

Request HN: Can We have a Private Messaging Feature in HN? - pathik

I was wondering why we don't have it already. It's very difficult to contact other HN members directly. We could have a karma limit to avoid spamming.
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antileet
I have noticed most people have their email addresses publicly displayed (in
some human readable form), or have web pages with ways to contact them. In
that note, I have been contacted via HN before and have met some people as
well. Considering the ultimate purpose of a Private Messaging feature is to
allow communication between two willing parties - the existing infrastructure
is already there.

Moreover, more influential people who very strictly value their time and
privacy (Matt Cutts for instance) might not be comfortable having an open
avenue by which anyone can contact them.

More importantly, if you have someone's full name, there's a reasonably high
chance you can find a proper way to contact them - provided you are determined
enough to do it.

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ct
But that's not a private messaging system. I get enough spam as it is and
don't feel like playing games with obfuscating my e-mail when there's a better
solution.

And if you don't want private msgs, just turn on a flag to disallow it.

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gst
I really hate those private messaging features available on most websites. If
I want to be contacted on a given website I include my mail address (or a
pointer to my mail address) in my profile. What's the advantage of duplicating
the features already available in email?

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pg
We're considering a scheme for this now as a matter of fact.

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pathik
Thanks.

@Others, If I really want to contact someone on HN, I can definitely find
their email ID. But email takes it out of the HN context and makes it much
more formal.

And we could always have a PM disabling option.

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patio11
I use discovery of my email address as FizzBuzz: totally trivial and if you
can't do it, further discussion will not likely result in a positive outcome
for either party.

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sp332
I think this is a good time for a reminder:

The email address in your profile is not visible to other HN users. If you
want people to see your address, put it in your "about" box.

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sliverstorm
Let's not forget that, at least in my opinion, part of what makes HN great is
it follows the old Unix tradition: it does _one thing_ well.

I have always liked HN because it is simple, no-frills, totally focused on one
thing.

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ZeroComplete
Agreed.

I got the hell away from Digg because of its push towards being "social."
While messaging isn't that big of a feature I feel that if people here want to
find/contact each other they will.

We're all pretty smart individuals if we want to contact/find someone we will
be able to if they want to be contacted/found.

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bearwithclaws
Use Hackernewsers.com. It's what I've been using to contact other HNers (who
doesn't list their contact email in the profile) to request for their
permission to publish their comments in Hacker Monthly.

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mindcrime
I think it would be very handy. Not everybody realizes that the email you put
in your profile isn't publicly visible; so they don't bother putting
additional contact info in their "about" section.

Yes, it's true that "if you want to talk to somebody badly enough, you can
probably hunt down their email address" but why add friction to the process?
Ok, I get the folks who uses it as a filter "if you're too lazy, or not smart
enough, and can't find my email, I don't want to talk to you." Fine, but I
doubt most people feel that way. And that just argues for making the feature
optional (that is, let users set a "receive PMs (Yes/No)" flag in their
profile.

Iuguy makes an interesting point though:

 _Besides, you can always reply to someone's comment and ask for a way to get
in touch with them._

The problem with that, as I see it, is that such a message is usually going to
be (relative to the rest of the conversation) off-topic noise that nobody else
cares about.

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sown
I really don't want people mailing me on HN.

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vpdn
Why not? (just curious)

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sown
I don't think anyone ever will contact me; i don't have anything important to
say or to be asked.

Besides, there's email if I wanted it to be so.

~~~
philh
>i don't have anything important to say or to be asked.

Let other people decide that. I can't think of anything anyone would want to
ask me, either - except that once someone wanted me to get in touch to talk
about my university. (I think I forgot to contact them. Sorry.) I still can't
think of anything else I might be asked, but there might be something.

If you actively don't want to be contacted, fair enough. If you just don't
think you will be, it doesn't hurt to be available. (But yes, email is
sufficient.)

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Mz
I suspect that in many cases, if it's tough to contact them directly, that's
exactly how they want it to be.

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iuguy
Given that some like it and some don't, it might not be that great an idea.
Besides, you can always reply to someone's comment and ask for a way to get in
touch with them.

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oscardelben
In your case, you could start by putting your email address in your profile in
the about section, that's why we've been contacting each other so far.

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rbanffy
Feature set selection is simple: just ask the question "What would Digg do?"

Then do the exact opposite.

Would Digg add direct messages?

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ck2
Just give people the option to publicly display their email in profile,
otherwise no contact desired.

I'd like to see tags on stories (restrict to membership of certain timelength
and karma) with their own RSS feeds. But I know that's unlikely to happen.

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apoo
Totally Agree, The one thing that I really like about HN is that its simple.

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jparicka
agree

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nussbi
agree +1

