About Private Messages

About BPN's Message System

The BPN website provides a messaging system that allows subscribers to send private messages to each other using their usernames (not their real names.) Messages are sent directly to the email account of the recipient, and display the username and email address of the sender. The recipient's email address is not visible to the sender, so the recipient can remain anonymous if they choose not to reply to a message.

Messages are NOT stored on the BPN website and they can only be viewed by the sender, the recipient, and the BPN administrator. 

How to send a message to another subscriber

To send a message, you will need to be logged in to your account on the BPN website. When you are viewing a post, scroll to the end of the post and look for the link that says "Contact <username> about this message."  This link can only be viewed by BPN subscribers. Click the link and you'll be taken to the author's "personal contact form."  Fill it out, click "Send message" and the BPN website will forward your message to the email address on file for that subscriber. Your own email address and your username (not your real name) will be displayed on the message.

There are two situations where you cannot send a message to the poster: 

  1. Parent Q&A accepts anonymous posts, so subscribers can choose to hide their username on their post. In this case, you will see "Submitted anonymously" instead of a Contact link and you cannot send them a message.
  2. Subscribers can disable their personal contact form so they cannot be contacted by other subscribers. In this case, their username is displayed on their post but it is not clickable, so they cannot be contacted via messaging.  

Receiving and replying to a message:

When another subscriber sends you a message on BPN, the Subject on the email will begin "[BPN Message]" followed by whatever the sender typed in as the Subject.  The body of the message will begin "You received the following message from BPN subscriber "<username>": The sender's email address will appear in Reply-To in the header of the message. The sender only has access to your username, not your email address or your real name. When you reply to the message, it will be from your own personal email account, so your reply will display your email address and the name on your email account.

Can I view my messages on the BPN website?

No, messages are not saved on the BPN website because they are sent directly to the recipient's personal email account. But you can email yourself a copy by checking "Send yourself a copy" on messages you send.

Someone sent me a message and now I can't find it

This would have been a private message that was sent to your personal email account so you won't find it on your account on the BPN website.  If you have Gmail, you can view all the mail that was ever sent to, or from, your gmail account in your "All Mail" folder - look under the [Gmail] folder that's in your gmail account. For other types of mail services, try looking in your Trash folder.

Are messages private?

Messages sent on BPN can only be viewed by the sender, the recipient, and the BPN administrator. If you reply to a message directly, or send a message by clicking the username on a post, the recipient will be able to see your email address in addition to your username. Note that BPN administrators do have access to all messages sent on the BPN website.

Can I opt out of messaging?

Yes. If you don't want to ever be contacted by other BPN subscribers, you can disable the Personal contact form option on your account page (see How to edit your account.) 

Caution!!  If you disable your personal contact form, you will not be able to post on Marketplace, Childcare, Announcements, or Events, since a contact is required on these posts.