Private messages
Page owner: Digital services director
CIEP forums allows users to send private messages (PMs) to each other. This can be a handy alternative to looking up a user's email address, and is potentially useful when responding to posts made on the Marketplace.
The PM system provides a simple folder structure: Inbox for incoming messages and Sent items for outgoing messages.
How do I send a PM?
To send a PM related to a specific post, click the Send a PM button at the bottom of that post. This will compose a new PM to the poster of the message in question and will quote the contents of the post.
Alternatively, click the Private messages link at the top of the page and then click Send a PM.
When using the Send a PM button within a post, the recipient is automatically specified.
When manually composing a PM, you must select one or more recipients. This is done via the Select recipient … dropdown menu, which displays a list of all forum users. Users are listed alphabetically by first name, with their username shown in brackets (used to differentiate between people with the same name). Once a user has been selected, click Add recipient to add them to the recipient list, then repeat the process to add further recipients.
How will I know when someone has sent me a PM?
When someone sends you a PM, you will see an alert box at the top of the forums homepage.
Clicking the link in the alert box will take you to your PM Inbox.
You will also be sent an email notification when you receive a new PM. The email will tell you the subject of the PM but will not show the message's contents. Instead, you will need to click a link within the email in order to display the PM.
How do I turn off email notifications for new PMs?
By default, new PMs will generate an email notification. To turn off this feature, follow these instructions:
- Log in to CIEP forums.
- Next to Logged in as, click your name.
- In the left-hand panel, click Forum settings.
- Set the Email me about new private messages dropdown menu to No.
- Click the Update button.
What are buddies?
You can think of buddies as a list of contacts in an address book. To add a buddy, look through the User list and then click the Add buddy link next to the person you wish to add.
Alternatively, find any post by the user you'd like to add as a buddy, then click the link on the user's name to view their profile, and finally click Add buddy.
Once buddies have been added, you can select one or more of them from the Buddies list and send them a PM – much quicker than scrolling through the entire list of users each time you compose a new PM and ideal if you regularly send PMs to a small group of people.