Skip to main content
Meta Stack Exchange

You are not logged in. Your edit will be placed in a queue until it is peer reviewed.

We welcome edits that make the post easier to understand and more valuable for readers. Because community members review edits, please try to make the post substantially better than how you found it, for example, by fixing grammar or adding additional resources and hyperlinks.

Required fields*

14
  • 26
    One minor tweak: for usability reasons for the moderators, there should be some indication that what we see is not what the user sees. (We already have problems with not knowing how, e.g., new features work for regular users because we can't access Normal-User-O-Vision; I foresee similar problems arising here where moderators unaware of this change assume the user can see who messaged them.) I suggest either a notice alongside the other mod instructions in the boxed sidebar, or a small gray / de-emphasised “(anonymously)” beside the “from” that mods do see; the UI team may have better ideas. Commented Aug 26, 2016 at 19:28
  • 2
    @SevenSidedDie That is a very good point, thanks for bringing it up. Commented Aug 26, 2016 at 19:37
  • 2
    One way to address @SevenSidedDie's excellent suggestion would be to leave the header text (what's in your screen shot) the same but add the sender info to the heading -- "Moderator Private Message (sent by bluefeet)". Also, on the annotations page where messages are listed, I assume the actual sender's name would continue to appear there; that page isn't user-visible. Between the two of those, other mods will know who's responsible but the actual message part of the page isn't altered. Commented Aug 26, 2016 at 20:08
  • 2
    When the message comes from a CM rather than a site moderator, should that be made clear? I've noticed that sometimes CMs just leave the "(site) Moderator" signature alone and others replace it with "Community Manager". There's merit both ways; this might be a good time for y'all to discuss. Commented Aug 26, 2016 at 20:10
  • ...isn't 3 already a thing? Users already have a very prominent "Reply" button. Commented Aug 26, 2016 at 20:38
  • @badp Contact us in the normal spot but we don't specifically call out a way for a user to contact staff in a message. The Reply will remain but we're talking about adding something else to contact staff. Commented Aug 26, 2016 at 20:39
  • 4
    From a GUI perspective, just remove the "From" column entirely for recipients, instead of (a) having a "From" column on a moderator message page that just says "moderators", which is redundant, (b) having a "From" column that fundamentally changes its values depending on who's viewing the data. Commented Aug 27, 2016 at 18:48
  • 1
    Is it possible to add the "contact us" link quickly, maybe even just as part of templates? That might take a lot of pressure off of mods even without anonymization - I feel like I see a lot of people complaining about a lack of a way to defend themselves. Commented Apr 11, 2017 at 18:22
  • Will the moderation teams be able to see messages sent directly to the community team if the communication is continued there? Commented Jun 5, 2017 at 15:52
  • 1
    @anonymous2 This change hasn't impacted any of the messaging to the community team. That should remain the same as before. Commented Jun 5, 2017 at 15:57
  • 2
    Just came here (on account of the upcoming election) to check whether this has been fixed. It has - great! Thank you! Commented Jul 12, 2017 at 18:53
  • 1
    @Pëkka I can send you a test message if you'd like :P Commented Jul 12, 2017 at 18:53
  • 1
    @bluefeet brb vandalizing a couple posts and harassing users. Wouldn't want to waste a good mod message for no good reason! Commented Jul 12, 2017 at 18:55
  • 2
    I think this change was a positive one. I only wish the templates were accordingly updated to begin with "Hello, We're writing in reference to your Stack Exchange account..." (Instead of "I'm writing in reference...") Commented Jan 25, 2018 at 0:01