Private messages
Private messages are a feature of the site that allows you to communicate internally with other users of the site. The recipient will receive a notification that a new message has arrived for her to check.
No personal information except usernames is made available to any party in order to keep you protected.
Conditions to send messages
Users with low reputation can only send messages if any of the following conditions are met:
- The recipient has at least one active listing. Any user can now reach this person to ask about the listing.
- The sender has received at least one previous message from the recipient. This is so you can reply to messages without problems.
If the user is regularly active on the site and has a high enough reputation, they are allowed to send messages to anybody on the site. If the recipient has set her (or his) preferences to allow anyone to send her messages (not the default), none of the above conditions need to be met.
How to send a message
To send a message to another user you need to navigate to the message compose page. There are many ways:
-
On the top notifications button, the first menu with an envelope icon (or text "Inbox") will take you to the private messaging inbox. From there you can click on the "Compose" button.
-
When looking at a user's profile, you can click the "Message this user" link to go directly to the compose page with that user's username filled in.
Once there, you need to enter in your recipient's username, a subject and a message. Then just hit "Send".
Recommendations
Please be mindful of who you are giving information to in your messages. Most private messages are used for listings arrangements, so it is unavoidable that names, addresses, and emails are being shared. We strongly recommend that you always look at the user's profile and listing background to make sure that you can trust this person.
Reporting inappropriate behavior
If you receive a message that exhibits inappropriate behavior or seems suspicious to you, please click on the "Report this user" red link. It will let us know and we will take appropriate action.
Your privacy is important to us. Please remember that nobody can see your information on the site so the most they can do is to bug you through private messages. If you are receiving unwanted private messages, let us know so we can help.
Abusing messages/Spamming
Even though private messaging requires some conditions for usage, any user with listing(s) are still open to receive communications. Therefore, it is possible for a user to abuse and overuse this feature.
Please do not spam or contact a large number of users using private messages. This includes not only the conventional type of spam that is irrelevant or inappropriate in nature, but also to private messages sent indiscriminately to multiple users with open listings.
We think it should not be a normal requirement to need to mass reach all the users you can reach. Allowing this behavior on the site would eventually lead to spam-like situations.
Configurations
As mentioned above, by default you can only receive messages from users that have high reputation unless you have an active listing. This allows anybody to contact you about your listing.
You can switch off this restriction and allow anybody to reach you at any time if you need to.
To do so, please go to the My Account -> Privacy, Adjust Your privacy options. Under the Messaging section, uncheck the box to enable anyone to message you.
Frequently asked questions
I am a new user and have a question I'd like to ask a user about bra fit. How can I send her a private message?
Unfortunately, you will not be able to contact her. You are, however, welcome to submit a Fit request to ask about the specific bra. Many of our active users are happy to answer questions and discuss first hand experience with bra models. You can also contribute actively to the site to earn a high reputation If all else fails, send us an email and we can try to help answer your question.
Can I block someone?
No, currently you cannot block users from contacting you if the conditions in the above section on "Conditions to send messages" are met.
We encourage to report someone if you see inappropriate behavior so we can take care of it. That will stop them from sending messages not only to you, but also stop them from being inappropriate to anybody else going forward.
Can I send multiple messages to users with listings I am genuinely interested in? How do you determine the limit?
In order to be considerate and fair to all users, we ask that you refrain from inquiring on more than a couple of give away listings at a time, especially if they are not specifically for you. Please also understand that the lister has the right to refuse to sell, exchange or give away an item using her own discretion.
What is that "Low reputation" warning I see when I read some messages?
If the user that sent you the message has reputation less than 5 or has just joined the site, that warning will show. It is just a heads up to keep in mind that they might have just created an account to get a bra you're listing.
99.99% of the time everything is good, but there have been cases of unwelcome users that try to reach sellers. Sadly, since they're pretty new users we don't have information to do an assessment, so you should just take precaution before rushing into sharing any information with this user.