Notify if user does not receive copies of Private Messages in their email.

[starwatcher]

Title:
Notify if user does not receive copies of Private Messages in their email.

Area:
Profile page and private messaging

Summary:
A note that "this user does not receive emails of private messages" - or something like that - would allow other users to seek another method of contact.

Description:
On our profile page is a handy little link for another user to click and send a Private Message.

But some users are more savvy about using services / setting up their studios than others. Recently, a friend discovered that they'd never enabled delivery of private messages to their email address... and they did not know to check their inbox. When they discovered this oversight, some waiting messages were over a year old.

The setup to manage notifications looks pretty self-explanatory to me; I don't think you can improve it. BUT, if someone has NOT enabled email delivery of Private Messages - whether deliberately or through oversight - it would be useful to have an automatic 'warning' appear under the Private Message link. I'm thinking of something like, "This user does not receive emails of Private Messages."

This would serve two purposes:

1] Alert those who want to contact the user that another method might be more effective.

2] Alert the user (when they visit their profile page) that they need to change 'something' in order to receive PMs via email.

I don't suppose this is a major problem, but it affects how we socialize with other people. When we send a message, how long do we wait before pressing for an answer? If we're patient, did the intended recipient actually SEE the message? If we take another route to send a message (email, comment on post) after a few days, are we pushing someone who's already bogged down with more important issues? In this specific case, the user who discovered the mistake had months-old supportive messages; they were mortified that they hadn't answered the senders.

I can't think of any drawbacks; it seems a simple notification of the state of a particular DW studio, no different from the profile page showing who is subscribed or has access to who.

Poll #3902 Notify if user does not receive copies of Private Messages in their email.

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 44

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
6 (13.6%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
2 (4.5%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
31 (70.5%)

(I have no opinion)
4 (9.1%)

(Other: please comment)
1 (2.3%)

Comments

[starwatcher]

.
I think I'm missing something. I don't see how the 'fix' can be on the sender's end; either PM goes to email or it doesn't, and the sender has no way of knowing.

I like firecat's suggestion of "a setting that specifies which users (e.g., "everyone," "access list only," "no one") can send you PMs." Having to choose would help new users learn about the possibility of PMs. Unfortunately, inexperience can stumble over what seems crystal-clear to others, but this might smooth the path a little.
.

[melannen]

What you're trying to fix isn't "the PM doesn't get sent to email", it's "the recipient doesn't see the PM." The point is that there's other ways of seeing a PM, even if it doesn't go to e-mail, which is why the no-email option exists. If people know when they have a PM, then it shouldn't matter whether they get an e-mail or not, and the sender doesn't need to know.

SO the problem to solve is to make sure people know that they may have a PM.

The reason I don't think adding a new setting can help is that, like you mentioned, a new user wouldn't necessarily realize what the settings do, and wouldn't necessarily remember later - there's already the email setting for PMs, and clearly that isn't enough.

(I think it would be nice to have a setting for who you can get PMs from, but I think that's a completely separate issue that wouldn't fix the problem of people not knowing they can get PMs at all. Unless you set "no PMs from anyone" as the default, and that would probably be a bad idea.)

[denise]

There is such a setting, on the Edit Profile page!

...clearly, we need to duplicate it on the Privacy tab or something.

[ratcreature]

Yes, that would be great. I remember once searching for the PM setting and the Privacy tab was the first place I looked, and then I looked in the notification settings, and I think I only looked in the profile edit page after I browsed the FAQ.