It would be a great help if wikitree would create a section TAB for Private Messages!

Question

Having a button or tab for MESSAGES allowing us to view what we'd received or sent, would also refresh our memories, and alert us to not email a person again whom we'd already messaged. Also just being able to view our private messages received / sent would help us recall various genealogical issues we have worked-on or wish to revisit. Thanks!

Answer 1

Yes please! I need that, I get a response to a question and I don't know what I asked or on what profile it related to.  I'm not managing to follow up on things.

Comments

Kylie, the email message you receive notifying you of the response includes a link - one click will get you to the question, with all responses and comments.

---

The public comments are a bit different I thought.  It is the private that are more work for me.  It would be a 'nice to have' but not necessary.  The person you sent the message to can just reply to you via the email.  I have one in my inbox that has my profile page as the one I was on when I sent the message seemingly - I don't know how to do that, I only use Send Private Message on a profile page I'm working on.  I have learned to keep a note pad nearby.

---

I believe I share some of Kylie's concerns about private messages. I get way too many emails slugged with the subject line "Your page on WikiTree," indicating that the sender was on my profile when they sent the message, with text something like "My records indicate that Thomas Abbott's mother was Mary, not Hannah" (no indication anywhere of what profile the person is commenting on or asking about). These kinds of messages might respond to a profile message I posted somewhere once upon a time, or maybe they are about a profile where my name is listed as a manager, or maybe I am getting the message as a leader of a project that is a manager of the profile.

I don't like having to send email replies that say "I have no idea what you are talking about" and I find it very difficult to organize an email folder that's full of messages from noreply@wikitree concerning "Your page on WikiTree," so I wish there were additional mechanisms to ensure that the subject line for a message provides more clues about the actual subject of the message.

---

I agree about the private messages, but my response was about notifications of G2G answers and comments.

For private messages, it might help if the subject were a multiple choice, something like:

1. Profile ID (box for entry of WikiTree ID)
2. Other (box for entry of subject)

If both boxes are left blank when the message is submitted then the page from which the message was sent could automatically be inserted.

Another way might be to leave the subject field blank and require that it be entered before sending the message.  This could replace the stupid question to eliminate bots. 

Answer 2

That would be an extremely large undertaking in several regards:

• the software development effort would be major and WikiTree does not have anywhere near the man-hours available to even consider doing that
• the storage required to implement this would require significant expansion of equipment
• the additional processing load would represent a strain on server resources as well as bandwidth usage

While it might be a nice bell-and-whistle to offer, it really would not provide anything that is not already easily available through use of existing email software features.  Perhaps someone might write a section to be added to the help pages that identifies and explains best ways for a member to organize and utilize his/her own email account to optimize ability to do all these things.