Commons:Emailing users
- For automatic email notification of user talk messages, see Help:Email notification
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This page in a nutshell: Commons' MediaWiki software has an opt-in option to send email between users. You do not have to reply to such emails and can disable the feature if desired. |
This page sets out information on the Special:EmailUser feature, which allows registered users, if they wish, to exchange emails. The contents of emails between users are private. As a result, limited help is given if the feature is abused, other than disabling it, and the contents of such emails cannot be checked by others for appropriateness as easily as communications left on users' talk pages. The feature can be disabled for any user by an administrator as part of blocking, although this is not usually done unless the facility is abused.
General[edit]
If you have set an email address in your User preferences, you can exchange emails with other users through the Commons user interface. To do that, visit your correspondent's user page and follow the "E-mail this user" link in the "Tools" section on the left-side navigation menu. The email address you entered in your user preferences will appear as the "From" address of the mail, so the recipient will be able to reply.
Users who have publicly disclosed their email addresses can be emailed directly. However, Commons doesn't encourage such open disclosure. Emailing users through Commons is a privacy feature that protects your email address from spam.
Commons emails are sent immediately when you click on "send". You can set your preferences so that you'll also receive a copy of every email you send; if you don't choose this option, this can still be done for individual emails. It may be useful at times to leave a brief courtesy note on a recipient's talk page that you've sent them an email, since some users may not check their inbox regularly.
A link to the email feature can be created in text or a signature by typing [[Special:EmailUser/Username]].
Enabling and disabling user email[edit]
Email is disabled unless you specify an email address, and then verify that you have access to that address. This can be done either in setting up your account, or in "preferences", at any time.
Once you have specified an email address, you may enable or disable email yourself, by visiting "my preferences", and checking or un-checking "Enable email from other users". This is linked from the top-right of any page when you are logged in. If you are enabling your email, MediaWiki requires verification that the email address belongs to you. It will send a confirmation email with a link inside. When you click the link, it will confirm your email address. The confirmation link expires after about a week.
To request someone enable email so that you can email them, you can use the template {{Enableemail}}.
Privacy[edit]
Sending an email via the Special:EmailUser system will disclose your email address for the purposes of a reply, but no other information will be provided by the system to the recipient. (Note that emails sent this way are private – they are sent as written, as a private communication between willing parties who have agreed to send and receive emails.)
If you receive an email via this feature, you do not have to reply, or you may reply on the user's talk page if you wish. Replying may be done in three ways:
- By using your usual email reply method (however you usually reply to emails)
This will disclose whatever information your emails usually contain. It may contain your IP address, or a signature line, or time zone, or the like. - By visiting the user page of the sender, and using "Email this user" yourself
This will disclose nothing except your email address. You can do this by visiting the sender's user page (their name will appear in the header or footer of the email), then selecting "Email this user" from the "Tools" on the left of the page. - By leaving them a reply on the wiki itself
In some cases you may wish to leave a note on their talk page, on the wiki, for example to say the email was received, or a brief reply. Since emails are usually sent as a private communication, it is often courteous to keep a reply on the wiki as brief and non-privacy breaching as possible, since the sender will usually expect a private reply.
See also[edit]
- MediaWiki:Emailuserfooter - the footer that is added to all emails from this site
- {{MediaWiki messages}} - lists some key MediaWiki system messages relating to email
- {{You've got mail}}
- {{Enableemail}}