Messages between users

SPIP makes it easy to exchange messages between users of the site, without going through e-mails.

When a message is «sent» by a user to one or several other users, it turns into a private discussion forum. That way, once a message is sent, a discussion can take place, in the shape of a forum located under this message. With SPIP, we can consider that a message is also a private forum (that is, there is no point in exchanging a large amount of messages to hold a discussion, you simply «remain» in the same message with your correspondent to "chat", thanks to the private forum associated with him).

Note: Messages between users and their associated forums are private, this means that SPIP does not offer any interface for the administrators to see those messages. However, bear in mind that this confidentiality is very relative: a site administrator armed with a direct access tool to the database, can always check these messages.

-  Creating a message/discussion

The simplest way to send a message is to click on the green logo (a small «M» followed by a triangle) displayed next to the recipient name. This will immediately opens a new message.

The second way is to use the button labelled «New Message» which appears on every page in SPIP. This will open a new message without recipient. Before sending the message, you should, of course, specify the recipient.

The editing interface of these messages is very straightforward.

The only common error to avoid is to forget to «send» this message: as long as the message has the status «Editing in progress», only its author can have access to it. It should then be sent in order for the recipients to see it (warning: once a message has been sent, it cannot be modified anymore).

-  Adding/removing a recipient

At any moment in time, it is possible to add a recipient: either during the editing of the message or after it was sent (for instance, to add a new participant to a discussion in a forum which is interesting to him).

In the same way, you can remove a participant at any moment. Besides, a button labelled «Stop participation to this discussion» allows any participant to remove himself from a discussion.

-  Making a appointment

Any message can be turned into a appointment: this means that it is linked to a date displayed in SPIP’s calendar.

-  Can we write to any user of the site?

Some editors could be unreachable (they do not show in the list «Add a participant» and their name is not accompanied by a messaging logo):
-  editors could decide individually, not to use the internal messaging system;
-  editors who did not connect to the private area for more than 15 days are unreachable (for these users who seldom connect, it is preferable to use ordinary e-mails).