# Specifically, what does “Silence” do?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/specifically-what-does-silence-do/287184
**Category:** Support
**Tags:** moderation
**Created:** [10월 29, 2018, 11:42오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/specifically-what-does-silence-do/287184 "2018-10-29T23:42:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@tomxp411](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tomxp411)
#### Post date: [10월 29, 2018, 11:42오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/specifically-what-does-silence-do/287184/1 "2018-10-29T23:42:18Z")
Can you expand on specifically what “Silence” does? Does it prevent replying to PMs?
I would like to be able to use “silence” or a similar too to prevent a person from creating threads, but allow them to respond to private messages. This would allow moderators to work with members to correct problems, rather than just banning someone.
I’m unclear on whether “Silence” allows people to reply to messages.
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### Author:  [@simon](https://meta.discourse.org/u/simon)
#### Post date: [10월 30, 2018, 12:01오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/specifically-what-does-silence-do/287184/2 "2018-10-30T00:01:57Z")
I just tested this in my dev environment. A silenced user can’t create a topic, post, or message, but they can reply to PMs.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [10월 30, 2018, 12:03오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/specifically-what-does-silence-do/287184/3 "2018-10-30T00:03:36Z")
Thanks for checking that!
Are you sure those PMs were from a regular user, not staff? There might be a staff-specific override on that area. Or the rule might simply be, they can reply to PMs – but never send a new PM.
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### Author:  [@simon](https://meta.discourse.org/u/simon)
#### Post date: [10월 30, 2018, 12:11오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/specifically-what-does-silence-do/287184/4 "2018-10-30T00:11:45Z")
> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> Are you sure those PMs were from a regular user, not staff?
I tried both with staff and a regular user. In both cases a silenced user can reply to PMs. I can test this on [https://try.discourse.org/](https://try.discourse.org/) if this isn’t the expected behaviour.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [10월 30, 2018, 12:12오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/specifically-what-does-silence-do/287184/5 "2018-10-30T00:12:48Z")
Totally fine, I couldn’t remember the specifics, but I should have mentioned that PMs with staff were always intended to work for the exact reason described.
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### Author:  [@tomxp411](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tomxp411)
#### Post date: [10월 30, 2018, 9:38오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/specifically-what-does-silence-do/287184/6 "2018-10-30T21:38:43Z")
Thanks @codinghorror and @simon. That was exactly what I needed to know.
I needed to get a user to change his username (because he used our forum’s name as his user name), and he hasn’t replied. I wanted to make sure he CAN reply.
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### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [12월 1, 2023, 12:25오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/specifically-what-does-silence-do/287184/7 "2023-12-01T12:25:06Z")
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