Thoughts on Turning Off Personal Messaging and Chats

[HAWK]

@Alexander_Wright

On my forum, I’ve changed text to make them “Direct messages” instead of “Private Messages”.

By default they are actually called Personal Messages rather than Private Messages (because admins can see them).

[Architect]

This seems like an important concern if it isn’t made clear in the TOS that messages can be read by administrators/moderators, which isn’t the default for old systems like the post office which isn’t supposed to read people’s letters and they aren’t able to anyway unless they break a letter seal.

There is an alert banner option for the A.I. message system that alerts users that those messages can be monitored by moderators, may be a good feature for that to be an option for regular personal message topics also.

@becl

I wanted to know if you have private messaging turned off on your forums and if you received any complaints from users or users requesting it be turned on.

Haven’t tried that but would guess there would be some complaints. Way to respond to that could be to recommend alternative means of communication outside of discourse.

[Meguanz]

I turned off chat but kept personal messages—PMs are easier to manage and keep stuff organized, while chats felt a bit too instant and messy for longer or more thoughtful convos.