personal messages, while most users won’t.
But while chat is a plugin and can be disabled entirely, PMs are a core Discourse feature and some actions rely on them where you cannot replace them with chat. For example, when you flag something and enter a reason, that creates a personal message. Or when you export your user data, the link for the download is sent as a PM. So you cannot fully disable them as some Discourse features use them
إعجابَين (2)
This seems to work. From brief testing, the user has no “Messages” tab in preferences and no inbox, so the only way to see messages is from the notifications pane or /notifications page. Also, it’s possible to reply to messages received. This is fine. Thank you.
إعجابَين (2)