PM system REPLY TO ALL feature

Started by skipper62, January 02, 2017, 11:02:45 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

skipper62

Currently if I send out (originate) a group PM to, let's say, 5 people and one of those people replies directly to me, rather than the group, then it takes me out of the group message.

There needs to be a simple way for me to reply to the group even if someone hit's REPLY rather than REPLY TO ALL.

Currently, I have to send a separate message to another group member and ask them to send me a REPLY TO ALL message from the original PM, before I can send out a reply to the group.

Basically, anyone who replies directly to the original sender has locked them out of the group message that they originated.  It is frustrating, and it happens all of the time even if I begin each group message with big bold headline telling people not to do this.

Thanks for considering this improvement.

Kindred

You can always reinclude people's names into the to box...   the pm behaves just like email, in this regard.
Слaва
Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

Steve

If one person replies and prefers your answer be kept private to them, making a default 'reply all' would defeat that purpose.
DO NOT pm me for support!

skipper62

Thank you for the replies.  :)

Quote from: Kindred on January 02, 2017, 11:52:51 PM
You can always reinclude people's names into the to box...   the pm behaves just like email, in this regard.

We have a civilian defense force with over 200 members, sometimes a group message might have dozens of members included.

Quote from: Steve on January 03, 2017, 10:06:16 AM
If one person replies and prefers your answer be kept private to them, making a default 'reply all' would defeat that purpose.

Maybe, rather than replying using the original message thread, a reply to an individual from a group message could start a new private thread or message.  Possibly with a specific subject designed to let the person know that it is a personal reply to a group message.

Either that or have a REPLY TO ALL button that automatically repopulates the recipient list for the message originator when they get taken out of the group message by a personal reply.

Thanks again for the replies.


Arantor

What is being discussed here can't really be done in SMF's current design.

It functions like a regular email chain, each individual message has its recipients, rather than the chain, and if you have a partial chain (e.g. original message sent to A, B, C, D, E, and now you're in a sub chain that is between C, D and E) how would SMF (or an email client for that matter) know who "all" would be.

In the case of email, reply-all means all the people that the message being replied to. So following my example, a message to C, D and E would generate a reply-all of C/D/E depending on which of C, D or E hit the button, but you seem to be talking about replying to everyone on the original list. Not only does SMF not know to go up the tree to those people, it may not be able to anyway depending on whether people delete messages or not.

skipper62

Thanks for the speedy reply Arantor,

So, if I understand what you are saying correctly, what I am asking for would require a complete re-write of the PM portion of the software.

What about a button available to the originator of the message chain, which would allow them to send out a follow up message from the original message that they have in their outbox?  Or possibly a simple way to copy the recipients from that message "to" field into a new PM within the original chain?  The original message contains the entire list of recipients, but no easy way to copy them that I can see.

Maybe just a group option button, with a few added options for dealing with groups of recipients within the PM system?  Examples might include: save and name group, new message to group, etc...

BTW, sorry about the slow reply to the original post.  I forgot to click the notify button, but that has been corrected.

Thanks again to everyone for the help and suggestions.

Kindred

seriously... there is no good way to do what you are asking
Слaва
Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

skipper62

Quote from: Kindred on January 11, 2017, 02:37:34 PM
seriously... there is no good way to do what you are asking

Thanks for the response.  If that is the consensus of the rest of the key programmers here, then maybe I can take it up with some of the folks who create add-ons...

Anyone else want to chime in on the viability of making these changes before this discussion is closed?

Thanks for any responses.  :)

Arantor

Given that one of the most extensive mod makers - and former programmer of SMF itself - has outlined the lack of viability of doing this...?

skipper62

Quote from: Arantor on January 11, 2017, 05:14:25 PM
Given that one of the most extensive mod makers - and former programmer of SMF itself - has outlined the lack of viability of doing this...?

Right, forgive me for my somewhat simple outlook.  I have not programmed in years, probably have never programmed in whatever language SMF is written in, and so I freely admit to being a simple end user.  However, the list of recipients has to be kept somewhere prior to sending the initial PM, so it seems like it would not require a complete rewrite to save that list in case you wanted to send a follow up (self) reply to your original message later.

Not to get too far off tangent, but I have had situations where I forgot to include part of my original intended message, and wished for a simple way to immediately send out a follow up message to the same group.

I'm not asking for bells and whistles or eye candy, and it doesn't even need to be a part of every installation of SMF since many users do just fine without it now.  Like I originally stated, my problem is that I send a PM to 35 people, and the first person to reply takes me out of my own group message.  It happens over and over again, so I can't be the only one that has ever had this problem.

Maybe I am missing something here...

I also apologize for not recognizing one of the founding fathers of SMF, but you can plainly see by my total of 4 posts on this forum that I am a novice, and an end user.

Thanks for your reply, Arantor.

Arantor

Except it isn't that simple. The "original list" is tagged to an individual message and it's quite possible for recipients to be removed from that along the way meaning that the "list of individuals" that comprises the "original list" is in no way guaranteed to be the entire list later on.

SMF stores the original message once, with a tag of who created it and whether the creator kept it in their outbox or not. Each additional person is then marked as recipient of that message. If they delete the message, the link between the message and them being the recipient goes away meaning they're no longer on the original list of recipients.

skipper62

Quote from: Arantor on January 12, 2017, 02:19:20 AM
Except it isn't that simple. The "original list" is tagged to an individual message and it's quite possible for recipients to be removed from that along the way meaning that the "list of individuals" that comprises the "original list" is in no way guaranteed to be the entire list later on.

SMF stores the original message once, with a tag of who created it and whether the creator kept it in their outbox or not. Each additional person is then marked as recipient of that message. If they delete the message, the link between the message and them being the recipient goes away meaning they're no longer on the original list of recipients.

Well, that is fine as far as my personal use goes... it is even helpful.

If someone wants to remove themselves from the list, because they feel that they don't belong on that list, then that is helpful.  I may include all people from Information Division on the list, but someone thinks... this doesn't apply to me, so they delete themselves from the list.

Great that they are removed from the list.  The rest of the list remains, and if I want to send a follow up message, then the reordered list is much better than the original list anyway...

Wouldn't you agree?

If that is the case, then a simple button for a follow up message to the new list would be hard to program?  It would solve all of the problems that I personally encounter.

I understand that not everyone needs this feature, but for those that do, and we have to use work arounds like repopulating the list from scratch, it is a very useful time saver...

The initial problem happens for me in dealing with an organization of over 200 people, and most are basically computer illiterate...  I have a regular disclaimer at the top of every group message "Do Not Use Reply", but rather use "REPLY TO ALL"... and it still happens all the time.

I can't be the only one.  SMF is too popular, and in too wide spread use for me to be the only one with this problem...

Thanks for your well considered reply, Arantor.

Advertisement: