Messages and notifications

The site lets you write to people privately and in small groups – to ask a designer about a chart, arrange a kit swap, or talk over a shared project. Next to your messages live your notifications: the bell tells you that someone mentioned you, replied to you or followed you, and once a day the site may send you a summary letter. This article explains how all of it works, who may write to whom, and how to choose what you are told about.

Messages are not encrypted

The first time you open «Messages», a notice appears at the top: messages here are not end-to-end encrypted. This is a place to talk about charts and threads, not for passwords, card numbers or other sensitive data. The notice closes with the «Understood» button and does not come back unless its wording changes.

How to write to someone

A conversation starts from a person's profile page. Open their profile and click «Write to @username». The conversation opens: type your text in the «Your message» field and click «Send».

All your conversations are gathered on the «Messages» page (/en/messages), linked from the header. The number beside the link counts unread messages and new requests. New messages in an open conversation appear by themselves, without reloading the page. The «Earlier messages» link opens older correspondence.

Links you paste into the text become clickable. Pictures and files cannot be sent in messages.

Who may write to whom

The rules are there to keep spam out, so starting a conversation is harder than carrying one on.

Trust level. Every account has a level: «Newcomer», «Member» or «Regular». It rises by itself once your email is confirmed and you have spent a little time on the site. A newcomer can only answer people who wrote to them first. Writing to a stranger takes the «Member» level.
One message until they answer. You can send a stranger one message. Until they answer, a second one will not go through: you will see «You have written once. Wait for an answer before writing again.»
A limit on new conversations. The site limits how many new conversations you can start in a day. Once the limit is used up, you can start new ones tomorrow. Writing in conversations already under way is not affected.
A pause between messages. If you send too often, the site asks you to «Give it a moment before sending the next one.» A single message has a length limit too.
The recipient's setting. «Settings» (/en/settings) has a «Who may write to me» list: «anybody», «only people I already talk to» or «nobody new». Conversations already under way carry on whatever is chosen.

If an account has been temporarily silenced, it can answer in existing conversations but cannot start new ones.

Requests: a first message from a stranger

When someone you have never talked to writes to you for the first time, their message goes not into the main list but into «Requests». The «Messages» page shows a «N waiting in requests» link. Such a message does not ring the bell and does not arrive by email – you see it when you look yourself.

A request carries a note at the top saying it is a first message from someone you have not talked to. Links in it are shown as plain text and cannot be clicked – which takes the point out of spam.

Answer. Write a reply and send it. The conversation moves to the main list, and links become ordinary links.
«Do not accept». The request disappears, and the sender is not told. After this, the two of you can no longer write to each other, and it cannot be undone. The button exists only on a request not yet accepted: a conversation already under way cannot be closed this way.

There is no separate «block» button on the site. If you do not want first messages from strangers at all, choose «nobody new» in your settings.

How to take a message back

Under your own message click «Take back». Everyone in the conversation then sees «This message was taken back.» in place of the text. The line stays where it was – only the text goes. In a conversation between two people you cannot take back the other person's messages.

Group chats

On the «Messages» page click «New group». Type a name in «What to call it», put names separated by spaces or commas in «Who is in it» (@anna @olga), and click «Open the group». A group holds up to thirty people.

Groups can be created by accounts at the «Regular» level.

Inside a group there is a «People: N» line with the list of members, an «Add somebody» field and a «Leave the group» button.
Any member can add people. Someone you have already talked to joins straight away. For a stranger the invitation is the same as a first message: it arrives in their «Requests» and is checked by the same rules, including their «Who may write to me» setting.
Only the group's creator can remove members. The creator can also take back any message in their own group.
The «one message until they answer» rule does not apply in groups.
When someone joins, leaves or is removed, the site writes a separate line under the name «the site».

How to report a message

Under someone else's message there is a folding line «Report this message». If the sender registered less than a month ago, it reads «Report spam» – so that a suspicious newcomer can be dealt with quickly. Choose a reason, describe the problem in «What exactly is wrong» if you like, and click «Send». The author will not learn who reported them. You cannot report the same thing twice until a moderator has looked at the first report. Reporting is open from the «Member» level.

If a moderator hides a message, its text is replaced by «This message was hidden by a moderator» with the reason. How moderators handle reports is explained in Rules, reports and support.

When a moderator may read a conversation

Moderators do not read private messages at will. An ordinary moderator cannot see them at all. Only a senior moderator can open a conversation, and only while handling an open report about a specific message:

they must state a reason, and every such reading is written to the moderation log;
access is granted for the time the case takes and expires by itself after a few days;
what opens is the disputed conversation and a few of the most recent conversations of the person reported – to see whether they are sending the same thing to others. The conversations of the person who reported are never opened;
staff cannot get such access on a report they filed themselves, or to a conversation they take part in.

Separately, the law may oblige the site to hand over data at the request of a competent authority – this is described in the «Privacy Policy» (/en/privacy).

Questions for the site team are asked not in private messages but in «Support» (/en/support/new).

If the other person closes their account

Your conversation with them stays with you, and their name is replaced by «a closed account». An account on the site is closed, not wiped without a trace, and what was written to you remains your record of the conversation.

Notifications

The «Notifications» link in the header (/en/notifications) opens the list of what has happened: someone mentioned you, replied to you, liked your stitch, followed you, wrote to you in private messages, outbid you at auction, and messages from the site. Similar events are gathered into one line («… and 3 others liked your stitch»). Each line has a time and an «Open» link.

A notification about a private message never shows its text – only who wrote and a link to the conversation.

Simply viewing the page marks nothing as read. That is what the «Mark all read» button is for: after it the number in the header disappears, and the notifications stay in the list.

What to switch on and off

In «Settings» find the «What to tell me about» block. It has six ticks: «Somebody mentions me», «Somebody replies to me», «Somebody likes my stitch», «Somebody follows me», «Somebody writes to me», «Somebody outbids me at auction». Clearing a tick switches that kind off both in the bell and in letters. Decisions about your account and your work always arrive, whatever is ticked.

Letters

The «Send me letters about what happened on the site» tick in the same block switches on two kinds of letter:

The summary «What happened while you were away». No more than once a day, and only if you have unread notifications and have not been on the site since the previous summary. If you visit every day, the summary usually does not come.
The «You have been outbid» letter – so that you hear about it before the auction ends.

Letters go only to a confirmed address.

How to unsubscribe

Every such letter has a «Stop writing to me» link. It opens the «Letters from the site» page with a button of the same name: one press, and no more summaries or outbid letters will come. The bell on the site keeps working. You can bring the letters back with the same «Send me letters about what happened on the site» tick in your settings.

Letters you cannot use the account without – a password reset, an address change, a moderator's decision, an answer to a support request – always arrive, and you cannot unsubscribe from them.