Users without permissions to send PMs see an invitation to send PMs

AI-generated summary

The issue involves users without permission to send private messages (PMs) still seeing an invitation to do so, despite restrictions based on trust level (e.g., TL2). icaria36 reported user confusion when the message button was missing. sam suggested revising the text to clarify access requirements, proposing: “Once you reach trust level 2 you will be allowed to message users.” andrei agreed and assigned the fix with low priority. Later, lindsey confirmed the issue was resolved — users without PM permissions now only see “You don’t have any messages,” without the misleading invitation. This improves clarity and reduces confusion for restricted users.

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.

3 Likes

Tricky one @andrei / @codinghorror we probably want to cater the text here to this situation.

I support changing the text to something along the lines of:

You don’t have any messages
Once you reach trust level 2 you will be allowed to message users.

Something like that?

Clearly not urgent, but I agree it is confusing.

4 Likes

That’ll work :+1:.

This is definitely confusing. I’m assigning this to myself, we’ll fix it, but with low priority.

3 Likes

Hey @icaria36 (and anyone else who might be following along!) :wave: 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:

You don’t have any messages

2 Likes