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Support Board | | Private Conversations / Messages (28th Mar 08 at 9:55pm) |  |
Introduction
Our approach to private conversations varies greatly compared to many other providers. The traditional approach is to pass single messages from one user to another. But this has a number of drawbacks such as not having any reference to what was said in previous messages and not being able to easily accommodate conversations between 3 or more users.
The way we have tackled this issue is, as far as I'm aware, unique. We've decided to group replies and participants together in conversations. A group of users can all talk to one another in a single private conversation where all participants can read and reply to what other participants have said. These conversations function in a very similar way to a standard topic apart from the fact that you need to be invited to participate.
Starting a Conversation
When you start a new conversation, you need to choose what to call it and who to send it to. To start a conversation click the " " button in bar to the top right of your private conversations list.
Conversations can be sent to multiple users. There are 4 ways in which you can choose who participates in a conversation. The first, and easiest, is to type either the users username in the "To" field. Whenever you start typing a name in this field, the system will lookup any users whose username or display name matches what you have typed. You can then select the rest of the name from this drop down list.
Other ways in which conversations can be started include visiting a users profile and using the "Send PM" button in the top bar, by viewing the users mini-profile and clicking the "PM" icon/link or by visiting your buddy list, clicking the boxes next to those you want to PM and then the "Start Private Conversation" button at the bottom.
The subject is the name used to identify this particular conversation in your list of conversations. It cannot be changed and will be used for all replies. It can be up to 50 characters long.
The message is what you want to actually say. This works in almost exactly the same way as posting a reply. You can use any UBBC formatting you wish and up to 20,000 characters.
At the bottom of the form is an "Urgent Message" option. If you check this box then the conversation will be marked as urgent. Urgent conversations are moved to the top of the list of conversations and have a  shown next to them. Any participant can enable/disable the urgent status via their list of conversations .
Sending Replies
At the bottom of each page in the conversation is a "Quick Reply" box, almost identical to the one found at the bottom of topics. This box allows you to just enter your reply, click "Send Message" and it'll instantly be sent.
If you don't want to use the quick reply (or if it has been disabled via the "Forum Settings") then you can use the full reply page by clicking either the  button or by clicking on  next to any existing reply.
When you quote a message, its contents will automatically be added to your message wrapped in [quote=pm1] tags. When posted, this will appear as a quote similar to those from topics showing who sent the message and when. However, they will only show that information to participants of the conversation.
Conversations List
This is the page which lists all of your private conversations. It is reached by using the link in the user table, where it says "X New Private Message(s)" or via a link in the Info Center at the bottom of the main page.
From this page you can label conversations, view conversations or update their status.By the last part we mean that you can mark the conversation as read/unread, you can make the conversation urgent/non-urgent or you can leave the conversation altogether. To do any of these check the box next to the messages you want to affect, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the appropriate button. Once you choose to leave a conversation, you would need someone else to invite you back in.
Modifying Messages
You have the ability to modify any message you have already sent. Only the person who sent the message may modify it and the "Last Edit" date will be shown to anyone who views the message.
To modify a message click the " " button to the top right of the message, next to the quote button. This will take you to a page similar to when replying to a conversation except when you submit the modified message it will update the existing message rather than sending a new one. Participants will not be notified when you modify a message and you cannot modify the subject of a sent message.
Searching Messages
You can search all conversations which you are participating in by using the  button at the top of your conversation listing. This will take you to a form where you can specify similar criteria to the standard forum search.
Message Notification
There are two types of notification which you can choose to receive whenever a new message is sent to you. Both these options are editable via the "Modify Profile" page, to reach this page go to your " " and click the link to the top right of this table. When on the modify profile page scroll down to the section titled "Private Messaging Options".
Popup Notification will cause a small box to appear on the next forum page you load containing information about your most recent unread PM. The box will show the conversation subject, who it was sent by and the start of the message. There will also be three buttons to either view the entire conversation, reply to the message or close the pop-up.
Email Notification will send an email to your inbox within a few minutes of you receiving a new message. The email will give you information such as the subject of the message, who it was sent by and the direct link to view the conversation. To ensure that it is your email address that the messages gets sent to you must first verify your email account. If you have not already verified your account there will be a link to do so in the description of the "Email Notification" option.
Once you have set these options scroll to the bottom of the form and click the "Modify Profile" button.
Backing Up Conversations
You can have the software produce a .zip file for you to download which will contain either all of your conversations or just those meeting certain criteria such as being a certain age or having a specified label.
To start the download procedure, click the " " button found in the top right hand corner of your private conversations page.
On the next page, specify the age (this is calculated using the time of the last reply) and/or label criteria. You can leave both of these options as they are to backup all messages. Click the "Start Backup" button for your backup to be added to the queue.
Backups are only processed during off-peak hours when the system has more memory and processing power to deal with creating these files. Because of this, and if there is a queue of conversations to be backed up it may take over 12 hours for your backup to be available for download. Once your backup is complete, you will receive a new private message from the forum itself containing the link to this download. You may download this file as many times as needed however it may be removed from the server after 14 days and any new backups you perform will overwrite it.
Adding / Removing Labels
Labels can be used to identify groups of conversations. Any conversation can have an indefinite number of labels assigned to it. Labels are unique to the user and are not shown to other participants.
To add a label to a conversation link click the "Add Label" link shown in either the last column on the page which lists your conversations or in the top right hand corner of the view conversations page. Which clicked, this will pop-up a form where you can type the name of a new label or select an existing label. Clicking the "Add Label" will button will then save this label.
Labels can also be removed from conversations in the same manner. Next to the name of each label is a [X]. When clicked, the label will be removed from just the selected conversation.
When you have labels, a full list of your current labels will be shown at the top of the conversations table along with the number of conversations associated with the label, a link to view these conversations and a link to remove the label. Clicking the link to remove it will stop it from displaying for any conversations.
http://uploads.virtualforums.co.uk/faq/pm_labels.swf
Adding / Removing Participants
New participants can be invited into an existing conversation and old participants removed. Participants can be invited by any member of the conversation. Participants can be removed be either themselves, a staff member or the conversation starter.
To add a participant, first go to the view conversation page and in the top left hand corner will be a list of the current participants. Below this list will be an "Add Participant" link. Clicking the link will pop-up a small window where you can enter the usernames of users to invite. To invite multiple users just separate their names with a comma.
To remove a participant, again go to the view conversation page and next to each member on the list of participants will be a small [X]. Clicking this will remove that user from the conversation.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Can staff view my messages?
The only people able to view private conversations are those listed as participants. Forum admins cannot override this to view other members messages.
In extreme circumstances virtualforums.co.uk staff can access any conversations in the database but we will only ever do that either with your consent or if we have reasonable grounds to suspect suspicious activity.
- I've tried to backup my messages but it's taking a long time
The server has to prioritize tasks to ensure that its performance is not affected. When backing up messages, they're added to a queue. The server then works its way through this queue during the quieter times of the day. If the backup is not completed within 24 hours please post in the support forum so we can check the queue's progress.
- A conversation keeps getting flagged/unflagged
The flagged/urgent status of a message is shared by all participants. If one user marks the message as urgent then it'll appear as urgent to all participants.
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