Should your email address be revealed in a private message? [closed]

Question

I say no. It should just be your WikiTree ID, not an email address that you might not want revealed. Is this a bug or a feature? If a feature, could someone please explain why?

Comments

I was contacted by a non-member 2 years ago, because of that contact I was able to add several family members.

And recently a member contacted me to ask for any information about the ancestors of the non-member, not that the non-members name was on a profile.

Because of the original contact by the non-member I was able after contacting the non-member to explain and ask if they were interested in communicating with the member about their family history, to put the 2 people in contact.

This contact has allowed the member to more completely record their family history which involves 2 Canadian notables.

Plus provided valuable information to the non-member.

The statement is made that the recipient of the Private Message will be able to see the senders email. It is our choice to use the Private Message system or not.

---

See Gaile Connolly's August 2023 post. In particular in the comment

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1619565/suggestion-improvement-response-private-message-anonymously?show=1619965#c1619965

Gaile gave a method for replacing your email address in private messages by an imaginary one, so that the real one is not revealed. A suitable explanation should be included in the body of the message, and you should keep your own copy of what you sent.

Answer 1

Are you asking about private messages sent through the WikiTree system by clicking on the [send private message] link after the Profile Manager's name on a profile?  Whenever somebody clicks that link on one of your profiles (whether it's another member or an outside observer), they can contact you about that profile without your email address being revealed.  If you answer that message through your own email service, then your address is revealed to the sender.  So actually it's a feature, very useful IMHO, that allows others who may have additional info to establish contact with you.  If you don't want to correspond, you just don't respond, or if you think you're being spammed, you're asked to forward the email to info@wikitree.

If I have completely missed the boat on your question, please post here again.

Comments

Yes, private messages sent either from a profile that a person manages or from their profile page. At the bottom of one I received the other day in response to a comment I had replied to, I see "This message is from..." followed by their name and email address. Then it gives you a URL for their profile. The URL makes sense. The email address, to me, does not.

I haven't been spammed. This is simply a technical question from a former developer who has strong opinions about software design.

---

But that all sounds reasonable, if I'm reading you correctly.  You replied to something, presumably revealing your own email address.  The recipient responded to you, revealing their address, so now either of you are able to continue the conversation if you wish.  That person is willing to correspond.  So it's a matter of "you show me yours and I'll show you mine" and who goes first.

---

No. I replied on a profile to a comment on that profile. The person to whom I had replied sent me a PM. All good. That PM revealed the sender's email address. Not good. A PM through WikiTree should only involve profiles, not the email we give to WikiTree so that WikiTree can send us stuff. You reveal your email address to someone else if you want to. The system shouldn't do it for you. And that's what it's doing. I call that a design flaw.

I sent a PM back to the person via their profile, not via email. But of course, the system revealed my email address in the process. Not a problem *only* because the other person is nice and hasn't used the address.

Answer 2

Private messages go through your e-mail system.  If you don't want to use email to either send a message or respond to one then you can just post your message as a comment on the person's profile.

Comments

But then it's not private.

PMs some in from noreply@wikitree.com. They show you the URL of the sender's profile. To me, that's all there should be. It should not reveal the email address that WikiTree knows. To me, showing the email is a design flaw. I asked so I could understand the reasoning behind it.

---

I agree with Veronique, it says it's private but it's not.  Also, replying to "noreply" goes thru, so what is the point of that??

---

Even though emails are sent from "noreply", the reply address is the sender's email address.

---

“Private” just means no one sees it except the sender and recipient, as opposed to “Public” meaning anyone can see it (when posted on a profile).

Answer 3

Private messages can be sent by people who don't have accounts, so not all messages would have a WikiTree ID.

Even if the email wasn't mentioned in the body, if the person hit the "reply" button they would see your email address. The PM system is just a way for someone to email you without giving them your email address -- but once you interact with them (either by messaging them through WikiTree or replying to one of their messages), they will have it. Communicating through email is much more convenient than having to go to a person's profile and filling out the message form for every response.

I would recommend creating a separate email for WikiTree or genealogy if you don't feel comfortable sharing whatever email address you are currently using.

Comments

If a person without an account can send a private message, I call that a flaw too. I'm glad WikiTree is visible to the world, but PMs should only be between registered users.

---

I've had many super helpful messages from people who weren't WikiTree members who found a profile I manage through a Google Search. It was one of the reasons I chose WikiTree as my main shared tree over the competition.

---

Jamie hits the nail on the head. I don't think most WikiTree members would want to close off the ability of non-members to contact them. (Many years ago, we allowed non-members to post comments and here in G2G, but it became too hard to control spam.)

Veronique, I'm sure some members do agree with you. Maybe we're wrong that most prefer open contact. If you want to propose a change https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Developing_New_Rule you might ask "Should WikiTree only allow other members to contact you?", explain, and see if there is a consensus.

Answer 4

I'm posting an answer rather than a comment because I don't want to single anyone out, but none of the replies has addressed what I posted. I really need a developer to answer. A developer will know what I'm asking. Opinions are fine, but they're not answers from those who know.

This is the issue: A person sent me a PM which revealed their email address at the bottom. That should not happen unless the person consents to have their email revealed. The system should not be making that decision. It should just give you a link to the person's profile.

Comments

I really need a developer to answer. A developer will know what I'm asking. 

Hi, I already answered your question. 

That should not happen unless the person consents to have their email revealed. The system should not be making that decision.

As John pointed out below, the form does tell a person that their email will be revealed. 

Answer 5

I'm pretty sure the EU's GDRP requires explicit consent for sharing the email address which this system doesn't seem to be doing. A developer may want to look at this asap.

Comments

It very clearly says exactly this: 

Use this form to contact Véronique Boulanger privately. The message will be sent to Véronique as a normal email message. We do not reveal their email address here for privacy and anti-spam reasons. However, Véronique will see your email address and may choose to reply to you via email.

---

Exactly.

And this is the answer to the first origin question:

It's not a bug. It's a feature.

And it's not hidden. The sender accepts the revealing of the e-mail adddress by sending.

The second origin question remains open.

I'am also database developer but not for WikiTree.

If you don't reveal the e-mail address of the message sender, then there are 2 (theoretically possible) possibilities for the answers:

1) The receiver has to go to the sender's profile (maybe per link in the e-mail). Then he/she can answer in a new private message. But there is no direct quoting possibility.

2) The receiver answers to WikiTree. And WikiTree needs the possibility to recognize the original sender to find the e-mail address for the answer. Therefor WikiTree needs an additional module for a message system. The effort for developing this and for supporting this with technical ressources wouldn't be small.

So the decision by WikiTree to inform the sender and reveal the sender's address to the receiver ist the most comfortable way with the smallest effort.

In my eyes a reasonable compromise.