Wouldn’t “Send Message” be 45 times clearer than “Message”?
Sure, legally “message” can be a verb, so legally nobody did anything wrong. But still…
4 Likes
I don’t think so, as Message is a valid verb and it makes sense to be brief to keep the button compact.
6 Likes
Well where I saw it there was still acres of space to the right of it.
So, make you a deal: Say “Send Message” until space really gets tight, and only then have it fold into shortened forms, like “Message” and even “Mess” 
3 Likes
I get it that “Message” would be ambiguous if it were not a button. But on a button you expect a verb, so it will be interpreted as a verb. I doubt anyone with a normal level of sense is going to mistake it for a button that takes you to a single, pre-existing message?
Why not run a poll here and get a feel for the sentiment amongst English speakers to change the default?
Again, if you are administering your own site you have complete discretion already … (it’s as simple as going into Admin → Customize → Text)
6 Likes
I just checked Gmail (Desktop).
On the top it says “New Message” and on the bottom, “Send”. Super clear. 100 points.
Roundcube’s button also is just “Send”.
And as I type this the button below just says “Reply” with an arrow.
But yes, there needs to be a different button for sending private messages vs. public replies, else people will end up accidentally posting private messages, but still please do try to use more familiarly named buttons.
4 Likes
Well here is one of the biggest social platforms Facebook/Meta
I imagine you can customise your site button to what you want.
6 Likes
If you want to change that text, you can.
EDIT: Oh, you want to change it for everyone everywhere. Sorry, I misunderstood.
I understand, I’m still annoyed that “website” is a word and that people don’t know what a backslash is.
Just because it’s wrong doesn’t mean it’s not best.
6 Likes
I covered that above - he wants to change the default
6 Likes
On the desktop/web version of discord, it uses “Send Message” instead for this case.
4 Likes
Oh I love bikeshedding!
For me it says ‘message’ on Discord web.
7 Likes
I’ve been asked several times (by native English speakers) “how do I send the message?” I think there is confusion about starting a message and sending this message.
4 Likes
Video showcase of the “Message” button on discord:
It depends on what button you use, and if you have them friended or not.
2 Likes
Oh I love this!! Look what happens when you click the :
5 Likes
The part of this I am really struggling with logically is that this button occurs in the open message composer interface, where it evidently obvious what the next step is - sending the message. this is not a button on the UI to open up the personal message (they are not private messages), which looks like this:
I feel like asking for a default change over this is somewhat unreasonable when the admin custom text functions are there so admins can customize and change interface text to whatever they wish. You can use the verbosity settings to find the translation key to easily find the text string.
9 Likes
. . . wait a minute . . .
that’s the button that you press to send the message that you’re composing?
Now I’m not sure what button I thought that was at all.
I think “send message” is too long, butI think “Send” would make sense. (Below, I finally figure out that “Send message” isn’t much different from “create topic”)
And there is a ton of space, so “Send Message” would certainly not crowd anything, at least on Desktop.
The “reply” button in the composer makes perfect sense as “reply” . . .
The “create topic” button in the composer says “create topic”, which isn’t different from “Send Message”, so yeah, I was an irrational curmudgeon.
I stand by my comments about “website” and “backslash”, but am reversing my previous stand and saying that “Send” or “Send message” would be better.
11 Likes
So that meant that Send would be shorter than “Send Message” but still seem clear? However I believe when clicking on the card they would see " 
send" but seem somewhat unclear still?
Maybe a poll would help?idk ill put one up
what would make the most sense
- “Send” on card and composer
- “Message” on card, “Send” on composer
- “Send Message” on card and composer"
- “Message” on card and composer
0
voters
For me, the most important thing is a reminder of what exactly you are sending as you’re about to post:
- ＋ Create Topic
- ⮌ Reply
Message ← the only one that’s the same in the composer for a new vs. existing message👁̸Whisper
vs. the CTA links outside the composer:
- ＋ New Topic
- New Message
Brevity is the soul of good UX. 
11 Likes
I hadn’t noticed before, but Discourse does seem to prefer single-word buttons. It certainly seems like a deliberate choice.
Yep.[1] This is largely an aesthetic consideration. As long as it hits a minimum standard of usability, the choice of words (or even icon) hardly matters. People stop noticing after the first few times they use it and just think of it as “that button I press to send things”.
It seems to me that what you are sending is more important than that you are sending. The button is in a very standard place for sending things on the internet, but on Discourse the same UI could be a message, a new topic, a reply, a whisper and probably a few other things I’m not thinking of right now. It’s helpful to have a reminder of which thing on the button that sends it out.
For those that don’t know the reference, it’s the law of triviality. ↩︎
6 Likes
Yes, “Send” or “Send message” is a lot clearer than just “Message” as the action label as the former won’t get confused as a noun.
5 Likes