dw_suggestions | Entries tagged with workflow: messaging

Title:
Somewhat confusing message confirmation page title

Area:
Messaging

Summary:
The title of the page confirming that a message has been sent is "Compose Message", which when I see a tab with that, makes me think I have unfinished message business. Maybe, if the page (http://www.dreamwidth.org/inbox/compose) is confirming a sent message, the page title and header could read "Message Sent Successfully" or something similar.

Description:
This would make the site more usable for heavy tab-flipping types, and I suspect for people who get their pages in a very linear manner, e.g. screen-reader users or people using very large type — they would know immediately what has happened with their message right away.

Ideally, if the message failed to send for some reason, the title and heading could indicate that too — I've never had a message fail to send, but while you're in there, it might be nice to change that.

I suspect the solution wouldn't make anyone's life harder — it'd be another few entries in the English-stripping file and some more logic in building the page, but from the user perspective I can't think of a drawback, so long as the new titles all included the word "message" to cue people as to what process is succeeding or failing.

Poll #12203 Somewhat confusing message confirmation page title

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 57

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Should be implemented as-is.
46 (80.7%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
0 (0.0%)

(I have no opinion)
11 (19.3%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

marahmarie

Title:
Make links in Private Messages clickable.

Area:
Private messaging system

Summary:
Upon sending a private message to a Dreamwidth user the other night I looked upon the link I included in said message and realized it was unclickable. I thought to myself, what if mobility or other issues kept me from cutting and pasting the link into the browser; what if I were a user who simply needs to be able to click on that link with no other action required? So I'm proposing making all links clickable in private messages.

Description:
Upon reviewing a private message I sent to a Dreamwidth user the other night and realizing the link I included in it was unclickable, I began wondering why links in private messages are unclickable and how much trouble it might be to make them clickable in the future. Currently any links you include in Private Messages are shown in plain text with no way to click through on them to the linked content. I figure this is an accessibility issue for anyone with health issues that prevents them from using the mouse or keyboard fully or who simply experiences pain and over-exertion of already strained joints and tendons upon not being able to click on any links presented to them. So I'm proposing making all links clickable in private messages.

Making links clickable in PMs benefits all users by adding ease of use, speed and simplicity to the PM system; the only downside is that a straight clickthrough could lead a user to say, a malware-infested website. Spammers who sign up for Dreamwidth accounts and then use the PM system simply to spam, and existing users who turn against each other in nefarious ways could use the straight clickthrough function to make it easier for a user to visit a website full of spam and/or malware. But the capability for that sort of abuse is there now; the only difference is it takes a user two more steps (cut, paste, then press enter on your browser's address bar) to get to the website in question. Forcing a user to look at the link by disabling it and requiring extra steps to make it work might be a good idea from a security stand point but it comes at the cost of accessibility and ease of use for all Dreamwidth users.

Poll #12196 Make links in Private Messages clickable.

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 62

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Should be implemented as-is.
33 (53.2%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
14 (22.6%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
7 (11.3%)

(I have no opinion)
7 (11.3%)

(Other: please comment)
1 (1.6%)

china_shop

Title:
Add a link to view the message to the "Message sent" page

Area:
private messages

Summary:
Suggest adding a link to the "Your message has been sent successfully" page, so the sender can easily view the sent message.

Description:
After sending a PM, you get the following page:

---

Compose Message
Your message has been sent successfully.

From here you can:

Send a new message
Return to Inbox
Return Home

---

To view the sent PM, you have to load the Inbox and then load Sent messages, then unfold the specific message. It'd be great to have a "View sent message" link, to skip those steps.

Basically, I'm talking about an equivalent to the "View the entry" link on the "Your entry has been posted" page.

Poll #11018 Add a link to view the message to the "Message sent" page

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 52

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Should be implemented as-is.
45 (86.5%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
0 (0.0%)

(I have no opinion)
7 (13.5%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

ninetydegrees

Title:
Inbox: Make it clearer that the 'Sent' folder is part of 'All'

Area:
notifications, inbox

Summary:
Because 'Sent' is visually separated from 'All', I always forget that when I'm in the All folder clicking on 'Delete All' will also delete messages in Sent unless I flagged them. I would like a way to make it clearer that 'All' really is all, including 'Sent', especially since sent messages aren't displayed there so I find it very easy to forget about them.

Description:
Making the indents bigger might work or removing the '---'separation and making it smaller or different.

Edit: other ideas: moving Sent above Flagged and/or above Unread; setting Sent apart; adding a count to Sent (I think this would help a lot).

Thoughts?

Poll #9059 Inbox: Make it clearer that the 'Sent' folder is part of 'All'

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 62

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Should be implemented as-is.
45 (72.6%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
1 (1.6%)

(I have no opinion)
15 (24.2%)

(Other: please comment)
1 (1.6%)

thnidu

Title:
"Delete all" should not be option in inbox subfolders

Area:
inbox interface

Summary:
It's not clear to me whether the "... All" buttons in Inbox subfolders such as "unread" apply only to the messages in that folder, or to all messages, and I'm not about to test it.

Description:
When I go to my inbox and click on any of the subfolders, such as "New People" or "Unread" (see req. #12097), I still have the "mark all read" and "delete all" buttons at the top and bottom of the list.

Do these really affect *all messages*, or just the ones in the current subfolder? If the latter, I urge you to relabel them, e.g. "Delete all these" and "Mark all these read", to make it clear that they do not apply to ALL the messages.

Poll #9056 "Delete all" should not be option in inbox subfolders

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 51

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This suggestion:

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Should be implemented as-is.
24 (47.1%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
8 (15.7%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
2 (3.9%)

(I have no opinion)
17 (33.3%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

zvi

Title:
Direct Message re: This Entry

Area:
Messages, Entries, Comments

Summary:
Allow people to send a direct message re: an entry instead of commenting on it

Description:
"As it currently stands, comment screening is used for two very different purposes. It's used to allow the journal owner to check over comments before they are visible, and it's used to make private comments that are never intended to be seen by anyone other than the journal owner. I propose that this functionality be split in two." -rho

The reason that a number of commenters favor allowing commenters to screen entries and/or to split up the comment function into entry discussion and sending a private message is that sending a direct message requires a commenter to (a) go to a separate page and (b) invoke the entry to which they are responding.

I propose that, instead, we permit someone to respond to an entry in the form of a comment, but then, with a tickybox, "send comment as direct message instead", send the OP a direct message whose subject line is the entry being commented upon, in the format

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RE: example.dreamwidth.org/12345.html where you wrote:

[first 250 characters of entry]

example commenter responded:

[a message they want to send the OP but not anyone else]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This will allow people to have the direct communication they want in a format where the OP can't inadvertently reveal their direct communication to the other people reading the entry, and it won't require them to go to any other pages or summarize the entry, as this will be done automatically.

The drawback, from the journal owner's point of view, is that discussion will be disaggregated. I am not particularly concerned about this, as people always had the option of sending the OP a direct message or an e-mail or making an entry in their own journal in response.

The big drawback from the direct message sender's point of view is that the OP may allow people to make comments who are not allowed to send direct message's.

In this case, I suggest we degrade gracefully and say, "You do not have permission to post the message below"

[text box with the commenter's message, so that they can copy it or send an e-mail or whatever they need]
[button: comment on the entry] [button: cancel sending message] [link: return to entry]

Poll #7129 Direct Message re: This Entry

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 67

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Should be implemented as-is.
29 (43.3%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
8 (11.9%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
6 (9.0%)

(I have no opinion)
21 (31.3%)

(Other: please comment)
3 (4.5%)

erika

Title:
Choose Random Icon for Sending Private Messages

Area:
Sending Private Messages

Summary:
It would be helpful if there was a "choose random icon" next to the icon choice for Private Message composing, similar to how it is on comments.

Description:
I think, but I'm not sure that it wouldn't take much more work, since we already have the "choose random icon" for comments.

Poll #7123 Choose Random Icon for Sending Private Messages

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 57

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This suggestion:

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Should be implemented as-is.
30 (52.6%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
1 (1.8%)

(I have no opinion)
26 (45.6%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

pauamma

Title:
Allow adding (or replying) initial/default recipient when replying to a PM

Area:
inbox, private messages

Summary:
When replying to a Dreamwidth PM sent to you, allow adding recipients to the initial recipient (sender of the message you're replying to), or even replacing that recipient with an arbitrary list, for a quick and dirty forward,

Description:
This wouldn't breach privacy that I can see (who the original message went to), because the only initial recipient of the reply would be the sender, as it already is, and no other recipient of the original message would be offered as a suggestion or listed. (Indeed, that would be impossible, as the list of original recipients isn't kept anywhere. One message sent to several users looks the same as several identical messages sent very close.)

Poll #5205 Allow adding (or replying) initial/default recipient when replying to a PM

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 49

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This suggestion:

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Should be implemented as-is.
13 (26.5%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
15 (30.6%)

(I have no opinion)
19 (38.8%)

(Other: please comment)
2 (4.1%)

melannen

Title:
Scheduled Private Messages

Area:
Inbox

Summary:
We're getting scheduled posts, that we can write in advance to automatically post at a later date. Can we get scheduled private messages, too?

Description:
I'm currently organizing a community project that involves people signing up to do certain things on certain days. It would be really cool if, right when they sign up, I could schedule a reminder message to be sent to them just before their date.

I think there are a lot of projects like this where pre-scheduled deadline reminders could make people's managing a lot easier. You could do all sorts of other neat things with this capability, too. Especially if you could send scheduled PMs to yourself.

The only downside I can see is if people abuse it to spam other users; but you can already ban people from PMing you, so I don't see that as being a big problem.

Poll #4876 Scheduled Private Messages

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 66

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Should be implemented as-is.
46 (69.7%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
4 (6.1%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
1 (1.5%)

(I have no opinion)
15 (22.7%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

denise

Title:
Autoresponder for private messages

Area:
notifications, inbox, private messaging

Summary:
Allow people to write an autoresponse text that's sent out when someone PMs them.

Description:
I don't read my private messages on this account very often at *all*, mostly because I'm subscribed to all comments on about 20 different communities and my inbox fills up rapidly -- so I just don't use it. This leads to people PMing me because they need support with Dreamwidth, or have a DW-related question, and then the message languishes in my inbox until the next time I go to clean it out. If I don't reply to a PM the minute it hits my email, I often lose it entirely (or have it eaten by running over my upper boundary of inbox items, which happens in roughly two weeks or so), and then people think I'm horrible and ignoring them and it's bad all around.

Part of this is obviously my fault for not replying to things immediately upon receiving them, but I'd really like to be able to set up an autoresponder for people who PM me, giving them my standard redirects for the best places to go and get help with DW.

Autoresponders would work like email autoresponders do: if you have autorespond enabled, when someone sends a PM, it would reply with your autorespond message (customizable). To minimize annoyances, autoresponse messages would only be sent once per contact per $timelength (I'm thinking something like "only send autoresponse once per week", so if someone PMs you every day, they'd only get the autoresponse on day 1, day 8, day 15, etc) and autoresponses would not trigger an autoresponse (so, if someone PMed you, your account autoresponded, and they had autorespond configured, you wouldn't receive their autoresponse).

Poll #3979 Autoresponder for private messages

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 54

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This suggestion:

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Should be implemented as-is.
33 (61.1%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
14 (25.9%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
2 (3.7%)

(I have no opinion)
5 (9.3%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

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

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This suggestion:

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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%)

eruthros

Title:
If a user has opted out of PMs, remove "send message" from the hover menu

Area:
menus

Summary:
When someone has opted out of receiving PMs, the hover menu still shows "send message;" it would be great if it didn't.

Description:
Because the hover message shows "Send message" for everyone, regardless of whether or not they can receive messages, sometimes I click on the send message link, type up a whole message, click send, and only then get the message that it's not possible to pm that user.

It's not a huge deal, because I always find the message text still there when I go back a page, but it's a pain! And it surprises me every time it happens. The other text stuff in the hover menu does check in with the profile settings etc -- it asks me if I want to subscribe to someone I'm not subscribed to, or if I want to unsubscribe from someone on my circle -- so it seems like it might not be a huge drain on resources to check in with the PM settings, too.

Another possible fix would be if the compose-message window itself popped up a warning when the to: [username] box was filled out. It could warn if the user doesn't accept PMs, or if the username isn't registered on Dreamwidth.

Poll #2941 If a user has opted out of PMs, remove "send message" from the hover menu

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 73

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This suggestion:

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Should be implemented as-is.
73 (100.0%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
0 (0.0%)

(I have no opinion)
0 (0.0%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

zvi

Title:
Private Message a Community to Contact Its Moderators

Area:
community administration, private messaging

Summary:
Allow users to private message a community account, and copy the pm to the administrators of the community.

Description:
Community administrators use several different hacks to allow members or non-members to contact the entire admin team: page-a-mod entries, private mailing lists, collective google accounts.

If communities had inboxes to which community admins had access, there would be a standard way for non-admins to contact the admins, and a way for the admins to communicate among themselves. This address would be automatically up to date as to who had administrative rights and who didn't, as outside mailing lists don't, and shared e-mail addresses can't.

I anticipate that the admins would be able to turn off the private message function completely, as is done for personal journals, and that anyone who was made administrator but had already rejected all personal private messages would still not receive copies of the community PMs, although they could, on the website, check the inbox.

Poll #2185 Private Message a Community to Contact Its Moderators

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 69

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This suggestion:

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Should be implemented as-is.
66 (95.7%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
0 (0.0%)

(I have no opinion)
3 (4.3%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

zana16

Title:
Slight modification to "Compose Message" page

Area:
Personal Messaging

Summary:
When you compose personal messages, there are two buttons -- one says "send message", which loads a *new* blank message; the other one says "send", which actually sends the message. Could we make them more distinguishable?

Description:
I have a bad habit of, when sending personal messages, clicking "Send Message" to the left, under the "Compose Message" banner, which reloads a *new* blank message, instead of clicking "Send" at the bottom of the page. I'd be thrilled if this could be modified, so as not to be so confusing -- maybe just change "Send Message" to "New Message"?

Poll #1703 Slight modification to "Compose Message" page

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 36

View Respondents

This suggestion:

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Should be implemented as-is.
35 (97.2%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
0 (0.0%)

(I have no opinion)
1 (2.8%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

sky

Title:
Enable sending PMs to OpenID display names

Area:
inbox

Summary:
Currently OpenIDs can only receive PMs sent to their ext_12345 system names. It would be nice to be able to send PMs to their normally-displayed names.

Description:
Today I was corresponding via PM with an OpenID user. The OpenID user had no problem sending me a private message, but when I clicked Reply in my inbox, typed up my message and went to send, the system told me that this other user's x.livejournal.com OpenID name -- which was what the system had inserted in the recipient field *for* me when I hit reply -- was not a valid username. To reply to the PM I had to go look around the user's profile page until I was able to figure out their ext_ system name, which was not exactly an intuitive process. Since Dreamwidth goes out of its way not to make users deal with the ext_ names whenever it can be avoided, it would be nice if we could also send PMs to OpenID folk via their regular display names.

Poll #1597 Enable sending PMs to OpenID display names

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 42

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
39 (92.9%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
1 (2.4%)

(I have no opinion)
2 (4.8%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

cesy

Title:
Option to get notified by email when you send a message

Area:
inbox

Summary:
Add an option to get email notifications of PMs you send.

Description:
It's possible to get email notifications both for when someone replies to your comment, and when you comment somewhere. You can get email notifications for someone sending you a PM, and PMs you send appear in the sent box in your inbox online, but there's no option to get emailed a copy when you send a PM. I'd find it useful, as I prefer to keep copies of all notifications in my email and clear out the entire inbox regularly.

Poll #849

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 25

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
21 (84.0%)

Should be implemented with changes.
1 (4.0%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
3 (12.0%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Dreamwidth Suggestions

Somewhat confusing message confirmation page title

Make links in Private Messages clickable.

Add a link to view the message to the "Message sent" page

Inbox: Make it clearer that the 'Sent' folder is part of 'All'

"Delete all" should not be option in inbox subfolders

Direct Message re: This Entry

Choose Random Icon for Sending Private Messages

Allow adding (or replying) initial/default recipient when replying to a PM

Scheduled Private Messages

Autoresponder for private messages

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

If a user has opted out of PMs, remove "send message" from the hover menu

Private Message a Community to Contact Its Moderators

Slight modification to "Compose Message" page

Enable sending PMs to OpenID display names

Option to get notified by email when you send a message

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