# Needs tips on Private Message
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/needs-tips-on-private-message/59203
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [March 15, 2017, 7:23pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/needs-tips-on-private-message/59203 "2017-03-15T19:23:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@sjmscott](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sjmscott)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2017, 7:23pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/needs-tips-on-private-message/59203/1 "2017-03-15T19:23:28Z")
I am transitioning my community away from Yahoo Groups and some of my community has this concern:
_When you receive a message from yahoo groups, you can reply to just the individual user or to everyone in the group._
In discourse you don’t have access (that I know of) to reveal user emails. What is the most efficient way to send an PM in response to a post? For example, you might have an off topic response that you want to communicate directly to a poster.
Are there any shortcuts, buttons, or tricks that I might be missing?
Can you generate a private message from a thread?
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### Author:  [@elijah](https://meta.discourse.org/u/elijah)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2017, 7:28pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/needs-tips-on-private-message/59203/2 "2017-03-15T19:28:16Z")
Click on the user icon and select the message button.
I think everyone but the newest users can do that and then invite others to make it a group message.
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2017, 9:38pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/needs-tips-on-private-message/59203/3 "2017-03-15T21:38:16Z")
This is true. If people want to be able to reply via email to just the sender (and I think that’s what he’s asking), it’s more complicated.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2017, 12:25am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/needs-tips-on-private-message/59203/4 "2017-03-16T00:25:38Z")
The recommendation in that case is to [modify the email footer to give guidance](https://meta.discourse.org/t/email-notification-footer-with-links-for-reply-privately-sender-profile-and-user-profile/50305). Thanks @scombs!
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### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2019, 1:54pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/needs-tips-on-private-message/59203/5 "2019-05-14T13:54:19Z")
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2019, 2:28pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/needs-tips-on-private-message/59203/6 "2019-05-14T14:28:49Z")
Tapping or clicking the response arrow in the composer now lets you toggle to a PM as well:
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### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2022, 8:15pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/needs-tips-on-private-message/59203/7 "2022-09-20T20:15:39Z")
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### Author:  [@Stephen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Stephen)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2022, 9:28pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/needs-tips-on-private-message/59203/8 "2022-09-20T21:28:30Z")
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### Author:  [@JammyDodger](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JammyDodger)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2022, 8:39am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/needs-tips-on-private-message/59203/9 "2022-09-21T08:39:03Z")
Just to add a little update to this one; the ‘New Message’ option from the response arrow was retired:
> [@Strange behaviour when creating new Topic from linked Post](https://meta.discourse.org/t/strange-behaviour-when-creating-new-topic-from-linked-post/227866/23):
>
> We have decided to go with
>
> > [@Strange behaviour when creating new Topic from linked Post](https://meta.discourse.org/t/strange-behaviour-when-creating-new-topic-from-linked-post/227866/2):
> >
> > the long term solution here is just to remove:
> >
> > 
>
> as well as remove the (confusing) action of _“Reply as linked topic”_ from PMs.