Messages section moved to single sidebar link

Announcements
1

We have moved the Messages / Inbox section from the sidebar and replaced it with a single My Messages link, shown in the top section of the sidebar.

my-messages
my-messages534×708 23.3 KB

The purpose of this change is to declutter the sidebar — since most members only have access to a single inbox anyway, this single link works just as well but takes up less space.

By default, the My Messages link is visible in the top section by default. Admins customize the top section to further deemphasize messages by moving this link into the More menu:

  1. Click the More button in the top sidebar section.
  2. Click Customize this section.
  3. Drag the My Messages section down into the More menu section.

If members want to add back more access to messages, they customize their personal sidebars to add more links by clicking the + icon in the bottom of the sidebar.

8 Likes
2

Is there a reason why, in contrast to, for example, “My Posts”, “My Messages” is also shown to users who are logged out? And why does it take me to https://meta.discourse.org/login-preferences?

So when I click “My Messages,” I see:

Please log in - you need to be logged in to change your preferences
Please log in - you need to be logged in to change your preferences502×179 6.86 KB

This is confusing because it looks like I clicked something related to preferences.

3 Likes
3

Great catch! That was a miss on our part, we’ll get that fixed up.

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4

I also noticed that while messages are hidden in most menus for users who are not member of a personal message enabled groups, the new link in the sidebar is not.
Two examples where it’s hidden:

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5

We’re on it! Thanks again, Moin.

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6

I see this updated here, and it looks great! How do I make this change on my site?

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This change will happen automatically when your community updates to the latest version of Discourse.

1 Like
8

Looks good! Now “My Posts” looks less lonely in that section :smile:

Will the bookmarks also have a “My Bookmarks” entry in the sidebar at some point?

1 Like
9

I get that and I understand that is true 90% of the time.
But one of my main gripes with those group inboxes is that they were are so hard to find, which especially bites people on the more advanced setups.
And the sidebar kinda solved that… so it would be nice if this could be a user preference.

1 Like
10

I agree that is an issue when group inboxes are heavily used.

However, a better solution might be to surface the groups themselves as they are nicely managed from the group page:

This screenshot displays a Discourse user testing group interface, showing information about members, activity, and a topic related to a self-guided usertest. (Captioned by AI)
This screenshot displays a Discourse user testing group interface, showing information about members, activity, and a topic related to a self-guided usertest. (Captioned by AI)1159×457 32.1 KB

Have you considered a GROUPS section (default turned off) in the sidebar which lists groups who the user is a member of? And then navigates to the Group message tab by default (with a blue indicator if there is a new message)? I know that they can navigate to Discourse Meta, but that adds at least one more step and doesn’t surface the messages.

Personally, I’d find this very useful for managing groups and their messages more effectively, and enabling users to find their groups more easily.

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A workaround is a custom sidebar section that links to the group boxes you care about.

Longer term one thing I think about is maybe we should have a totally custom sidebar when you are in messages mode, like you get for docs / ai / admin.

2 Likes