As a community user who likely belongs to one or more communities — each with dozens or even hundreds of other members — it's likely that you will want to contact other community users.

This is simplified in your community by your being able to send messages and emails to other community users.

There are several places throughout the community where you can send messages and emails to other community users; each of these is detailed in the sections below.

Messages and Emails

You might be thinking (and justifiably), "An email IS a message! So, what's the difference here?"

In the context of contacting your fellow community users, this is the difference:

• Messages are sent internally, within the community system, to the recipient's community inbox. These messages are accessible only when the user is logged in to the community.
  • Community messages that you send are accessible in the Sent Items folder of your community inbox.
• Emails are sent externally, to the recipient's non-community email address (e.g., gmail, yahoo). These messages are sent from your default email client (e.g., Microsoft Outlook).

Let's look at how sending messages and emails differ in the community.

Messages

Whenever you click Send Message in the community, a small Message dialog displays:

To send a message:

1. Specify the subject of your message.
2. Type or paste the text of your message.
3. Click Send.

The message is sent to the recipient's community inbox.

Emails

Whenever you click a user's email address in the community, your default email client (e.g., Microsoft Outlook) opens a blank message:

1. Add any "cc" recipients.
2. Specify the subject of your message.
3. Type or paste the text of your message.
4. Optionally, use the email client's formatting options (e.g., bold, italic, bullets, links).
5. Send the message.

The message is sent to the recipient's external, personal inbox.

The sections that follow describe the various places throughout the community where there are options to send messages and emails to other community users.

User profiles

When you access a user's profile, you can send messages and emails as described below.

• Messages - click the ellipsis icon above the tabs and select Send Message to open the Message dialog.

• Emails - click the user's non-community email address under Contact Details to open a blank message in your default email client.

Member Directory (entire site)

After performing a search in the site-wide Member Directory, you can send messages and emails to the users who display in the results.

• Messages - click the Send Message button to open the Message dialog.
  • You can also hover on the user's name and click the Send Message button in the popup that displays.
• Emails - click the user's non-community email address to open a blank message in your default email client.

Members page (per community)

On the Members page of any community, you can send messages and emails to the community members who display in the lower portion of the page.

• Messages - click the Send Message button to open the Message dialog.
  • You can also hover on the user's name and click the Send Message button in the popup that displays.
• Emails - click the user's non-community email address to open a blank message in your default email client.

Discussions and Libraries

Discussion threads (and replies) and Library Entries are other community features from which you can send messages (only) to community users.

NOTE: External email addresses do not display on Discussion threads and Library Entries, so you cannot generate external email messages from these pages. Click a user's name to visit their profile and send an email message, as described in User profiles, above.

You can send messages to community users from the following places in your community site.

Related articles

• You can also request that other community users connect with you as personal Contacts. To learn how and where to do this in your community, see Add and Manage Contacts.