XF 2.4 Direct message labels

Thank you to everyone who provided feedback on our first Have you seen...? thread about the upcoming Add-on update notifications for XF 2.4. It's exciting for us to start this process so soon after the release of XenForo 2.3! And while we are not sticking to a specific schedule for this series of HYS threads, our next one is already here!

This time around we are adding Direct message labels as a way for people to be able to add a little more organisation to their inboxes. This is a long standing suggestion (or two) which, when coupled with direct message search which we added in XF 2.3, makes direct messages much more user friendly and intuitive for members and staff alike.

One of the best parts of this is that the functionality will be very familiar to you if you've ever tagged a thread or added a label to your bookmarks.

Here's what the Inbox looks like in XenForo 2.4:

To add or modify existing labels, you just click the tag/label icon to load the edit labels overlay:

You are able to add up to 10 labels to each direct message, with no limit to the number of different labels you can create.

You can filter the direct message list by a single label, either by clicking one of the existing labels in your list of direct messages, or via the filter bar:

You can also search for messages by multiple labels using direct message advanced search:

To help you better manage your direct messages, you can use the inline tools to add or remove labels from multiple messages at a time:

Prior to the release of XenForo 2.4, we will be exploring ways of exposing a list of all of your direct message labels to make filtering your messages even easier. If you have any feedback or suggestions as to what would work best for you in managing your direct messages labels, please do let us know.

And that's it for this time but all being well, the next entry into this Have you seen...? series for XenForo 2.4 won't be too far away and the subject of that one will likely be your first look at the brand new editor!

Stay tuned for that and thanks as ever for the ongoing support and continued feedback.

 

[Stuart Wright]

I've just found it used less and less over time.

Back in 2015 there would be hundreds of messages per day. These days I have an associated discord and the DM system is dead.

I was genuinely curious as to how many sites have a DM system so active it needs a labelling feature.

Certainly I couldn't see one being used in an enterprise setting much so just interested

People use DMs to exchange personal details following a successful in-thread deal in our classifieds.
The warnings system sends a DM to members explaining why they got the warning. This is vital to mitigate the members’ negative experience of being moderated.

 

[Arantor]

The warnings system sends a DM to members explaining why they got the warning.

It does? Huh. Interesting.

 

[Mendalla]

I have various uses for DMs. Contacting our resident artist back when she was doing commissions for me. Quicker to get ahold of the other admin than posting in our private admin forum since she has email alerts on for DMs. Reaching out to members about various matters. Seems to work fine for the most part. I was swapping messages with the other admin this morning and it was probably a bit quicker than email would be, but certainly not a "chat" feature which is what some here seem to be expecting.

 

[frm]

Add ons might also create DMs and that label is subject to the author, in a locked or unlocked state.

Non-removable labels or enforced labels won't be a thing.

The warnings system sends a DM to members explaining why they got the warning. This is vital to mitigate the members’ negative experience of being moderated.

This is one reason why I suggested a "locked" state for labels... so that members can see all their warnings over the years, amongst site-wide announcements sent through the communications system. Definitely something I'll be looking into...

It does? Huh. Interesting.

admin.php?warnings for automated warnings based on your rules or "Member notification" during the warning to make it custom.

 

[mjda]

It does? Huh. Interesting.

Definitely custom to their forum and I've seen it elsewhere, which leads me to believe that it's a 2.4 feature (or should be).

No, you can send a DM on warning with XF out of the box. See the checkbox at the bottom of this form. This is a screenshot from a site of mine, which has no add-ons installed, running 2.3.0.

 

[frm]

No, you can send a DM on warning with XF out of the box. See the checkbox at the bottom of this form. This is a screenshot from a site of mine, which has no add-ons installed, running 2.3.0.

I edited the message to reflect this prior to your post as I seemed to have recalled seeing it before, and double-checked after posting.

 

[Arantor]

Thanks for the details.

 

[OkanOzturk]

can u click to "secret plans for xf2.4" dm and send ss

 

[Unique Username]

Curious… would we be able to attached labels for when we send mass messages? For example, we’ll attach the label security for anything security related. Welcome DMs get an Info label

 

[frm]

Curious… would we be able to attached labels for when we send mass messages? For example, we’ll attach the label security for anything security related. Welcome DMs get an Info label

No.

I could see a use for it for the warning system, where a label that cannot be removed by the user is created, i.e. warning, so that they could filter messages by warnings to see past infractions.

Also for mass communication DMs to label things such as "announcement".

Non-removable labels or enforced labels won't be a thing.

 

[Unique Username]

No.

Thanks. That would have been cool.

 

[James]

I don't believe the idea of sending messages with a label was ruled out - just the idea of them being non-removable? I could be wrong.

 

[Chris D]

I did previously rule it out.

Labels are for users to categorise their messages if they wish to. It doesn’t t make sense to me for someone else to be able to define a label on your messages on your behalf.

 

[frm]

Labels are for users to categorise their messages if they wish to. It doesn’t t make sense to me for someone else to be able to define a label on your messages on your behalf.

It kind of does, and doesn't, at the same time.

A moderator could tag my thread if they wish. It's still my thread, albeit public, but if I don't want it tagged as "X", I don't have a choice.

Though, as you stated, labels are personal. However, if thread tags can be enforceable and non-removable, it would only make sense to do the same so that forum owners could control how some messages are categorized on a personal level too.

This could be so that members don't lose important conversations. Admins could direct them to view their "X" labels instead of searching for messages/or going page by page to find them (a hotlink to reference would ensure they can see them too, such as /direct-messages/?label=warnings, much like starred conversation filtering). Adding, an enforced label would be for both parties so the admin can clearly see the same message that they are guiding the user to see, without shuffling their labels or searching for it, and refer them directly to the DM if need be too.

A rhetorical question to all admins, and maybe even to the XF team, how many times have members stated they don't have a message, but later find it with the help of staff, wasting valuable time of back and forth to help them find the message? ("I was never warned for that", "Yes you were, on X, look for the details in your DMs", "I don't see it", ... to even announcements that might've been made months in advance where someone misses it and you can then refer them to the announcement label instead of a back/forth that they missed it because they didn't choose to star or categorize it).

Without a defined label or enforceable label, a user can easily misplace a DM, as some don't even tag threads. How are they ever going to find a message when they can't even find a thread with a tag?

Not going to add it as a suggestion here as it'll be beating a dead horse since you've clearly stated your position, but with 3 people questioning it already, it appears that it's not so niche as previously thought of from a developer's perspective.

Honestly, even for an add-on, it seems very niche.