I sometimes get private messages from people who just want to say hi or say thanks. It’s annoying that “Thanks!” is too short for responses to private messages.
This can be changed via the min personal message post length
site setting I believe
The post length requirement for PMs can be configured by the site admin, the setting is called min personal message post length
and by default it’s a little shorter than the minimum public post length requirement.
Sometimes people find short messages like “Thanks!” annoying (did this need to be a message at all? maybe the like button is enough!), so the default is to require someone to put a little effort into their message before sending it to someone.
Okay thanks, I’ll ask the people who manage the site in question.
This is also why I specified responses only. I think the minimum length is very reasonable for the first message in a PM thread.
I’ve ran into the same thing. I’m surprised that this setting even exists, and that it has a default > 0. This is IMHO an unpleasant default behavior, and puts burden on site admins to fix it.
I understand the desire to limit “noise” in a public discussion, but 1:1 conversations are completely different. It’s fine to have a limit on the first message to avoid low-effort “hi”, but not for replies. If someone has sent the first message they’ve already given an implicit permission to receive a reply.
I don’t think the heart button is a sufficient substitute. It doesn’t feel like a proper reply to me. It is a bit ambiguous (is it merely an acknowledgement, or did I love the message?). I want to reply with a manually typed text, even if short, because it feels more appropriate and personal than just pressing a button.