Whilst brainstorming the recent changes to challenges, we came back to a previously-shelved idea of communicating between members. The administrators need a way to send notifications to challenge hosts and there is also a need to communicate between challenges hosts and entrants. As you are reading this, we are rolling out a small but long overdue feature: private messaging between members. We designed this feature by modeling a conversation style, rather than a threaded style that you find on other forums and certain web-based e-mail system. This style allows you to have one continuous stream of messages with each member.
To view the list of conversation you recently had, visit your messaging page. You can get to this page by clicking the 
icon in the blue uer widget. This page shows you the list of members that you have sent message to or received messages from and an excerpt from the latest message. Click on it and the whole conversation with said member is displayed. You can also go straight to the conversation view by clicking the ‘View conversation’ link from the hover menu below any username.
The messages are shown in reverse chronological order, the latest messages appearing at the top. To load more messages press the ‘Load more messages’. In this view, you can reply by entering your message in the text box at the top. Hit send and the message will be delivered to the recipient.
If you have any unread message, the
will also display how many unread messages you have. Clicking this will instead direct you to the unread messages page.
Unread messages behave similarly to the conversation list page, but instead of one latest message per user, you will be able to see all unread messages. This view functions like your e-mail inbox, with all the read messages hidden.
To start a new conversation with a member that you’ve never contacted before, press the ‘New Message’ button on the top right. You’ll need to specify which member by either searching for their username or using their ID. Their ID can be found in the URL of their member profile. This is the same control that we use for challenge hosts when adding a secondary host.
Of course, there are just some people who you don’t want to talk to. dpreview forums and private messaging is sharing the same ignore list. So if someone is being unpleasant, you can stop receiving their messages. To do this, find the member’s message in your inbox or a post by that member and click ignore. Any messages that person sends to you will be not be received and instead placed somewhere dark and empty on the far reaches of the internet. And you don’t need to worry; your conversation partners won’t know that you have ignored them.
We are still testing and tweaking this feature to suit more to the usages. We currently have no policy on deleting messages when they get old or any message count limitation (other than the standard 4000 characters per message limit). To simplify access to this new feature, we have decorated usernames all over the site with a hover menu that has links to your conversation with that member.
If you have any unread message, the
Of course, there are just some people who you don’t want to talk to. dpreview forums and private messaging is sharing the same ignore list. So if someone is being unpleasant, you can stop receiving their messages. To do this, find the member’s message in your inbox or a post by that member and click ignore. Any messages that person sends to you will be not be received and instead placed somewhere dark and empty on the far reaches of the internet. And you don’t need to worry; your conversation partners won’t know that you have ignored them.
We are still testing and tweaking this feature to suit more to the usages. We currently have no policy on deleting messages when they get old or any message count limitation (other than the standard 4000 characters per message limit). To simplify access to this new feature, we have decorated usernames all over the site with a hover menu that has links to your conversation with that member.
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