adding features to the new direct/private messaging 2.0 extension

andrewjs18

hi all,

I'd like to propose trying to crowdfund some added features to the new direct/private messaging extension that's being built out for 2.0 to make it more useful for communities from the start.

Here's a few things I was thinking should be added to make it more useful & functional - these items will also help to make it more palatable for people wanting to migrate from their old forum software to flarum:

1- being able to send a message to more than 1 person at a time
-- there should be permissions/settings to control how many users can be included in the message as well as what groups can and cannot use this feature

2- sending messages to user groups.
-- this will DEFINITELY require permissions/settings as it could get abused and cause forums to crash if someone is trying to send a group message to a user group with a large number of users in it

3- potentially allowing users to build their own direct/private message groups to make sending messages easier

any thoughts on this @Darkle since you're building out the extension for 2.0?

right now I have a forum that isn't running on flarum yet, but it does have almost 600k posts and nearly 180k private messages. adding to the functionality of the planned DM system for 2.0 will speed up my move to flarum.

Darkle

andrewjs18 Currently 2.0 is pretty much feature freeze, you can check Sami's PR here (flarum/framework4028 ). Still, I'm sure there will be improvements and new features, like group messages in PMs, for future versions, probably 2.x.

As Clark mentioned, it might be a good idea to consider combining PMs with Byobu for 2.0, as it might even suit your use case better.

clarkwinkelmann

Your use case might be better solved by the FoF Byobu extension, which already has those features.

luceos

I feel that we should be open to having these features contributed to the new dm message and yes it will be out of scope for 2.0. That @andrewjs18 is willing to start a crowdfunding for this only fast forwards the implementation.

andrewjs18

If all things were considered and 2.0 was currently released as stable, why would someone want to pick fof byobu over the new DM system?

I get that byobu is currently more feature rich than the new DM system but I was hoping to close that gap some with a crowdfunding effort.

To me, it sounds like they both try to accomplish the same thing, with the DM system being an official core extension, which one can assume will be well supported over its lifetime.

luceos

The interesting thing here is that Byobu was never intended to be a private messaging extension. Due to immense pressure features to mimic DM'ing were introduced, and at some point some were also removed. The intent of Byobu was to offer private discussions with certain groups and users alongside the other discussions; one index for both.

Private Messaging has been on the roadmap since forever and I think it would only make sense to make it feature rich to make it satisfy the needs of the many. Not by comparing it to any other extension, but just because it makes sense to build a strong extension.

With core being spread thin, it only makes sense to attract outside contributors to core. Crowdfunding these features into our own core extension would make a great candidate for a win-win situation.