Look for the envelope

Script 360 has its own messages, so you can write to another member without either of you handing over an email address. Nobody's address is ever shown on their profile, and a message you send stays on the site.

Sending a new message

There are two places to begin, and they do the same thing:

• On a member's profile, press Send a Message.
• In the Member Directory, press the envelope at the bottom of their card.

A box opens. Give it a subject, write your message, and press Send. You can use bold, italics, colour, lists and links, and you can drop in a picture — a screenshot, a poster, a page you want somebody to look at. Pictures are uploaded to Script 360 rather than linked from somewhere else.

The subject names the message. You type it once, when you start, and every reply afterwards belongs to it — so a message stays one thread instead of becoming a pile of separate replies.

If there is no envelope

You will not always see one. Members can choose who is allowed to write to them, and some limit it — see How do I limit who can contact me?. When that is the case the envelope is simply not drawn. There is nothing you have done wrong and nothing to fix.

Reading and replying

Everything you send and receive is on the Messages page, which is in the left-hand menu. A number beside it tells you how many messages have something in them you have not read.

Open a message to read it — that marks it read — and use the box at the bottom to reply. Replies are never limited: once a message exists, both of you can keep talking.

The email you get

When somebody writes to you we send an email so you know it is there. The message itself is in that email, pictures and all, and a button takes you to the message.

Two things worth knowing. Replying to that email does not reach them — it has to go through the site, so use the button. And if a message is going back and forth we will not email you about every single reply: while you already have something unread in it we hold off for a day, then remind you again if you still have not been back.

You can switch these emails off entirely under Email Notifications in your account menu — look for Tell me when another member sends me a message. Switching it off does not stop the messages; they still arrive on your Messages page, and the number in the menu still counts them. It only stops the email.

Deleting a message

The Delete button at the top of a message removes your copy. The other member keeps theirs, and if they reply the message comes back on your list. It is a way to tidy up, not a way to end something — for that, see Can I block members from contacting me?

How many you can send

There is a limit on new messages in a day, so that nobody can work through the Directory sending the same thing to everybody. Free members can send 5 a day, Basic members 10, and Pro and Industry members 25. Replies do not count towards it, and the limit rolls — if you use them all, the box tells you when you can send another.