Messages

Messages lets members write to each other privately: an inbox with the conversations on one side and the open one on the other, pictures, read marks, a Message button on every channel and an envelope with the unread count on the top bar. You set the rules - who may send, how fast, which words are refused, how long messages are kept - and you can read every conversation in the panel, remove a message and stop a member from sending.

Switching it on

Messages is a free plugin and works with every licence. Switch it on at Admin → Plugins. It makes four tables (aio_pm_threads, aio_pm_messages, aio_pm_reports, aio_pm_bans). Switching it off keeps the conversations; switching it on again brings them back.

The admin menu then shows a Messages group under Plugins with three pages: Messages (the rules, admin/plugin.php?code=messages), All conversations and Reported messages.

What members get

• The inbox, /plugins/messages/inbox (inbox.php with clean addresses off). It opens from the envelope on the top bar, from Messages in the account menu, and from the Message button beside Subscribe on a channel, which goes straight to the conversation with that member.
• New message finds a member by name or @username. Only people the member is allowed to write to are offered.
• Text, and a picture (JPG, PNG, GIF or WebP) with Send a picture. Web addresses become links if you allow it.
• One tick when a message is sent, two when it has been read. Earlier messages loads older ones.
• Unsend takes a message back for both people, within the minutes you allow. Report sends a message to the site team with a reason.
• The More menu of a conversation (the three dots): View channel, Block / Unblock, and Delete conversation, which hides it for that member only. Once both have deleted it, it is gone for good.

Each member decides for themselves on their Settings page:

• Privacy → Who can send me messages - Everyone, Only channels I am subscribed to or Nobody. A channel that takes no messages from the visitor shows no Message button.
• Blocked users - a blocked member can neither message them nor comment on their videos.
• Notifications - Somebody sends me a message, for the bell and for an e-mail.

Their My information download includes their messages, and when an account is deleted its conversations go with it.

The rules (the Messages page)

At the top: Conversations, Messages, Sent today, Members who wrote this week and Reports waiting.

Who may write, and how much

Where it shows

• The envelope on the top bar - with the number of unread messages.
• A Message button on channels - beside Subscribe.
• Ring the bell for a new message - once for a conversation that was quiet, not for every line.
• E-mail members who asked for it - uses the A new private message template (Admin → Settings → E-mail).
• Tell members the site team can read messages - a small line under every conversation. Since you can read every conversation, it is fair to say so.
• The inbox looks for new messages every (seconds) - default 5, from 3 to 60.

Press Save.

Stopping a member

Members stopped from sending takes a Username and a Why (they are shown this); press Stop their messages. The list below shows everybody stopped, with Let them send again. Administrators and moderators cannot be stopped.

When messages are kept for a limited time, Remove old messages now does the cron job's work at once.

All conversations

Every conversation on the site, newest first, with a search for a member's name, @username or words from a message. Open one to see both members, every message with its time (UTC) and whether it was read, and:

• Remove beside a message - both members then see This message was removed;
• Stop their messages / Let them send again beside each member;
• Delete the whole conversation - for both members, pictures included.

Reported messages

Open reports, or the closed ones. For each: the message, the sender, who reported it and when. Remove the message, Remove and stop the sender, or Nothing wrong (the report closes and the message stays). Waiting reports also appear in the panel's bell as Reported messages waiting.

The site team

Administrators and moderators are not held by Who may send messages, the limits or the stop list, and can write to a member who has chosen Nobody or blocked them - useful for a word from the site.

Working with the rest of the script

• A daily job Messages: remove old ones appears in Admin → Cron jobs while messages are kept for a limited time (see Scheduled jobs).
• With Mobile API on, apps get the routes GET messages, GET messages/{username} and POST messages/{username}.

Honest limits

• Conversations are between two members; there are no group chats.
• The inbox asks the server for news every few seconds rather than receiving it instantly, so a new message can take that long to appear.
• Only pictures can be sent, no other files.