# Messages sidebar improvements
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/messages-sidebar-improvements/70440
**Category:** UX
**Created:** [September 20, 2017, 12:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/messages-sidebar-improvements/70440 "2017-09-20T12:47:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@alehandrof](https://meta.discourse.org/u/alehandrof)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2017, 12:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/messages-sidebar-improvements/70440/1 "2017-09-20T12:47:09Z")
The [Messages](https://meta.discourse.org/my/messages) sidebar currently looks like this:
It can be improved in several ways:
- Reduce the padding of items. Each “Archive” should be visually proximate with its relevant group.
- Make the sidebar wider when the width of the screen allows for it.
- Use the full names of groups instead of their usernames. (This is a preference, but it would be logical to follow the dictates of the “name over username” setting.)
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2017, 2:12pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/messages-sidebar-improvements/70440/2 "2017-09-20T14:12:07Z")
You can do at least the first two with CSS. Go for it!
---
### Author:  [@alehandrof](https://meta.discourse.org/u/alehandrof)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2017, 3:42pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/messages-sidebar-improvements/70440/3 "2017-09-28T15:42:32Z")
Sure:
I did this by sight. It looks OK, though it’s still not great.
```plaintext
// Improve Messages sidebar padding
.messages-nav.nav-stacked a {
padding: .4rem;
}
.messages-nav > li:not(.archive):not(.noGlyph) {
margin-top: .9rem;
}
```
I would like the following feature as well, though:
> Use the full names of groups instead of their usernames. (This is a preference, but it would be logical to follow the dictates of the “name over username” setting.)
In general, group’s full names are not used consistently throughout the app. I just tested it and there’s also an issue when adding a user to a message. I can search for regular users by their full name, but for groups I have to mention them by their (occasionally cryptic, in our case) usernames.
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2017, 5:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/messages-sidebar-improvements/70440/4 "2017-09-28T17:47:22Z")
Nice, why don’t you submit that as a PR for everyone?
---
### Author:  [@alehandrof](https://meta.discourse.org/u/alehandrof)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2017, 11:09am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/messages-sidebar-improvements/70440/5 "2017-09-29T11:09:01Z")
Do you mean the CSS or the feature request? If the former, it didn’t occur to me to do a PR for such a small change. I’m not able to develop the latter.
---
### Author:  [@jomaxro](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jomaxro)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2017, 11:37am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/messages-sidebar-improvements/70440/6 "2017-10-02T11:37:11Z")
> [@alehandrof](#):
>
> Do you mean the CSS or the feature request?
The CSS - it is certainly not too small. We appreciate all PRs, regardless of their scale.
---
### Author:  [@alehandrof](https://meta.discourse.org/u/alehandrof)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2017, 6:50am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/messages-sidebar-improvements/70440/7 "2017-10-03T06:50:39Z")
OK. I’ll take a look in the next few days. I haven’t tried to do a PR on a big project such as this, but I’d like to contribute more to Discourse, even in such a minute way.