# Should direct messages be approved?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/should-direct-messages-be-approved/28735
**Category:** Bug
**Tags:** approval
**Created:** [5월 13, 2015, 12:05오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/should-direct-messages-be-approved/28735 "2015-05-13T00:05:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@watchmanmonitor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/watchmanmonitor)
#### Post date: [5월 13, 2015, 12:05오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/should-direct-messages-be-approved/28735/1 "2015-05-13T00:05:42Z")
In our newly moderated forum, I just got a moderated post which I think is a reply to a private message I sent a user.
Should PM’s be exempt from moderation?
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [5월 13, 2015, 12:07오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/should-direct-messages-be-approved/28735/2 "2015-05-13T00:07:50Z")
I thought @eviltrout changed something around this recently. I can’t remember, though. New users can’t send PMs at all, but they can _reply_ to any PMs they are sent.
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### Author:  [@watchmanmonitor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/watchmanmonitor)
#### Post date: [5월 13, 2015, 12:13오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/should-direct-messages-be-approved/28735/3 "2015-05-13T00:13:32Z")
ok, in this case no one without TL3 can post w/o it being moderated.
no one is TL3 but for staff.
The user was replying to a direct message I sent him.
I was on [Beta 7 +35](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/compare/8c2883848897596626cac04edc6b8342ff6a5647...master)
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### Author:  [@watchmanmonitor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/watchmanmonitor)
#### Post date: [5월 13, 2015, 12:33오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/should-direct-messages-be-approved/28735/4 "2015-05-13T00:33:49Z")
Update - my reply to the user was also moderated.
@codinghorror does **that** count as a bug? 😜
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [5월 13, 2015, 1:53오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/should-direct-messages-be-approved/28735/5 "2015-05-13T01:53:31Z")
I think you are on an old version of Discourse and should update.. I am often unclear if you are talking about your hosted instance with us, or something else. in this case based on the additional version information you provided, this was fixed a while ago.
In the interests of wasting less of your time, and less of ours, I suggest you indicate whether you are referring to your hosted instance or something else on an unknown (to me) version.
I alluded to this in my first rely when I said “I think eviltrout fixed something around this recently”. That is your cue to update to latest 😉
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### Author:  [@watchmanmonitor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/watchmanmonitor)
#### Post date: [5월 13, 2015, 2:24오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/should-direct-messages-be-approved/28735/6 "2015-05-13T02:24:58Z")
Agreed, I should be up to date, but because many of the changes I need can’t be done in /admin, I’ll have to keep self-hosting for now.
That said, I’ve updated to `v1.3.0.beta9-dirty` and have repro.
Because [I don’t know the best way to enable the feature](https://meta.discourse.org/t/my-posts-are-being-held-for-moderation/28039/7), I’ve done this:
I suspect it’s the approve post count overriding the fact that I’m admin/moderator
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [5월 13, 2015, 2:37오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/should-direct-messages-be-approved/28735/7 "2015-05-13T02:37:58Z")
Fair enough, @eviltrout can you have a look?
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### Author:  [@watchmanmonitor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/watchmanmonitor)
#### Post date: [5월 13, 2015, 3:42오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/should-direct-messages-be-approved/28735/8 "2015-05-13T03:42:43Z")
Also - it was only when replying to the private message I started. I didn’t run into this when creating the PM initially.
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### Author:  [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)
#### Post date: [5월 13, 2015, 5:16오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/should-direct-messages-be-approved/28735/9 "2015-05-13T05:16:14Z")
Hmmm, is the “approve post count” above the recent “sanity” limits ?
i.e. no more 999999999999999999999
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [5월 13, 2015, 5:28오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/should-direct-messages-be-approved/28735/10 "2015-05-13T05:28:30Z")
It is nowhere close to the maximum for an integer. Setting a value high is valid.
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### Author:  [@eviltrout](https://meta.discourse.org/u/eviltrout)
#### Post date: [5월 13, 2015, 4:09오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/should-direct-messages-be-approved/28735/11 "2015-05-13T16:09:59Z")
Looks like replies to PMs were handled slightly differently than creating PMs. I’ve fixed it:
[https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/5fdbc6c4b22eab4f06e8d0c6dda1d5b08b94b1c9](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/5fdbc6c4b22eab4f06e8d0c6dda1d5b08b94b1c9)
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### Author:  [@zogstrip](https://meta.discourse.org/u/zogstrip)
#### Post date: [5월 13, 2015, 4:48오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/should-direct-messages-be-approved/28735/12 "2015-05-13T16:48:10Z")