Discourse allows to restrict the private messages feature to users with a certain trust level. However, all users reaching “inbox zero” see an invitation to send messages regardless of their trust level:
You don’t have any messages
Need to have a direct personal conversation with someone, outside the normal conversational flow? Message them by selecting their avatar and using the message button.
In our instance, private messages are restricted to TL2, and we have received a report of a user who was confused because they couldn’t find that message button.
Hey @icaria36 (and anyone else who might be following along!) Wanted to let you know that we recently fixed this up to remove the additional text when users don’t have permission to send PMs — they’ll only see: