Suggestion: URL-specified PM subject/content

[CleanOnion]

Current PM'ing URL allows us to specify the user. Eg:

http://elementscommunity.org/forum/pm/?sa=send;u=9192

This sends a message to user 9192 (Discord)

"u=9192" can be replaced with "user=Discord" for easier automation. This currently only works for player profiles, not sending PMs

Would it be possible to also specify the PM's subject/content via the URL?

For example:
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/pm/?sa=send;u=9192;subject=Hello;content=Hi%20Discord

People sending PMs would need to be careful to escape their text using percent-code - there are plenty of translators for that though.

This would be useful for people like me who love automating stuff - for example, one could easily make a spreadsheet to send a PM to a certain player or players without any need for copy-pasting. I'd be more than willing to make this tool for anyone to use.


I'm suggesting this for two reasons:
- Mafia hosting requires sending a lot of PMs
- JCJ's recent "Competition Mailing List"


Thoughts? Is implementing this worth the effort?

[Solaris]

I think even the user=<name> functionality alone would be good enough, especially if we can add multiple people within 1 URL.

[CleanOnion]

I made a tool that would theoretically automate this given the following conditions (which are all currently false):
- there is a field "user=" that can take a username instead of a number
- that field can take multiple usernames delimited by a comma
- there is a field "subject=" for the subject
- there is a field "content=" for the content

http://theyrecoming.neocities.org/etg/autopm.html

The tool handles percent-coding, so no need to worry about that.

As much as I'd love to embed it, the site only allows google drive embeds as far as I know - I could host this there, but google is deprecating that in August

Don't judge me for using neocities

[Hyroen]

I have yet to test out the tool, but for sheer innovation and effort, CO you've just earned +rep.

I'll be mentioning this tool as an aid for JCJ's Competition Mailing List. This may be able to help out with some foreseeable issues.

[Fippe94]

As CO mentioned, the tool doesn't actually work right now, it only works if the Admins add the extra PM/URL functionality, which they have not yet done.

Right now it's more of a "This is what we *could* have if the admins implement it".

[Hyroen]

As CO mentioned, the tool doesn't actually work right now, it only works if the Admins add the extra PM/URL functionality, which they have not yet done.

Right now it's more of a "This is what we *could* have if the admins implement it".

Right. If and when the time comes, it will be able to make things -a bit- easier.

[CleanOnion]

As CO mentioned, the tool doesn't actually work right now, it only works if the Admins add the extra PM/URL functionality, which they have not yet done.

Right now it's more of a "This is what we *could* have if the admins implement it".

Right. If and when the time comes, it will be able to make things -a bit- easier.

And should the admins change the syntax or whatever, I'll modify it to reflect that.

However, the tool is currently useless and will remain so unless the admins make the changes, which they may deem unnecessary.

[andretimpa]

Thoughts? Is implementing this worth the effort?

The only advantage I see over the current system is if you need to send the same message to a lot of people in many different times, so the answer to that question depends on how often you need to do this (mafia fits the u="list of players" syntax better rather than sending the whole message in an url. The mailing list is a better example, but I don't think we have that many competitions to warrant this).

You can get something similar with the current system by saving the message when you send it the first time and applying a label to it so you can retrieve it easily later. Of course, then someone else can't send the same message without you sending them a copy first.

For the mailing list in particular I think it's more practical to have the codes of the users stored in a spreadsheet, so that it is easier to update and the spreadsheet can create the url automatically.

[UTAlan]

Not unnecessary. Seems like a legit feature request. Adding it to my To Do List.