Messages
is the page where all your Private Messages (PMs) are displayed, ordered by most recent to least recent. Incoming and outgoing messages are differentiated by arrows.
If you have a new PM, you'll see a red icon over your avatar. Toggle "Email for PM" if you want to receive an email when you're sent a PM. Only one email notification is sent until you check your messages box on the site.
There are multiple ways to send a new PM:
- the "Send PM" button on the top left of the Messages page
- the "Send Message" button at the top bar of someone's Tropers page
- "Send Message" on the three-dot dropdown list on forum posts
- the "Send Message" notifier tool on an article's history page
Other ways PMs are sent:
- When posting for the first time in a subforum, a message is automatically sent by the herald for that subforum.
- When a forum post is thumped, a message is automatically sent to the user linking to the thumped post.
- When a troper notifies another troper in a forum post, a PM is sent with subject "Check out this [subforum] post".
- When a video is uploaded, a "Transcoding Complete" message is sent. If the video is rejected, the moderator's stated reasoning for rejection is sent as a PM.
Remember that the TV Tropes Customs, especially Rule 1, apply to private messages. You have a great deal of leeway what you can say out of the public eye, but it's not free rein to harass others.
Using private messages is one of the ways to settle an editing dispute, so it doesn't escalate to an Edit War.
A Notifier is a type of PM that contains a predefined message and is tied to a specific edit. Moderators can identify these on users to note patterns of editing misconduct. Notifiers bypass PM blocks.
Note that moderators can read anyone's PM history if necessary, even if they're removed from the inbox. An investigating mod might read other tropers' PMs:
- when PM misbehaviour is reported, e.g. dickery, bogus notifiers, discussing distressing mental health concerns in PM
- when there are concerns of users coordinating misbehaviour over PM, such as agreeing to harangue other tropers through PM
- when people are banned from other venues and the misbehaviour is believed likely to continue into PMs. Other belligerent conduct plays into that decision
- for other technical necessities, e.g. assessing notifiers a troper received, identifying who gave a thump, checking to see if a forum ping was received, tracking a user's video rejection history
Asking another troper to make edits or write messages on your behalf while you're suspended is considered meatpuppeting, a form of ban evasion, and will result in loss of all website privileges, and will get your accomplice(s) in trouble as well.
Please remember the "private" in "private messages". Disseminating the contents of a PM without permission from the other party is grounds for loss of PM privileges. If you need to include the text of a PM or portions thereof in a query, you must mark it private, so it can only be seen by you and the moderators.
If you are suspended, please do not try to appeal over PM. All communications about your suspension must take place in Edit Banned.
Finally, some wonkeries to keep in mind when using the messaging system:
- Blocking someone prevents you from seeing messages from a specific troper. It doesn't prevent the troper from sending messages to you, and you'll be notified with the red dot still. Currently, due to a bug, the only way to get rid of the red dot is to temporarily unblock the sender and open the PM.
- There's no message thread function. Side effect is that if you sent a PM and want to append it, submitting via that outgoing message will send the message to yourself, not the other person.
- Despite being a kind of PM, messages sent via the notifiers tool bypass PM blocks.
- Wiki formatting doesn't work when sending notifiers; however, formatting works when responding to notifiers and sending further PMs.
- A PM suspension doesn't prevent you from receiving PMs, including forum notifications from moderators in Edit Banned.
