Private conversations now possible with MyConversations

[Laird]

G'day people of Psience Quest,

Just a little note to let you know that conversation-style private messaging is now available - in fact, it has been for quite some time, but as I hadn't said anything publicly, it seems only the few with whom I've started private conversations have been using it.

I'm letting you know now because I've developed the plugin to the point that it can convert all PM exchanges into conversations, and thus replace the PM system. I've performed that conversion on this forum, and I'd like to ultimately disable the private messaging system, but for now I've left it enabled: I'd like you all to test out conversations first and be sure you're all comfortable with them as a replacement for private messages.

Please let me know if you notice anything that's gone awry with the conversion, such as being able to see PMs that you were neither sender nor receiver for, or not having PMs for which you were a sender or receiver converted into conversations. I haven't noticed any problems like that myself as yet, which is why I think it's safe enough to trial this feature live.

Note that no original PMs were deleted by the conversion, and nor was the `privatemessages` database table even altered in any way, so all of your PM data remains as-is, and the PM system can still be accessed and used as normal, at least until (if) we go ahead and disable it - though PMs that you send from here on will not be converted into conversations until the conversion tool is run again.

The conversation system, which I'm calling MyConversations, can be accessed via the "Conversations" link in the far right of the forum header, just beside the "Private Messages" link.

Any questions, feel free to ask.

I'll probably put up a little description of MyConversations's features in a little while though.

[Laird]

MyConversations: a conversations plugin for MyBB

Here's a description of the current, planned, and potential features of MyConversations: a conversations plugin for the MyBB forum software.

I plan on releasing have released this plugin commercially, so as well as letting the Psience Quest crew know how this plugin works, this post also serves as the place - for the moment - for me to promote the plugin prior to release., and, as part of that release, I have created an independent page for this plugin, so I have deleted the rest of what was in this post. Please visit MyConversations: a conversation plugin for MyBB for up-to-date information about this plugin, as well as to purchase it.

[Laird]

This plugin has now been developed to the point that - aside from access to draft PMs - it can totally replace the private messaging system. Does anybody have any reservations about my going ahead and disabling PMs and migrating all unmigrated PMs to conversations? I notice from the unmigrated PM count that at least some members are continuing to use PMs even though conversations are available - I wonder whether that is a deliberate choice or whether it's just force of habit? If it is deliberate, it would be really helpful to me if you could explain why you prefer the PM system to conversations. Cheers guys.

I'm not using these facilities much at present. Last time I used a PM it was force of habit, mainly.

[Laird]

Thanks for your feedback, Typoz. I've developed the plugin further so that it integrates with the User Control Panel (UCP) in a very similar way to the MyBB core private messaging system, replacing it in what I hope is a fairly seamless way, and so I have taken the liberty of disabling MyBB core private messaging and wholly replacing it with MyConversations. I hope that you all will let me know of any bugs you encounter, or any way you think the conversations system can be improved. All of your existing PMs should have been migrated. If not, please let me know.

[Laird]

I've done a bunch of work on this plugin, and have updated it on this forum (and nowhere else) to version 1.1.0 alpha.

The most significant new user-facing feature is that it is now possible to export all of your conversations (including, optionally, attachments to conversation messages). You can do this by clicking Export Conversations in the little horizontal actions header above the conversation listing on the default conversation view page accessible by clicking Conversations in the forum header.

If you guys notice any issues, then please let me know.

After it's been given a bit of a run here, and any issues have been resolved, then I'll release 1.1.0 as the next commercial version.

[Laird]

I've updated MyConversations on Psience Quest to version 1.2.0-prerelease. Aside from bug fixes and miscellaneous minor improvements, the two new features are:

• Searching.
  
• "Mark all read" links.
  

It seems that I still have some work to do on the search feature as its database queries are taking a significant amount of time, but in any case, I welcome any feedback on the search interface, including bug reports. If there are no major complaints, and I am able to speed up the database queries, then in due course I'll release 1.2.0 commercially.

[Laird]

It seems that I still have some work to do on the search feature as its database queries are taking a significant amount of time

I've worked hard on optimising the DB queries, with some reasonable success, although they still take longer than I'd like.

MyConversations is now on version 1.2.0-prerelease-4, installed on both PQ and the demo creativeandcritical.net forums.

[Laird]

in due course I'll release 1.2.0 commercially.

Done. See here and here.